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RAV
KOOK’S LETTERS By
Rav Tamir Granot Lecture
#12b: Letter
44, Sections G-H
We shall now continue with sections G and H of Letter 44, along with
explanatory notes. G.
It seems to me that there is no need for me to speak with you in detail about
the wondrous matter of the Ayin,[1]
and of the conundrum of the unity of opposites.[2]
All this derives from a casual look within and an unwavering [look]
outward.[3]
The exalted Jewish thought will not tolerate the disunity of opposites,[4]
for how could it be possible for us to see in the entire sensible world that
life and all ordered properties are built by the collection and harmonization of
opposites – positive and negative,[5]
cold and heat, male and female[6]
– while the world of ideas is a wilderness, barren and desolate, decomposed and
rotten, without connection and relation, only turmoil and confusion.[7] They
are certainly mistaken, those who think that there are no opposites and that
everything is revealed in one color.
This is intellectual color-blindness.[8] But
how true and clear it is that the lofty partzufim[9]
throughout the spiritual world, revealed in all percipients' souls,[10]
in any place and level where there is soul and cognition,[11]
join and unite, harmonize and connect as they do in the lower world, and
invisible colors become revealed as perceptible hues.[12]
How good, how pleasant, how true, and how joyful is this great and strong law
that guides man beyond mortality.
"When you walk, it will lead you; when you lie down, it will keep you;
and when you awake, it will walk with you."[13]
It is simply and straightforwardly understood that all we see, hear, and feel
about any subject, especially about moral and intellectual matters, and even
more so about divine matters, are mere guises and appellations, under which lies
the true content, more enduring and more alive and united, through which all
things unite.[14]
All cognitions are particular facets of the inner form, partially revealed by
inner images,[15] in
the manner that one part of the ocean is revealed to someone standing beside
it.[16]
Only by connecting many perspectives can we approach the perception of the
whole, even though [its parts] certainly seem to contradict one another. If this
is the case in the objective world,[17]
how much more so in the subjective world,[18]
where we must see only the beauty, the compatibility, and the inner
picture,[19] about
which our mere ability to explain and unite them unites and connects them. Only a deficiency of outlook can seek to
disrupt and separate, or even be lax in unifying, as this, too, is a philosophy
of indolence.[20] Even
if our words serve to broaden the intellect and augment the courage only of
those who stand within [those who are religious], who are whole of heart even
without us, it is also extremely beneficial, in that if these people are
themselves [kept] healthy, they will also be able to heal and uplift
others…[21] H.
Were I to write a "book," [of philosophy] I would certainly explore the depths
of the content of the mind, to propose a system [explaining] why it is that we
should not fear all the divisions of heretical diatribes.[22]
Not only have we nothing to fear, but, on the contrary, we should be joyous, for
we can show that these very tendencies that seem harmful and contradictory to
the cumulative foundation of any belief and religion only bring the world closer
to the house of the Lord of Jacob, exalted and lofty.[23]
All the intellectual heresies deal only with that aspect of imagination that is
found naturally connected to feelings of faith,[24]
and this aspect of imagination must come to an end and disappear, but the good
thing that it causes in the world must be left established and
well-rooted.[25]
Clear and firm concepts, free of any misleading fantasy, can only be found
according to the profound plan of the purified divine unity, which is the basis
of Israel's source.[26]
In a "book," one must certainly explain everything in detail, according to one's
ability, to indicate what fundamental idea are and how we can approach the, by
refuting misleading fancies and showing how [by their purification] they can
together be vibrant, reliable, and delightful, strongly influencing the living
and real world. But such a "book"
would have to be extremely long.
