Hello Everyone,
The title of this series of classes is “Rav Kook on Tisha B’Av” but the discussions will not pertain precisely to Tisha B’Av. Rather they will be discussions about Rav Kook’s feelings about the consequences of Tisha B’Av.
Tisha B’Av is the fast day during which we mourn the loss of our country. For Rav Kook there were two paired consequences of this loss. First, we could no longer grow as a nation guided solely by the Torah since we lost our political autonomy. Being subject to foreign rulers both at home and even more so as exiles meant that we were influenced by foreign religions and cultures.
These foreign influences left deep scars in our sense of what it means to be “religious.”
Rav Kook’s analysis of the consequences of Tish B’Av is fascinating and we will discuss it today.