Torah Stories

A Torah Story -- Rabbi A.I. Kook and Hebron

Hebron, the 18th of Av 5689 (August 24, 1929)

On that tragic Sabbath day,  67 Jews -- yeshiva students, elderly rabbis, women and children -- were slaughtered by Arab mobs. The British police had done nothing to protect them. The Jewish community of Hebron was destroyed, and their property had been looted and stolen. The British shipped off the survivors to Jerusalem.

Rabbi A.I. Kook the first Chief Rabbi of Eretz Yisrael (a preeminent Talmudic scholar, Kabbalist, philosopher, and a saintly tzaddik) held Sir Harry Lock, acting British High Commissioner responsible for British inaction. During an official reception soon after, Sir Lock held out his hand to the Chief Rabbi. Rav Kook, however, refused to take it. 'I do not shake hands that are defiled with Jewish blood.'

Six months later, grieving crowds filled the Yeshurun synagogue. A mourning mood of Tisha B'Av dwelled on the gathering, as they assembled in pained silence. Survivors of the massacre, who had witnessed the atrocities before their eyes, said the kaddish prayer for family members killed in the rioting.

Rabbi Yakov Yosef Slonim, who lost his son  and grandchildren, opened the assembly in the name of the remnant of the Hebron community. No healing has taken place during the past six months, he reported. The murder and the theft have not be rectified. The British government and the Jewish leadership have done nothing to correct the situation by reclaiming Jewish property and resettling Hebron.

Afterwards, the Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook,  spoke:

The holy martyrs of Hebron do not need a memorial service. The Jewish people can never forget the holy and pure souls who were slaughtered and killed by murderers and vile thugs.

Rather, we must remember and remind the Jewish people not to forget the city of the Patriarchs. The people must know what Hebron means to us.

We will not abandon our places and aspirations. Hebron is the city of our fathers, the city of the Machpela Cave, the city of David, the cradle of our kingship, a city of refuge.

Those who dishearten the Jews rebuilding the community with arguments of political expedience; those who scorn and say, 'What are those wretched Jews doing?'; those who do not help build Hebron -- they are attacking the very roots of our nation. In the future, they will need to give account for their actions. If ruffians and hooligans repaid our kindness with malice, we have only one eternal response: Jewish Hebron will once again be built, in honor and glory!

That proud Jew (Caleb) announced years later, "I am still strong... as my strength was then, so is my strength now" [Joshua 14:11]. So too must we announce to all: Our strength now is as our strength was then. We shall re-establish Hebron in even greater glory, with peace and security for every Jew. With God's help, we will merit to see Hebron completely rebuilt, soon in our days.