The following has been copied via type by me [Mikha'el Makovi] from a photocopy of the original

publication.

AVRAHAM YITZHAK HACOHEN KOOK

HIS LIFE AND WORKS

by Rabb Dr. I Epstein, D. Lit.

Torah Va'avodah Library – Pioneers of Religious Zionism

Published by Brit Chalutzim Datim – Bachad; Albany Mansion, 87 Charing Cross Road, W.C.2.

Dedicated to Kvutzat Lavee in Israel, founded by Chaverim of Bachad from England

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FOREWORD
-----

This is the second in the series “Pioneers of Religious Zionism” which is being published in this
country. The object is to present biographies of great Rabbinic figures whose influence has made the
religious Zionist movement what it is to-day. In publishing the biography of Rabbi Abraham Yitzchak
ha'Cohen Kook, a giant of Torah and Zionism, we hope to present to Jewish youth the live spirit of a
man who was deeply rooted in the past and at the same time well aware of the problems of youth in the
modern world. We believe that the present difficulty of Judaism to making itself felt is not so much that
the people reject its message, but that its ideas are not known and understood. The teachings of Rabbi
Kook remain vital for Jewish youth to-day. His very life was the constant guide of his generation and of
generations to come. He went to Israel at a difficult time and dealt with thorny problems of law and
religion. He considered himself responsible for the whole of the Jewish people and was respected as a
leader by all. The personality of Rabbi Kook, steeped in Jewish knowledge, an authority on halachah,
at the same time deeply imbued with love for his people and the land of Israel, a modern mystic, was a
tower of strength to those who knew him personally and otherwise.

It is hoped that this booklet, in presenting one of the greatest figures of our generation, will
make young people wish to know more about him and above all about the tradition which gave him the
strength to stand up to difficulties and to guide the Jewish people through hard and critical days.

We are indebted to Rabbi Dr. Epstein, Principal of Jews' College, for presenting this booklet and
we confidently present it to Jewish youth. It is dedicated to Kvutzat Levee because the chaverim there
are realising in their own lives the vision of this great man, namely to live a full Jewish life on Jewish
soil.

January 1951
[Hebrew date cut off in photocopy]
BRIT CHALUTZIM DATIM

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
THE LATE RABBI ABRAHAM YITZCHAK KOOK, the first Chief Rabbi of the Holy Land, was one
of those spiritual sovereigns vouchsafed by G-d to Israel, whose eminence the process of years has only
served to enhance and heighten. Like a mountain obscured at first by its foothills, Rabbi Kook rises as
he recedes. Whatever denigration he had to endure from contemporaries who lacked the ability to
follow far too high-soaring vision, has by now been obliterated, and today it is safe to say that name
Kook holds a highly honoured and loved position among Israel's foremost saints, teachers and religious
guides.

His Youth
While it is true that a great soul has little need of ancestors, Rabbi Kook had a deep inherited
family tradition which was conducive to the growth and development of his manifold gifts and powers.
He came, alike on his father's and mother's side, of a long line of saintly and devout men and women,
in whom the love of G-d, Torah and Israel formed the inspirational fount of their lives. His own life
story cannot be told here in more than a brief outline. He was born in Greiva, a little Latvian townlet
near Dvinsk, on the 16th Ellul 1865 [5625]. From his tenderest age he began to attract attention as a
wonder-child, and exhibited those marks of greatness which were to come to full fruition in his later
years. His was a Hebrew-speaking home, wherein none but the Holy tongue was heard on the Holy
Day of Rest.
He received his early instruction at the hands of his father – himself a Talmid Chacham of great
repute – who introduced him to the study of the Bible and Talmud which its commentaries. The boy,
eager to learn, worked well, so that at the age of ten he was able to study Talmud unaided. During the
formative years of his youthful mind, he came under the influence of some of the greatest Lithuanian
Rabbis of the time, including the Neziv (Naftali Zevi Berlin, the father of the late Rabbi Meir Bar Ilan),
whose Yeshivah in Volozhin he joined when he was 16 years of age. There his industry and diligence
knew no bounds. He is said to have studied 18 hours at a stretch, covering in the process 60 folios of
Talmud! At the age of 20, he married the daughter of Rabbi Eliyahu David Rabinowitz-Thumin of Mir,
who was subsequently to become Rav of the Ashkenazi Community in Jerusalem.
About three laters later, Rabbi Kook took up his first position as Rav in the small Lithuanian
community of Zaumel. Entering upon his office,

[Unnumbered page]
[Photograph of Rav Kook]

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[he] soon proved his outstanding gifts for Rabbinic leadership. As a faithful pastor, he showed the
deepest concern for the material, no less than the spiritual welfare of his flock. What imparted
particular impressiveness to his leadership was his religious courage. Typical of this trait in his
character was the dramatic scene enacted by him on the Yom Kippur in the Synagogue of Greiva. It
was during a raging plague when fasting was fraught with a measure of danger. Taking his stand at the
reading desk with some food in his hand, the young Rabbi, who was then about twenty, recited the
appropriate benediction, and in the presence of the awestruck and astounded worshippers, ate and bade
them go and do likewise.

His Early Rabbinate

In 1895 he transferred his activities to Basusk, where he was called to fill the position of Rav, a
position which had formerly been occupied by Rabbi Mordechai Eliasberg, one of the formemost
pioneers of religious Zionism. For nine years Rabbi Kook laboured in his new community striving to
make it a veritable centre of Jewish learning and piety; “and the purpose of the Lord prospered in his
hand”. Yet he felt a sense of incompleteness. From his earliest days he was imbued with a strong
spiritual ambition which demanded all. He was in love with the Holy Land. Already as a child this love
was deeply stirred within him, and he expressed it by drilling his Cheder playmates in marching to the
rallying call “Towards Jerusalem”. No wonder he could find no rest until this love was satisfied. An
opportunity came to him at last in the year 1904, when he was invited to become Rabbi in Jaffa.

