Rabbi Tzvi Pesach Frank

The Work, Torah Teaching and Public Leadership of the Gaon Rabbi Tzvi Frank

The figure of the Gaon Rabbi Tzvi Pesach Frank (5633–5721; 1873–1960) stands as one of the most central and influential junctures in the shaping of renewed Jewish sovereignty and of the rabbinic establishment in the Land of Israel in the twentieth century.^{[1, 2, 3]} He worked in a fateful period that stretched from the last years of Ottoman rule, through the days of the British Mandate, to the establishment of the State of Israel.^[4] As the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem and as a halakhic decisor of international stature, Rabbi Frank succeeded in combining deep, traditional Lithuanian erudition with a broad statesmanlike vision, moderate halakhic pluralism and deep concern for the needs of the individual and the community.^{[4, 5, 6]} His Torah teaching and public work present a conception that identifies the Return to Zion as the beginning of the flowering of the redemption, and set out a halakhic teaching that translates the laws of the Torah into the conditions of modern life in a sovereign state.^{[2, 4, 7]}

Biography and Formative Stations in His Life

Rabbi Frank's intellectual and spiritual roots are planted deep in the world of the Lithuanian yeshivot. He was born in the city of Kovno to his father, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Frank, who was one of the prominent leaders of the "Hibbat Zion" movement and was engaged in purchasing land in the Land of Israel.^{[1, 4, 8]} In his youth he acquired Torah at the prestigious Telz yeshiva, where he enjoyed warm treatment and exceptional esteem from the head of the yeshiva, the Gaon Rabbi Eliezer Gordon, and later deepened his studies at the Slabodka yeshiva.^{[1, 8]} In 5652 (1892) he immigrated to the Land together with his brother Tanchum, his sister Tzipporah and his cousin Rabbi Shmuel Hillel Shenkar, while his parents immigrated a year later and were central partners in founding the moshava of Hadera, where the father served as its first rabbi.^{[1, 8]}

In Jerusalem Rabbi Frank continued his diligent Torah study at the "Etz Chaim" and "Torat Chaim" yeshivot.^[2] In 5655 (1895) he married the granddaughter of Rabbi Chaim Yaakov Shapira, head of the rabbinic court of Rabbi Shmuel Salant, who had grown up in his home as his daughter.^[2] This family tie brought him close to the supreme Torah leadership of Jerusalem.^[2] Already when he was about 24, Rabbi Shmuel Salant recognized his exceptional genius and actively involved him in intricate deliberations on the laws of divorce, and even handed him the practical responsibility for halakhic rulings on the separation of terumot and ma'asrot (priestly and tithe portions).^[3] In 5662 (1902) Rabbi Frank moved to study in Jaffa, and in Iyar 5664 (1904), when Rav Kook (the Raayah) arrived to serve as rabbi of Jaffa and the moshavot, deep bonds of friendship and mutual esteem were formed between the two that changed the face of religious history in the Land of Israel.^[2] Encouraged by his wife's grandfather, Rabbi Shapira, he returned to Jerusalem and trained in practical halakhic ruling among the city's judges, until in 5667/5668 he was appointed an official judge in the rabbinic court of the Perushim at the Hurva of Rabbi Yehuda HeChasid.^{[1, 2, 9]}

Public Leadership and the Founding of Torah Institutions in the Land of Israel

Rabbi Frank's public work was marked by the building of central leadership institutions and by the attempt to lead religious Judaism toward the challenges of sovereignty.^{[2, 7]} The historic partnership with Rav Kook gave rise to the initiative to establish a joint "Committee of Rabbis" for Ashkenazim and Sephardim in Jerusalem, a preparatory step that formed the basis for the establishment of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel in 5681 (1921).^[2] Rabbi Frank worked tirelessly for the election of Rav Kook as rabbi of Jerusalem and afterwards as the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, while he himself served as a member of the Council of the Chief Rabbinate and as head of the Great Rabbinical Court for about four decades.^{[2, 9]} On 1 Tevet 5696 (1936), a few months after the passing of Rav Kook, Rabbi Frank was elected unanimously as the Ashkenazi rabbi of Jerusalem, receiving the signatures of all the city's rabbis from various circles, and bearing overall responsibility for the systems of kashrut, the eruv, the mikvaot and ritual slaughter.^{[2, 7]}

