The Militant Side of Rabbi Kook in Wake of the Riots of 5689 / 1929

In the riots of 5689 / 1929, Rabbi Kook was already functioning as the chief rabbi, and his activism is clearly seen and the extraordinary military encouragement for a rabbi of his stature, around the demonstration of our right to the Western (Wailing) Wall, and subsequently in the events themselves.

Although officially, he was not asked in the first place, but his nephew, Nachum Meiri, who was one of the organizers testified, that he received the rabbi’s blessing in advance, despite the dangers involved in this matter, and the opposition of the Zionist establishment.

Indeed, he was moved and happy about the demonstration of hundreds of young people that was organized by Beitar, who waved flags near the Western (Wailing) Wall on the night of Tisha B’Av 5689, as a response to the harassment there by the Muslims. He said, “In your zeal for the holy places of the nation, you, dear and beloved sons, remind us of the holy zeal of the Maccabees”.

According to the testimony of the author, Yaakov Rimon, the rabbi told them with tears in his eyes at the end of Tisha B’Av, “Blessed are you, who have merited, after two thousand years of exile, to raise the flag of Israel at the Western (Wailing) Wall; and you raised the honor of Israel and its hope in a proud fashion.”

At the outbreak of the riots of 5689 (secular year 1929), the rabbi burst into the yeshiva hall and addressed his students in a trembling voice: “These are among you those who feel powerful will join the defenders fighting the wild mob. There is no time for delay. Those who can – to the rifles; and those who can’t – to the Psalms.” The rabbi himself hastened to leave, and said to the Rabbi Charlap: “I’m going to join the battle, to be with the defending warriors. If the Mufti is there, we, all the rabbis, should be there too.

Will our brothers fight for us and we sit here and wait?”; but Rabbi Charlap convinced him that if he (the Chief Rabbi) would go with the defenders, the British and the Arabs, will argue that just as the Mufti incited the Arabs, the rabbis also incited the Jews to riot, and “we must act with discretion precisely because of the severity of the hour”.

At that time, almost all the top Jewish leadership of the country were at the Zionist Congress in Zurich, so the men of the Defense force turned to Rabbi Kook, and he gave written permission to remove the ten rifles that were stored in the Municipal school to stop the march of the Arabs towards the Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem, and added: “And I am responsible for the results”.

Rabbi Shlomo Natan Ra’anan (Rabbi Kook’s son in-law), mentioned that Rabbi Kook gave additional guidance to the Jewish Defense forces after the riots were over.

The incident described here is a translation from Rabbi Moshe Zuriel’s, Otzrote Haraaya, Volume 6 pages 325, 326.

Comment by Editor: Some background information has been left out of the article. I leave the reader to do more research.

Some other posts regarding Rabbi Kook can be found on this web site