His Arrival In The Holy Land

With his arrival in the Holy Land to take up his position, he experienced a real fulfillment. A
story is told that when Rabbi Kook first stepped on the soil of the Holy Land, he kissed, in his
hithlahabuth, the first cow he encountered, exclaiming, Oi, ein Eretz Yisroeldicke Kuh!” Whether or
not the story is apocryphal, it certain fits in with the whole attachment of Rabbi Kook to the Holy Land,
whose plants, stones and very dust he loved and venerated.
He was not very long at his new post, when he began to exercise a benignant sway over the
whole of the Holy Land. He watched the Yishuv with a fatherly care; and the Yishuv loved him dearly.
They loved him not only for his brilliant gifts and attainments. They loved him for his ardour and
courage, his personality and tenderness. They loved him for his championship, of the cause of all who
were poor, exploited or oppressed. Perhaps they loved him best when they saw him riding a mount –
ass or

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horse, and touring the villages and settlements, asking after the welfare of his brethren, speaking to
them in loving accents, words of encouragement and hope, and seeking to draw their hears with bonds
of love to G-d and the Torah. He did all he could to strengthen the economic life of the Yishuv, and to
this end he did not hesitate to enter the lists against the most renowned Rabbis of the age, both in the
Holy Land and outside.
With the approach of the Shemittah year 5760 (1909-10), he became the central figure of a bitter
controversy in which he found ranged in opposition to him some of the greatest Rabbinic authorities of
the age, including the redoubtable Ridbaz (Rabbi Yaakob David Willowsky) of Safad. The controversy
concerned the operation of the law of Shemittah, as it affected the Jewish colonies in the Holy Land.
The strict observance of the law prohibiting all manner of work during the Shemittah year was fraught
with the greatest danger for the economic future of the Yishuv. This was no new problem. Already a
generation earlier, it had agitated the Rabbinic world, and in 1888 Rabbi Israel Elchanan Spector of
Kovno, sanctioned as a measure the nominal sale of land to a non-Jew during the Shemittah year. This
measure was, however, hedged about by two reservations, which rendered it both impractical and
inadequate for the changed conditions which faced Rabbi Kook.
In the first place, there was a proviso that the labour employed was to be exclusively non-
Jewish, quite an unthinkable proposition under the new conditions; and secondly, the measure was
restricted to orchards, and did not cover cornfields. It was here that Rabbi Kook exhibited his ranging
greatness as a Halachist, as well as his remarkable courage and strength of character. He maintained
that the nominal sale could be made effective to apply also to cornfields; and furthermore, to make
possible the employment of Jewish labour. In exposition and defense of his views, he wrote a work
under the title of “Shabbat ha-Aretz”; and it is thanks to Rabbi Kook's tireless efforts and guidance in
this important problem that religious settlements in Israel today are able to tend their fields in
Shemittah years.
There were other religious problems affecting grievously the economy of the yishuv – such as
the observance of the laws of Terumot and Maaserot – for which Rabbi Kook found satisfactory
solutions, within the framework of the Halachah. It was also his great concern for the economic life of
the Yishuv which led him to forbid the use of Corfu Etrogim, on preference shown for them by many
Rabbinical authorities, because they were more 'goodly' in shape (Hadar) than those grown in Eretz
Israel. Referring to a certain Rabbi who sought to justify their use, Rabbi
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Kook exclaimed: “This scholar imagines that the question of Etrogim can be settled by mere pilpul. He
does not realise that it is a question of life and death for those who toil our Holy ground that their
brethren should buy from them the products they themselves has raised”.

The War Years in England

The outbreak of the first World War found Rabbi Kook in Germany, where he was due to attend
a Conference of the Agudat Israel. Unable to go back to his beloved home-land, he made his way to St.
Gallen in Switzerland, where he stayed till the year 1916, when he came to London, to act as Rabbi to
the Spitalfields Great Synagogue, Machzike Hadath.
These were days of great expectations. The air was filled with rumours of an impending
declaration by the British Government asserting and vindicating the historic rights of the Jewish people
to the Holy Land; and the decision to be close to the scene of this unfolding epoch-making event was
the principal reason that attracted Rabbi Kook to these shores.
The effect of his arrival and presence in London was electric. His home in Princelet Street soon
became a veritable cynosure which drew to itself rabbis, saints and scholars, as well as ordinary folk,
who came to him for counsel, instruction and edification.
During the crucial months in 1917, when the negotiations between the Zionist leaders and the
British Government were reaching their climax, Rabbi Kook threw himself life and soul into the battle
of Zionism. The letter which appeared in “The Times” on May 24th of that year, under the signatures of
the presents of the Conjoint Committee, denouncing Zionism as incompatible with the Jewish religion,
brought from him a scathing reply in the form of a manifesto entitled “A National Treachery”, which
was read in many synagogues, and which created so profound an impression that even in non-Jewish
circles that reference was made to it in the House of Commons.
The publication of the Balfour Declaration was greeted by him as an act of divine deliverance
on behalf of his people, and the day on which it was issued was to him a day of indescribable joy and
intense happiness. At the end of the war he returned to Palestine as Chief Rabbi Elect of Jerusalem.

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[text missing] a[?]bition [ambition?], but as a unique opportunity for utilising all his G-d given faculties
and powers on behalf of the ideals to which he had dedicated his life.
Three years later he was appointed as Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the Holy Land, and his
achievements during his resplendent spiritual leadership are written large across the history of the Holy
Land.
The news of his death which occurred on the 3rd Ellul 5695 (1935) exactly 17 years to the day
he had ascended to his high office, to exercise spiritual sway over the Holy Land, plunged the whole of
Jewry in Eretz Israel and in the Galut into mourning. The report of the proclamation of Medinat
Yisrael, on the 5th Iyar, 5708 (1948), must have brought to not a few thankful and joyous hearts a
feeling of sadness that Rabbi Kook was not spared to witness this most momentous day in Jewish
history. How he would have thrilled to the miraculous rebirth of Israel! How his genius would have
responded in hymn, poem and song of praise of G-d for His salvation of His people! Israel has indeed
been orphaned by his death. At no time was his prescience of greater need than today. He could have
inspired in our people a religious revival keeping pace with Israel's national resurgence. He would have
had the competence, the power and the vision to approach the problems of adjustment in conformity
with the tremendous historic manifestations of our time. Just as he had succeeded in dealing with the
question of Shemittah and Terumoth and other religious problems that confronted the Yishuv, so would
he doubtless have found solutions to many other religious problems which face reborn Israel. He has,
however, left us a rich and imperishable legacy, embodied in his voluminous writings and works, which
will prove an inexhaustible source of inspiration, guidance and teaching for this generation, and for the
endless succession of generations to come.

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THE QUALITY OF HIS LITERARY LEGACY
Rabbi kook was a most prolific and voluminous writer. His literary output was indeed amazing.
Several of his works were published during his lifetime. More have appeared since his passing; and the
world is still awaiting a complete disclosure of his rich literary legacy.
Among the earliest of his publications was the religious periodical in Hebrew Ittur Soferim,
which he edited and of which two volumes appeared; the first in 1888 and the second in 1898. To the
same period belongs his Hebrew Hebesh-Peer, on the significance and importance of Tefillin. Since
then there has been incessant outflow from his pen of books, publications, essays, addresses, each of
which is in its own way a classic and a gem.
His writings cover an astonishing range of subjects – Halachah (including Responsa), Aggadah,
Kabbalah, Chassiduth, Mussar, Philosophy, and comprising much that is of practical and worldly
interest.
Everyone can find in his works matter to suit his own taste and to satisfy his own bent of mind.
The Halachist is afforded choicest specimens of the delightful pilpul as well as practical guidance in
matters of Jewish law. The Aggadistis treated with beautiful and fascinating homilies. The Moralist is
edified by religious and ethical teaching, and the Kabbalist by profound and esoteric thought.

