Pinchas Hacohen Peli

Pinchas Hacohen Peli (; 6 May 1930 – 3 April 1989) was an Israeli modern Orthodox rabbi, essayist, poet, and scholar of Judaism and Jewish philosophy.

Early life

He was born in Jerusalem, Israel in 1930 to a Hasidic family named Hacohen.

At age 16, he started publishing poetry in the Israeli newspaper Davar. He used the pen name "Peli" ("wonder") because he was afraid to use his real name, given that his family was a distinguished rabbinical family living in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim. He subsequently adopted it as his actual name.

Peli received a B.A in Jewish History and Talmud at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and became a strong supporter of Religious Zionism.

Family Peli married his cousin Penina Cohen, whom he met in 1951 when he went to the United States as emissary of the Jewish Agency, lecturing on behalf of the Synagogue Council of America and the Israel Bonds organization.

They raised four children: Dr. Bitkha Har-Shefi, lecturer of Talmud at Hebrew Union College Emuna Elon, Israeli author and journalist, who is married to Rabbi Binyamin Elon Bat-Sheva Peli-Seri, active in Kolech, the Israeli Religious Women's Forum Deuell Peli, a lawyer

Peli died in Jerusalem on 3 April 1989 and is buried in Jerusalem's Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery.

Works Abraham Joshua Heschel: An intellectual Biography (New York University Press, 1986) Torah Today: A Renewed Encounter With Scripture, (1987) Shabbat Shalom: A Renewed Encounter with the Sabbath, (1988) Chapters in Jewish Thought in the Land of Israel, (1990) (ed.) On Repentance: The Thought and Oral Discourses of Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik (1980)