Even were it as short and concise as possible, it would be practically
impossible to accomplish the task properly in one book and one
generation. Therefore,
our main aim must be raising the glory of Israel's inner wisdom,[27]
drawing it from wherever it can be drawn, so that not even a drop will be lost
from this well-sealed cistern. [It
must be] not only a body of moral
literature, or research , or philosophy, or kabbala, each single-faceted,
but rather a raising of the value and broadening of knowledge of Jewish and
human thought from its deepest roots, ascending beyond all the ideas of the
world, beating out with a strong hand all that doctrines and religions, their
principle roots, ramifications, and pathways, confidently scanning their
essences and purposes, and putting them all into an ordered, hierarchic system,
until it finds the cumulative Partzuf of mankind, the "Book of
Adam,"[28]
completely and fundamentally, until it unites the revealed with the hidden, the
past with the present, and both with the future.[29]
And with all this continually widening expanse, it confidently approaches
Israel's particular treasure of life, wherein it finds all, all the seeds of
growth from bliss and life, until it need kill nothing. It transforms all into
light, darkness to brilliance bitterness into sweetness. This is the Torah
completed by the head of the yeshiva in the palace of the Messiah. But I have
written only articles, just simple observations, poor and insignificant. That
will only help awaken the heart of wise, exceptional men. The awakening of the
heart will bear its fruit. This, with its mighty proclamation, must begin in the
Land of Israel. This is my desire and hope. The
letter continues from this point and addresses things that we already saw about
socialism and liberalism as well as several other incidental comments. We will
conclude our study of it here. [Translated
by [1] On one hand, we say "there is nothing but Him,” thereby nullifying the
realness of the existence of our world (acosmism), but on the other hand we are
cognizant of its real and multiple being. How can these opposites be
reconciled? [2] More generally speaking, the problem (which has roots in kabbala
and chasidut [especially Chabad and R. Tzadok Ha-Cohen of Lublin] and in
the new philosophy [especially the idealists – in Rav Kook’s context Hegel and
Schelling in particular should be mentioned]) is the contradictions between true
ideas: how can one account, from an analytic perspective, for the existence of
opposing theories about the universe, goodness, truth, etc.? The doctrine of the
unification of opposites attempts to provide the metaphysical or logical
hardware for the incorporation of opposing
ideas. [3] In other words, the world of phenomena is given the status of absolute
truth, and they do not consider things from the perspective of inner wisdom, the
contemplation of the interiority of things. [4] From the perspective of theology, as will be clarified
below. [5] He is referring to magnetism. This is the primary model used by the
German philosopher Schelling in his philosophy of
science. [6] The coupling of the opposites male and female does not negate; rather it
is the source of life. [7] Since in the material world the encounter of opposites is the basis of
life, it can be hypothesized that this is the case in the spiritual world as
well. The lack of fruitfulness of contradictory ideas and the conception that
they cannot coexist do not only cause contradiction and confusion, but also a
trampling of God in favor of a barren and unproductive spiritual
world. [8] Rav Kook vehemently rejects dogmatic, unambivalent philosophical
positions. IN the world of ideas there is room for opposing opinions and even
different worldviews; the failure to understand this truth is an intellectual
failure. [9] In this metaphor, Rav Kook also alludes to the well-known principle of
Lurianic kabbala that Divinity can appear as five partzufin
(faces): the Arikh Anpin (‘long face,’ Keter), Abba
(‘father,’ Chokhma), Eema (‘mother,’ Bina), Ze’eir
Anpin (‘short face,’ the six lower sefirot), and Nukva
(‘female,’ Malkhut). Each partzuf is a different facet of the
Divine revelation, and this is indeed one of the meanings of the unification of
opposites: the single, indivisible source is disclosed in various
ways. [10] This is also a kabbalistic principle, emphasized in chasidut and
especially Chabad: the multiplicity of partzufim in the spiritual realms
(see the previous note) is also manifest as the multiplicity of partzufim
in personality and intelligence, since a human in the nether worlds is a model
of Divinity above. The principle of an essence, a basic soul, that has various
modes of expression and action, is preserved in all
worlds. [11] 'The lower world" (alma tata'a) means this
world. This apparently refers to the harmonization of opposites in the natural
world, as described above. [12] One day, To explain this, I will cite what I found in the Pitchei
She’arim: The explanation of this matter relates to how we understand the eye of
inferior man, which we may then use as a model for understanding the lights of
Atzilut. It is known that the sense of sight originates in the brain
through the brains membranes and pipelines that continue into the inner pupil,
where the power of sight makes its impressions. All sight is along three lines –
red, green, and white – as alluded in the verse “as a hart (ayal =
adom, yarok, and lavan; red, green and
white) pines for brooks of water,’ which are the neve”h levels of
eyes, as I will explain below. But they are yet spiritual, and when they are
enclothed in the eye itself, the colors are impressed upon it actually. Thus,
the issue of vision is that the light breaks through into the eye to the object
of consideration and then rebounds, and the object considered is impressed into
the eye itself, and that is vision. In truth, if the sense of sight were to pass
through the eye without becoming enclothed, it would have not boundary or color.
