David Cohen

David Cohen (1887–8 August 1972) (also known as "Rav Ha-Nazir," the Nazirite Rabbi) was a rabbi, talmudist, philosopher, kabbalist, and a disciple of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. A noted Jewish ascetic, he took a Nazirite vow at the outbreak of World War I. Education Cohen was born in Maišiagala, near Vilna (in modern Lithuania), the scion of a distinguished rabbinic family. In his youth he studied at the Raduń Yeshiva under Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, at the Volozhin yeshiva, and at the yeshiva in Slabodka. Even at that time, his restless and inquiring mind led him to extend his studies beyond the traditional subjects taught in the yeshivot. Thus he turned to Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch and the early writings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. He also studied Russian to prepare himself for entrance to the university. During the Russian Revolution of 1905 he was twice arrested but was not detained. His spiritual unrest and the desire to widen his intellectual horizon led him to enrol in the Academy for Jewish Studies established by Baron David Guenzburg, where one of his close fellow students was Zalman Shazar, later president of Israel. From there he proceeded to Germany to study at the University of Freiburg. At the outbreak of World War I he was interned as an enemy alien, but was released and made his way to Basel, Switzerland, where he became involved in the Jewish Community while continuing studying Torah and also studying philosophy, classical literature, and Roman law at the University of Basel. He was for a time chairman of the Jewish Students' Society there and delivered lectures on Jewish philosophy. It was then that he took upon himself a lifelong Nazirite vow, which involves complete abstention from cutting one's hair and partaking of any products of the vine. However, his personal asceticism went further: he became vegetarian, eschewing not only meat but also any garment made of leather, and practised self-imposed silence vows (referred to in Hebrew as "Speech Fasts") on a regular basis. A weekly silence every Shabbat; a monthly silence every Rosh Hodesh Eve (Yom Kippur Katan), and the highlight - an annual silence period of 41 days from Erev Rosh Hodesh Elul to the end of Yom Kippur. In addition, despite being proficient in [9] languages, he refused to speak anything but the Holy Language - Hebrew.