Recently there appeared in print for the first time a volume containing hereto unpublished writings of Rav Kook. As some may know, Rav Kook did not write entire books, and only wrote a few essays for various occasions. Most of his writings were in diaries which he wrote. Others (his son Rav Zvi Yehuda and Rav David Cohen, known as "the Nazir") published selections from these diaries in collections dealing with specific topics (Torah, the Jewish People, Tshuva, etc.) Thus these edited selections were almost the only way we knew Rav Kook's writings. In recent years, some of the original notebooks have been published. The passage I will refer to below is from "the notebook from Boisk", written by the Rav in the years before his Aliya to Eretz Yisrael in 1902. It is numbered 24.
The midrash in Shmot Rabba (28:1), as do other midrashim, describes the opposition of the angels to Moshe taking Torah down from heaven to earth. "At that moment" says the midrash "they wished to attack Moshe. Then G-d made the face of Moshe identical to that of Avraham and said to them "Aren't you ashamed? Isn't this the person in whose home you ate? …"
In its literal reading, the midrash is describing playing a trick on the angels and reminding them of the fact that they also found themselves dependent on humans. Rav Kook understands this midrash as revealing a mistake made by the angels. They distinguished between the religion established by Avraham and that established by Moshe The first focuses on the moral ideals of righteousness and justice while the other is full of mitzvot bein adam lamakom. (See also Rambam , Hilchot Avoda Zara Chapter 1 who also contrasts these two different ways of Avodat Hashem) .
The angels thought that the ethical path of hesed of Avraham is something that is appropriate for our world but they thought that the transcendent goal of Torat Moshe is unrelated to the human condition. In a nutshell, the angels were aware of the need for morals, but thought that the religious quest is unachievable in our world.
Rav Kook explans that Hashem's answer - that the face of Moshe is identical to that of Avraham - means that the distinction between ethics and Torah is one of perception and of time."The principle of the Torah of hesed which originates in the Torah of the fathers, and which is included in the seven Noachide laws, is manifest immediately in the world, while the same principle regarding the entire Torah with the details of Torah and halacha will be manifest only in the good which is hidden for a future time"
In truth, the hesed of Avraham is not only this-wordly but based on a relationship to the transcendent while the Torah of Moshe is indeed one which reflects hesed towards the entire world which will only become evident in the future.
These two types of avoda are identical at their core, but the hesed aspect of mitzvot relates to a distant future which we are incapable of grasping presently, "therefore the basis of the moral avodah which unites religious feeling with morality, is to do our Creator's will , who is the Master of all deeds and of all worlds, (ribbon kol ha'maasim v'kol ha'olamim) with love."
Rav Dr. Kalman Neuman
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Rav Kalman Neuman teaches at Yeshivat Bat Ayin. He studied at Yeshivat Merkaz Harav and Yeshivat Har Etzion, and holds a Ph.D. in European History from the Hebrew University. |