Hello Everyone,
Rav Kook zt”l is justifiably famous for his tolerance and remarkable open-mindedness. He believed that with our return to Eretz Yisrael we need as a people to renew our lives. Judaism should no longer be practiced as an oppressed and defensive religion. Judaism must embrace the arts, the sciences and practical areas of knowledge.
But we saw yesterday that there were limits to Rav Kook’s tolerance. He expresses his limits in his comments to these passages from masechet Shabbat:
תלמוד בבלי מסכת שבת דף פב עמוד א
משנה אמר רבי עקיבא מניין לעבודה זרה שמטמאה במשא כנדה שנאמר תזרם כמו דוה צא תאמר לו מה נדה מטמאה במשא אף עבודה זרה מטמאה במשא
תלמוד בבלי מסכת שבת דף פב עמוד ב
אמר רבה תזרם דאמר קרא נכרינהו מינך כזר צא תאמר לו הכנס אל תאמר לו
Rabbi Akiva taught that idols create טומאה-impurity. Impurity is an expression of spiritual revulsion. The greatest revulsion is felt when a feeling of genuine love is allowed to be corrupted. Though he does not cite this, I feel very strongly that Rav Kook may have been thinking of the Biblical story of Amnon and Tamar when he wrote this observation. Amnon became infatuated with his half-sister , Tamar. He tricks her into bringing him his breakfast. When she enters his bedroom he rapes her. Then he casts her out . The story of his casting her out is told with these words:
(טו) וַיִּשְׂנָאֶהָ אַמְנוֹן שִׂנְאָה גְּדוֹלָה מְאֹד כִּי גְדוֹלָה הַשִּׂנְאָה אֲשֶׁר שְׂנֵאָהּ מֵאַהֲבָה אֲשֶׁר אֲהֵבָהּ וַיֹּאמֶר לָהּ אַמְנוֹן קוּמִי לֵכִי:
His revulsion for Tamar after the horrible rape was greater than the love that he felt for her. Rav Kook says that the revulsion is so powerful because it is actually an expression of self-loathing. The person is revolted by his own behaviour and this is multiplied over and over as it is transferred to the object of the original attraction.
Rav Kook was an incredibly tolerant person. He strove to find the positive in every person and in every ideology. His tolerance led his critics to accuse him of naiveté. I do not believe that he was naïve; rather he believed that everything has a kernel of good that needs to be revealed.
Religious beliefs all begin in the soul which has a spark of the Divine. However a person may allow the religious drive which is holy in its source to be misdirected. The religious drive may degenerate into a life of paganism and idolatry .This corruption of the holy transforms the sacred into the foul and impure. This is the טומאת עבודה זרה to which Rabbi Akiva refers.
Rabba takes a pasuk from ישעיהו to teach a lesson about idolaters:
וְטִמֵּאתֶם אֶת צִפּוּי פְּסִילֵי כַסְפֶּךָ וְאֶת אֲפֻדַּת מַסֵּכַת זְהָבֶךָ תִּזְרֵם כְּמוֹ דָוָה צֵא תֹּאמַר לוֹ:
Idol worshippers need to be scattered and not allowed to return. This is a shockingly harsh teaching for Rav Kook who famously embraced the most secular of the pioneer settlers in Israel. Rav Kook drew his line at idolatry. When a Jew declares that his loyalty lies with another religion; when a Jew treats Judaism as his enemy, he must be cast out. Rav Kook, the most warm-hearted of people writes, “The heart must not be softened to have mercy and compassion, to be seduced, by the closeness to the original thought.” Rav Kook acknowledges that religious sentiments begin with holiness but the act of apostasy creates an unbridgeable gap.[1]
At the Redemption all of the idolatrous ideas will be made pure and redeemed:
(ז) וַהֲסִרֹתִי דָמָיו מִפִּיו וְשִׁקֻּצָיו מִבֵּין שִׁנָּיו וְנִשְׁאַר גַּם הוּא לֵאלֹהֵינוּ וְהָיָה כְּאַלֻּף בִּיהוּדָה וְעֶקְרוֹן כִּיבוּסִי:
But until that time we must view idolatry with the contempt that it deserves.
After discussing Avoda Zara and its impurity the Gemara goes on to discuss an obscure law relating to impurity:
תלמוד בבלי מסכת שבת דף פג עמוד ב
משנה מנין לספינה שהיא טהורה שנאמר דרך אניה בלב ים
גמרא פשיטא אניה בלב ים היא הא קא משמע לן כים מה ים טהור אף ספינה טהורה ….
אמר רב יהודה אמר רב לעולם אל ימנע אדם את עצמו מבית המדרש ואפילו שעה אחת שהרי כמה שנים נשנית משנה זו בבית המדרש ולא נתגלה טעמה עד שבא רבי חנינא בן עקביא ופירשה
What is the connection between these two halachot? Why does a Mishnah which discusses the (non-)impurity of boats follow a Mishnah which discusses the impurity of idols?
Rav Kook says that both suggyaot refer to the holiness of a person’s ideas. Idolatry is the perversion of the natural drive to find God. Having discussed the worst of all sins the Gemarah goes on to discuss purity. Water is a metaphor for purity. Pure ideas are said to metaphorically come from the ברכה העליונה- the Heavenly pool. Boats are a sort of intermediary between the earth which is full of distractions and the pure water. Rabbi Chaninah ben Akavya explained that even though thoughts based on water, pure thoughts, cannot become impure, thoughts taken from mundane experience are at risk. This is the metaphor of the “Jordan River boats.” These boats are loaded on the ground and then lowered into the river. These boats can become impure. When our thoughts of the Divine derive from concepts taken from everyday experience we must be very careful. Our senses our finite and limited. We cannot allow those shortcomings to influence our contemplation of Hashem.
This is the Gemara’s concluding lesson. Rabbi Chananuah ben Akavya who never missed a day in the Beit Midrash was blessed with the insight to explain the halacha of the “Jordan River boat.” Only a person whose thoughts are totally derived from the Torah can understand the absolute distinction between ideas based solely on the Torah and ideas which are based on a mixture of the holy and the mundane.
This is another surprise. We expect “Chareidi” rabbis to teach that the mix of secular and holy is detrimental. But Rav Kook embraced modernity. He gave a moving speech at the dedication of the Hebrew University. Nevertheless the greatest source of inspiration can only be found among those whose inspiration is in the Beit Midrash.
This is a summary of yesterday’s shiur.
Thanks to everyone who attended, and a special welcome back to Bracha Schutz after her surgery.
Stuart Fischman
[1] This is true until the apostate does teshuvah.