Besides for that, his high-minded ideas make for a thought provoking discussion. I believe this is great classroom fodder for teachers. Sometime my chavruta and I would start just one line, have an argument for the next two hours about something it brought up, and then find ourselves 2 hours later still only at the first line.For those who have never read R. Kook and don’t understand why there is such excitement every time a new collection is published, I suggest you do the following: Take one of the volumes and sit with it for an hour, just going through it, page after page. Odds are that you will be hooked. The originality that you find, and the power of his writing, is just breathtaking. It is impossible not to sense the power of his spirit, and it draws you in.
I discussed a bit in a previous post Maimonides view of God, and whether he believed in a personal God, a transcendental God, or something else. Related to that, an interesting aggadata in Talmud Berachot 48a caught my eye, and I thought it might have something to do with this topic. As I suspected, Rav Kook has a fascinating piece on this, and I want to write it out.
אמר רב נחמן קטן היודע למי מברכין מזמנין עליו אביי ורבא הוו יתבי קמיה דרבה אמר להו רבה למי מברכין אמרי ליה לרחמנא ורחמנא היכא יתיב רבא אחוי לשמי טללא אביי נפק לברא אחוי כלפי שמיא אמר להו רבה תרווייכו רבנן הויתו היינו דאמרי אינשי בוצין בוצין מקטפיה ידיע
R. Nahman said: A boy [not yet 13] who knows to Whom one blesses may be counted for zimmun. Abaye and Raba were once sitting in the presence of Rabbah. Said Rabbah to them: To whom are we blessing? They replied: To the All-Merciful One. And where does the All-Merciful abide? Raba pointed to the roof; Abaye went outside and pointed to the sky. Said Rabbah to them: Both of you will become Rabbis. This is the popular saying: Every pumpkin can be told from its stalk.
What about their answers were so noteworthy that Rabbah saw them as budding rabbis?
Meharsha suggests that they really had no clue what Rabbah was asking of them, they just repeated what their father and teachers taught them, a sign that they could repeat what they learned, even if they didn't understand something. His evidence is from the fact that they couldn't even say it, they had to show it to him, like their teachers taught them.
I found a commentary I know nothing about called "Ein Yisrael" by R. Yisroel Isser Shapira, in which he says a very intriguing understanding of this aggadata. He says that Rava pointed to the ceiling to point out that the question is ridiculous, God doesn't "abide" anywhere, and so he pointed to the ceiling, sarcastically. Abaye responded by saying that we can say that God is in heaven, as it says "The heavens declare the glory of God..." (Psalm 19:). Even if we can't hear what they're saying, we can look at the heavens and feel the glory of God. Rabbah felt that was the makings of a deep argument, and he knew they would be rabbis one day.
Rav Kook has a different idea, and everything that follows is my interpretation of his beautiful piece on this.
There is a natural inclination towards seeking knowledge of God, and there are different ways that people have gone about doing it. Some have come to know God through definitions and measurements. For example, it might be by examining the physical world, clarifying the properties of everything, seeing how everything fits into categories and definitions; one comes to appreciate a kind of unity in the world. The same kind of person studies the Torah, create categories and figure out its halachic system, and through that he cleaves to God and knows His name.
But there are also some people with whom seeking logic and definitions are not enough for them, they want to think ideas loftier than that, with a kind of higher sense. They don't limit themselves to specificity within definitions. They want to reach higher than what can be expressed, they want to speak in the language of feeling, the heart's language. Through this lofty inner sense, though, they recognize that there's a need, an obligation towards the perfection of humanity. They come to realize that humanity's perfection comes through them upholding definite definitions, meaning the Torah's halacha.
Similar to this is how the Rambam in the Guide for the Perplexed (1:15) explained the angels in Yaakov's dream, which were going up and down the ladder. For while those angels (prophets) were rising up, the lofty ideals of the heart getting them closer and closer to God as He is, yet they still had to go down, to guide the political leaders, a limitation.
Therefore, Rava pointed to the roof. He was a person who found God in the details, whose inclination was towards diligence and industry in the confines of the particular. This manifested itself even in his youth, to find peace of mind in the shade of the tent, to use this to bring himself towards a higher purpose.
But Abaye, though he was broad-minded, his inner understanding reaching higher than any confine, though it was against his inner nature to attempt to express an answer to a question like "Where does God abide?", he went outside and pointed to the heavens, pointed to somewhere vast, an endlessness.
"This is the popular saying: Every pumpkin can be told from its stalk." - For one's psychological makeup is already present in his youth, so much so that others can already see which path would be best for him to go down to fully develop his passions.
The sages say (Rosh Hashana 18b), "Rava learned Torah for 40 years, while Abaye learned Torah and performed acts of kindness for 60 years." For, someone whose high-minded spirit lifts him to yearn for his purpose in life, he cannot imprison his passion to only one means of fulfillment; he'll seek any way, any fulfilling goal, to pursue his purpose. It's not his character to hold back, he can't stop himself from helping others, to go to people, as part of his perfection.
