Hello Everyone,
Yesterday we saw how Rav Kook explored Halachic discussions in the Talmud and found within them spiritual lessons.
This is what the Gemarah says:
תלמוד בבלי מסכת שבת דף סט עמוד ב
אמר רב הונא היה מהלך (בדרך או) במדבר ואינו יודע אימתי שבת מונה ששה ימים ומשמר יום אחד חייא בר רב אומר משמר יום אחד ומונה ששה במאי קמיפלגי מר סבר כברייתו של עולם ומר סבר כאדם הראשון
A person is lost in the desert. She does not remember what day of the week it is so she does not know when to celebrate Shabbat. What should she do? The Gemarah says that there are two opinions. Rav Huna says that she should count six days starting with the day that she realized that she no longer knows the day of the week. On the seventh day of her count she should mark Shabbat. Hiyyah bar Rav says that she should celebrate Shabbat on the day that she first realizes that she does not know the day of the week and then count six weekdays and celebrate Shabbat again. What is the basis for each opinion? The Gemarah says that Rav Huna compares the lost woman’s case to the first Shabbat. Hashem created the world in six days and on the seventh day He created Shabbat. Shabbat should follow six weekdays. Hiyyah bar Rav compares the woman to Adam. Adam was created on Friday and the first complete day of his life was Shabbat. Shabbat should precede one’s work-week.
What is the lesson that we can learn from this suggyah? Rav Kook shows us that besides being a teaching in practical Halacha, the discussion of a person lost in the desert is a lesson on the search for holiness.
Holiness is bound up with the mundane. It is the holy which illuminates the mundane, elevates it and gives it worth. However, in the way of the world in which we live holiness is what follows the mundane. Shabbat comes at the end of the week. The fact that the holy comes at the end of the week is a great promise for the world. The community as such, as an entity, can never sink into the mundane. As long as the community exists, even when it is overwhelmed with concern for material existence, it will encounter holiness.
This guarantee of ultimately encountering is not shared by individuals. When a person breaks away from a community there is no promise that he will find holiness. Whether a person is seeking holiness through introspection or through personal achievement there is no promise that he will lose himself in the mundane. Sinking into the mundane a person may never discover holiness.
The person who lives as part of a community will encounter holiness at the end of his or her journey. The person who travels alone has no such guarantee. Perhaps he or she should wait for holiness just as we wait for Shabbat. Perhaps it would be better to engage in holiness immediately and then engage in the mundane.
The lesson of the suggyah according to Rav Kook is that we can live lives of holiness, but we need to live with the community. The solitary search for holiness, the rejection of the community because of a perceived lack of interest in sanctity, may not succeed. Monastic communities are not present in Judaism. The great figures in Judaism, the Rambam, Rashi and others all flourished as leaders of communities. It goes without saying that these figures stood head and shoulders above their neighbors, but perhaps we can say that their neighbors elevated them.
This is a summary of yesterday’s shiur.
Thanks to everyone who participated.
Stuart Fischman