Letter Handwritten by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Ha'Cohen Kook - Early, Long, with Important Content - Setting the ...

Letter Handwritten by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Ha'Cohen Kook - Early, Long, with Important Content - Setting the Months and Holidays and the "Eretz Yisrael Calendar" - Bauska (Boisk), 1903 - Has Never Been Printed
A long letter in the handwriting and with the signature of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Ha'Cohen Kook when he was the rabbi of Bauska. The known letters in the possession of collectors are from the period after his immigration to the Land of Israel. The letter before us is from an earlier period, when he served as a rabbi abroad.
The letter is addressed to Rabbi Yechiel Michel Tikutchinsky, the manager of the Etz Chaim Talmud Torah in Jerusalem. The letter contains basic, important content about the Halachot of setting the months in the Land of Israel. 28th of Tishrei 1903.
In 1903, Rabbi Yechiel Michel Tikutchinsky published a short booklet titled "Ma'amar al Devar Ha'Kvi'ut". In this booklet, Rabbi Tikutchinsky called to establish "calendars of the Land of Israel", which will be regularly published. At the end of the booklet, Rabbi Tikutchinsky suggested asking three rabbis knowledgeable in setting the years and the months to do so and according to them, the calendars will be published.
The basis for this suggestion was Maimonides' words about Kidush Ha'Chodesh. According to Maimonides, the setting of the years and months depends on the people of the Land of Israel. According the Ramban, however, Hillel the Elder had already set the calendar for all generations to come and only when the Messiah comes will we return to set the months according to the Beit Din of Jerusalem. Maimonides had not mentioned this ruling of Hillel and thus, according to him, the people of the Land of Israel are those who must set the months so as not to cancel the Jewish holidays.
Therefore, Rabbi Tikutchinsky suggested that the Beit Din of the Land of Israel set the months and publish them in a calendar that will be sent to all Jewish communities in the Diaspora.
Rabbi Tikutchinsky sent a copy of the booklet to his friend Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Ha;Cohen Kook, the rabbi of Bauska. Before us is the response Rabbi Kook wrote to Rabbi Tikutchinsky. Rabbi Kook addresses the halachic aspects of the issue as well as its spiritual aspects and also speaks about the virtues of the Land of Israel, which stand at the base of the discussion about the setting of the months by the Beit Din of the Land of Israel.
Rabbi Kook congratulates Rabbi Tikutchinsky on his initiative to publish calendars from the Holy Land. This will only bring honor to the country. However, he rejects his suggestion that a Beit Din in the Land of Israel set the months and years.
The reason is fundamental and most important: if we understand Maimonides as Rabbi Tikutchinsky understands him and accept his practical suggestion "it might seem that the rabbis of previous generations who were already in the Land of Israel … did not haste to observe this Mitzvah … and it would be as if we are slandering them".
Rabbi Kook concludes his words by saying that even if Rabbi Tikutchinsky's idea is rejected, "… it would be an honor to our people and the land of our forefathers if calendars published there are sent to all the Jewish communities of the world".
The letter is written on Rabbi Kook's official stationery. One page written on both its sides.
46 lines handwritten and signed by Rabbi Kook.
The letter has never been published.
Condition: Good. Folding marks. Time stains.