Rav (Rabbi) Kook House

The house in which Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, the religious Zionist leader and the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, lived and worked, from 1923 to his demise in 1935. The house is situated on the second floor of the Beit David neighbourhood, which was the fourth neighbourhood to be built out of the city walls and was called “A yard neighbourhood” – one building in which all flats are built around a single central courtyard in which the community life is conducted. Rabbi A.Y. Kook regarded the return form the diaspora to the Land of Israel and Zionism as “Atchalta d’Geula”, (Aramaic for “the beginning of salvation”) and he formed a spiritual, deep and original way of explaining this perception. The Rabbi was a man of the Halacha (Jewish Law), a thinker, kabbalist and poet. His holiness and radiant figure became a byword for all – secular and religious alike. The Rabbi was a fertile creator in the various fields of Judaism and left an enormous literary legacy, some of which is yet to be published.

What’s at the site: the Rabbi’s house with its original furniture and objects, an introduction to the Rabbi’s life through a film and fascinating stories. The staff provides exciting guidance, combining fiction, games and activities. The Rabbi’s house also contains the yeshiva hall, known today as the “Merkaz Ha’Rav” (“Rabbi’s Center) Yeshiva, at Kiryat Moshe in Jerusalem.

For the general public: seminars, lectures and lessons about the Rabbi’s life and philosophy; self-tours of the Rabbi’s house aided by a catalogue and a movie. Group tours (by advance coordination) of the Rabbi’s House in Jerusalem and in Jaffa- at the Neve Tzedek and Neve Shalom, the Rabbi’s first residence and rabbinate in the Land of Israel; a re-enactment of the Settlement Tour – the Rabbi’s tour of the pioneer settlement.