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Rabbi Weinreb’s Series on Teachings of Rav Kook Memorializes Eight Slain Students

April 16, 2008

RABBI WEINREB’S SERIES ON TEACHINGS OF RAV KOOK MEMORIALIZES EIGHT SLAIN STUDENTS WEEKLY ON OU.ORG AND OURADIO.ORG

In recognition that the eight students tragically slain at the Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav were immersed in the religious Zionist philosophies of the yeshiva’s founder, Rav Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook zt”l, and to provide an ongoing memorial tribute to them, OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb is providing a weekly lesson from the writings of Rav Kook on http://www.ou.org and http://www.ouradio.org.

The lessons, which last four to five minutes, will continue until the end of the current Jewish year, Rabbi Weinreb said.

The series has already generated a substantial response. One listener wrote to Rabbi Weinreb, “I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the shiurim on the teachings of Rav Kook that you have delivered in memory of the eight talmidim who were murdered in Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav Kook. There is sadly no good answer to this horrific tragedy. But by delivering your shiurim, you have helped to remember the beautiful neshamot that were so tragically destroyed. Your shiur about Pesach was particularly powerful and meaningful to me. Your teaching on the fact that a physically free person can be psychologically enslaved, while a physically enslaved person can be psychologically free, touched me on a deep level. Todah rabbah for your contribution to their memory.”

Rabbi Weinreb also spoke at two memorial services presented in New York-area synagogues for the murdered young men.