Everyone who knew him, who knew of him, who loved him, even his political and ideological rivals, knew that Hanan Porat was a rare man cut from a different cloth. He was a diamond, multifaceted, shining and reflecting a variety of colors and shapes. Those who knew him knew that the back-to-our-roots Zionist Jewish truth beat in his heart and was the compass of his long and rich life. It began as a child, in May 1948, when Porat became an exile and refugee from his home in Kfar Etzion [Porat was among the children evacuated from the besieged Kibbutz Kfar Etzion before remaining residents were massacred by Arab armed forces]. It continued when he returned and re-established the kibbutz three months after the end of the Six Day War. This formative experience -- and the consciousness it engendered -- was the driving force behind his life's work: the founding of Gush Emunim, his public life in the Knesset and outside it, and the passion to found and build dozens of new communities throughout Israel. Get the Israel Hayom newsletter sent to your mailbox! In many minds, he will be remembered as a public leader who drew followers through the force of his speeches and power of his words, but anyone who ever heard Hanan praying to himself or reciting a psalm during the prayer service could not help but be amazed at the internal power emanating from him. Tears fill my eyes as memories of us walking side by side, for more than half a century, flood back. Memories of a sensitive and lyrical soul who fed on written and sung poetry, on personal acts of kindness enormous in their quantity and substance, on love of Torah study, both in the practical guidance it provides and in the understanding of its hidden secrets. All his days he awaited and worked toward the return of the people of Israel to our land, to cultivating our heritage and spirit and rebuilding the land of our forefathers -- the state of Israel -- into a national home to the glory of all the generations. The writer is the rabbi of the Beit Meir moshav and chairman of Beit Harav Kook.
He was a great Torah scholar who possessed extensive knowledge and had the rare ability to teach and explain profound issues. It is not an exaggeration to say that he could quote the entire Bible from memory, with complete precision. He was a "wise student of the Land of Israel," as the Talmud says, in the broadest and deepest sense of the term. This brief sketch of his love for the people of Israel, the Land of Israel and the Torah of Israel are merely brush strokes of his character.
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