Rabbi Shlomo Goren - The Rabbi and the Shofar
Rabbi Shlomo Goren is known for his prominent voice in the religious Zionist community throughout the founding of our country.
He immigrated from Poland as a young boy, and moved to British Mandate Palestine in 1925, living with his family in a religious kibbutz near Haifa. He later became the youngest student to be accepted to the Hebron Yeshiva and was quickly seen as a religious prodigy. He received rabbinic ordination at the age of 17 when he wrote his first book in Jewish law!
Soon after, Goren became an ordained Rabbi, and quickly became a leading Jewish authority figure during the forming of Israel's independence.
Not only was Goren a huge presence in the religious world, but his impact on religious Zionism is not one to be forgotten. He was not only a member of the Haganah (Israel's pre-state IDF) himself, but he was used as a halachic authority for Israel's fighting troops. And once Israel gained its independence in 1948, Goren helped establish the IDF's rabbinate, and became the first Rabbi of the Israeli Defense Force.
Goren was a strong proponent of creating unity and integration between religious and secular soldiers in the army, and even wrote a new prayer book (siddur) to accommodate the different styles of prayer among the diverse ethnicities of the IDF.
Having a Jewish homeland was of upmost importance to Rabbi Goren, and he was a supporter of bringing Jewish life to Temple Mount again- he even supported the building of a Third Jewish Temple there!
Later on, Goren went on to become the 3rd Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, and served his post for 10 years, from 1973-83. Afterwards, he founded his own yeshiva, which he ran until his death in 1994.
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But what is Rabbi Shlomo Goren famously known for?
Israel has gone through its fair share of wars in which the odds were against us. Miraculously, Israel has always been victorious, and we have just gotten stronger as a nation as a result.
In 67', during the 6-Day War, things were no different. Israel was at battle with 3 of its neighboring Arab countries, fighting at both ends of the state.
When Israel defeated its enemies, it was Rabbi Shlomo Goren who blew the famous shofar blow at the Kotel, surrounded by many IDF paratroopers. It was that shofar blow that symbolized, and continues to symbolize our strength at a nation.
