SABBATH LIGHTS: SPARKS OF ETERNITY IN THE LIFE AND THOUGHT OF RAV KOOK

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1 Moshe Tzvi Neiriyah Translated and adapted by Pesach Jaffe Pesach Jaffe has been pursuing advanced Torah studies in Jerusalem since receiving a B.S. in Education from the University of Wisconsin in SABBATH LIGHTS: SPARKS OF ETERNITY IN THE LIFE AND THOUGHT OF RAV KOOK (Proper beliefs and actions are acquired by associating with great men. The popular Hebrew work Mo'adei hare'iyah, written by Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Neiriyah, the noted author and educator who founded Yeshivot Bnei Akiva, allows us to accompany the late Chief Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook throughout the cycle of Jewish holy days. Rabbi Neiriyah, the narrator of the book, was a close student of Rav Kook. He interviewed numerous people and collected many written eyewitness reports of Rav Kook's life and behavior, thus insuring for posterity a rich legacy of original Torah thought and action. This article is part of my adaptation of the entire Mo'adei hare'iyah that wil be published in the near future, and is an abridgement and recasting into English of the first two chapters of the book. It brings together Rav Kook's deeds and thoughts concerning the Sabbath. I have generally followed Rabbj Neiriyah's convention of indicating long quotes by quotation marks rather than indentations, and I have n:arranged the order of the material.-p.i.) SABBATH REST Rav Kook's pure soul never left its inner sanctuary, even during the secular weekdays. Yet, with the arrival of the Sabbath, that day of rest when the hidden sparks of eternity shine forth, it was elevated and magnified. His large eyes glimmered, the serious face glowed, and a mighty flow of divrei Torah streamed forth to satiate the thirsty souls of those who merited to hear his holy words. He captured the essence of the Sabbath rest in these words: "Every Sabbath the individual shakes off secular life: 'with the Sabbath comes rest' (Rashi to Gen. 2:2). The soul begins to free itself of its heavy shackles 'on the day that the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow and affictions, and from the hard bondage you were made to serve' (Is. 14:3). It begins to seek higher paths, spiritual acquisitions, in accordance with its TRAITION, 25(3), Spring 1991 (Ç 1991 Rabbinical Council of America 1

2 TRAITION: A Journal of Orthodox Thought nature.... 'It (the Sabbath) is an eternal sign between Me and the children of Israel' (Ex. 31:17). A holy day when the national tendency, the drive towards the genuine divine life, appears in every Jew. It is a sign to the entire nation that its soul has the need and the capabilty to delight in the Lord. The divine pleasure that is compressed into the spiritual point of the additional Sabbath soul, permeates the heart of every Jew." i THE SABBATH CANDLES My master and teacher, Rabbi Yakov Moshe Charlap, one of Rav Kook's foremost disciples and Rosh Yeshivah of Merkaz HaRav, told me that the rabbinic delegation that set out to strengthen Judaism among the settlements in the Galil in the winter of 1914 (the famous "teshuvah tour" led by Rav Kook), arrived Rosh Chodesh KIslev in Pariah. The Rav spoke at length against eating non-kosher food. The impact of the speech was amazing. That very evening the young workers pledged to kasher the kitchen and to eat only kosher meat. One young girl, apparently uncomfortable with the group promise, remarked, "Soon the Rav will ask us to light Sabbath candles!" The Rav requested to speak again. He explained to them the sanctity of the Sabbath and how the radiant light of the holy Sabbath illuminates all Jewish souls. Towards the end of his talk, he raised his voice and said that continual consumption of forbidden foods damages the Jewish eye's pure faculty of vision until one is unable to see the radiance of the Sabbath candles. "I am certain," he concluded, "That from this moment, now that you have decided to keep kosher and guard the sanctity of the Jewish table, that your additional soul will begin to shine on the Sabbath and that your eyes will see, yes, your eyes will also merit to see, the hidden light of the Sabbath candles." The same young girl stood up and said, "Rabbi, Rabbi, I promise that from this day I will begin to light the Sabbath candles!" i THE RAIANT SABBATH LIGHT "Rabbi Tarfon said: Only olive oil may be lit in the Sabbath lamp" (Shabbat 2:2). Rav Kook explained the inner meaning of this opinion: "The light of the Sabbath lamp alludes to the light of the intellect that emanates upon the soul that is sanctified by the holiness of the day of rest and sanctity. Many types of oil produce light. The study of certain branches of wisdom elevates the soul with morals and positive character traits, and it is prepared to bring good to the world. But the purest light is the light of Torah; it is especially associated with the Sabbath day. It is the 2

