130 years after it was written and 83 years after the death of its author, a new book by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Hacohen Kook was published. Rabbi Kook was one of the great sages from the previous century who formed the spiritual backbone of the religious Zionist movement.

When he was only 22 years old, Rabbi Kook was appointed to be the Rabbi of Žeimelis, a town in Lithuania which Jews called Žeimel. At that time Rabbi Kook began writing his thoughts down in notebooks. Some of these notes were comprised of only one line, while other spanned pages of flowing text. In one of the notebooks were 430 separate sections spanning all matters in Judaism, from Halachik philosophy to thoughts on the Parsha.

Over the years, approximately one-third of the notebook was published in various works attributed to Rabbi Kook. However, for some reason, no one knew about the remainder of the notebook, and those who did not see fit to publish it. Then, 15 years ago a photocopied version of the notebook found its way to the hands of Rabbi Harel Cohen, who is in charge of the publishing house for Yeshivat Beit El.

“I received a copy of the notebook from Rabbi Boaz Ofan from Yeshivat Beit El. 11 years later, after we saw that no one is publishing the work, we gathered a staff of 15 avreichim and rabbanim and began the arduous task of publishing the work which took us four years to accomplish.

The book is called Metziut Kattan and spans 750 pages of thoughts by Rabbi Kook over the years. “Damage caused by time, poor copying and the special style of handwriting which Rabbi Kook had caused it to take four years for us to understand each word in the high vocabulary that is a signature of Rabbi Kook’s work. This work puts into perspective parts of his other works that referenced the full notebook, which until now had been unavailable.”

Rabbi Cohen added: It was rare for Rabbi Kook to write books in a linear and ordered format. The majority of his works were written in letter or notebooks such as the one that came into our possession. He thought faster than he could write and was not able to put himself in a place where he could write according to specific linear subjects. This notebook is but the first of dozens that were written in this style.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)