The yeshiva's official name is The Central Universal Yeshiva, indicating its role in Rabbi Kook's vision as a central institution for the spiritual revitalization of the Jewish people. Kook, however, lacked the financial backing necessary to establish a full-fledged academic institution.
The yeshiva grew out of an evening program for young scholars who gathered to hear the recently appointed Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem lecture in Halakhah and Aggadah. Rabbi Yitchak Levi, a disciple of Rabbi Kook from his years in Jaffa, initiated this evening program in 1920, calling it Mercaz HaRav - "the Rabbi’s Center."
[6] In a public letter from 1923, Rabbi Kook explained, "In a very small measure compared to the great role of the Universal Yeshiva, I have started leading the small and limited center 'Mercaz HaRav' as the cornerstone to establish the future Universal Yeshiva."[7]
The name "Mercaz HaRav" remained, despite the yeshiva's transformation over the years into one of Israel's largest and most influential yeshivot.[8]
History
Original location of Mercaz HaRav yeshiva in "Beit HaRav", Jerusalem
Mercaz HaRav was founded in 1924 by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the chiefAshkenazirabbi during the British Mandate for Palestine. It was housed in Beit HaRav, built by the noted American philanthropist Harry Fischel. Rabbi Kook's vision was to create a new yeshiva curriculum, integrating traditional Talmudic studies with Jewish philosophy, Bible, Jewish history, geography, and literature. The last three subjects, however, were never taught there.[5]
In 1925, Rabbi Kook invited the great European scholar Rabbi Avraham Aharon Borstein (1867–1925) to serve as rosh yeshiva. Tragically, Rabbi Borstein died suddenly at age 58, nine months after taking up his duties.[9]
Kook died in 1935, and his student, Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Charlap, succeeded him as rosh yeshiva.[10] After Charlap's death in 1951, Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook's son, took up his father's position. In 1982, after Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook died, Rabbi Avraham Shapira took the position and led the institution until his death in 2007. His son Rabbi Yaakov Shapira is his successor.
In its first decades, the yeshiva had few students, and its future was in doubt. However, in the 1950s, graduates of Bnei Akiva religious schools and high-school yeshivas seeking higher religious education entered Mercaz Harav. Bnei Akiva leader Rabbi Moshe Zvi Neria, a disciple of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, encouraged students to go to Mercaz Harav, then headed by Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook.[5]
In 1997, Rabbi Zvi Thau strongly opposed the introduction of an academic framework - plans to integrate a teaching institute - into Mercaz HaRav. As a result of the disagreement, he, together with six senior lecturers and many students, left the yeshiva and established the Har Hamor yeshiva.[11]
In 2008, the yeshiva has about 500 students, including 200 students in the yeshiva's kollel (post-graduate division).[5]
Relationship to West Bank settlements
Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook's fundamentalist teachings as the Rosh Yeshiva of the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva were a major factor in the formation and activities of the settlement movement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, mainly through his influence on the Gush Emunim movement, which was founded by his students.[12][13] His student Rabbi Hanan Porat set out to restore the Jewish settlement in Gush Etzion immediately following the Six-Day War.[5]
On the night of March 6, 2008, a lone shooter from Jabel Mukaber in East Jerusalem, entered the yeshiva with a gun and began firing indiscriminately, murdering eight students and wounding 15 others. The attack ended with the arrival of Yitzhak Dadon, a part-time student of the yeshiva, and David Shapira, an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, who shot and killed the shooter.
^Kook, Abraham Isaac (2020). Iggerot HaRe'iyah vol. 6. Hamachon al shem R. Zvi Yehuda Kook. p. 160.
^Morrison, Chanan (2006). Gold from the Land of Israel: A New Light on the Weekly Torah Portion - From the Writings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook. Urim Publications. p. 13. ISBN965-7108-92-6.
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