In 1935, Rav Kook passed on after a lengthy illness. After reviewing names of potential candidates to fulfill his position, the search committee decided to narrow consideration to two prominent choices for the position of Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi and two for that of Sefardi Chief Rabbi, who would also be called the Rishon LeTzion. No one questioned that any of the candidates were qualified for the position. As a matter of fact, the decision was that should the elected candidate be unable to assume the position, the other — technically, the losing candidate — would be offered the position. For Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, the finalists were Rav Yaakov Moshe Charlap and Rav Yitzchak Herzog. Both were highly respected talmidei chachamim, poskim, and identified very strongly with the Mizrachi movement and organization. Both had known Rav Kook, both sought to continue his vision of building a modern Jewish state in Eretz Yisrael that would be run according to halacha, and that this state would require working with non-observant individuals and elements on a temporary basis to achieve that goal. Both had extensive experience working with non-observant elements; both were highly respected by the gedolei Yisrael of their era, and both were also equally respected by many who had unfortunately rejected observance.
And yet, it is difficult to imagine two more dissimilar candidates, and the vote was certainly not merely over two candidates, but over two completely different views of what the position would entail.
Rav Charlap prided himself that he had never stepped outside of Eretz Yisrael. He had been born and educated in the old yishuv, and maintained close ties with it, notwithstanding that, at the same time, he had associated with Rav Kook, who was often viciously attacked by some elements of the old yishuv. Rav Charlap’s father had been a dayan on the beis din of the Maharil Diskin. Rav Charlap had no secular education; he was a pure product of the cheder/yeshiva system.
Rav Charlap had been one of the major participants in the famous 1913 “teshuvah trip” of Rav Kook, Rav Yosef Chayim Sonnenfeld and others, to spread Torah among the agricultural yishuvim that had sprouted all around the land. He was viewed as a talmid chaveir of Rav Kook. Rav Kook had appointed him as the active Rosh Yeshivah of the yeshiva he created, Merkaz Harav, and Rav Charlap shared Rav Kook’s approach to understanding the relationship of the growth and development of modern Zionism from a kabbalistic perspective. The hashkafic writings of both of them are full of deep, esoteric thought.
On the other hand, Rav Herzog had been in Eretz Yisrael only once in his life, to make the arrangements when his father had passed away. Born in Lomzha, Poland (then part of the Russian Empire), when he was eight years old his family moved to Leeds, England, where his father had assumed a rabbinic position, then moved to Paris when his father was appointed the rav of a prominent Ashkenazi kehillah there. His secular academic education began at the University of London, continued at the Sorbonne in Paris, and concluded at University of London, where he earned a doctorate, following which he assumed the rabbinate in Belfast, North Ireland. He made acquaintance with several great Torah scholars who were located in London, including Rav Kook, who had been forced to stay in London when World War I broke out, and Rav Shmuel David Hillman. Rav Herzog eventually married Rav Hillman’s daughter.
Rav Herzog’s highly extensive Torah education was largely self-taught. He never attended any yeshiva, and his primary face-to-face rebbe was his father. As he pursued his secular education, he continued his Torah education on his own, but corresponded extensively with the great Torah geonim of his era, including Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk (author of Ohr Somayach and Meshech Chachmah), Rav Chayim Soloveichek of Brisk (then in Russia), the Ridbaz (of Slutzk, then briefly Chief Rabbi of Chicago, and finally the Chief Rabbi of Tzefas), Rav Chayim Ozer of Vilna, Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer (then a Rosh Yeshiva in Slabodka, Lithuania, and later Rosh Yeshiva of Eitz Chayim Yeshiva in Yerushalayim) and many others.
Rav Herzog was appointed the chief Rabbi of Dublin, at the time still ruled by England. He was patriotically involved in Ireland’s struggle for freedom, and when the Irish Free State was eventually born, Rav Herzog became the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland.
While in Dublin, Rav and Rebbitzin Herzog had two sons, Chayim, who later became president of Israel, and Yaakov, who later became Israel’s ambassador to Canada, and, at one point, was considered for the position of Chief Rabbi of Israel. Chayim and Yaakov were named for two of Rav Herzog’s “correspondence teachers,” Rav Chayim Soloveichek and Rav Yaakov David Ridbaz, both of whom had passed on in the interim.
