"I received your letter, and thank you for your concern regarding my health. By the grace of God, my condition has slightly improved, and I am on the path to recovery. However, I am still suffering and continue to see doctors and take medications. May the Healer of the sick send me a complete recovery soon."
Jerusalem, Kislev, 1932. A typed letter with Rabbi Kook’s handwritten signature.
Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook (1865 – 1935) was the founder of the Chief Rabbinate in the Land of Israel and served as the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel. He was a revered figure among his contemporaries, and many of the great scholars of the previous generation were his students and devoted followers, who saw him as their primary rabbi. He founded the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva and served as its head until his passing. He authored many seforim, some of which he published during his lifetime, while others were published posthumously.
The recipient, Rabbi Yekutiel Azriel-Kushelevsky (1900–1993), served as the rabbi of Zichron Yaakov for about sixty-three years; he was one of the survivors of the 1929 Hebron massacre. He was born in Augustow, Suwalki Province, to Rabbi Azriel Zelig Noah Kushelevsky, the city’s rabbi, and Sarah, daughter of Yehuda Gilda. In his youth, he studied under his father and later attended the Slabodka Yeshiva in Kovno. In Hanukkah 1925, he immigrated to Israel with a group of students from the Slabodka Yeshiva, who formed the core of the Hebron Yeshiva in the city of Hebron.
On the morning of Shabbat, the 18th of Av, 1929, he was in the home of Eliezer Dan Slonim, the manager of the Anglo-Palestine Bank branch in Hebron and a leader of the Jewish community in the city. Dozens of Jews from the city gathered in the house, hoping to find refuge from the Arab rioters. Also present in the Slonim home were the parents of Eliezer Dan Slonim’s wife, Rabbi Avraham Yaakov Orlinsky, the rabbi of Zichron Yaakov, and his wife, as well as their daughter, Mina Chaya. In the midst of the morning prayers, the Arab rioters broke into the house and massacred its occupants. Rabbi Orlinsky, his wife, their daughter Hannah, her husband Eliezer Dan Slonim, and their young grandson Aharon Slonim were murdered. Kushelevsky saved Mina Chaya Orlinsky by pushing her into a side room. He himself was injured in the leg by a dagger but survived and eventually recovered from his wounds.
After the Hebron Yeshiva was reestablished in Jerusalem, Kushelevsky continued his studies there. In Adar 1931, he married Mina Chaya Orlinsky. He then studied at the Heichal HaTalmud in Tel Aviv and shortly thereafter was appointed, on the recommendation of Rabbi Kook, as the rabbi of Zichron Yaakov, succeeding his father-in-law, who was murdered in the riots. He was a member of the council of the Torah Education Center in Israel, which operated in Tel Aviv and united the religious educational institutions in Israel. Rabbi Kushelevsky served as the rabbi of Zichron Yaakov for about sixty years and was responsible for establishing the religious services infrastructure in the town. Among other things, he was responsible for the kashrut of the Zichron Yaakov winery. He was also a member of the administration of the Neve Midrashia in Pardes Hanna. During his tenure, he Hebraized his name from Kushelevsky to Azrieli. In 1955, he traveled to England on behalf of Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog to raise support and assistance for religious institutions in Israel.
28.5 cm.
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Lot #247