She'ar Yashuv Cohen

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Rabi She'ar Yashuv Cohen, 2007
Rabi She'ar Yashuv Cohen, 2007

Rabbi Eliyahu Yosef She'ar Yashuv Cohen (Hebrew: אליהו יוסף שאר ישוב כהן) is the Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Haifa, Israel. He was born on 4 November 1927 (9 Cheshvan 5688 in the Jewish calendar).

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[edit] Biography

According to a family tradition, She'ar Yashuv Cohen is an 18th-generation descendant in a family of rabbis and Torah scholars. His father was Rabbi David Cohen who was known as the "Nazirite Rabbi" or the "Jerusalem Nazirite," and his mother was Sarah Etkin, among the founders of "Oman", a movement of wives in the Mizrachi that has become the Emunah movement. She'ar Yashuv Cohen's parents were cousins of each other.

Cohen learned in Talmud Torah Geulah and afterward in the yeshivot "Torat Yerushalayim," "Mercaz Harav," and "Etz Hayyim."

According to family tradition, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of Lubavitch hid in the house of She'ar Yashuv Cohen's grandfather after the Bolshevik Revolution.

The name "She'ar Yashuv" (Hebrew: שאר ישוב) is based on the eponymous son of the prophet Isaiah (see Isaiah 7:3).

Cohen's father encouraged She'ar Yashuv and his sister to become Nazirites like him when they were young, but they chose not to follow this path, though they are vegetarians.

Cohen learned in Yeshivat Mercaz Harav. In his youth he became close with Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, and he remembers that Rav Kook loved him. Rabbi Yeshayahu Hadri, the president of Yeshivat Hakotel, said at a conference of the Ariel Institutes in 2005 that Rav Kook would enjoy a melave malka on Saturday nights with the Nazirite Rabbi and his son who would play violin, who was She'ar Yashuv.

From the day he was born, She'ar Yashuv's hair was not cut, he wore canvas shoes, and he followed the Nazirite practices of his father. At the age of 16, a special Beit Din of Jerusalemite rabbis convened in his house to release him from the Nazirite vow. Even today, out of an idealism for the holiness of life, he does not eat meat or fish, nor does he drink wine.

In 1948, when he was learning at Mercaz Harav, he was a member of the underground resistance movement, the "Hasmonean Covenant" which fought against the British mandate, and he was an active member of the Haganah. As a member of the Haganah, and with the support of his father and of the Rosh Yeshiva of Mercaz Harav, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, he led a group of youths who fought as part of the Hish who fought in the Israeli War of Independence, and he founded with his friends the first nucleus of a religious military force, which later developed into a Yeshivat Hesder.

During the Israeli War of Independence, Cohen defended Jerusalem and Gush Etzion, where he fought with Etzel for the Old City of Jerusalem, and he accompanied the caravans of soldiers to Jerusalem and Gush Etzion, and he fought to defend the Gush. When he was defending the Old City, he was injured severely in battle, and when the Jewish Quarter fell, he was captured by the Arab Legion of the Jordanian Army. With the survivors of Gush Etzion and the defenders of the Jewish Quarter, he was taken to Amman and then to the prisoners' camp in "Mifrak." In prison his leg was operated on, but he remained handicapped. He became one of the leaders of the POWs, and he earned the respect of the English and Arab commanders in the camp.

For seven years he served in the IDF, and he reached the rank of liutenant commander (Hebrew: סא"ל). He participated in a discussion with the Jordanians on returning the bones of the Jews killed in Gush Etzion during the war. He participated in a delegation of the IDF to the United States, and he served senior roles in the army rabbinate, including army chaplain and the chief rabbi of the Israeli Air Force.

He studied law in the law faculty of Hebrew University, and he received a degree with honors. He specialized in legal advice for rabbinic judgment and received a law degree. He researched Israeli law and its harmonization with the laws of the land. Afterward he served as the deputy mayor of Jerusalem in the Mafdal party, and served in this role when the city was unified in the Six Day War in 1967.

He married Dr. Naomi Cohen, the daughter of Rabbi Dr. Hayyim Shimshon (Herbert S.) Goldstein, who was the president of the union of rabbis of the United States, and the granddaughter of the philanthropist Harry Fischel. His sister is the Rebbetzin Tzafiya Goren, the wife of Rabbi Shlomo Goren.

Cohen volunteered for the IDF in the Yom Kippur War and served as rabbi in the group that crossed the Suez Canal.

From 1975, after the death of Rabbi Yehoshua Kaniel, Cohen has served as the Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Haifa. He serves as the president of the Harry Fishel Institute for investigating Talmud and Torah law. He founded the Midrasha HaGevoha LaTorah ("High Institute for Torah"). He founded the Ariel Institutes in Jerusalem and still heads them as of 2008. In 1983 and 1993 he was a candidate for the Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Israel but gained relatively few votes.[1] He is an elder adviser among the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.

Rabbi Cohen won the Sovlanut award in 1991. He is the president of the "Sons of Zion" union (?), a member of the "group of trusted people" of Haifa University.