Rav Herzog was a classic “Renaissance Man.” Fluent in numerous languages, both modern and ancient, he was conversant in a wide variety of academic studies, had been involved extensively in political struggles, was familiar with a host of political leaders, and, at the same time, was a massive talmid chacham.
Although he had lived his entire life in chutz la’aretz, Rav Herzog decided that he would leave his position only to move to Eretz Yisrael. He was offered numerous prominent positions in Europe, including to take his father’s place in Paris, and the position of chacham bashi and Chief Rabbi of Salonika, at the time the most prominent Sephardic rabbinic position in the world. When Rav Herzog was offered the position in Salonika, he was told that there was a tacit understanding that whenever the position of Rishon LeTzion became available, it would be offered first to the chacham bashi of Salonika, and that the community would understand his leaving Salonika for Israel. Thus, Rav Herzog theoretically could have become the Sefardic Chief Rabbi of Israel.
Rav Herzog’s father had left a tzavaah that he be buried in the Holy Land. In 1934, when his father passed on, Rav Herzog left with his father’s aron, accompanied by his older son, Chayim, to Israel to carry out his filial responsibilities. He used the occasion to reacquaint himself with Rav Kook, whom he had met previously in London, Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, who until that time had been only a correspondent, Rav Yechiel Michel Tukachinsky, a major posek of the old yishuv, Rav Reuven Katz, the rav of Petach Tikvah, and Rav Pesach Frank, the rav of Yerushalayim.
While Rav Herzog was in Israel, the position of Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv-Yaffo became available (a position that had at one time been held by Rav Kook). For the first and only time in his life, Rav Herzog took an active role in pursuing this position, giving shiurim and speaking wherever he could, and meeting many great Torah scholars in Israel.
There were three finalists in consideration for the position, all of them rabbonim then living in chutz la’aretz: Rav Joseph Be’er Soloveichek, then the Chief Rabbi of Boston (which was why he became known as “the rav,” when he later become a rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University), Rav Herzog, and Rav Moshe Avigdor Amiel, who was at the time rav of Antwerp. All three were eminently qualified for the position — they were accomplished talmidei chachamim, they had rabbinic experience, and they believed in the Mizrachi’s approach to Zionism and settlement in the Holy Land. The organized Mizrachi party in Israel backed Rav Amiel, and the political machine proved itself successful with his overwhelming election.
Shortly after Rav Herzog returned to Ireland, he received word of Rav Kook’s passing, and was asked whether he would submit his name for consideration to be Rav Kook’s successor as Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Palestine. That was the total extent of his involvement in applying for the position, which ultimately became a major machlokes in Israel.
Whereas both Rav Herzog and Rav Charlap acted as the princes that they were and did not get involved in any politicking, their followers viewed seriously their responsibility to guarantee that “their” candidate win the election. False claims were published; great Torah leaders, both alive and gone, were quoted and misquoted in these broadsides. Some, such as Rav Chayim Ozer, issued a statement that he had been falsely attributed with opposing Rav Herzog’s election.
The opposition to Rav Herzog was largely because of his extensive secular education. Rav Tukachinsky, by now a close personal friend and backer of Rav Herzog, begged him to remove any reference to his doctorate from his name. Rav Herzog responded that people should consider him for what he is, not what they want to make of him.
Aside from those opposed to a “Rabbi-Doctor,” some backed Rav Charlap because they felt that the new yishuv should have a rav familiar with the local scene. Those who felt that Rav Charlap was the natural and obvious successor to Rav Kook included several respected rabbonim of cities in Eretz Yisrael. The spillover from this machlokes lasted for years, and, many years later, one of the prominent Mizrachi rabbonim who was upset at Rav Herzog for a position that he took at the time, announced loudly that he had always opposed “a doctor in English, wanting instead a gadol in halacha.”
On election day itself, the atmosphere was even more heated. As the seventy electors gathered to vote, the cacophony outside between the two sides was so great that the mandate police were called in to move both protesting sides a distance from the assembly hall, so that discussion and voting could take place.
When the decision was final, 37 votes were in favor of Rav Herzog and 31 in favor of Rav Charlap. So, the final decision regarding the definition of the first Chief Rabbi of Israel, and the halachic direction of the new yishuv for the next twenty years, was decided by four people, who, had they cast the vote in the opposite direction, the position would have gone to Rav Charlap.
