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Shabbat ha-Arez, R. Abraham Isaac Kook, Jerusalem [1910]

שבת הארץ - First Edition - Polemic

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Details
  • Lot Number 53014
  • Title (English) Shabbat ha-Arez
  • Title (Hebrew) שבת הארץ
  • Note First Edition - Polemic
  • Author R. Abraham Isaac Kook
  • City Jerusalem
  • Publisher Levi and Partners
  • Publication Date [1910]
  • Estimated Price - Low 200
  • Estimated Price - High 500

  • Item # 2291289
  • End Date
  • Start Date
Description

Physical Description

First edition. [2], 9; [4] pp, 39, [2], 55; [1], 17 ff.; VI pp., quarto, 205:141 mm., wide margins, light age staining. A very good copy bound in contemporary boards, rubbed.

 

Detail Description

Halakhic work by R. Abraham Isaac Kook, first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of modern Erez Israel. Shabbat ha-Arez, deals with shemittah. For centuries, shemittah remained a theoretical problem, discussed solely by talmudic scholars. However, with the dawn of modern Zionism and the subsequent settlement of Erez Israel, it became a practical problem for the settlers. Before the shemittah of 1889, the leading rabbis of the generation debated whether it was permissible to enact a formal sale of all the Jewish-owned fields and vineyards to non-Jews in order to permit the working of the land during the Sabbatical Year. Before the Sabbatical Year of 1910, the controversy regarding the sale of the land to Muslims revived. Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, then the chief rabbi of Jaffa, was the leading proponent of the sale. His arguments in favor of allowing the sale of the land are represented in Shabbat ha-Arez.

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 Hasidic movement. He entered the Volozhin Yeshiva in 1884, where he became close to the Rosh Yeshiva, 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 fully developed 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

הלכות שביעית (האותיות הגדולות הוא לשון הרמב"ם [הלכות שמיטה ויובל]... פרק ראשון-תשיעי). חבר ע"י אברהם יצחק הכהן קוק, עבד לעם קדוש... בעה"ק יפו...

שנת הדפוס על-פי עדותו של בן המחבר בהקדמתו למהדורה השניה.

 

References

BE shin 432, EJ Bibliography of the Hebrew Book 1470-1960 #000163265