3 M oshe Tzvi N eiriyah purest of all oils and is unclouded by error or the darkness of man's evil inclination that is mixed in the light that comes from human wisdom. Therefore Torah is compared to olive oil, the finest of oils, to teach us that the Sabbath day should be totally dedicated to exploring the wisdom of the Torah, as Rambam wrote in his commentary to the Mishnah (Shabbat ch. 23). The prohibition of lighting other oils that are less clear than olive oil points to the obligation of moving towards the light of the Torah In its secret chambers and crowns where the purest light is found."2 FAVORITE SABBATH BOOKS The window sill in the Rav1; small room held the entire Torah literature: a small Bible printed in Warsaw (the Rav never used a Bible printed by non-jews nor did he use the Vilna edition of the Talmud that was printed in America during the end of World War I without permission of the publishers, the Rom brothers), a small Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud, a small vocalized Zohar, together with a small Mishneh Torah, Shulhan Arukh, etc. On the Sabbath, the table in this small room was adorned with three additional books: Sefat Emet by Rabbi Yehudah Leib of Gur, Keli Hemdah by the Gaon Rabbi Meir-Dan Plotzki, Rabbi of Deyart, Poland; and Likutei Torah by the "Alter Rebbe," Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of Habad Hassidut. In the first work, Sefet Emet, "the heaven and earth kiss" (Babba Batra 74a) with tersely written ethereal thoughts and guidance from the wellsprings of the Torah of truth found in Peshisha-Kotzk Hassidut. (Sefet Emet was one of the few books that the Rav took with him on his visit to America in 1924.) Rav Kook concentrated on the dialectics of the Polish Gaon in the second book, Keli Hemdah, that deal with various legal aspects of the weekly Torah portion. Generally, the Rav disdained Talmudic dialectics;3 he once referred to this style of learning by quoting the Talmud (Ta'anit 23b), "it was with me and I rejected it." But he liked the author's straightforward approach. Not only did the wellsprings of aggadah and kabbalah in Sefat Emet satiate his additional Sabbath soul, but also the depths of halakhah found in Keli Hemdah gave him intense spiritual delight as his mind and soul toured through "the field of sacred apples." Already in his youth, the Ray was fond of the third volume, Likutei Torah. The hassidic discourses given by Rabbi Yehezkel Yanover (who was close to Rabbi Menahem Mendel of Lubavitch, grandson of the "Alter Rebbe," author of Zemah Zedek, and his son Rabbi Yehudah Leib of Kopust) which he regularly attended, transported him as a youngster into hidden worlds of Torah thought. 3

4 TRAITION: A Journal of Orthodox Thought Both Rav Kook's affnity to and his variance with Habad thought were outlined by his close disciple, the Nazir, Rabbi David Kohen. In the late summer of 1922, Rabbi David went to visit the Rav during his vacation in Hebron. After scanning the book Likutei Torah that was on the table, he told the Rav that he saw there "profound thoughts about divinity, Israel, and Torah that resemble the ideas discussed at the Rav's Se'udah Shelishit discourses." The Rav replied, "We must differentiate between ideas that discuss man's relation to God and between those pertaining to Klal Yìsraels relation to God. We are interested in building the entire nation! " This short reply was formulated years later as "the major theme in the kabbalistic thought of Rav Kook," by the hassidic author and scholar, Hilel Zeitlin. He wrote that "Habad concentrates on the individual, and only through the individual do we reach the collective soul.... Rav Kook came and revealed the kabbalah