Orot—Lights, from Rav Kook
Prof. Paul Eidelberg
Let me share with you some of the light from Orot, the seminal work of the illustrious Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Mandate Palestine.
Orot, Lights, has been translated and brilliantly annotated by Rabbi Bezalel Naor, who rightly says in his introduction, “Rav Kook’s thought is intended to be the sum, the synthesis, of all Jewish thought preceding it. Beyond that, it attempts to provide the last, pre-messianic word on that entire tradition.”
Before continuing, it is important to bear in mind that the original edition of Orot was published in 1920, shortly after First World War—till then the bloodiest war in human history. Another significant matter: Rabbi Naor refers to Rav Kook as “The man who wore tefillan [phylacteries] all day—and Nietzsche.”
What links Rav Kook and Nietzsche are their denial of antinomies on the one hand, and their “yes to life” philosophy on the other. Whatever one may think of Nietzsche, probably no gentile philosopher better understood Judaism, and few admired Jews more than the author of Thus Spake Zarathustra.
When Nietzsche says in Zarathustra, “God is dead,” he meant the God of Christianity. Today Europe is witnessing the demise of Christianity. The First World War, which pitted one Christian nation against another, a war in which Europe soaked in its own blood, suggested to Rav Kook that Christianity—the religion of love—was on its death bed.
Rav Kook believed that the decline of Christianity and the cataclysm of the First World War heralded the rebirth of Israel and Torah Judaism. His son, Rav Zvi Yehudah Hakohen Kook, wrote a most helpful outline of Orot. I will quote and annotate some passages of this outline beginning with what Rav Kook says of the Land of Israel.
1).“The Land of Israel is not a means to an end of collective solidarity but rather an end in itself.” It endows the Jewish people not only with territorial nationalism or statehood. This nationalism will be inspired by the rationality and ethical laws of Jewish monotheism. Rationalism and law—not mysticism—constructs the state. Rationalism and law define the ruler-ruled relationship and prescribe the citizen’s rights and duties. The laws not only constrain rulers and ruled, but also they also empower them. Possession of the Land of Israel strengthens the faith among Jews of the Diaspora.
Possession of the land vivifies the idea that the nation founded by the Patriarchs still exists and will continue to grow. In the Diaspora, Judaism is merely a religion, whereas in the Land of Israel, Judaism is or is meant to be an all-embracing way of life, a religious nationality that transcends both religion and nationality.
2) There are two aspects of Jewish existence: particularism and universalism. In exile, the universalist side gains prominence; in Erets Yisroel the universalism is expressed through the medium of particularism. Jewish history, which began on a universalist note via Abraham, comes full circle. [Rav Kook is a philosopher of history.]
3) At the hour of the downfall of Western civilization, Israel is called upon to fulfill its Divine mission by providing the spiritual basis for a new world order. The phony sophistication of Western civilization is as nothing compared to the profound innocence of humanity’s childhood—Israel.
4) The excellence of Judaism consists in its subordination of will to intellect and law. Today, unrestrained imagination rules, but this is preparation for the restoration of prophecy as well as of reason—hence, an overcoming of the dichotomy of reason and revelation.
5) Wholesome god-knowledge entails the integration of soul and body. This idea will modulate Israel’s the national psychology. Today, materialism and empiricism render the nations unready for this approach.
6) The first generation of the redemptive process prepares the material basis for the spirituality that will follow.
7) National tendencies will not be dislodged by science or by economics. Israel’s natural instinct is godliness.
8) The Chosen People, Israel, which bestowed ethics on the world, will now bestow vivacity enjoyment as well.
9) In Exile, the Nation could make do with foggy notions of God. With the national renaissance, the concept of God will be clarified. This clarification is the passing historical function of atheism.
10) Rational religious enlightenment will follow.
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