David Cohen (rabbi)

David Cohen (1887–1972) (also known as “Rav Ha-Nazir,” The Nazirite Rabbi) was a rabbi, talmudist, philosopher, and kabbalist. A noted Jewish ascetic, he took a Nazirite vow at the outbreak of World War I.

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 Yisrael Meir Kagan, the Volozhin yeshiva and the yeshiva in Slabodka. Even then his restless and inquiring mind led him to extend his studies beyond the traditional subjects taught in the yeshivot. Thus he turned to Samson Raphael Hirsch and the early writings of 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 enroll 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 Switzerland, studying philosophy, classical literature, and Roman law at University of Basel.

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