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Prayer of thanksgiving in honor of Sir Herbert Louis Samuel's recovery from a serious illness. The liturgy was to be recited in all synagogues on Saturday after the reading of the weekly portion. Sir Samuel (1870 – 1963) was a British Liberal politician who was the party leader from 1931 to 1935. He was the first nominally-practicing Jew to serve as a Cabinet minister and to become the leader of a major British political party. He put forward the idea of establishing a British protectorate over Palestine in 1915, and his ideas influenced the Balfour Declaration. As Home Secretary, Samuel faced a shortage of manpower needed to fight in World War I, and he initiated legislation to offer thousands of Russian refugees (many of them young Jews) a choice between conscription into the British Army or returning to Russia for military service.

He was appointed to the position of High Commissioner in 1920, before the Council of the League of Nations approved a British mandate for Palestine. He served as High Commissioner until 1925. Samuel was the first Jew to govern the historic Land of Israel in 2000 years. He recognized Hebrew as one of the three official languages of the territory. He was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) on 11 June 1920.Samuel's appointment to High Commissioner for Palestine was controversial. While the Zionists welcomed the appointment of a Zionist Jew to the post, the military government, headed by Edmund Allenby and Louis Bols, called Samuel's appointment "highly dangerous".

R. Abraham Isaac haKohen Kook, first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of modern Erez Israel. Rav Kook was born in Griva, Latvia in 1865. His father was a student of the Volozhin Yeshiva, the center of mitnagdut, whereas his maternal grandfather was a member of the Hassidic movement. He entered the Volozhin Yeshiva in 1884, where he became close to the Rosh HaYeshiva, Rav Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (the Netziv). Already in his youth, he was well known as a prodigy. At the age of 23, he entered his first rabbinical position. Between 1901 and 1904 he published three articles which anticipate the fullydeveloped philosophy which he developed in the Land of Israel. In 1904, he came to the Land of Israel to assume the rabbinical post in Jaffa, which also included responsibility for the new secular Zionist agricultural settlements nearby. His influence on people in different walks of life was already noticeable, as he attempted to introduce Torah and Halakha into the life of the city and the settlements. The outbreak of the First World War caught him in Europe, and he was forced to remain in London and Switzerland for the remainder of the war. While there, he was involved in the activities which led to the Balfour Declaration. Upon returning, he was appointed the Rav of Jerusalem, and soon after, as first Chief Rabbi of Israel (though the state had not yet been been born). Rav Kook was a man of Halakha in the strictest sense, while at the same time possessing an unusual openness to new ideas. This drew many religious and nonreligious people to him, but also led to widespread misunderstanding of his ideas. He wrote prolifically on both Halakha and Jewish Thought, and his books and personality continued to influence many even after his death in Jerusalem in 1935. His authority and influence continue to this day. R. Kook was a prolific writer, who, according to his students, wrote out of the constant urge to create. He never attempted to construct a comprehensive system, and his style mirrors the quality of his personal insights and mystical reflections.

Hebrew Description

 <על הנציב העליון לארץ-ישראל (אליעזר בן מנחם [הרברט סמואל]) אשר חלה ויחי>... חברה ... מרן אברהם יצחק הכהן קוק... ונקבעה עפ"י הרבנות הראשית... לאומרה בש"ק זו, פרשת-החדש [תרפ"ב]...

References

Bibliography of the Hebrew Book 1470-1960 #000163227; John Edward Bowle (1957). Viscount Samuel: A Biography. Victor Gollancz; Wasserstein, Bernard (1992). Herbert Samuel: A Political Life. Clarendon Press; Wikipedia, EJ