Grapevine: Rabbi Herzog, holy rescuer

THIS YEAR marks the 65th anniversary of the passing of Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog, the legendary first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel as a state. He was preceded as Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the Land of Israel by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook.

In 1936, Rabbi Herzog, previously chief rabbi of Ireland, became chief rabbi of the Land of Israel and after its establishment, of the State of Israel, a position he filled until his death in July 1959. A great intellectual and major halachic authority, he was a strong believer in community service and securing the Jewish people’s future. He is best known for traveling to Europe after the Holocaust to rescue Jewish children who had been hidden in convents and monasteries. Rabbi Herzog found some 500 Jewish children and brought them to Israel.

In that pursuit, he arrived at a convent where nuns had been sheltering many children. They asked how he would know which were Jews. He recited Shema – and the Jewish children reacted.

■ RABBI HERZOG also rescued holy manuscripts. In April, on behalf of the Herzog family, two of his grandchildren presented Yad Vashem with a rare Talmud that had survived the Holocaust, part of Rabbi Herzog’s library. The two grandchildren were President Isaac Herzog, named after his grandfather, and his oldest brother, Yoel, head of the Swiss Friends of Yad Vashem, who came to Israel for the presentation.

■ LAST WEEK, President Herzog hosted the launch of the second volume in the Ohel Yitzhak – Even HaEzer series, and the first English translation of Rabbi Herzog’s A Constitution for Israel According to the Torah (Koren Publishers).

Placards representing the values of Rabbi Herzog and his wife, Sarah, reminded guests at the President’s Residence of the importance of unity, leadership, education, responsibility, and prayer.

The large gathering was top-heavy with rabbis, from haredi to Zionist Orthodox and Modern Orthodox. Among the prominent attendees were outgoing Chief Rabbis Yitzhak Yosef and David Lau; Rabbi Meir Kahana, the Religious Zionism candidate for chief rabbi to succeed Rabbi Lau; Religious Affairs Minister Rabbi Michael Malchieli; Rabbi Berel Wein, who this year celebrated his 90th birthday and had known Rabbi Herzog personally; Rabbi Nahum Rakover, a Bar-Ilan University professor emeritus and prolific author on Jewish law; Rabbi Rarzon Arusi, chief rabbi of Kiryat Ono and member of the Chief Rabbinate Council; Rabbi Prof. Avraham Steinberg, a pediatric neurologist and expert on Jewish medical ethics, head of the editorial board of the Talmudic Encyclopedia and director of Yad HaRav Herzog; and Rabbi Shlomo Beeri, widely regarded as a Torah genius, expert on the writings of Rabbi Herzog.

■ PRESIDENT HERZOG began his address with a prayer for the return of the hostages, the safety of the soldiers, and the homecoming of uprooted communities, families, and individuals. He quoted Maimonides: “There is no greater commandment than the redemption of captive prisoners.”

He said his grandparents’ home had always been open to all, and his grandmother’s hospitality had remained constant until her death in 1979. Great Torah scholars had sat around their table, together with leading figures of the period – writers, statesmen, clergy of various faiths, and scientists, representing a vast mosaic of beliefs, world views, and perspectives.

The president credited his grandmother with initiating the publication of his grandfather’s writings. His father, Israel’s sixth president, Chaim Herzog, continued the process, and the current president has taken up the baton.

■ THE DIRECTOR of the Education Ministry’s State Religious Education Department, Shosh Nagar, announced that in honor of Rabbi Herzog, the new school year’s curriculum would include the history of the Jewish people.

Sarah Herzog founded Ezrat Nashim, the first psychiatric hospital in the Middle East, and promoted awareness about geriatric issues and mental illness. Much expanded, it is now the Sarah Herzog Medical Center. She was the founding president of the women’s social welfare organization World Emunah.

Every Shabbat, she opened her home for kiddush. She welcomed everyone with warmth and cinnamon cookies. At an advanced age, she told her son Chaim that she could no longer continue all her activities. “So stop,” he replied. “Stop everything except the kiddush.”

At the launch event, her granddaughter Elinora Herzog read letters that her grandparents had exchanged, to spontaneous applause.

Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef

■ RABBI YITZHAK YOSEF, who this year received the Israel Prize for his contribution to Torah research and study, stressed the need to build on the legacy of Rabbi Herzog, who had laid the foundations “for all that we have in the Chief Rabbinate.” He said, “Everyone loved and honored him. His books are very important, especially his works on Halacha.”

Rabbi Yosef also emphasized the importance of praying for the success of the soldiers, the healing of the wounded, and the return of the hostages. “We must act urgently for an immediate hostage deal,” he stated. “There is a life-threatening situation here that overrides everything. We must not delay.”

■ RABBI LAU recalled that after the Holocaust, Rabbi Herzog had been concerned with the halachic issue of the aguna, the “chained wife.” Without proof of a husband’s death, a widow halachicly remains a wife and cannot remarry. Rabbi Herzog wrote extensively on the subject, exploring it from every angle. As a result, said Rabbi Lau, there has not been a single aguna in the current war. Solutions have been found for every widow.

Referring indirectly to the haredi draft, Rabbi Lau, quoting Rabbi Herzog, said: “You can’t have Torah without Oral Torah, and you can’t have Oral Torah without yeshivot. The IDF represents the physical army, and the yeshiva students, the spiritual army.”

Rabbi Lau recalled that on November 29, 1947, Rabbi Herzog prayed at the Western Wall for the vote of the United Nations General Assembly to bring about the establishment of the Jewish state.

Rabbi Herzog also wrote the prayer for the State of Israel, which is read in most synagogues in Israel and the Diaspora today.

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