[Avodah] Religious Zionism, Between Rav Kook and Rav Soloveitchik - by Rabbi Yisrael Rozen, Director of Zomet Institute

Sun Apr 22 13:41:23 PDT 2007

For those who seek to know, here is an article on the topic by one of the leading rabbis of our time.

Shoshana L. Boublil

POINT OF VIEW

Religious Zionism, Between Rav Kook and Rav Soloveitchik - by Rabbi Yisrael Rozen, Director of Zomet Institute

"It has turned completely white, it is pure" [Vayikra 13:13 ].

On this occasion of the fifty-ninth celebration of Yom Haatzmaut for Isreal, we will dedicate our column to the two central focal points of the ideology of religious Zionism. I will present to the best of my understanding the common thread of the two main foundations of this movement. I am referring to the school of thought of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook and its extensions and to the approach of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and his followers. Each one is simply called "the Rav" by his disciples, without any other name necessary. 

A Missed Opportunity or a Process of Redemption

There can be no doubt that the two approaches are not the same! It is written, "Chabakuk came and put them all on a single basis" [Makkot 24a]. We will also use a single unified basis for the approaches of the two rabbis towards Eretz Yisrael. As far as Rav Kook is concerned, this is "the start of the redemption," while for Rav Soloveitchik it is "a missed opportunity." 

Here is what Rav Soloveitchik wrote in his monumental work, Kol Dodi Dofek (the title is from Shir Hashirim 5:2, "my lover makes a knocking sound"):

"In the midst of the nightmare of Meidanek, Treblinka, and Buchenwald , in the dark night of gas chambers and smokestacks... in this night, the hiding G-d rose up, in a hidden canopy. He appeared suddenly, and He began to knock at the tent of His downtrodden and anguished beloved one... As a result of the knocking at the door of the beloved one, steeped in mourning, the State of Israel was born... 

"During that night of secrecy the lover rose, knocked and begged that she should open the door of her tent, 'for my head is full of dew, my hair with the rain of the night' [Shir Hashirim 5:2]... But the beloved refused to leave her bed. 'I have taken off my garment, how can I put it on? I have washed my feet, how can I dirty them?' [5:3]. Her heart had turned to stone. 

"The lover continued His knocking, and the beloved answered, but it was too late, and the vision of exalted life receded and diminished. An hour later, she jumped in panic from her bed, 'I rose to open the door for my lover,' (but) 'my lover had gone' [5:6]... 

"What is the point of Shir Hashirim if not a description of the paradoxical and tragic delay of the loved one, if not a missed opportunity of momentous meaning for the world..."

This profound description points to a tragic missed opportunity. The State of Israel did not respond to its Divine Lover. What arose was Israel but not the Jewish nation! From the moment of that "nightmare... night of secrecy," the knocking has not ceased. The window of opportunity evidently opens up "now and then, from time to time," but the missed opportunity continues, and the time of redemption has yet to come. 

As opposed to this, the approach to the redemption that comes from the courts of Rabbis Avraham Yitzchak and Tzvi Yehuda Kook is that political Zionism (note that Israel was not established in the time of the older Rav Kook) and the State of Israel are "stages" in a ladder which has advances and retreats along the way. "The time of redemption" is a process like the days of spring (with some rainy days), also based on a verse in Shir Hashirim, one that is less decisive than "Kol Dodi Dofek": "The blossoms have appeared in the land, the time of the nightingale has arrived, and the voice of the dove can be heard in our land" [ 2:12 ]. "When there is a great war in the world, the power of the Mashiach awakens. 'The time of the nightingale' refers to the song of the noblemen... The world becomes infused with scent, and 'the voice of the dove' can be heard in our land." [Chapters of War, 1]. 

A mainstay of this approach is constant change, a winding path, hide-and-seek. "'My Lover is like a deer' [2:9] – just as a deer is revealed and then goes into hiding, the same is true of the first and the last redeemer" [Bamidbar Rabba 11]. The key word of redemption in this approach is "slowly, bit by bit." "'Who is this looking down like the dawn?' [ 6:10 ] – Rabbi Chiya and Rabbi Shimon Bar Chalafta were walking in the Arbel Valley . They said, this is the way the redemption of Yisrael will be. It will start bit by bit, then it will begin to glimmer, afterwards it will increase, and then it will spread out" [Shir Hashirim Rabba].

The Paradox of the Mashiach's Donkey

The people of religious Zionism, in all their sectors, ponder over their relationship to the State of Israel every single day, especially with respect to internal or external events which must be approached from the point of view of values and not just pragmatically. Those who support either of the two approaches outlined above are often torn apart by questions of dual loyalty, to the Torah or to the state. Are we in the midst of a process of redemption or for the time being are we missing a Divine opportunity? 

Religious Zionism has had the wisdom to live with this complex reality from its earliest beginnings, and this is almost its defining characteristic. The complexity often serves as a reason for mockery, by the Chareidi sector on one hand and by secular Jews on the other hand. But in reality this (the complexity, not the mockery) is our pride and joy! The youth who are educated in our institutions have also learned to accept and internalize it. I reject the simplified declaration which is sometimes made about our educational system, claiming that "the youth does not understand complexity. They demand decisiveness and think in only one dimension!" This is simply not true! And this is what can make us proud! 

The "complexity" of the modern State of Israel today would be considered "a Divine paradox" by Rav Soloveitchik and "the birth pangs of Mashiach" by Rav Kook.

The verse quoted above from this week's Torah portion is a perplexing one. After all, white hair in a "nega" – a blemish – is a sign of impurity. Why then does it become pure if it turns completely white? Rav Soloveitchik would probably have answered that this is a paradox, and then delve into the realms of purity and impurity deep within the human soul. In Rav Kook's approach, based on a combination of mysticism and Chassidut, the matter is related to the secret of Mashiach. "This is the secret of 'a pauper riding on a donkey' mentioned by the Tikunei Zohar, that the generation of the Mashiach is good on the inside and bad on the outside. It is the secret of the verse, 'it has turned completely white, it is pure.' There is a donkey in the Divine plan which has the sanctity of the firstborn but is hidden away in the depths for the time being. This is the main point of the approach that was taught in the palace of the Mashiach, as is written at the beginning of the Zohar." [Igrot Re'iyah volume 1, page 370]. 

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