But Rava found "his delight in the law of God" (Psalms 1:2). It would be impossible for him to separate himself from his love of Torah, which continually thrived. Only in it did he find happiness, his purpose, lifting him in its holiness. Someone like this, who walks down the path of definitions and limitations, practical wisdom comes easy for him. He merited that in his arguments with Abaye, the halacha would be more according him. Rabbi Meir did not merit that the halacha should go according to him for this reason, for although he was considered the greatest of his generation, (Eruvin 13b) "his colleagues could not fathom the depths of his mind." He was not focused on the practical aspects, instead his mind was lofty and reaching great heights, higher than his colleagues. [See my understanding of that gemara here]
Though both these paths are valid and good, considered paths of life and holiness, a person who is the type to definitions and restrictions, where practicality comes easily to him, it is better that the halacha be set according to him. Perhaps this is why the prophets did not set halacha through prophecy, but rather a concrete type of wisdom, through the way of the Torah.
[Me:] This distinction in religious approaches also was the main break between the Chassidim, who emphasized feeling, and the Misnagdim, who emphasized the law. I want to return to this at some point.
-------------------
8/1/16
I read a poem today that may complicate the neat categories which Rav Kook delineates. The mathematician, the scientist, Rav Kook believes they find God in the confines of the particular. But what if the spirituality in measuring the horizons actually broadens them, removes their veneer, reaches through to the infinite?
Geometry, by Rita Dove
I prove a theorem and the house expands:
the windows jerk free to hover near the ceiling,
the ceiling floats away with a sigh.
As the walls clear themselves of everything
but transparency, the scent of carnations
leaves with them. I am out in the open
And above the windows have hinged into butterflies,
sunlight glinting where they've intersected.
They are going to some point true and unproven.
There is a natural inclination towards seeking knowledge of God, and there are different ways that people have gone about doing it. Some have come to know God through definitions and measurements. For example, it might be by examining the physical world, clarifying the properties of everything, seeing how everything fits into categories and definitions; one comes to appreciate a kind of unity in the world. The same kind of person studies the Torah, create categories and figure out its halachic system, and through that he cleaves to God and knows His name.
But there are also some people with whom seeking logic and definitions are not enough for them, they want to think ideas loftier than that, with a kind of higher sense. They don't limit themselves to specificity within definitions. They want to reach higher than what can be expressed, they want to speak in the language of feeling, the heart's language. Through this lofty inner sense, though, they recognize that there's a need, an obligation towards the perfection of humanity. They come to realize that humanity's perfection comes through them upholding definite definitions, meaning the Torah's halacha.
Similar to this is how the Rambam in the Guide for the Perplexed (1:15) explained the angels in Yaakov's dream, which were going up and down the ladder. For while those angels (prophets) were rising up, the lofty ideals of the heart getting them closer and closer to God as He is, yet they still had to go down, to guide the political leaders, a limitation.
Therefore, Rava pointed to the roof. He was a person who found God in the details, whose inclination was towards diligence and industry in the confines of the particular. This manifested itself even in his youth, to find peace of mind in the shade of the tent, to use this to bring himself towards a higher purpose.
But Abaye, though he was broad-minded, his inner understanding reaching higher than any confine, though it was against his inner nature to attempt to express an answer to a question like "Where does God abide?", he went outside and pointed to the heavens, pointed to somewhere vast, an endlessness.
"This is the popular saying: Every pumpkin can be told from its stalk." - For one's psychological makeup is already present in his youth, so much so that others can already see which path would be best for him to go down to fully develop his passions.
The sages say (Rosh Hashana 18b), "Rava learned Torah for 40 years, while Abaye learned Torah and performed acts of kindness for 60 years." For, someone whose high-minded spirit lifts him to yearn for his purpose in life, he cannot imprison his passion to only one means of fulfillment; he'll seek any way, any fulfilling goal, to pursue his purpose. It's not his character to hold back, he can't stop himself from helping others, to go to people, as part of his perfection.
But Rava found "his delight in the law of God" (Psalms 1:2). It would be impossible for him to separate himself from his love of Torah, which continually thrived. Only in it did he find happiness, his purpose, lifting him in its holiness. Someone like this, who walks down the path of definitions and limitations, practical wisdom comes easy for him. He merited that in his arguments with Abaye, the halacha would be more according him. Rabbi Meir did not merit that the halacha should go according to him for this reason, for although he was considered the greatest of his generation, (Eruvin 13b) "his colleagues could not fathom the depths of his mind." He was not focused on the practical aspects, instead his mind was lofty and reaching great heights, higher than his colleagues. [See my understanding of that gemara here]
Though both these paths are valid and good, considered paths of life and holiness, a person who is the type to definitions and restrictions, where practicality comes easily to him, it is better that the halacha be set according to him. Perhaps this is why the prophets did not set halacha through prophecy, but rather a concrete type of wisdom, through the way of the Torah.
[Me:] This distinction in religious approaches also was the main break between the Chassidim, who emphasized feeling, and the Misnagdim, who emphasized the law. I want to return to this at some point.
-------------------
8/1/16
I read a poem today that may complicate the neat categories which Rav Kook delineates. The mathematician, the scientist, Rav Kook believes they find God in the confines of the particular. But what if the spirituality in measuring the horizons actually broadens them, removes their veneer, reaches through to the infinite?
Geometry, by Rita Dove
I prove a theorem and the house expands:
the windows jerk free to hover near the ceiling,
the ceiling floats away with a sigh.
As the walls clear themselves of everything
but transparency, the scent of carnations
leaves with them. I am out in the open
And above the windows have hinged into butterflies,
sunlight glinting where they've intersected.
They are going to some point true and unproven.
Awesome.
ReplyDelete