of the collective soul,... and he contemplates the individual only from the speculum of the collective soul. Habad looks into the soul of the individual Jew and from there it sees the Shekhinah, but Rav Kook looks at the Shekhinah, at Kenesset Yìsraelthat is, at the deepest roots of Jewish souls-and from there he sees the soul of every Jew. "This is the source of the 'infinite song' in the kabbalah of Rav Kook; of the divine pathos that is largely unknown in the kabbalistic literature of the later generations; and of the inexhaustible flow of words and repetitious phrases that appear at first glance to be flowery rhetoric, but that in truth are profuse divine attachment, visions and aspirations for higher worlds. At the same time they describe here on earth Kenesset Yìsrael s messianic struggle for survival, its pains and hopes, that are also the redemption of the worlds. "4 GUARDIAN OF THE SABBATH In his essay, "The Gift of the Sabbath," the Rav wrote: "No mitzvah in the Torah requires so much study, so much attention, and so much careful observance, as the sanctity of the Sabbath. Everyone concerned for the word of God knows that without earnest attention, without repeated study of the Sabbath laws, and without penetrating into the spirit of the sanctity of the Sabbath, that we have not fulfilled our obligation towards the Sabbath.... Even those who remain with childhood notions and lack mature concepts of the Jewish spirit regarding the gift of the Sabbath, as long as they are not detached from the life of the nation, are capable of and must recognize the glory and strength, the light and splendor, of the gift of the Sabbath to IsraeL." 5 In another article he wrote: "The sign of the Sabbath is stamped upon our essential nature. Let not those who desecrate it think that they 4

5 Moshe Tzvi Neiriyah can disown this sign. It is sealed deep in their souls, and their entire inner being demands its manifestation. As long as they refrain from returning to the source, they are fighting against themselves, beating and degrading themselves. The innermost point of the faint soul bears its pains, but eventually it will triumph. After tremendous suffering everything must return to its source, 'And the children of Israel will observe the Sabbath' " (Ex. 31:16).6 The Rav's attendant, Rabbi Avraham Tzitzik, wrote in his memoirs that "one Sunday a group of irate Jews came to tell the Rav about some youngsters who played soccer in the field near the Bukharian quarter of Jerusalem and desecrated the Sabbath with forbidden activities. These youngsters were members of Beitar and they wanted the Rav to write a letter of protest to their leader, Ze'ev Jabotinsky. "The Rav asked me for a sheet of paper and when he finished writing the letter, he asked me to hand it to Mr. J abotinsky who was still living in Jerusalem. I delivered the letter. When Mr. Jabotinsky saw that it was from the Rav, he asked me to stay while he read it. As he read the letter he became sad. He asked me if I was aware of the content. I told him that I was. He told me to tell the Rav that he would use all of his influence to make sure that the Sabbath soccer game would cease. He also wanted to meet with the Rav to discuss the matter. He politely accompanied me and asked me to extend his greetings to 'our beloved Rav.' " Rav Kook's gentle approach towards the nonreligious is reflected in a letter of encouragement he wrote to members of "the Sabbath Guard," a group dedicated to preserving the sanctity of the Sabbath. It said: Do not keep us, pure hearted brothers, from treading the good, straight path that is sown with the light of love and brotherhood, peace and friendship. Every friendly word is effective, every expression of brotherhood and respect joins hearts together. Be strong, you God-fearing, who are active in guarding the sanctity of the Sabbath, expand your hearts and adopt the way of gentleness and loyal brotherhood, for then God's blessing wil be with you. However, the Rav was not always able to be tolerant and follow in the steps of Aharon the Kohen. More than once he was forced to change his tactics, and occasionally he publicized fiery letters of protest. Once a photographer moved to Jerusalem and opened his studio on the Sabbath. Protests by members of "the Sabbath guard" failed to help and he even dared to file a complaint in court against them for demonstrating near his shop. The Rav spoke to him gently but afterwards felt that this talk was ineffective. Therefore, he wrote the photographer a letter of warning: Again, I warn you, for your own good, to take upon yourself the obligation to observe the sanctity of the Sabbath. If, God forbid, you disregard our words, we wil be forced against our wil to unrelentingly fight against you. By the authority of the 5