His Literary Style

Mention must particularly be made of his two wonderful volumes of letters which are replete
with things instructive and illuminating. Not only are the more expected subjects treated in them, such
as those of specific Jewish character; the reader is also regaled by the numerous reflections and
observations they contain, relating to all kinds of problems – social, political, and economic – that
agitate the human mind. Well might Rabbi Kook have declared: “Homo sum: humani nihil a me
alienum puto.” (“I am a man: nothing that is human do I think unbecoming of me.”) Nor is the
challenge to the Jewish religion presented by modern thought ignored. Perhaps Rabbi Kook stands
alone in the whole army of Jewish religious teachers for his persistent refusal to leave a difficulty
unfaced. He never evades difficulty by throwing up a haze of words and formulae. Hence the enormous
value of his letters to which many perplexed and troubled souls can turn for relief and guidance.

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[Text missing]...ought to be drawn in any estimate, however inadequate and imperfect, of the quality of
Rabbi Kook's literary legacy is the majestic flow of his style, from which there poured forth cataracts
of ecstasy and floods of picturesque imagery, resulting in rich and original similes and metaphors, so
that the words seem to burn upon the page and the reader is left dazed, blinded and enchanted. He was
a veritable word magician. He enriched and illumined our Holy Tongue beyond measure, so that even
Bialik, that great master of Hebrew language, declared that for generations people will turn to the
writings of Rabbi Kook as a fruitful source of Hebrew literary expression.
Indeed many of his wonderfully instructive and inspiring writings are magnificent pieces of
prose blazed forth through a poetic trumpet exalting the feelings and touching the imagination. The
themes on which he discourses- G-d, Torah, Eretz Israel and the people of Israel – seem to transport
him to ethereal worlds of rhythm, harmony and music, from which he brings down to us celestial
messages in flashing beauty of imagery that works like magic on our minds, with shining words that
catch fire and set our souls all aglow, and with a majestic flow of language that rolls, rushes on swiftly
and carries the reader back beyond the confines of space and time into the “upper regions” whence
came the message.
 The Mystic Elements in His Writings
Yet notwithstanding the amplitude of the literary legacy he left behind , the knowledge of Rabbi
Kook's teachings is still confined to a small circle of disciples. One reason for this is the difficulty of
style and language. Rabbi Kook, as he himself confesses, had no sense of the popular.1 His works
involve hard reading. The mysticism that breathes from his writings, the transcendentalism of the
concepts and the long sonorous sentences that would have delighted Milton, at times perplex the reader.
The style, moreover may appear diffuse and in reading his works one may, now and then, not be able to
see the wood for the trees. Added to the difficulty of style and language is the absence of
systematization. Rabbi Kook, with all his prolific output, wrote not systematic treatise, not because he
was no systematic thinker, but because of his inability to control the almost torrential outflow of what
seemed the inexhaustible resources of a richly endowed soul. With the result that much of what he
wrote was not specifically composed with an eye on publication, though it may be doubted whether
that would have had much effect on the stylistic and literary structure of his works. Rabbi Kook wrote
as he talked; he rarely conversed and his talking was remarkably voluble. It was musing aloud.
Likewise, his

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writing was thinking rapidly on paper. He wrote at first heat, seldom correcting, putting down on paper
when urged by an irresistible impulse, and only then, the voluminous outpourings of his soul, as they
came forth from his ever active and fertile brain, in thought, feeling and expression. When I had the
privilege of sitting at his feet, while he was acting as Rav of the London Machzike Hadath during the
first World War, I well remember his having composed that most difficult book Rosh Millin that
contains the essence of his mysticism, pegged on to the Alphabet and Accents, and which is understood
by so few, in three days – without correction.
The only systematic presentation and crystallisation of Rabbi Kook's thought is to be found in
that magnificent classic, Orot ha-Kodesh, planned in 5 volumes, but of which only two volumes have
so far been published (Jerusalem, 1938). This work, compiled under his guidance by David Kohn
[Rabbi David Kohen, haNazir], one of Rabbi Kook's closest disciples, is described by Gerhard
[Gershom] Scholem in his “Major Trends of Jewish Mysticism” as “a veritable theologica mystica of
Judaism, clearly distinguished by its originality and the richness of its author's mind”. “It is,” he
continues, “the best example of productive cabbalistic thought of which I know.” But the work itself is
most difficult to study, and in the absence of an adequate commentary, must remain a sealed book for
all except a very small number of expert students. For the larger circle of readers, the best introduction
to Rabbi Kook's thought is to be found in his letters, of which two volumes covering the years 1888-
1920, have so far appeared under the title “Igrot ha-Rayah”. Whilst many of them were admittedly hard
reading, there is on the whole little mystifying about them; and the truth is that, given the close
attention they demand, the letters cannot fail to make an impact upon the reader, enlarging his
sympathies and enriching his mind with elevated thoughts and sense sublime, and it is principally on
the basis of these letters, supplemented by some personal reminiscences, that an assessment of Rabbi
Kook's personality and teaching is attempted in the pages that follow.

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THE MAN AND HIS TEACHING
It is impossible within the natural limits of this publication to do even the scantiest justice to
one who was manifestly and indubitably the most gigantic spirit of religious Judaism of his generation;
nor it is easy for one who, like myself, had the happiness to have been admitted to his gracious
friendship in my early years, when he was Rav of the London Machazike Hadath and I was still a
student of Jews' College, to speak of him in measured terms. I have seen and known many remarkable
and saintly teachers and scholars in my life, but never one who was so richly endowed with all the gifts
of mind and soul which it pleaseth the Holy One, blessed be He, to bestow on his “loving ones”. A
Gaon, mystic, and philosopher, he was a veritable religious genius, capable of ravishing even the poetic
genius of a man like Bialik, who declared that his first meeting with Rabbi Kook was one of the
happiest of his experiences. As a true genius, he would have been great even if he had not read a single
book, for his greatness was one which came not from books, but from the inner welling forth of a richly
endowed soul. His own personality had something ethereal about it. His large tender eyes, inscrutable
and dreamy, gazing, as it were, into eternity, lent mystery to his aspect. He was also gifted with
extraordinary eloquence, which reached heights of brilliancy, and under the spell of his talks and
soothing voice, it was often felt that beauty was returning to earth and peace and quietness to the
tortured human soul.

