Condition of Harav Dov Kook, Mekubal of Tiveria, Takes Sudden Turn for the Worse
After a brief period of cautious improvement, doctors at Poria Medical Center were forced to return the Rav to full sedation Tuesday morning. His father-in-law, Harav Yitzchak Zilberstein, broke down in tears while leading hundreds in Tehillim.
Harav Dov HaKohen Kook, shlita, the renowned mekubal and Tzaddik of Tiveria, suffered a sudden deterioration in his medical condition Tuesday morning, just days after a brief improvement had given his family and talmidim reason for cautious hope. Medical staff at Poria Medical Center in Tiberias were forced to return him to full sedation in order to stabilize his condition.
Harav Kook was rushed to Poria Medical Center last week after falling ill and requiring urgent respiratory treatment. Following a short consultation at his home, doctors determined he needed hospital-level care. In the days that followed, a slight improvement was noted and medical staff had successfully begun to reduce his sedation levels, a positive sign that raised hopes among those close to him.
However, Tuesday morning brought the painful news of a sudden setback. Signs of deterioration emerged, and the medical team made the decision to place Harav Kook back under full sedation to stabilize his condition.
"Tzaddik Yesod Olam" - Harav Zilberstein speaks
Monday night, at the conclusion of his regular shiur, Harav Yitzchak Zilberstein, shlita, Rav of Ramat Elchanan and member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, and father-in-law of Harav Kook, paused his shiur to address the hundreds in attendance. In words rarely heard from him, his voice breaking with tears, he described his son-in-law's greatness.
"He is a person upon whom this generation stands. He is a Tzaddik Yesod Olam, truly, beyond description. He is great in the wisdom of Kabbalah," said Harav Zilberstein, in unusually strong terms. He immediately led the entire gathering in Psalm 130, Shir HaMa'alos Mima'amakim, verse by verse, with hundreds responding aloud. He then recited a heartfelt Mi Shebeirach for Harav Kook's complete and speedy recovery.
Harav Moshe Chaim Schneider, a close talmid of Harav Kook, appealed to the public: "We are on the eve of Shavuos, a time uniquely suited for healing, when all the sick of Israel were cured at Har Sinai. Now, more than ever, we must unite as one to daven for our Rebbe, who all his life devoted himself entirely to the klal, toiled tirelessly for the recovery of cholim, and whose pure tefillos have stood by so many in their hour of need."
Daven for a refuah shleimah for
דוב הכהן בן שושנה
Dov HaKohen ben Shoshana, b'soch she'ar cholei Yisrael
Harav Dov Kook, born in 1957, is one of the most revered kabbalists in Eretz Yisrael and is known throughout the Jewish world for his extraordinary tzidkus, his ahavas Yisrael, and his authorship of close to 200 sefarim. He is a son-in-law of Harav Yitzchak Zilberstein and a member of a distinguished rabbinical dynasty connected to the family of Harav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, zt"l. Klal Yisrael is urged to be mispallel on his behalf.