6 TRADITION: A Journal of Orthodox Thought Torah, the inheritance of the Congregation of I acob, and by force of the national feeling of respect that also throbs in the irreligious strata of our people, we wil absolutely forbid every Iew, from child to adult, both male and female, to enter your store during the week and to be photographed, until you repent this grave sin of desecrating the holy Sabbath and the honor of Israel in its land and in its holy, splendid city, Jerusalem. We wil be saddened if your behavior destroys your livelihood, profanes your name among our people, and also disgraces you in the eyes of every worthy person among the nations and other religions. Therefore, we are warning you in advance, and we hope that you wil give this serious and holy matter due consideration, and take the appropriate measures. Needless to say, the photographer was stunned. Today, his shop, along with all the others, is closed on the Sabbath.7 SE'UDAH SHELISHIT DISCOURSES While still a young boy, the Rav's parents were aware of their son's exceptional qualities, outstanding talents and dilgence, his lofty fear of heaven, and his pious actions. But his father and mother differed on his destiny. His father, educated in the Volozhin Yeshivah, said, "He will be a great scholar!" His mother, raised in a hassidic home, said, "He wil become a hassidic rebbe!" His father's desire was fulfilled during the six days of labor when the Rav fulfilled his rabbinic duties, but on the Sabbath, it seems that the prayer whispered by his mother when she lit the Sabbath eve candles had a positive effect. Se'udah Shelishit at the Rav's house was an important event. Here the Rav conducted himself as a hassidic rebbe, complete with all the trappings of this role. During this time of special grace, a varied group including lively hassidim crowded around the Rav in "fear and love," as every fiber of their being was taut with anticipation and excitement. Instead of everyday Hebrew, he spoke in the "Mamma loshen," a Lithuanian Yiddish spiced with expressions that he coined to express his unique ideas. To tell the truth, the discourses that were delivered in Hebrew in his later years during the hot summer months lacked that vivacious folksiness and ~ryecial flavor of Yiddish. Many think that only the intellectuals and deeply pious flocked around the Rav, while laymen refrained from accepting him as their rabbi; but this is untrue. Despite his immense stature he was very close to and understood by all honest, upright Jews. At Se'udah Shelishit, one could see not only the outstanding scholar, but also the simple Jew. Immediately after havdala you could hear the listeners' reactions. The Habadnik claimed, "Chapters of Tanya and Likutei Torah were here before us!" The 6

7 Moshe Tzvi Neiriyah Polish hassid retorted, "What are you talking about,... Sefas Emes!" In the corner stood the young German doctor who exclaimed, "Here was a modern Guide for the Perplexed in mystic garb!" The level-headed Lithuanian rabbi "licked his fingers" from the precious drops of drush, and the scholar enjoyed the interspersed tidbits of halakhah. A large group of laymen also attended. They said nothing, but their expression said it all. Their faces shone from sweet enjoyment and their hearts were filled to the brim with a blazing fire of love for God, Israel, and Eretz Yisrael. The discourse ranged over a wide variety of topics. Everyone tasted the flavor of his own country's waters, for the Rav's ocean of knowledge contained all the streams of Judaism. Above all, the yearning soul of the average Jew was totally gratified and he was strengthened by its perfect faith and illuminated by its divine light. Rabbi Kalman Eliezer Frankel, author of Shemu'ot Re'iyah, a collection of Se'udah Shelishit discourses that he jotted down from memory, was a frequent visitor of the hassidic courts in Poland before he came to IsraeL. He