When the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe Met Harav Avraham Yitzchok Kook

There is a Hebrew weekly Chabad newsletter called "kareiv eilecha" that is distributed in Israel, and in honor of the Rebbe's release of the Soviet Gulag on Yud Bais Tammuz, they dedicated the issue to his visit of Eretz Yisrael in 1929.

It is interesting to note that the rebbe visited Chevron just days before the pogrom of 1929 in which Arabs massacred sixty-nine innocent Jews, on August 24, 1929.

Harav Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson (1880-1950) was the sixth Rebbe of Chabad, known as the "Frierdiker Rebbe" or the Rebbe Rayatz,

He was the father-in-law of the last Lubavitcher Rebbe, R' Menachem Mendel z"l.

It was Harav Kook z"l that leaked the news that the Russian Secret Police arrested the Rebbe on June 27, 1927, in a telegram to The Joint ..on June 28.

 “Grave news received, Rabbi Schneierson of Lubovitch (sic) arrested [in] Leningrad [by] Bolsheviks. Try utmost for deliveration (sic). Wire results.” 

It was only two years later, that the Rebbe would visit the holy city of Jerusalem, occasioning a particularly emotional meeting with Rav Kook z"l to thank him for his efforts.

The photo below depicts the posters that Rav Kook posted in Yerushalyim upon the Rebbe's release

The Rebbe arrived in Yerushalyim after taking a train from Alexandria Egypt, in 1929. 

And on Wednesday the 2nd day of Av 1929, in the afternoon he visited the Kotel.

On his way back from the Kotel he went to visit Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld z"l.

The next morning, the Rebbe went with a large entourage to visit Harav Avraham Yitzckok Hacohen Kook. 

According to the newsletter, after discussing some divrei Torah, the Rebbe hinted to all in attendance to leave him with Rav Kook alone so they could discuss the terrible circumstances that the Jews in Russia were in (don't forget this was a bad time for Jews in Russia which was then Communist).

Rav Kook wore a special kippa in honor of the rebbes visit, it was a kippa made from material of the "Zemach Tzeddik's (the third rebbe of Chabad.) coat. Rav Kook received it as a gift when he was just a teenager, and would wear it exclusively on the High Holy Days.

The Rebbe and Rav Kook met two more times during this visit. Harav Aryeh Levin z"l attended one of those meetings.

On Friday on the 23rd of August 1929, the Rebbe left Eretz Yisrael on a train to Alexandra Egypt the first leg of his journey to the USA, and just hours later Arabs murdered 69 of his fellow Jews in Chevron.... some of those murdered had met with the rebbe just  a few hours earlier. 

The Rebbe and Harav Kook subsequently corresponded frequently. In fact, the Rebbe wrote Rav Kook a letter when the Rebbe arrived a month later in the  US  where he expressed his sentiments vis a vis the Chevron massacre, and blessed Harav Kook with a Happy New Year.

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