She'ar Yashuv Cohen

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

Biography

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 "Nazir of Jerusalem." [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/rabbinicveg.html] His mother was Sarah Etkin, among the founders of "Omen", a religious women's organization that became the Emunah movement. She'ar Yashuv Cohen's parents were cousins.

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

According to family tradition, the late Lubavitcher Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of hid in She'ar Yashuv Cohen's grandfather's house 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 studied at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem. In his youth he became close to Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, and he remembers that Rav Kook loved him. Rabbi Yeshayahu Hadri, head of Yeshivat Hakotel, said at a conference of the Ariel Institutes in 2005, that Rav Kook would enjoy a melaveh malkah on Saturday nights with the Nazirite Rabbi and his son (She'ar Yashuv), who would play the violin.

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, although they are vegetarians. 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 Jerusalem 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, while was studying at Mercaz Harav, She'ar Yashuv was a member of the Brit Hahashmona'im (Hasmonean Covenant) underground resistance movement, 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 in the Israeli War of Independence, and 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 convoys of soldiers to Jerusalem and Gush Etzion, and also fought to defend the Gush. He was severely injured in the fighting to defend the Old City, and when the Jewish Quarter fell, he was captured by the Arab Legion of the Jordanian Army. Together with the survivors of Gush Etzion and the defenders of the Jewish Quarter, he was taken to Amman and then to the prison camp in "Mifrak." In prison,his leg was operated, but he remained handicapped. He became one of the leaders of the POWs, and earned the respect of both British and Arab commanders in the camp.

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

Cohen holds an honors degree in Law from the law faculty of Hebrew University. He specialized in legal advice on rabbinic rulings. He researched Israeli law and its harmonization with the laws relating to the Land of Israel. Afterwards, he served as the deputy mayor of Jerusalem in the Mafdal (NRP) party, and continued in this role after the city was unified in the Six Day War in 1967. Cohen volunteered for the IDF in the Yom Kippur War and served as rabbi in the group that crossed the Suez Canal.

She'ar Yashuv is married to Dr. Naomi Cohen, daughter of Rabbi Dr. Hayyim Shimshon (Herbert S.) Goldstein, President of the Union of rabbis of America, and granddaughter of the philanthropist Harry Fischel. His sister is the Tzafiya Goren, the wife of Rabbi Shlomo Goren. He and Naomi have a daughter.

After the death of Rabbi Yehoshua Kaniel in 1975, Cohen was appointed to replace him as Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Haifa, a position he holds to this day. He is also President of the Harry Fishel Institute for Talmud and Torah Law. He founded the "Midrasha HaGevoha LaTorah" ("Advanced Torah Institute") and the Ariel Institute in Jerusalem. In 1983 and 1993, he was a candidate for position of Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, but gained relatively few votes. [ [http://www.hebrewbooks.org/j462 "HaPardes", Iyar 1983, page 29.] He is a senior rabbinical adviser to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. He is the president of the "Sons of Zion" Union and a member of the Haifa University Board of Trustees.

Rabbi Cohen is active in interfaith dialogue. He was awarded Israel's Sovlanut award (tolerance) in 1991. He serves as a chief of the senior council for dialogue between the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Vatican, and recently became Chair of the council for dialogue between Judaism and Islam; he acts as an emissary of the Israel Chief Rabbinate to interfaith meetings.

In newspapers

In 2002, it was reported in newspapers that Rabbi Cohen and his wife requested permission to demolish 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 demolish the house, which was built in 1936, was strongly opposed by the Israel Society for the Preservation of Nature ("HaHevra LeHaganat HaTeva") and the [Council for Conservation of Buildings ("HaMo'etza LeShimur Mivnim"), despite the fact that the house itself is not listed or designated for preservation.

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 Makor Rishon (March 2005), he sought a solution to retain 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 Ge'ulateinu"] . Especially for this reason, I cannot avoid... expressing my clear position that the "State of Israel" is not the supreme value in our lives, in terms of being a goal unto itself. There are more important demands that take priority over this, since surely everyone who seeks to be in the State of Israel aims to protect them and guard them...

It is said that the point of emphasis in the passage above, 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 innately sacred.

Rabbi Cohen continues, recommending to then-Prime Pinister 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 on the issue of obeying an orders, versus the value of settling the Holy Land, and his name does not appear on the [http://www.kipa.co.il/blog/blog.asp?id=23&postid=402] list of rabbis who opposed refusing orders to evacuate Israeli settlements. Harel Cohen, his student who maintains his archives, explains that it is unconscionable to obey an order to evict a Jew from his home or to demolish the home, but one must be careful not to endanger 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, will not be cleansed in this world nor in the afterlife... this is the highest form of evil and cruelty..." [ [http://www.yeshiva.org.il/midrash/video/ViewVideo.asp?id=4970From a lecture by Rabbi She'ar Yashuv Cohen on the evening before the disengagement plan was carried out in 2005.] ]

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 act of demolition of a synagogue is something that is unheard of among nations of the world... There is no sin greater than this." [ [http://www.yeshiva.org.il/midrash/video/ViewVideo.asp?id=4974 From a lecture by Rabbi She'ar Yashuv Cohen during the implementation of the disengagement plan.]

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.

Published works (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
* 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

References

External links (Hebrew)

* [http://www.yeshiva.org.il/midrash/hmidrash.asp?search=1&orderby=53 "שיעורי הרב שאר ישוב כהן"] - שיעורי וידאו של הרב שאר ישוב כהן מתעדכנים מדי שבוע
* [http://www.zehut.net/ravhacohen.html שיעור בוידאו של הרב שאר ישוב כהן - ישראל ואומות העולם]
* " [http://www.inn.co.il/Besheva/Article.aspx/6018 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.

* This article was translated from the Hebrew Wikipedia in March 2008.