recounts how he found his place at the Rav's table during Se 'udah Shelishit: "Among the yearnings I had for Eretz Yisrael, the Holy Land, I had a special desire to become acquainted with the Rabbi of Israel whom I knew through his essays and articles published in periodi~ cals and newspapers, which he signed, "Servant of the holy people in the Holy Land." When I merited to come to Israel in 1924, I found my soul's desire, our teacher, the gaon, our master, Rav Kook. When I heard about the discourses that our master said during Se'udah Shelishit, I went once and continued to attend regularly. The hallowed atmosphere and exceptional personalities who gathered together every Sabbath in the Rav's home made a lasting impresssion upon me. "I saw before me a Jewish genius, a divine personage, who strung together a vast array of ideas-talmud and Zohar, Midrash and The Guide for the Perplexed. He plunged into the ocean of halakhah and mysticism, inquiry and religious philosophy. His erudition was phenomenal. Besides the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, he knew the early and later commentaries, hassidic literature and philosophy, all of which he searched and dissected with the keenness of a surgical scalpel. He would use, for instance, a hassidic concept or philosophic idea from the Guide or the Kuzari to explain a Talmudic problem or legal decision of the Rambam. "The discourse frequently reflected the mood of the previous week. If the week was prosperous for the yishuv in Eretz Yisrael or if good news arrived from the Jews in the diaspora, it was immediately felt in the mood of that lofty man, who had a burning love for Klal Yisrael and all that is termed IsraeL. He was concerned that the yishuv prosper and rejoiced over every stone and brick that was added to build the land and Jerusalem."8 7

8 TRADITION: A Journal of Orthodox Thought In his approbation to Shemu'ot Re'iyah, our master, Rabbi Yakov Moshe Charlap, wrote: "A few times I gathered up the courage to ask him why he doesn't commit these discourses to writing and bequeath to the ensuing generations those ideas that came to him during the hour of the afternoon prayers, when his yearnings were at their peak. He replied, 'I am unable to record them because they are like rushing waters.' Indeed, the holy words of our master were deeper and wider than the sea!" Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin, noted scholar and author of many halakhic and hassidic works, grew up in the world of Habad and also studied in the Lithuanian yeshivot. He wrote: "I remember, during one of the Sabbaths of the summer of 1934, that I, among those who made aliyah from Communist Russia, visited Jerusalem for the first time, to see Jerusalem and the Rav. During twilight, at the hour of special grace, I was in the Rav's-no, the Rebbe's-home, in the heavenly Jerusalem, a holy world. Seated around the long, set table were notable figures of Jerusalem, and the Shekhinah was among them. The melodies of deveikut and the songs of yearning created an atmosphere of unique sublime splendor. "I said to myself, the only thing missing in this genuine hassidic setting is a Habad discourse. Suddenly the large hall was silent. The Rav sat and spoke. Every concept and word soaked into my limbs. Intellect and emotion joined. The thoughts were original but spiced with points taken from Habad. He spoke about eternal life and transient life, about eternity and the moment.... The listeners' ears were flooded by quotes from aggadah, Mishnah, Zohar, and kabbalistic works. The sources were iluminated by sparks of splendor from Torah secrets and hidden wisdom. In the middle, between a profound aggadic saying and a mystical concept, 'and with this we can understand the halakhah...' I never merited to attend another Se'udah Shelishit with the Rav, but those who regularly enjoyed the rays of his Torah tell of the combination of halakhah and aggadah i.n his talks."9 We can learn about Rav Kook's pure character from an aged scholar who attended the Se 'udah Shelishit discourses. Reuven Pan from Stanislov wrote: "I visited Eretz Yisrael in early I was determined to meet the Chief Rabbi of the holy land, Rav Kook. I always pictured Chief Rabbi Kook as a symbol of the will to renew the celestial Jerusalem and the earthly Jerusalem. He was concerned about every Jew and wanted to bring the eternal spirit of the Torah and its sanctity to each person according to his capacity. His fiery love warmed every clod of earth, and he expanded the concept of the sanctity of the land to include not only the four holy cities but also the dozens of moshavot and settlements. He never pushed a Jew aside. He considered every Jew as the inheritor of a holy past and the father of a holy future. "I sought him but was unable to meet him. He had already departed on a long journey to America to help establish the yeshivot in Eretz 8

