HaRaayon HaYehudi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (October 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

HaRaayon HaYehudi (English: The Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea) was established in 1987 by then-member of Knesset Rabbi Meir Kahane, at a temporary campus in Jerusalem's Makor Baruch neighborhood. In the summer of 1989 the yeshiva moved to its permanent location at 11 Shmarya Street in the Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood of Jerusalem. Rabbi Yehuda Kroizer, the chief rabbi of Mitzpeh Yericho is the acting Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Avraham Toledano was Mashgiach Ruchani, Rabbi David Bar Hayim also taught there.

The Yeshiva's program had an emphasis the study of Tanakh and its traditional commentaries and Midrash as well as Talmud is in most Yeshivot.

Rabbi Meir Kahane would give a weekly class in Jewish philosophy. Much of the material of those classes can be found in his Torah manifesto "Ohr HaRaaayon", which has been translated to English and published in two volumes; The Jewish Idea vol 1 and 2. A collection of transcriptions of many of his classes have been published (in Hebrew) in a book called Tzofe U'manhig, The transcriptions were written by his faithful student Nati Ozeri who was subsequently killed by Arab terrorists in his home in Hevron 2003.

In 1991 following the assassination of Kahane, division raised between the yeshiva administration and a large part of the student body as to who was to take charge of the institution. The group of student wished to appoint the Rabbi's son Binyamin Zev as role of Rosh Yeshiva while members of the administration felt that he was still too young at the age of 23.

As result of the disagreement, Binyamin Kahane formed his own yeshiva with the same name at a new location in Kfar Tapuach. The Yeshiva in Kfar Tapuach at times was also known as the Rabbi Meir Kahane Yeshiva, Yeshivat HaRav Meir and the Kfar Tapuach Yeshiva. Both yeshivot continued parallel until the death of Binyamin in 2001.

Rabbi Lenny Goldberg, gives a weekly class in English based on Rabbi Kahane's Tanach commentary Pirush haMacabee.