Rav Ari (Chwat) Shvat served for several decades among the heads of the Israeli and overseas one-year Seminary (Midrasha) programs for women, as well as director of Rav Kook's archives and editor of his recently published books. He is currently a senior lecturer at Michlelet Orot Israel College, Midreshet HaRova, Midreshet Lindenbaum, Midreshet Moriah and other Israeli programs of higher education, and is considered a world authority on Rav Kook's writings and philosophy. Rav Ari replies daily to halachic and philosophic questions in English on the Yeshivat Beit El website and WhatsApp. He also has weekly classes on Rav Kook in English on YUTorah, and a weekly WhatsApp on Religious-Zionism in Parshat HaShavua. He lives in Kochav HaShachar with his wife Tzvia and they have seven children.
Raised in Riverdale, New York, he did the Hesder Program at the Ohr Etzion and Kiryat Arba yeshivot, where he received rabbinic smicha and served as a sergeant in the IDF. Rav Ari has authored, co-authored & edited six books: LeHarim Et HaDegel: The Israeli Flag and Hebrew Language in Judaic Sources; Haskamot HaReiya: Rav Kook's Letters of Approbation; Otzrot HaReiya: Unpublished Letters of Rav Kook; Igrot HaRe'iya תרצ"א- Rav Kook's letters- 1931; The Annotated Version of Tz’va’at R. Yehuda HaChasid, and The Ministry of Education's Educational Guide on "The Jewish Family", and has published over 150 ideological and halachic articles in leading Torah journals, such as T'chumin, HaMa’ayan, Sinai, Tzohar, Shma’atin and Oreshet, often dealing with Tanach, religious Zionism and the writings of Rav Kook.
He holds a B.A. in Tanach and an M.A. in Jewish History and Talmud, and enjoys utilizing his music as an educational medium, producing two albums of original compositions (including a tune for the bracha of Al HaMichya taught in the religious school system in Israel and in many schools and camps around the world).
Rav Ari is a popular international lecturer, and has addressed hundreds of communities in Israel and abroad, as Scholar-In-Residence, and for the Jewish Agency, O.U., Bnei Akiva, Mizrachi, Rabbanei Tzohar, and other religious and Zionist organizations, in the U.S. (New York, Teaneck, Los Angeles, Englewood, South Florida…), Canada, Russia, France, England, and Switzerland.
His teaching style has successfully deepened the connection with the Land, the people, and the State of Israel for thousands of students from abroad, through his warm personality, informal style, music, and a unique synthesis of high-level intellectual philosophy and halacha together with history and an internalizing emotional experience.