Rabbi Frank's approach to public leadership went beyond the rigid conservatism of the Old Yishuv.^[4] He distinctly opposed the position led by Rabbi Diskin, and sought to establish a rabbinic path that would form a living and courageous bridge between the world of Torah and the agricultural, laboring settlement.^[4] This insight explains his joining the "Bnei Torah" association, which sought to combine a life of Torah thought with the establishment of independent agricultural settlement, as well as his educational work at the "Sha'arei Torah" Talmud Torah in Jaffa, which was meant to train spiritual leaders with a practical understanding of the realities of the Land of Israel.^[4]

On the other hand, Rabbi Frank's last years were marked by a conscious and disappointed distancing from the institutions he had helped to establish.^[1] For the six years preceding his death, the rabbi refrained from taking part in the sessions of the Council of the Chief Rabbinate, and even sent an open letter of support for the boycott that rabbis had imposed on the elections to the Chief Rabbinate.^[1] This sharp position stemmed from his fear of the loss of the institution's spiritual independence and its subjection to political and party struggles, a step that highlights his intellectual integrity and his refusal to sacrifice the honor of the Torah for the sake of institutional interests.^[1]

Ruling in a Time of National Emergency and the War of Independence

During the War of Independence and the heavy siege of Jerusalem in 5708, Rabbi Frank ruled out of a deep commitment to collective life-saving.^[3] He permitted the manufacture of armored vehicles on the Sabbath for the rescue and defense of Gush Etzion, while stressing meticulously that this permission applied solely to actions necessary for saving life, and forbade any desecration of the Sabbath that was not directly essential to the war effort.^[3] Because of the hunger and the severe shortage of food in the besieged city, he ruled courageously that the Ashkenazi public was permitted to consume kitniyot (legumes) and legume by-products (legume oil) on the festival of Passover of 5708.^{[1, 3]} After the fall of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City, he set the 20th of Sivan 5708 as a communal day of mourning and prayer marking thirty days since the destruction of the Quarter and its fall.^[3] Alongside these permissions, he showed firm opposition to the conscription of yeshiva students into the army, out of a deep belief that Torah study serves as a spiritual protective wall that shields the fighters at the front.^[3]

His halakhic and social sensitivity stood out especially in his determined struggle against autopsies not required for urgent medical need, a struggle that led him to oppose the Anatomy and Pathology Law and even to permit yeshiva students to secretly smuggle the bodies of the deceased out of hospitals in order to prevent their dissection.^[3] Nevertheless, displaying a balanced and uncompromising capacity for ruling, he permitted an autopsy on the body of a person killed in a road accident in a case where the autopsy was the only means of proving the guilt of a negligent driver in court.^[3] This decision stemmed from the principle of "migdar milta" (making a fence for the matter): the burning social need to prevent killers on the roads from evading punishment and to protect public safety, which demonstrates his readiness to prefer the repair of society in extreme situations over common halakhic prohibitions.^[3]

The Commandments Dependent on the Land and the Shemitah Controversy

Rabbi Frank's rulings on the agunot of the Holocaust and of Israel's wars won him lasting renown as a judge of deep compassion and public courage.^[3] When he came to write complex rulings that released women from their status as agunot, he adopted a unique and deliberate strategy: he systematically refrained from detailing the reasons, sources and halakhic dialectics that underlay the permission.^[2] This insight stemmed from his understanding of scholarly dynamics; he feared that rabbis or Torah scholars in later generations would try to find refutations or difficulties in his proofs, which would cast doubt on the validity of the second marriages and could lead to a fear of mamzerut (illegitimacy) among the seed of Israel.^[2] By omitting the reasons, Rabbi Frank established a fait accompli according to which his public and spiritual authority as rabbi of Jerusalem was entirely sufficient, and thereby blocked in advance any opening for appeals at the expense of the women who had been released.^[2]