His Personal Qualities

Rabbi Kook exuded love. Love held for him the key of Redemption. “The First Temple,” he
used to say, “was destroyed, according to our Sages, because of Sineath Hinnam (groundless hate), and
it is only through Ahavath Hinnam (groundless love) that it can be rebuilt.” In his presence one felt at
home, free, happy and at ease, and warmed by a pleasant atmosphere of affection and kindliness.
Although conscious of his powers, he was free from the least trace of egotism and vanity. In his
discourse, with great and small, he had a sweet courtesy and gentle repose. His humility was truly
Hillelian. I well recall how he once humbled himself in apologies before a workman for having used in
the course of a talk a common figure of speech which, as it subsequently dawned on him, carried with
it some disparagement of that man's particular trade, and thus it might have hurt his feelings.
Conspicuous too, was his religious courage. This courage had nothing in it of the presumptuous.
It was essentially grounded in the fear of G-d, which with him was as profound as it was sublime. “We
do not say: Fear not, My servant Jacob, save to him who fears G-d with all his might” [i.e. only those
with fear of G-d, will not fear man and circumstance/happening/occurrence], is a dictum, from the
Tanna debe Elijahu, which Rabbi Kook was wont to quote when making veiled allusions to his
boldness of approach in grappling with religious problems.
These native qualities he cultivated and enriched by stores of knowledge he gathered from
many and varying fields. His erudition was as deep as it was wide, covering the whole vast domain of
Jewish lore, Halachah, Aggadah, Kabbalath, Hassiduth, Haskalah and Mussar, and comprising much
of modern philosophic and scientific thought and teaching. Nor did the natural differences in
philosophies, conceptions and attitudes which inhere these varying branches of learning, shut them off
in isolation from one another, or involve him in a conflict. His penetrating intellect was able to discern
a unity underlying all this diversity, and to create, out of all their apparent different voices and their
very dissonances, a most beautiful harmony.
This harmony permeated all his writings. Even his Halachah, notwithstanding its basic cold and
hard logic, was tinged with Aggadic, and at times even mystical, elements, and this imparted to his
Halachah, as any discerning student for example, of his Responsa Mishpat Cohen will discover, a
sweep and beauty all their own. It was this power to infuse Halachah with those lighter strains that led
the late Ridbaz, Rabbi Yaakov David of Safad, to remark to Rabbi Kook, at the time when the
Shemittah controversy was raging, “Your mind is wider than the Halachah”; to which Rabbi Kook
retorted that “no Halachah which the mind outstrips, can be true Halachah”.

His Philosophical System In Contrast With Bergson's

This marvellous synthesis which Rabbi Kook achieved was grounded in his philosophy which is
distinguished alike by its originality and profundity. Abraham Kaminka who visited Palestine in 1912,
where he met Rabbi Kook who was at the time Rav of Jaffa, wrote an article in “Die Welt”, the Zionist
paper that appeared in Vienna, in which he hailed Rabbi Kook as a second Bergson. And indeed there is
much affinity between Rabbi Kook's system of thought and that of Bergson's theory of Creative
Evolution, except that having its source in traditional Jewish speculation, Rabbi Kook's system is richer
and more fruitful in moral and spiritual results than Bergson's.
According to Bergson, the whole process of evolution is conceived as though there is
somewhere a centre from which worlds, life and matter are thrown off like fireworks in a vast
illumination. Rejecting the materialistic conception which assumes that everything, including life itself,
could be explained in terms of mechanics and chemistry, Bergson postulates the

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[Text missing]...ing force behind the whole evolutionary process, giving rise to ever and ever higher
forms of life.
This principle, which he calls élan vital, or life force, interacts with and animates the stuff of the
physical universe, using it and moulding it to its purpose, as the fingers of a skilled pianist uses the
keys of his instrument to produce the great symphonies which are the marvels of the world.
Initially unconscious, a mere blind instinctive urge, the life-force, in the course of its
development, gradually acquired the property of consciousness, and as part of consciousness,
purposiveness. In order to facilitate its development in pursuance of its purpose, it created the various
species of living organisms, which by exercising their inborn capacities, refining their faculties, and
acquiring knowledge and accomplishments, can advance to a higher and higher level of life.
While Bergson's theory imparts to evolution an ethical quality, which is absent in that held by
materialistic conceptions, the inherent weakness in his position in the absence of a standard of life by
which the term higher can be measured. You cannot measure the length of a roll of cloth, unless there is
a tape measure, marked out in yards and feet, by reference to which your measurement can be made;
and similarly the notion of advance to higher levels of life is meaningless, unless there is postulated the
presence of in the universe of some standards of value which are outside the evolutionary process
which advances towards them. But if there is nothing behind the scheme of things beyond unconscious
life, by what standard is man's advance towards a moral goal measured? From this insufficiency in the
Bergsonian theory, Rabbi Kook's system is singularly free. Rabbi Kook, it should be mentioned, finds
no horrors in the evolutionary theory for the sturdy faith of the Jew. “While as a whole,” he writes,
“there is no need for us to be extreme devotees of the theory of evolution, this theory contains many
spark of truth. Gradual evolution is one of the tens of thousands of illimitable ways through which the
'Life of the Universe' reveals himself”.2 This accords with his conception of G-d. The relation of G-d to
the universe, according to Rabbi Kook, is not that of an external creator to the object created by Him,
but as that of an infinite force to its infinite manifestations. This divine force is constantly realising
itself in the infinite phenomena of Nature and history. “The all-embracing name of G-d,” he writes, “is
the all-active force in the whole existence and all its details, it is the centre whence streams forth the
light of which the phenomena are the reflections, and the bond of all forces in the universe whether
material, spiritual, moral or social.”3

Nationhood and Godliness

He thus perceived the whole of Nature inanimate no less animate, throbbing and pulsating with
divine energy, moulding and directing towards

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the development of life at that higher level of holiness of which has set the pattern and towards which
the whole creation is being guided. This divine energy, working for holiness, reveals itself in humanity
as a whole, and notwithstanding the errors and failures and sin [of - text missing – conjectural
emendation (TMCE)] man, the human race is continually being driven on and rising [and -TMCE]
approaching the holiness which is elemental in the universe. And [the - TMCE] whole historical
process serves in his judgment to confirm this [phenomenon - TMCE]. According to Rabbi Kook, the
content of the life of the human race [as a - TMCE] whole expresses itself in two ways. On the one
hand it involves [the - TMCE] ability to lead a social life; on the other, the aptitude for spiritual gr[owth
- TMCE] and development. The former he calls the idea of Nationho[ood – TMCE] ‫האידיאה הלאומיות‬,
the latter the idea of G-dliness - ‫האיד[יאה האלקיות‬. – TMCE] Nationhood embraces all the manifestations
of a well-ordered soc[iety – TMCE] while G-dliness includes all forms of spiritual life and action. Of
[the – TMCE] idea of G-dliness none is bereft. The spiritual is found to a great[er or – TMCE] lesser
degree in all peoples, and from it issue all religions, whether tru[e or – TMCE] false, which in turn
affect powerfully the course of history and character[ize – TMCE] civilizations. A perfect unity
between the two ideas, whereby the nati[onal – TMCE] life becomes permeated with G-dliness, would
constitute the ideal sta[te and – TMCE] society. Human failing and sinfulness, however, has introduced
a [rift/gulf/divide/rupture – TMCE] between the two, giving rise to that type of G-dless nationalism,
with its two concomitants – discord, hatred, strife, and war – that have through[out – TMCE] history
ravaged human society.4
But notwithstanding the setbacks and reverses which humanity [has – TMCE] had to
experience, the trend is more and more towards G-dlin[ess. – TMCE] This striving towards G-dliness is
the motive underlying the progres[s of– TMCE] humanity as a whole. “The very striving for
righteousness,” Rabbi K[ook – TMCE] writes, “whatever form it may assume, is but the result of an
illumina[tion – TMCE] which has its source in the Divine; and in every human endeavour [text
missing] establish some equilibrium in social life and a tranquility of heart, we [text missing] trace the
effect of some potent spiritual force working with power u[pon - TMCE] the mind of man.”5
Individuals and even nations may, it is true, st[ray – TMCE] from the right path, but the human race is
constantly rising and approa[ch – TMCE]ing the good which is the impelling force behind the whole of
the natu[ral – TMCE] and historical process.
These views coloured Rabbi Kook's own attitude to life. He lo[ved – TMCE] every
manifestation of natural life. His love extended even to anim[als – TMCE] and birds, and embraced, it
might be said, the rest of creation. To h[im – TMCE] might well apply the lines:
“Spirit form, shadow, light and flame -
The urn of the world world is poured into his soul.”
He saw the whole of Nature constantly rising and advancing towa[rds – TMCE]

