נצחונו הגדול של הראי"ה קוק על שונאיו - קנאי ירושלים
מכתב שיטנה שנכתב נגדו ב-1920 ונחשף עכשיו, מבטא את עומק התיעוב שרחשו הקנאים לראי"ה
"The Great Triumph of Harav Avraham Yitzchok Kook Over His Enemies. The Yerushalyim Extremists"
"Hate letter that they sent to Harav Chaim Ozer in 1920 reveals the deep hatred the Extremists had against Harav Kook z"l"
The Mishna in Pirkei Avos states:
רבי אלעזר הקפר אומר הקנאה והתאוה והכבוד מוציאין את האדם מן העולם
"Rabbi Elazar Ha'Kapar says, Envy, Lust and desire for honor, drive a man out of the world"
Chazal say that the reason Korach rebelled against Moshe Rabeinu was only because of envy, and jealousy!
Korach managed to get support from the greatest tzaddikim of that generation. The Torah describes those tzadikim:
נשיאי עדה קראי מועד אנשי שם
"Princes of the assembly, representatives of the Jewish people, and famous"
In other words Korach was able to convince the Moetzes Hagdolah, the Eida Hachreidis of that generation.
A letter of hate and filth was written and signed by the then "Gedoileo Hador" against the Chief Rabbi of Yerushalyim, Harav Avraham Yitzchok Kook z"l.
The letter written in 1920 was addressed and delivered to the Leader of European Jewry, Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski z"l, who was the pre-eminent Av Bais Din, Posek, and Talmudic scholar in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The purpose of that letter was to get Rav Chaim Ozer on board to condemn Rav Kook z"l. Rav Chaim Ozer as well as other Gedoilim of that generation who read the letter refused to comment and refused to have anything to do with the signatories.
The signatories of that hateful letter were in no particular order:
R' Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld who also stamped it with his official stamp, R' Yitzchak Yeruchim Diskin also with his stamp, The Badatz of Yerushlayim, R' Moshe Nachum Wallenstein, R' Mordchai Leib Rubin, And R' Yitzchok Frenkel with the Badatz stamp.
What makes this news is that the letter is now on auction. The historian Moshe Nachmeinu, who is now in the midst of writing a book after doing extensive research of the extremists sefarim and hateful campaign of a Gadol brought this letter to light, and sets this as an example of how the greatest tzaddikim were consumed by envy, jealousy and pure evilness, rishis!
What prompted this letter?
Rav Shmuel Salant who served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Of Yerushalayim for almost 70 years was niftar, and the extremists were looking to fill that position with either Rav Yosef Chayim Sonnenfeld or with R' yitzchak Yeruchim Diskin. In 1919, Rav Kook was appointed the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Yerushalyim and soon after appointed the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Palestine in 1921. It was Rav Kook's appointment in 1919 that drove the extremists crazy and they began a campaign of harassment and hate against the Gadol Hador. Rav Sonnenfeld having lost the coveted position as Chief Rabbi Yerushalyim promptly founded the Eida Ha'chreidis which he headed in the same year that the letter was sent.
It's important to note that prior to Rav Kook's appointment to Chief Rabbi of Yerushalyim, in 1919, Rav Sonnenfeld said not a bad word about him and there wasn't any tension and in fact in 1913, the two travelled together to the Galilee to try to return secular Jewish pioneers to Torah Judaism.
His crime? Believing and preaching that that the fact that Jews were returning to Eretz Yisrael was the "Aschata DeGeulah" the "beginning of the redemption," Loving every Jew, be he a frum Jew or a secular Jew and advocating working with Zionists to establish the return of all Jews to our homeland. Though Rav Sonnenfeld also believed that all Jews must live in Eretz Yisrael, he hated the Zionists with a passion as did all pre WW2 Hungarian and Roumanian Frum Jews. Rav Sonnenfeld was originally from Hungary!
Rav Kook established the Yeshiva Mercaz Ha'Rav in 1924 and despite Chareidie opposition, parents of the Yishuv ignored the Badatz and sent their precious children to the Yeshiva to get a proper Torah Education. That Yeshiva exists today and many well known Rabbanim graduated that Moisad.
It's interesting to note that today in 2022, every single city in Israel has classes on the works of Harav Kook. His sefarim are learned by Chassidim, Sfradim, Litvaks Dati Leumis'. His Torah is being spread all over Israel, but it's hard to find a Jew who knows or learns the sefarim of the haters.
Read on next page an article that appeared in Matzav Huruach and my loose translation