On the question of Shemitah (the sabbatical year) and the commandments dependent on the Land, Rabbi Frank's teaching stood in marked contrast to the insular and stringent approach of the author of "Chazon Ish."^{[2, 4]} Whereas the Chazon Ish addressed an elite group of farmers who kept Shemitah without compromise, Rabbi Frank saw his role as a religious leader of the whole community.^[4] He firmly defended the "heter mechira" (sale permit) instituted by Rav Kook, seeing it as a vital tool and a necessary emergency measure to prevent the economic collapse of the Hebrew agricultural settlement.^{[2, 4]} For those who wished to be stringent and not rely on the permit, he proposed an alternative practical solution: consuming vegetables and fruit grown in the Jordan Valley region (such as in the kibbutzim Degania and Afikim), since this region is considered outside the borders of those who came up from Babylon, and therefore the obligation of the seventh year there is lighter, being rabbinic.^[2]

The deepening of the foundations of the "heter mechira" found brilliant expression in his rulings in the collection Har Tzvi, Zera'im (Part 2, siman 47).^[10] Relying on the ruling of the "Torat Chesed," Rabbi Frank determined that it is permitted to exchange land or a house in the Land of Israel with a gentile, and that this does not violate the prohibition of "lo techonem" (you shall not give them a foothold in the land).^[10] He explained that the Torah prohibition was meant to prevent the influence of idolatry and intermarriage, and therefore does not apply when the sale is made to a ger toshav (a resident alien who keeps the seven Noahide commandments) or when the purpose of the transaction is the personal benefit of the Jew and the economic strengthening of the settlement in the Land.^{[10, 11]} Although Maimonides (Rambam) ruled that at a time when the Jubilee is not in force a ger toshav is not accepted, Rabbi Frank held that the very observance of these principles among the gentiles in the Land removes the essential concern of "lo techonem" and allows the sale to be carried out for the sake of saving Hebrew agriculture.^{[10, 11]}

His Torah Teaching and Writings

Rabbi Frank's approach to study combined Lithuanian pilpul and analysis with the striving for decided, practical halakha in the manner of Rabbi Shmuel Salant.^{[3, 8]} A clear example of his scientific and precise thinking is his ruling on an electric Hanukkah menorah.^[1] Rabbi Frank ruled that one does not fulfill the obligation by lighting an electric lamp fed from the general power grid (one not based on batteries).^[1] His halakhic reasoning was based on the fact that halakha requires that at the time of the act of lighting, the full measure of fuel needed for burning for at least half an hour after the appearance of the stars be present in the lamp.^[1] Since in an electric lamp connected to the grid the current of electrons is generated and flows dynamically, renewed at every single moment from the power station, the lamp cannot be regarded as containing all the "fuel" at the moment of lighting, and therefore the act lacks the halakhic definition of "lighting" in a vessel.^[1]

Family Lineage and Influence for Generations

One of the unique features of Rabbi Frank's legacy is the fascinating integration of his descendants into all strata of Israeli and Jewish society: from the world of Torah and the yeshivot, through the world of education and society, to the modern political and technological system.^[1]

Rabbi Tzvi Pesach Frank passed away on 21 Kislev 5721 (10 December 1960) at the age of 87 and was buried on Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem.^{[1, 3]} His death aroused profound national mourning; many thousands accompanied him on his final journey, the rabbinical courts throughout the country closed as a sign of mourning, and the cabinet meeting was postponed to allow the ministers to take part in his state funeral.^[1] His halakhic legacy remains engraved as a model of leadership of great stature, combining absolute commitment to halakha with a statesmanlike vision that understands the needs of the hour of the people of Israel in its Land.^{[4, 5]}