ר׳ צבי יהודה הכהן קוק

ר׳ צבי יהודה הכהן קוק (15 Nisan 5651/1891–9 March 1982), known as הרצי״ה, was the son and principal editor of ר׳ אברהם יצחק הכהן קוק and the formative rosh yeshiva of postwar Religious Zionism. Born in Žeimelis, he moved with his family to Bauska and immigrated to Jaffa in 1904. He studied at Torat Chaim in Jerusalem and chiefly under his father. During the First World War he taught in Halberstadt, was briefly detained as an enemy subject, and joined his parents in Switzerland. After returning in 1920, he travelled through Europe for Degel Yerushalayim and married Chava Leah Hutner in Warsaw. From 1923 he administered Mercaz HaRav and devoted decades to editing and disseminating his father’s manuscripts, including אורות and extensive letters and halakhic writings. Following ר׳ יעקב משה חרל״פ’s death, he became rosh yeshiva in 1952 and transformed Mercaz HaRav into the central academy of Religious Zionism. His Independence Day address immediately before the Six-Day War and his later teaching treated the State of Israel and settlement of the land as stages in redemption. Students became leading rabbis and founders of yeshivot and settlements; this association with Gush Emunim made him highly influential and politically controversial. His own essays were collected as לנתיבות ישראל. He died in Jerusalem and was buried at Har HaZeitim.