The first of the three dates engraved on Rav Kook’s tombstone in the Mount of Olives cemetery is the 28th of Iyyar, 5664 (1904). This was a deeply significant date in Rav Kook’s life: it marked the day he was privileged to ascend to the Land of Israel.
On the 28th of Iyyar — the same date on which, 63 years later, Jerusalem would be reunited, the day we celebrated this past Friday with prayer, song and the flag march through the Old City — a ship docked at the port of Jaffa, bearing Rav Kook and his family.
The New Rabbi of Jaffa
Jaffa’s previous rabbi had passed away two years prior. Rabbi Yoel Moshe Solomon (1838-1912), a pioneering figure in Jerusalem and one of the founders of Petach Tikva, was among the first to suggest that Rav Kook, then rabbi of Bausk, be offered the position. Solomon brought the proposal to Rabbi Eliyahu David Rabinowitz-Teumim (commonly referred to as ‘Aderet'), the chief rabbi of Jerusalem and Rabbi Kook’s father-in-law.
That very day, the Aderet sent an urgent message to his son-in-law advising him to accept the position of rabbi of Jaffa and its surrounding communities. Rabbi Kook was delighted with the suggestion, but wanted to know what Rabbi Shmuel Salant, the previous chief rabbi of Jerusalem and its elder statesman, thought about the proposal. The Aderet reported that when he queried Rabbi Salant, the scholar happily responded, “If only!”
The Aderet later noted with irony, “In truth, my son-in-law should have been appointed the rabbi of the holy city of Jerusalem, and I should have been the rabbi of the small town of Jaffa.” Fifteen years later, Rav Kook in fact did become the chief rabbi of Jerusalem.