He serves as a chief of the upper council for dialogue between the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Vatican, and recently also the chief of a council for dialogue between Judaism and Islam and an emissary of the Chief Rabbinate for interfaith meetings.

[edit] In newspapers

In 2002, it was reported in newspapers that Rabbi Cohen and his wife requested to destroy their house which they share with the Jewish National Fund on Horeb Street in Haifa, on the edge of Ahuza neighborhood, and to build an apartment building in its place. The plan to destroy the house, which was built in 1936, was strongly opposed by the Group for Preserving Nature (HaHevra LeHaganat HaTeva) and the [[Council for Preserving Buildings (HaMo'etza LeShimur Mivnim) despite the fact that the house is not designated for preservation.

[edit] His opinion on the future of Israel

Some people believe that Rabbi Cohen's opinion regarding the evacuation of settlements, and refusal to follow orders to evacuate such settlements, is unclear because in an article he published in Mekor Rishon (March 2005), he sought a solution to keep the Jewish settlements despite Israel's unilateral disengagement plan. He wrote:

The state of Israel is dear and beloved to me as the first flowering of our redemption [Reishit Tzemihat Geulateinu]. Especially because of this, I cannot avoid...expressing my clear position that the "state of Israel" is not the highest value in our lives, as a goal unto itself. There are more important needs that take priority over her, since doesn't every comer of the state of Israel aim to protect them and guard them...

The point of emphasis in the passage above, they say, is that in contrast to Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook as interpreted by Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, the state and its institutions, including the IDF, are not holy by themselves.

Rabbi Cohen continues and recommends to then-prime minister Ariel Sharon:

It is asked: Why uproot the settlements? Why can they not exist in a Palestinian state...and continue to observe all the commandments of inhabiting the Holy Land, as our fathers and forefathers did throughout the generations...?

Aside from this, some people believe that Rabbi Cohen's position is unclear regarding the value of following orders versus the value of inhabiting the Holy Land, and his name does not appear in a list of rabbis who oppose refusing orders to evacuate Israeli settlements. Harel Cohen, his student who maintains his archives, explains that it is unconscionable to follow an order to chase a Jew out of his home or to destroy the home, but one must be careful not to damage the IDF.

During the destruction of Gush Katif, Rabbi Cohen strongly criticized the government of Israel and warned its leader: "Whoever uproots Jewish settlements in the land of Israel and God forbid will even cause destruction of synagogues and uprooting graves, he will not be cleansed in this world nor in the afterlife...this is the highest form of evil and cruelty..."[2]

He later added, "I cannot consider an act more cruel and more evil than what the government of Israel did this week in Gush Katif, like this with one hand. The very destruction to a synagogue is something that is unheard of among nations of the world... There is no sin greater than this."[3]

In 2006, Cohen wrote articles for the monthly magazine "Kumi Ori" ("Rise and shine"; based on a verse in the Book of Isaiah) of the Komemiyut Movement which identifies with the hard line taken by students of Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, who believe that the state of Israel is holy, but its institutions are not holy if they act against the Torah.

[edit] Books and publications by Rabbi Cohen (Hebrew)

  • חקרי הלכה - קובץ תשובות, פסקים וקונטרסי הלכה דברים שכתב, חיבר ופרסם במשך שנות כהונתו ברבנות העיר חיפה
  • שי כהן - שעורים, תשובות, ברורים וחקרי הלכה, הארות במשפט התורה ובמחשבת ישראל

[edit] Publications to honor his deceased parents (Hebrew)

  • משנת הנזיר - עיקרי משנתו ותולדות חייו של הרב דוד כהן (אביו של הרב שאר ישוב כהן), מתוך יומניו, עם מבואות ופרקי זכרונות
  • בסתר המדרגה - דברים מתוך משנת מרן נזיר אלקים הרב דוד כהן ומבואות לשיטתו
  • יונתי בחגוי הסלע - חיבור שחיבר לעילוי נשמת אמו, הרבנית שרה כהן
  • שלשה שותפים - להארת דמותם של: רבו הרב אברהם יצחק הכהן קוק, אביו הנזיר הרב דוד כהן ואמו הרבנית שרה כהן

[edit] External links (Hebrew)

[edit] Further reading (Hebrew)

  • "מראה כהן", כתבה על הרב בעיתון "בשבע" גיליון מס' 205 (כ"ג במנחם-אב ה'תשס"ו, 17 באוגוסט 2006).
  • מאיר ושרה אהרוני, אישים ומעשים בחיפה והסביבה, ינואר 1993.

[edit] References

  1. ^ [http://www.hebrewbooks.org/j462 HaPardes, Iyar 1983, page 29.
  2. ^ [http://www.yeshiva.org.il/midrash/video/ViewVideo.asp?id=4970 A lecture by Rabbi She'ar Yashuv Cohen on the evening before the disengagement plan was executed in 2005.]
  3. ^ [http://www.yeshiva.org.il/midrash/video/ViewVideo.asp?id=4974 A lecture by Rabbi She'ar Yashuv Cohen during the execution of the disengagement plan.
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