[Page 15]
[Text missing]...consummation in the Divine Messianic regeneration, the signs of which he clearly
perceived in the resurgence of the Yishuv.

His Belief in Human Progress

Such a conception also led Rabbi Kook to a belief in the inevitability of human progress. In
every generation there is to be found a number of men who strive whole-heartedly towards the Divine
good in the world thereby indirectly raise even the weaker members of the race to a higher level.
Moreover there is still another factor which contributes to human progress – the deeds and thoughts of
the great men of the past. The good which these men of the past acquired during their lives does not
disappear after their death. They add up to the sum total of spiritual, moral and intellectual good, and
this influences the lives of later generations, conducing to their elevation.6
Believing in human progress, Rabbi Kook regarded the prevailing deplorable unbelief of our
times as less accursed than the heresies of the past. Modern unbelievers, he held, were actuated in their
view, though erroneously, by ideals of morality and righteousness. Modern moralists and scientists
assail religion on the grounds of morals “The current religions of the day, “ writes Wynwood Reade in
his Martrydom of Man, “are directly adverse to morals” (which, by the way, may be aptly contrasted by
the saying of Benjamin Franklin, “If man is wicked with religion, what would he be without it?”[) - the
lack is sic.] But to advocate moral laws is to fall in with a divine world scheme. Even the great world-
conquerers are not bereft of high ideals. They work for what in their view is a better world, a better
order and a better state of society, and in so far as this is their motive, they can be said to be
contributing towards the realisation of divine goodness, which is ultimately to reign supreme. Whilst
sparks of G-dliness are to be found in all human beings, it is in Israel that it inheres in a most
concentrated form. “There is no people,” he declares, “among all the nations of the world, in whose
innermost soul there lies that precious goodness emanating from the transcendent light, except Israel.
Individual saints and sages exist everywhere, but there is no 'righteous nation' on earth but Israel.”7
Israel has been selected by providence as the bearer of the idea of G-dliness which, wedded to that of
Nationhood, was to enable them to establish the ideal state of society in which G-dliness and
Nationhood are fused in one complete harmony.

His Philosophy Of Jewish History

From the very beginning of their history, the Jewish people have proved their special aptitude
for this charge, in that they were the first the strive for the realisation of a divine social order founded
on justice and

[Page 16]
righteousness for all nations and all peoples of the earth. It is th[is broad/expansive and– TMCE] wide
outlook that made the Jewish people a fitting instrument to [be chosen/selected - TMCE] by G-d not for
themselves alone, but for the sake of human[ity, on/for – TMCE] whom they were to exert influence
towards the development of G[-dliness – TMCE]. But this function the Jewish people could fulfil only
when the[y were in- TMCE] their own land, which alone could provide them with the requis[ite –
TMCE] economic and political conditions for the development of those [requisites for – TMCE] the
uplift and advancement of all people of the world. In contra[st – TMCE] to other Jewish thinkers,
Rabbi Kook is of the opinion that [the first – TMCE] period in the history of the Jewish people, namely
that of [the First – TMCE] Commonwealth, was of high quality. The nation as a whole wa[s
one/filled/permeated with – TMCE] G-dliness, a G-dliness which found expression in the lofty
[expressions of – TMCE] the Tanach, it then inspired. It was the aberrations of individu[als that –
TMCE] ultimately caused the rupture between G-dliness and Nationhoo[d that led – TMCE] to the
downfall of the First Commonwealth.
The period of the Second Commonwealth, on the other han[d saw – TMCE] a rise in the state of
the spirituality of individuals, but not of th[e nation – TMCE]. The knowledge of the Torah had
increased and correspondingly [the obser – TMCE]vance of the precepts, but all these affected the
individuals an[d not the – TMCE] social structure of the state. Religion in its organised form took
th[text missing] the idea of G-dliness in its widest connotation. This divorce of [G-dliness – TMCE]
from Nationhood brought the downfall of the Second Common[wealth – TMCE].
In the exile there occurred again the rupture between th[text missing] G-dliness and
Nationhood. They continued to exist, but no[t in their – TMCE] unity, nor in their primitive form. G-
dliness was narrowed [to – TMCE] Torah study, to the observance of the Mitzvot, and to the
S[ynagogue, – TMCE] while the National idea realised itself in the struggle for [emancipation/secular
Zionism. - TMCE] Occasionally the G-dliness of the Jewish people broke through its narro[w
constriction(s) – TMCE] and contributed directly to the rise of humanity, but such mo[ments were –
TMCE] rare in Jewish history. The real perfection of Jewish life will b[e coming/forthcoming/arriving-
TMCE] only when the Jewish people will be once more restored to its ancestral [homeland. - TMCE]
Rabbi Kook therefore saw in the National Movement an ap[proach(ing) of/to– TMCE] the ideal
era in the life of Israel. He believed that the restoratio[n – TMCE] to the Holy Land will bring about the
union of the two ideas o[f Nation – TMCE]hood and G-dliness, filling the life of the group and of the
[individual – TMCE] with intensive spirituality.
 The Religious Character of Jewish Nationalism
His hopes about the effects of the national restoration rest[ed on the – TMCE] conviction that,
in the final analysis, the National Movement wa[s true/ideal/G-dly/Messianic/holy – TMCE] at heart,
and sprang from the peculiar gift for G-dliness with [which the – TMCE] Jewish people were endowed.
In his view, there were two fac[ets that – TMCE]

