[Avodah] RAYK and the end of chol

[Michael Makovi]

>  Rav Kook's view of learning chol has nothing to do with Zionism.  So, please
>  don't mix the issues.
>
>  Rav Kook's view is based on the sentence (Zohar?) "Histakel BaTorah U'Vara
>  Alma". So, there is no knowledge of this world that exists that is outside
>  of Torah.  Therefore, there is no real "chol" as is common to think of
>  history, math, archeology, languages etc. and in Rav Kook's view one has to
>  study these topics and not just limit oneself to what he finds within the
>  pages of the Talmud.
>
>  Shoshana L. Boublil

Rav Kook's approach is of course, in its essence, not anything so
dramatically new. Plenty of rishonim took some form of this approach
(Emunot v'Deot, Chovot haLevavot, Moreh Nevukhim, etc.), that
ultimately, all knowledge comes from G-d. I recently posted a summary
of an essay of Rav Berkovits's on this topic. Rav Berkovits basically
says that their epistemology is a bit extreme, as per the Greek
philosophic background of much of it, but the basic gist of what they
sound is soundly Jewish.

Obviously, some knowledge is more "pure" than other knowledge in its
G-dliness, but when you get to the core, it's all from the same place.
Therefore, Chazal tell us that one who does not practice astronomical
calculations, ignores the work of His hands. Rav Hirsch in 19 Letters
to Psalm 19 (in Shabbat Pesukei Dezimra) says that nature and Torah
alike testify to G-d, albeit the latter is greater than the former.
Many commentators say this on the Avot that ha-mehalech on the derech
who sees a tree and interrupts his Mishna - true, nature testifies to
G-d, but Torah even more so, and you don't interrupt a higher form in
favor of a lower form.

So Rav Kook's approach seems highly akin to that of the Spanish
Rishonim, and I've seen it remarked that Rav Hirsch's TIDE was more or
less a return to the paradigm of chol of the Spanish Jews.

And as I said, Ravs Kook and Hirsch both say much the same on infusing
chol with kodesh - Rav Kook speaks in mystical and metaphysical terms,
while Rav Hirsch speaks in terms of your chol activities being done in
a Torah-dic way - be a businessman, but make sure it's a Torah-dic
businessman. In Avot, we learn that a table without divrei Torah is
filled with vomit, and Rav Hirsch there says it doesn't mean divrei
davka *Torah* - rather, he says, any serious conversation about
serious life matters, even explicitly secular matters, is "Torah". I
suspect he means that if you sit around the dinner table discussing
the daily news and how it affects your (presumably Torah) lifestyle,
then you are elevating derech eretz by using it as part of a Torah
lifestyle; in other words, you are infusing the chol with kodesh.

There is an essay on this topic published by Azure (Spring 2006) and
available on their website (www.azure.co.il), "Sciences of What and
the Science of Who" by Georges Hansel; I'm not sure that the author is
Jewish, but the essay's content seems fine in any case.

Mikha'el Makovi