Abraham Isaac Kook: Difference between revisions

Despite the fact that many of the [[New Yishuv|new settlers]] were hostile to religion, Kook defended their behaviour in theological terms. His stance was deemed heretical by the traditional religious establishment<ref name="Bokser">{{cite book|author=Ben Zion Bokser|title=Conservative Judaism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xtwXAAAAIAAJ|edition=1-3|volume=35|year=1981|publisher=Rabbinical Assembly|pages=26–30|chapter=A letter by the Gerer Rebbe|quote=Many of them were not ritually observant; some were openly hostile to religion. Despite this, Rabbi Kook defended them, and even hailed them as playing a role, by their labors, in hastening the messianic deliverance. For the religious establishment of the old yishuv this was a heretical distortion which imperiled everything holy in Judaism, and they denounced Rabbi Kook as a misleader of his people.}}</ref> and in 1921 his detractors bought up the whole edition of his newly published ''Orot'' to prevent its circulation, plastering the offending passages on the walls of [[Meah Shearim]].<ref name="KaplanShatz1995">{{cite book|author=Shalom Carmy |editor=Lawrence J. Kaplan|editor2=David Shatz|editor3= Kayann Short|editor4= Abouali Farmanfarmaian|title=Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and Jewish Spirituality|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-5gUCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA227|year=1995|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-0-8147-4653-0|page=227|chapter=Dialectic, Doubters, and a Self-Erasing Letter (Notes)}}</ref> Soon later, an anonymous pamphlet entitled ''Kol Ha-Shofar'' appeared containing a declaration signed by rabbis Sonnenfeld, Diskin and others saying: “We were astonished to see and hear gross things, foreign to the entire Torah, and we see that which we feared before his coming here, that he will introduce new forms of deviance that our rabbis and ancestors could not have imagined …. It is to be deemed a sorcerer’s book? If so, let it be known that it is forbidden to study [let alone] rely on all his nonsense and dreams.”<ref name="Mirsky2014">{{cite book|author=Yehudah Mirsky|title=Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IDt9AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA168|date=February 11, 2014|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-16424-4|page=168|quote=There quickly followed a pamphlet banning Orot, which included frontal attacks on Rav Kook and Charlap, and a declaration signed by Zonnenfeld, Diskin, and others: “We were astonished to see and hear gross things, foreign to the entire Torah, and we see that which we feared before his coming here, that he will introduce new forms of deviance that our rabbis and ancestors could not have imagined… He turns light to darkness, and darkness to light... It is to be deemed a sorcerer’s book, and let it be known that it is forbidden to study [let alone] rely on all his nonsense and dreams.}}</ref> It also quoted [[Aharon Rokeach]] of [[Belz (Hasidic dynasty)|Belz]] who stated "And know that the rabbi from Jerusalem, Kook - [[Yimakh shemo|may his name be blotted out]] - is completely wicked and has already ruined many of our youth, entrapping them with his guileful tongue and impure books."<ref name="Uffenheimer2005">{{cite book|author=[[Rivka Schatz Uffenheimer]]|title=הרעיון המשיחי מאז גירוש ספרד|language=he|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pqfXAAAAMAAJ|year=2005|publisher=Magnes Press|page=234|quote=בקונטרס זה מופיע בפעם הראשונה דימויו של הרב קוק לשבתי צבי "וקאי באיסורא כיחידאי דאיהו נמי שיטתיה כיחידאי הש״ץ״. ולפני שהוא מביא ממאמרי הרב באות ׳תעודות׳ כגון מכתב בנו של הרבי מבלז, המזכיר את דברי הרבי: "וידוע דהרב דשם מירושלים ושמו קוק ימ"ש הוא רשע גמור וכבר טימא כמה צעירי עמנו ע"י מצודתו של חלקות לשונו ובספרים הטמאים, וד' יזכנו ויעביר רוח הטומאה מכל נפוצות עמו, ונזכה לעלות לציון ברנה, וכשנזכה שיהי' עת רצון מהש"י ולא עתה על ידיהם}}</ref> Returning to Poland after a visit to Palestine in 1921, [[Avraham Mordechai Alter]] of [[Ger (Hasidic dynasty)|Ger]] wrote that he endeavoured to calm the situation by getting Kook to renounce any expressions which may have unwittingly resulted in a [[Chillul Hashem|profanation of God's name]]. He then approached the elder rabbis of the Yishuv asking them to withdraw their denunciation. The rabbis claimed that their intention had been to reach a consensus on whether Kook's writings were acceptable, but their letter had been surreptitiously inserted by Kook's critics in to their inflammatory booklet without their knowledge.<ref name="Bokser"/> A harsh proclamation issued against Kook in 1926 contained letters from three European rabbis in which [[Yosef Rosin]] referred to him as an "ignorant bore", Shaul Brach intimated that his Hebrew initials spelt the word "vomit" and likened him to [[Jeroboam|King Jeroboam]] known for [[Maisit|seducing the masses to idolatry]], and [[Eliezer David Greenwald]] declared him an untrustworthy authority on Jewish law adding that his books should be burnt. When Jewish prayers at the [[Western Wall]] were [[Western Wall#September 1928 disturbances|broken up by the British in 1928]], Kook called for a fast day, but as usual, the ultra-Orthodox community ignored his calls.<ref>{{cite book|author=Yehudah Mirsky|title=Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TB_BAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA197|date=February 11, 2014|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-16555-5|page=197|quote=When Rav Kook called for public fasts on October 22, 1928, to protest the indignities at the Kotel, the ultra-Orthodox ignored him, as they studiously ignored every prayer meeting and fast day that he called.}}</ref> As a 16-year-old student in 1932, [[Menachem Porush]] was expelled from [[Etz Chaim Yeshiva]] for shooting and burning an effigy of Kook.<ref name="SobelWallach1975">{{cite book|author1=Ronald B. Sobel|author2=Sidney Wallach|title=Justice, Justice Shalt Thou Pursue: Papers Assembled on the Occasion of the 75th Birthday of the Reverend Dr. Julius Mark, as an Expression of Gratitude of the Jewish Conciliation Board with Whose Services and Leadership Dr. Mark Has Long Been Identified|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hq8AAAAAMAAJ|year=1975|publisher=Ktav Publishing House|isbn=978-0-87068-458-6|page=87|quote=The late Chief Rabbi Kook, whom Rabbi Parush likewise attacked and whose effigy he shot and burned...}}</ref> There were nevertheless other rabbis within Orthodoxy who spoke out in support of Kook, including the [[Chofetz Chaim]] and [[Isser Zalman Meltzer]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Yehudah Mirsky|title=Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TB_BAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA202|date=February 11, 2014|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-16555-5|page=202|quote=A major scholar of impeccable ultra-Orthodox credentials, Meltzer resolutely defended Kook against attackers on the right. He was wont to say, "Let them, any of us, pray on Yom Kippur the way Rav Kook prays on an average weekday."}}</ref><ref name="SzalaiHorváth2007">{{cite book|author1=Anna Szalai|author2=Rita Horváth|author3=Gábor Balázs|title=Previously unexplored sources on the Holocaust in Hungary: a selection from Jewish periodicals, 1930-1944|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AQM_AQAAIAAJ|year=2007|publisher=International Institute for Holocaust Research, Yad Vashem|isbn=978-965-308-300-4|page=32|quote=According to the report, Chofetz-Chaim condemned the pamphlet against Kook as well.}}</ref>