[Page 17]
conduce to the holiness of the Jewish people and their attachment to the id[eal – TMCE] of G-dliness.
One factor was their heritage, the inner spirituality which wa[s – TMCE] transmitted to them by
heredity from their ancestors, and which could nev[er – TMCE] disappear entirely. The second factor is
the good deeds of the individual. There are times in Jewish history when one force attains ascendancy,
an[d - TMCE] other times when the other comes into his own. The Messianic fervou[r – TMCE] with
which the National movement is charged and the universal ideals o[f – TMCE] justice and
righteousness which animate it, can only be accounted by th[e – TMCE] spirit of the heritage of the
nation which informs the Jewish masses. Thi[s – TMCE] makes the National movement one of
redemption, notwithstanding the fac[t – TMCE] that the religious conduct of the individuals is not
much in evidence.9 [Somewhere note 8 has been missed, possibly in the text missing from the
photocopy which this text is a reproduction of.]
The prevalent irreligion among the young Chalutzim in particular, was not to be compared with
the infidelities of the past. The young today are singularly free from all superstitions and idolatrous
cults which are the real enemies of G-dliness and spirituality. Theirs is but a loss of sensitiveness to
things divine, through a lack of understanding and perception. Outwardly evil, inwardly they are good
– holy – the true representatives of the pre-Messianic generation which according to the Zohar was to
be “good within and evil without”.10 Moreover, he went so far as to blame the religious elements for the
attitude of the non-religious youth. Their estrangement from Judaism, he declared, is motivated in most
cases by ideals of social justice, which they are led to imagine find no response in our midst, in view of
our failure to participate actively the affairs of the world; whilst they do not appreciate the limitations
imposed upon us by the absence of the necessary geographical and political factors of which we have
been deprived by our loss of country and kingdom.10a But this very quest for social righteousness is in
itself “the way of the Lord”, which Abraham our Father had commanded his children and his household
“that they may do righteousness and justice”. All the errors of the young generation thus consist merely
in that they do not realise that in order to tattain the good goals they are desiring, the children Israel
must honour the Torah and cleave to the faith which is the light of the whole world and its life. There
was thus every reason to hope that with clearer insight and enlightenment, they would be touched by
the spirit of G-dliness and realise in them and through their own lives, the divine qualities inherent in
G-d's chosen people.
[It is worth noting that Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch in his 19 Letters offers a much similar
analysis – due to the ghetto lifestyle, i.e. being cut off from all ordinary human social endeavor, and
combined with the sickly form of Judaism taught therein, being devoid of all philosophy (Tanach and
aggadah in particular, purpose and goal of Judaism and Torah in general), and being confined solely to
Talmud and the four cubits of private individual halacha, it is no wonder that the youth believed
Judaism was devoid of any ideals for the world, and that it forbade any meaningful human social
worldly endeavor. Therefore, it is quite forgivable and understandable that they fled from Judaism with
the fall of the ghetto walls, in favor of the European Enlightment that was bursting with ideals and
social engagement and opportunity. Those to blame are the religious who propagated such a truncated
form of Judaism (though we must respect the Torah giants they were, their good intentions, and the fact
that the ghetto in many cases offered them no alternative), and most of all the religious Reformers who
knowingly and deliberately bastardized Judaism and dismembered it maliciously of everything contrary
to European Enlightenment culture, that stood as barrier to full and complete acceptance of that culture.
Therefore, these youth had noble and lofty ideals, and any shortcomings were not due to their own
faults. The entire thrust of the 19 Letters is that the Torah is the true path to the ideals already eagerly
sought by these noble but misguided youths.]

Holiness As a Bond Between Israel And Its Land

It was this belief which determined Rabbi Kook's relations with the non-observant Jews in the
Yishuv. He continuously preached and practised tolerance towards them and showed them every
friendship. To the critics of his attitude he would reply by referring to the law of the firstling of an ass.
Of all unclean animals, the ass was singled out to have its first-born

[Page 18]
sanctified, notwithstanding the fact that it lack both the inward and outward characteristics that
distinguish “unclean” from “clean” beasts. And the reason, given by our sages, was that the ass had
helped to carry the baggage of the Israelites when they departed from the Egyptian house of bondage,
and made their way for the Holy Land. Surely, he would rejoin, even assuming that these irreligious
Chalutzim are, as it is maintained, bereft of all Jewish piety, both internal and external, their endeavours
in assisting the Jewish people out of the Galut, and in rebuilding the Holy Land, stamped them with the
distinction of holiness. Every endeavour has thus to be made to draw them by bands of love and
kindliness to the path of Torah and Mitzvot. To this end, however, there was for him one royal road –
nationalism. “For there was” as he expressed it, “the closest connection between the national ideal in
Israel and the holiness that stemmed from Israel's faith and the observance of Torah and Mitzvot”.11 And
it was for the sake of the Torah and the G-dliness which it engendered that all Jews had to work in
harmony and unity for the rebuilding of the Holy Land, and for the restoration of this union between
Nationhood and G-dliness, which formed the quintessence of Israel's selection. To hold back from
participating in this work of restoration is a sin. Moreover, to refuse to recognise in the happenings of
the day the finger of G-d working out Israel's deliverance through historical forces, political
combinations and diplomatic channels, and to sit with arms folded waiting for supernatural phenomena
and miraculous transformations, as it G-d's salvation of our people could not be effected otherwise, was
in his opinion, to limit the power of G-d, and it was not a sign of deep piety, but on the contrary, a mark
of little faith.12 True, there were many G-d fearing and saintly men who were opposed to the national
idea, but with all the veneration and affection he had for them, he refused to accept their attitude in this
matter as decisive. “Already in the days of Ezra,” he writes, “many great men did not desire the
establishment of a Yishuv in Israel, but preferred to remain in Babylon. Ezra was thus obliged to take
with him the least desirable elements of the Jewish people, who were far from attractive and who
desecrated the Sabbath even in Eretz Israel. Yet the result was that from these very people sprang forth
salvation. The second Temple was built, and from it there proceeded the dissemination of the Oral Law
and the spread of Torah in Israel. And so it will be in our days. By strengthening the Yishuv and
increasing the number of our brethren in the Holy Land, we shall ensure the shining forth of the light of
redemption and salvation.13 Nor can this be otherwise. As the scene of the highest manifestations of
divine holiness, the Holy Land could not fail to exert its influence even over transgressors and sinners,
who in the end will turn to G-d with a ready heart and with joy. Moreover, out of these transgressors
and sinners in Israel there shall one day arise a movement

[Page 19]
[f – TMCE]or the return to G-d which is destined to embrace the whole world. In the light of these
tremendous implications, Israel's Restoration becomes a necessity for the world no less than for the
Jewish people themselves. “Israel,” he used to say, “exerts holy influences by her very existence. Many
hate her, many persecute her, but none can deny her existence, and her existence will never cease
influencing human thought and cleaning humanity from its dross.”13a But this influence Israel can make
most effective only from the Holy Land. Indeed, the fact that many ideas of Judaism have already
become part of the culture of humanity, should make it much easier for the Jews, once they return to
the Holy Land, to exert spiritual influences upon other nations. “We stand,” he writes, “now near the
shore and may well raise our banner on high. The power of the holy and pure spirit of Israel has already
made spiritual and moral conquests throughout the world, and there is no longer any need for us to
refrain from proclaiming our victory, but at the same time no heed will be given by the world to our
proclamation unless it emanates from the place whence it was first heard – from the sources when the
light shone forth – from Zion.14
This conviction in the ultimate reconciliation of the whole of humanity to G-d, through a
restored Israel, is a recurrent theme in Rabbi Kook's writings, and one to which he has devoted a
special classic under the title Orot ha-Teshubah. And it was a conviction which accompanied his last
conscious thoughts on earth. Visited by Professor Zondek, the famous surgeon, a few moments before
he breathed his last, as he lay on his death-bed, Rabbi Kook greeted him with the words, “I am
confident that one day the great physicians will become true G-d fearing men”.

