[Avodah] Rav Kook on searching for cause of punishments

[Ben Waxman via Avodah]

A newspaper article from Rav Kook (my translation) written in August 1933:

As we approach the new year, with hope and encouragement despite the 
depressing events of the past year (Me: Hitler's rise to power) . . . 
(Rav Kook gives a bracha for the new year and continues)

We need to search our actions and bring ourselves closer to the type of 
tshuva that will bring geula and healing to the world, looking at our 
situation in the world in general and in Israel in particular. In doing 
so, we need to specify exactly what is the issue that we need to address.

It seems to us that we are divided into divided into two camps. We are 
used to using two names that generalize our camps, the "chareidim" and 
the "free" (chofshim). These are two new names which we never  used at 
all in the past. We knew that people aren't equal in their 
characteristics, in particular regarding spiritual matters (which are 
the base of life). But that there should be a name for a particular 
group that describes factions and parties, this we never heard of. In 
this sphere (meaning, the lack of division), we can say that the past 
was better than the present and I wish that we could lose those two 
names. These names act as an accuser (a satan) blocking a strong, pure 
way of life that would bring us to God's light.

The prominence that we give these names and the false agreement that 
binds individuals of each camp to say: "I'm in this camp" and the others 
say "I'm in this camp", with everyone satisfied in his position, this 
blocks the tikkun and perfection of both camps.

Rav Kook then goes on to show how both sides suffer from the split.

A couple of notes:

1) Rav Kook felt that particular events are connected to our actions and 
that we can figure out what actions (sins) are the root cause.

2) The punishment is related to the crime.  A national sin brings a 
punishment that threatens the clal. When Rav Sherki said that the knife 
intifada was due to national weakness (and not tzinuit or some other 
personal sin), he had this in mind.

3) Rav Kook didn't try to blame the other guy, he put himself squarely 
within the Clal doing the sin.