It is with a heavy heart that we inform you of the untimely passing of Rabbanit Dr. Avigail Rock.

Dr. Avigail Rock embodied the ultimate Torah Scholar – both in Torah Shebe’al Peh (oral law) and Torah Shebektav (Bible). Blessed with an analytical mind she was ordained as an outstanding to’enet rabbanit — Rabbinical Court Advocate — in her mid-twenties, already well versed in the halakha of Jewish marriage and divorce. Not only did she represent women fighting for a get in the Israeli Rabbinical Court, Dr. Rock went on to teach in the same Ohr Torah-Stone program in which she herself was trained. She went on to qualify for a doctoral degree in Tanakh in Bar Ilan University, all the while continuing to teach Tanakh in high-level study programs in Israel and the US throughout her adult life. Literally thousands of men and women have been inspired by Dr. Rock’s deep insights into the world of Torah, transmitted through her passionate personality together with the wisdom of her smile. In her too-short life, Dr. Rock has had a profound effect on her family, friends, teachers and students, community and Jewish society. We all share in the feeling of being bereft.

IYIM was honored to have Dr. Rock lecture of the halakhic imperative for every marrying couple sign a prenuptial agreement for the prevention of get-refusal, thus contributing to a takanat kahal — a communal ordinance to do so. Please view her original presentations here.