The Spiritual Power Of The Holy Land

This spiritual power which the Holy Land exerts on all formed part of his credo. He asswerted
that Eretz Israel was the only propitious soil for the flowering of the Jewish religious genius at its best.
The Talmudic saying that “The air of Eretz Israel makes one wise” (Baba Batra 158b) was for him
more than a mere poetic fancy. It represented actual reality, enforced by common experience. “I have
scarcely seen,” he writes, “an 'idiotic' child among all our children of our Holy Land. All who are born
there are by nature sharp-witted and very clever. All the terrible poverty and hardships they have to
endure, as a result of the crushing and distressing conditions, has not been able to dim the light of their
intelligence, and they are all full of knowledge and good understanding.15
Likewise, the saying “There is no Torah like the Torah of Eretz Israel” (Genesis Rabbah 16, 7),
was a truth which he had confirmed in his own experience. Revealing in this connection is the
observation he made to me regarding his little book, Rosh Millin, already referred to. This book, I
noticed, Rabbi Kook continued to read intently after its publication.

[Page 20]
Asking him the reason, he replied that when he had composed the work he was transported in spirit to
the Holy Land and he was seeking to recapture that experience by studying the contents of this work.
He indeed detected some differences in the quality of the Torah as studied in Eretz Israel from
that pursued in Hutz Laaretz. In Eretz Israel, thanks to the Shefa, the holy flow of inspiration, the
disciple of the Torah is able to grasp intuitively the general principles of the law, and proceeding from
them penetrate into the details thereof. In Hutz Laaretz the process is in the reverse: the disciple has to
first struggle with the details and is only then able to ascertain the underlying principles. It is that which
accounts for the conciseness of the Jerusalem Talmud (Yerushalmi) as compared with the elaborate and
complicated dialectics of the Babylonian Talmud (Babli) which led Palestinian scholars to describe
those in Babylon as “the keen-witted who are able to get an elephant through the eye of a needle”.16

Responsibility of Religion
All this placed a special responsibility upon all those who loved the Torah. They had it in their
power to bring the youth of the Yishuv nearer to Jewish religious life and observance, provided they
behaved towards them with a gentleness and kindliness, and showed that they were truly concerned for
them and ready to identify themselves with their problems and struggles.16a For this reason it was
essential for the Jewish religious leaders in the Holy Land, to be equipped with a knowledge of life and
the world, without which they could make little appeal to the heart of the irreligious youth. “I see,” he
writes, “that the principal reason for our lack of success in whatever we do to strengthen Judaism...is
that the light of G-d has been shut out from heart and mind. The main concern of all at present is the
fostering of proste frumkeit (common religiosity), as if it were possible to keep the world alive by a
body without a soul. And he goes on to plead for a more systematic pursuit of Torah studies, attended
by a “breadth of mind and clarity of spirit”, as well as for an active participation in the rehabilitation of
the Yishuv, and in the fostering of its trade and commerce.17 He realises that this involved a complete
reorientation in their educational methods, and would find no favour in th eyes of the majority of the
religious leaders of the Yishuv, “who wish to walk only along the old paths and keep far away from all
progressive movements in life”. But their attitude was, he insists, altogether contrary to the way of the
Torah, and greatly to be deplored, as it gave a pretext to the irresponsible elements of the Yishuv to
break loose and strengthened the hands of the evil-doers. “Alas,” he continues, “for the simple piety of
these people, although their intention is good. I can do no other than strengthen the educational system,
which gives its due share to the knowledge of life and of the world, and which at the same time trains
our children in an

[Page 21]
appreciation of the joy of life in all its beauty and orderliness. Such a training when combined with a
training in Torah and the true fear of Heaven can only serve to add to its attractiveness and power.18
There was no denying, he maintained, that those who were trained by the old method were unfit by
virtue of either their knowledge, or their general conduct and demeanour to take their place in the battle
of life, with the result that they grow up as weaklings, timid of spirit, and dependent upon others.19 No
wonder that a great part of the new Yishuv, even of its more worthy elements, cannot tolerate the whole
trend and outlook of life of the old Yishuv. “The quickened tempo of the new Yishuv, its joy of life,
courage of heart, breadth of outlook, is unable to endure the bent back, the shrunken and sad
countenance, expressive of fear and timidity, the dejected gaze, expressive of despair, the hatred of life,
the strange oriental garb, the effects of which the attendant strain of grinding poverty only serves to
aggravate and to make recoil anyone who is accustomed to European life.”20
And not only in the new Yishuv. The failure of Jewish religious leadership in general, Rabbi
Kook ascribes to this very lack of knowledge of life on the part of religious leaders. He accordingly
attaches little value to the proposal made to him by a correspondent to convene a conference of Rabbis.
“Your hopes regarding a conference of Rabbis,” Rabbi Kook writes, “are to me always mere dreams,
which to the distress of our heart do not possess the charm or beauty which envelops anything
imaginative. The shepherds of our people are in deep sleep, not out of an evil heart, but through the
lassitude of a soul which has not tasted for days and years, nay, whole periods, any real enlivening and
sustaining food. When they will come together at the conference, they will certainly adorn the table
with some Halachic problem, very minute as far is its inner content is concerned, though it may appear
great and important, judged by the complicated devices resorted to for solving it, 'even as one sets up a
machine at the cost of many thousands of talents of gold in order to manufacture one single steel
needle'. They may further ardorn it by some Aggadic theme, embellished with some pietistic
exhortation void of life, some dessicated mystic thought or antiquated philosophy, only to add to the
suffocation in the atmosphere and increase the pain of Knesset Israel.”21 [It may be noted that Rabbi
Hirsch's Torah im Derech Eretz laments exactly the same depreciation of life and mummification of
Torah by the lack of said life, and prescribes exactly the same involvement with and concern for, life,
especially for the Rabbinic leaders.]