9 Moshe Tzvi Neiriyah Yisrael. Instead, I sought to gather some information about his deeds, for 'the deeds of the righteous are their selves.' From afar, I had an inkling of his spirit and even heard the notes of his soul; but I wanted to know what his everyday life was like. I happened to meet an elderly, wise Jew of the 'old yishuv' whose dress, beard, and curly white peiyot were all in the old sty Ie, and he was 'an old barrel full of old wine,' full to the brim with Torah, Talmud, and Midrash. We exchanged greetings. "He said, 'Thank God that Jews from all over the diaspora are making aliyah, rebuilding the ruins and resettling the wastelands by plowing, sowing and planting. Through God's lovingkindness, I merited to see it all.' "He continued, 'One who lived in the diaspora but abandoned his familiar routine and home and troubled himself to come here, and even more so to Jerusalem, is as if he observed the entire Torah. But an inhabitant of Eretz Yisrael who leaves the land, transgresses the entire Torah, for it is forbidden to abandon the wall of holiness even temporarily. ' "I seized the opportunity to touch on a matter that greatly interested me. Matter of factly, I asked him, 'But did not the Rav of Jerusalem leave for America?' "'The Rav!' he answered, 'Our Rav is different. He is permitted to leave, but not us simple folk. First of all, he went for a mitzvah, for the Torah and its honor. Secondly, who is like him, who can compare to him?' " 'Dear sir,' I asked, 'Do you ever meet with him?' "'Certainly,' he replied, 'I regularly visit the Se'udah Shelishit discourses to hear the holy words of his Torah. He grabs you and pulls you over the rooftops and over the mountain peaks; he raises you to the stars. During the week I sometimes manage to catch a word of his between the afternoon and evening prayers.' "'Amazing,' I said, 'I have heard that others think differently, that he has opponents?' " 'May God save us!' The old man leaped. 'One who values his soul wil stay away from them.... They can never stand in his place. He is so wholesome, perfect, and exalted.... I doubt if the generation is worthy of such a leader.... Even our teacher, Moses, didn't merit to find among his seventy elders such a pure figure.' " 'What are you talking about?' I said, 'Moses didn't find?' "He answered, 'God-fearing men he found, men of integrity he found, but haters of gain he didn't find. Everyone knows that no one hates gain like our Rav. He is unconcerned for money, as if it doesn't exist. 'He doesn't know the face of a coin.' This is what separates a coarse man from a refined one. No! A man was not found in the generation of our teacher, Moses, like our Rav in Jerusalem.' " 9

10 TRAITION: A Journal of Orthodox Thought TORAH OF KENESSET YISRAEL Rabbi Naftali Stern (whose remarkable memory enabled him to reiterate the Rav's speeches) told me: "I used to live in the Beit Yisrael section of Jerusalem and prayed in the beit midrash of the superb gaon, Rabbi Shimshon Polonski, the Teplik Rav. He was a great admirer of Rav Kook. When he heard that I attended the Rav's Se 'udah Shelishit discourses, he would ask me after the Sunday morning prayers to repeat the content of the talk. He had a unique expression for this request, 'Nu, Naftali, please repeat for me the Torah of Kenesset Yisrael!' When I reproduced the Rav's words, his eyes gleamed and he was enthralled." The Rav's entire life and teachings were dedicated to the salvation of the nation. Whenever he mentioned "Kenesset Yisrael" or "Klal Yisrael," he became very excited, as if he put into these words his entire being and aspirations. He wrote: "Happy is the man who considers himself as naught before all of Kenesset Yisrael, God's portion; whose thoughts, meditations, interests and longings, faith