It would continue to the ends of the earth but would not be able to return with
the image of the object considered. But once there is a barrier and screen on
vision, the spark that passes from the eye to the object considered has a
boundary, and it returns as reflected light to be impressed in the eye
itself. Thus we find that the eye has three levels, each of which is of three,
that the power of vision when it leaves the brain is very spiritual, imbued with
the power of the soul and including the matter of the three colors. But there,
before they spread out, they are included in one, for there is no
differentiation of color there. When it reaches the eye, the three colors begin
to be distinguished. But it is still not sensed until it passes from the eye and
returns in the form of reflected light from the object considered back to the
eye itself. We have similarly found these same three levels in sunlight. At first is
the actual initial light that was created on the first day on which He looked
from one end of the world to the other. He then hid that light, as stated in an
aggadic midrash that the light was hidden within the sun itself, and this
is the second level. The third level is when the sun shines through the clouds,
and the sunlight is then impressed on it and reflected back through the mask
created by the cloud, when all three colors are clearly impressed upon the
cloud. These are the three colors of the rainbow, as it is written, ‘and I shall
see it and remember the everlasting covenant.’ (Pitchei She’arim,
Netiv Partzuf Avraham Avinu, Gate 16)
The visible colors are the colors that are discernible: various hues,
different aspects of behavior or modes of expression. The imperceptible hues are
the source of the visible colors, but are in a state of being part of the source
– the soul, light, Divinity, mutatis mutandis – such that these unique
aspects cannot be seen by human sense or thought. The patriarch attained
understanding of the Divine unity through the expressed colors and ideas (the
various sefirot related to them). Moshe, who saw ‘through a bright
glass,’ grasped the unity of opposites that exists within the Divine perfection
itself, at its root. [13] Mishlei
6:22. I do not know why this verse was brought
here. [14] This is essentially an explanation of the idea of partzufim that
was cited above. If we view the world as an enclothement and know that it
expresses an inner fundamental in all its levels – matter, spirit, emotions,
ideas, etc. – we may know its basic unity. [15] The "inner images" are kabbalistic metaphors that teach us about the
various facets of Divine manifestation within reality: partzufim,
sefirot, etc. [16] The ocean has many aspects. Those who stand by it on different coasts and
different corners will apprehend it – its size, shape, or color – differently,
each according to his own horizons. Each sees a partial image. Only by combining
the horizons of the many observers
- which would seem to be in dispute with each other if we allowed their
words to oppose each other without knowing that they indeed refer to the same
ocean but that each observer only saw part of it – only such a combination can
give us a complete picture of the ocean. [17] Science and even ontology. [18] Spiritual concepts, ideas, feelings,
etc. [19] Rav Kook presents three examinations here: a. “beauty” = harmony: the
opposites do not need a solution. On the contrary, their very opposition must
generate a beautiful, aesthetic spiritual world whose beauty lies in its
variety; b. “compatibility” = coherence – the various opinions complement each
other and create solidarity; c. “inner picture” – the manner in which we
comprehend the ideas and explain them; through interpretation and reworking,
something contradictory can be transformed into a reinforcement or
complement. [20] I.e.: philosophy remains with the superficial view of contradiction and
makes no effort to clarify the root of the
matter. [21] Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook notes that several words are missing here, and it is
indeed difficult to understand the last sentence, though it does not hinder the
general progression of ideas. [22] The new Orthodoxy called itself “Chareidi” – trembling.” The basic
meaning is, of course, to “tremble at the word of God” (cf. Yeshayahu
66:5), but it also ‘trembled’ from the anti-religious polemic and its
contexts. [23] This is a prophecy of Yeshayahu’s prophecy: “And it shall come to pass in
the end of days, that the mountain of God’s house shall be established as the
top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills… And many peoples
shall go and say: 'Come, and let us go up to the mountain of God, to the house
of the God of Yaakov; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His
paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth Torah, and the word of God from
Jerusalem” (Yeshayahu 2:2-3). Rav Kook refers to the fact that the
nations will learn faith, as prophesied by Yeshayahu, from Israel alone, and
therefore the heresy in the religious musings of the nations actually brings
them closer, paradoxically, to the possibility of accepting the true
faith. [24] This is Rav Kook’s basic idea regarding heresy: heresy is not against
faith itself, but against the various imaginings of the Divine that folk
religion created – which is essentially an expression of man’s natural religious
inclination and not based on pure intellect, and certainly not on
revelation. [25] Religious feeling is basically positive, and it has a positive effect on
culture, whereas the concepts created by religion are often false. The positive
results of the religious inclination must be preserved, but its erroneous
concepts must be replaced. [26] As explained above at length in this
letter. [27] This does not refer to kabbalistic literature narrowly defined, since
later in the same sentence Rav Kook mentions kabbala as one of the
particular sources of truth. Rather, it refers to methodology, the inner
contemplation that tries to get to the root of the various categories and
opinions and to create a worldview that has room for all manifestations of
ideology and culture in general. See the first sections of Part A of Orot
Ha-kodesh. [28] One of the sources of the “Book of Adam” is the following: “R. Nechemia
says: Whence do we derive that one human is equivalent to all of creation? For
it says ‘this is the book of the generations of man’ (Bereishit 5:1) and
later it says ‘these are the generations of the heavens and the earth upon their
creation’ (ibid. 2:4); just as later there is creation and action, so too
here there is creation and action. This teaches that God showed Adam all of the
future generations that will descend from him as though they are standing (and
playing) right before him… a parable to which this can be compared – to one who
took a tree and wished to draw many forms, but there is no space to draw so he
is pained, but he draws on the ground and then goes on and makes a great
separation. So too God, may His great Name be blessed forever, created the
entire world in His wisdom and understanding and created the up[per and lower
heavens and earth. And he created in man everything that he created in the
world” (Avot de-Rabbi Natan ch. 31). This midrash, to which Rav
Zvi Yehuda refers in a footnote, beautifully expresses the idea of the unity of
creation. The world is the book of man in two senses: first, all of creation is
made according to the human model; secondly, humanity is an organic whole, and
its multiplicity reverts back to its source – symbolized by Adam. The kabbalists
supplemented this idea when they described the expressed Divinity as having a
human form, that is: the basic code of creation is made in the form of man, and
thus all expressions of culture and the human spirit are different aspects of
the archetypal human expression. [29] This turn to inner wisdom is not coincidental. It makes sense that its
main purpose is unity, and the turn to all the various sources and to all the
realms of time and culture is its original
character. |
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