His Idea Of A Modern Yeshivah

In order to remedy the situation, Rabbi Kook advocated, from the earliest days of his Rabbinate
in Jaffa, the establishment of a modern Yeshivah in the Holy Land. The Yeshivah as he envisaged it, and
to which he devoted many of his letters,22 was to be founded on a broad comprehensive basis so as to
embrace all the treasures of the Torah, Written and Oral – The Bible, the two Talmudim and Midrashim
– Halachic and

[Page 22]
Aggadic – with a recognition of all that ancient and modern research has contributed. To the study of
the Bible was to be brought all the aid that philology supplied, so that the innermost spirit of the sacred
books might be revealed. History, particularly that of the Jewish people, and Jewish thought, were to
occupy a prominent feature in the curriculum, and were to include a study from first sources of the
great men of the Jewish people – what they had thought and done and suffered. The land of Palestine
itself, what it held of material wealth, its geographical position, and all the sacred associations that had
gathered round town or village, hill, valley, or rivulet, was to receive from teachers and disciples the
attention it deserved. And what the Jews have done in Philosophy and science was not to be neglected.
Such works as the Emunot Wedeoth, the Kuzari, the Chovoth Halevavoth, the Moreh Nebuchim, the
Ikkarim, and other ethical books were to be studied so as to draw from them “all that leads to purity of
heart, the peace of the soul and the fulness of life and beauty”. Nor was the free spirit of enquiry to be
suppressed. Hokmath Yisrael, he insisted, must not be allowed to remain the monopoly of those who
are bent on destroying the Torah and faith in G-d, but become, in the words of the eloquent prophet,
“the gain of those that sit before the Lord for eating to satiety and stately clothing (Isaiah 23, 19).”23
The language of instruction was to be Hebrew, and attention was also to be given to the study of
general sciences, including philosophy and economics. The students, moreover, would not be
encouraged to be pedants, but to be active, ever ready exponents in the living world of the thoughts that
are in them. From such a Yeshivah, he claimed, would emanate the wisdom, the knowledge and the fear
of G-d, the requisites for a skilful, judicious, cautious and withal a satisfactory solution of the problems
of the times on the lines of tradition without endangering the integrity, and unity of the Kelal Yisrael.
With his assumption of his Chief Rabbinical office in Jerusalem, the Yeshivah dream which he
had cherished for many years, not only began to assume the shape of reality, but what is more, became
richer in scope and content; and from the idea of a modern Yeshivah, in the Holy Land, serving the
needs of the Yishuv, grew his project for a universal Yeshivahat Jerusalem for the entire Jewish people.
Founded in 1924 by Rabbi Kook, the Yeshivah has ever since sought to attract students from all parts of
the Diaspora, with the object of making them into really great men in Israel, veritable pillars of the
Torah, so that they might carry with them to their native land, on the completion of their studies, the
light of redemption and truth which, as has been foreshown by our prophets, was to go forth out of
Zion and of Jerusalem.

[Page 23]
Teaching, however, had to go hand in hand with authority; and although Rabbi Kook did not
consider the time ripe for the convening of a Sanhedrin,24 he gave expression to the hope that such an
authority would ultimately be evolved to which would be drawn the most prominent Rabbis of the age.
From this Sanhedrin might be expected authoritative pronouncements on all matters affecting Judaism.
But for such a purpose he considered the Universal Yeshivah to be a necessary adjunct. Past authority
could only be restored by grafting it as a piece of living matter on the present and future. It must not be
the product of the past alone, it must be a living organism of today, capable of making the future for G-
d and humanity.
When we consider the breadth of vision and width of outlook this great teacher in Israel, as
reflected in his letters, we begin to appreciate the significance of his resplendent rabbinic leadership for
the growth and development of the spiritual and religious life of the Yishuv. Reference has already been
made to his mighty strivings, in face of formidable opposition, in devising measures for overcoming
the hardships involved in the operation of the Shemittah which threatened the economic existence of
the struggling colonists. To one of the rigourist Rabbis who insisted on strict observance of the
Shemittah, Rabbi Kook retorted, “You stand in fear of the punishment that may await you in the
Hereafter for sanctioning a breach of the law, whilst you feel no concern for the whole Yishuv, which
might become engulfed in complete economic ruin. It behoves each one of us to shoulder the
responsibility since we all aim at the rebuilding of the Holy Land.”25
Characteristic too, was his rejoinder to his formidable opponent the Ridbaz, who discerned in
the outbreak of some epidemics in the Holy Land, in 1910, a mark of divine displeasure, because of the
Yishuv's laxity in the observance of the Shemittah in accordance with the measures sanctioned by
Rabbi Kook. To this Rabbi Kook replied, “As to the cause which is responsible for the visitations
experienced in the Holy Land, there is none greater than the Sineath Hinnam (groundless hate) in
which we are steeped here more than elsewhere. Generally speaking, it is not the way of the Torah to
allow the fear of punishment to guide us in establishing a point of law. We have to clarify from the
Torah itself, whether or not a certain measure is permissible, and once we succeed in doing so, we dare
not ascribe any visitation to our interpretation of the law, for G-d would not falsify in His own Torah. It
behoves us to investigate our actions in other directions, in particular attitudes and failings, which
unfortunately disfigure our times”.

[Pages 24-26]
[Footnotes – Pages missing]

[Page 27]
‫חדש יולד של כנסת ישראל המתהפכת בחבליה‬

22. Letters II pp. 313 ff; 270 ff.; 192 ff; 186 ff; 118; 93 ff;

23 Letters II [correction: I] p. 148 (1908):

‫ הפיוט וכל ענפיה שייכים דווקא לאותם האנשים החפצים דוקא‬,‫ הגיון הדעות‬,‫שלא יהי עוד חכמת ההיסתוריה והבקרת‬...
‫בהירוס התורה ואמונת השי״ת כ״א ליושבים לפני ד׳ יהי׳ סחרה לאכול לשבע ולמכס העתיק‬
See also his letters to Isaach Halevi: p. 88

24. Letters II p. 341 (1910)

25. See E. Zoref, Chayye ha-Rav Kook p. 75

26. Letters II [correction: I] p. 347 (1919): ‫וע״ד חיפוש דברים שראוי לתלות בהם המחלות לע״ד אין לנו חטא גדול‬
‫ ד׳ ישמרנו‬.‫ובכלל אין זה דרך התורה כלל לבנות דין ע״י יראה חיצונית של עונשים‬...‫משנאת חנם שאנ שקועים בו בעהו״ר‬
‫אנחנו צריכים לברר ממקור התורה אם יש מקום לסמוך על היתר זה בשעת הדחק אם לא ואם יעלה בידינו שיש מקום לסמוך‬
‫ ואנו צריכים לפשפש במעשינו בעינינים‬,‫ כי אין הקב״ה עושה את תורתו פלסתר ח״ו‬,‫אז אסור לנו לתלות את העונשים בזה‬
‫אחרים במעשים ובמידות שרבה בה המכשלה בעוה״ר‬