and ideas, are only one hidden desire to be totally absorbed in this treasury of life.... The inner recognition that we are shoots of a many branched'and fruit-laden tree of life, and that the more we are attached to the trunk of the tree the more complete and vibrant life we live, in the present and for eternity; only this knowledge wil advance the renewal of the nation toward its goal, awaken the end that we aspire to, and bring us a storehouse of salvation. "The remnant that God calls to, the pious of the generation, lofty holy men, must ignore any deficiency or negative aspects in every Jewish soul that is in any way attached to the Rock from which it was hewn. Instead, they must raise the general point in every iiidividual soul to its heights and exalted holiness. No cause or setback can diminish the unlimited love for the nation, our matrix of life, 'He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob nor has He seen perverseness in Israel; the Lord his God is with him, and the trumpet blast of a king is among them'" (Num. 23:21).10 MOTZEI SHABBAT In his commentary on the Siddur, Rav Kook wrote: "'Eliyahu the prophet sits every Motzei Shabbat under the tree of life and records the merits of Israel' (Maharil, end of Hilchot Shabbat). Therefore it is proper for anyone who feels the slightest attraction towards the secrets of Torah, which is a revelation of Eliyahu in some form, be it only imaginative, emotional, or intellectual, and especially if by God's grace he has risen to higher levels, to imitate Eliyahu and concern himself every Motzei Shabbat with the merits of IsraeL. 10

11 M oshe Tzvi N eiriyah "With clear intellectual cognition he should recognize the sanctity of Israel and its precious stature, and attach himself to the collective holy nation, the nation of God and His special inheritance, in which the appearance of the holy light of every individual is boundless, such that even upon the empty ones of Israel the entire world stands. One should quiver with holy awe at the sanctity of the lofty divine soul of every Jew and be filled with longing and eternal desire for the sanctity of the exalted glory of Israel in general and for the success of every individual Jew in all his material and spiritual pursuits. "From the depths of his soul he wil cry out and exclaim, 0 happy Israel! 'Fortunate are you Israel, what nation is like you, saved by God' (Deut. 33:29). I love you my people and nation, I desire you with all my heart and all my soul, with all the warmth of my heart I want you. With all the fire in my bones I long to see your glory, your beauty, and splendor; when you wil be exalted and arise; when you wil develop your beautiful character; when all your qualities and hidden wonders wil be actualized; when you wil be planted in your land, the land of your splendor, and your magnificent strength and exalted glory wil appear in the North and South, the East and West. 'And the nations shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name which the mouth of God shall designate. You wil also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the palm of your God'" (Is. 62:2-3).11 NOTES 1. Rabbi Avraham Y Kook, Shabbat haaretz (Jerusalem: Mossad HaRav Kook, 5739 (1979)), p. 8 (hakdamah). 2. Rabbi Avraham Y Kook, Olat Re'iyah II (Jerusalem: Mossad HaRav Kook, 5740 (1980)), p When the Gaon Rabbi Issar Zalman Meltzer eulogized the Rav, he mentioned, among other things, that "with his lightening comprehension, erudition, and acuteness he could have authored thousands of dialectic novellae and become famous like the author of the Tummim. But he set all this aside and devoted himself to writing Halakhah Berurah (a summary of the opinions of the major commentators) on the entire Talmud, for 'the Torah of truth was in his mouth'" (MaL. 2:6). 4. Hilel Zeitlin, Safran shel Yechidim (Jerusalem: Mossad HaRav Kook, 5740 (1980)), p Rabbi Avraham Y Kook, Ma'amarei HaRe'iyah (Jerusalem, 5740 (1980)), p Ibid., p Rabbi Avraham Y Kook, Letter to A., Kol Torah (Jerusalem: United Rabbinical Board, Iyar- Tammuz, 5690 (1930)), pp Rabbi Kalman E. Frankel, Shemu'ot Re'iyah (Jerusalem: Agudat HaSeneh, 5699 (1939)), pp Rabbi Shlomo Y Zevin, Ishim Veshitot (Jerusalem: Beit Hilel), p Rabbi Avraham Y Kook, Orot (Jerusalem: Mossad HaRav Kook, 5723 (1963)), p Rabbi Avraham Y Kook, Olat Re'iyah II, p