Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Righting the wrong before Rosh Hashana


The Short Vort
by 
Ron Yitzchok Eisenman, Rabbi, Congregation Ahavas Israel, Passaic, NJ 
Tip: SK
Today is Sunday the 5th of Elul 5774 and August 31, 2014

*Righting the Wrong*

Today in 1935 Rav Avraham Yitzchok HaKohen Kook Zt”l passed away.
His actual Yahrtzeit was on the third of Elul (which was Friday),
however, the secular date that year was August 31, 1935.


Rav Kook who lived from 1865-1935 was the first Chief Rabbi of
Palestine in the twentieth century.
He was a great Talmudic scholar, halachik adjudicator, teacher,
thinker and a compassionate and kind and beloved Rav.


Many of his followers study his works and attempt to emulate his
personality as seen through his teachings and his students.

However, the tragedy of Rav Kook Zt”l is that through a
‘revisionism' of the past and because of those who resort to
Orwellian techniques to rewrite history, many average Frum Jew when they hears the name of Rav Kook, the image which pops up in their mind is a sandal wearing, perhaps guitar strutting ‘semi-observant' ‘rabbi' who might be sporting Bermuda shorts and whose Talmudic learning is limited to reading translated portions of Gemara in English while trimming his fashionable goatee and wearing a bottle-cap size yarmulke covering his right ear as it tips precipitously off his head.


He is too often portrayed as a Rav who interested in finding all types of questionable halachik leniencies which have minimal if any halachik substance.
He is thought of as a cavalier and careless rabbi who vacillated
between true Orthodoxy and those other denominations whose halachik acceptability is shaky at best.

However, worst of all, is the fact that outright untruths and vicious
lies have been promulgated about him that during his life time, the
‘true' and authentic Torah leaders of his time distanced themselves
from him and dismissed him as second rate rabbi of no consequence.


One gets the impression after listening to these revisionists that if
we would be transported back to Yerushalayim of the 1920s we would find Rav Kook surrounded by a cadre of secular followers with maybe a handful of lukewarm Orthodox ignoramuses sitting and half listening to his far fetched and perhaps semi-heretical ideas about Torah and Judaism.


People have disseminated the ‘fact' that the real ‘Gedolim' of
Eretz Yisroel had no contact with this ‘radical' and they will even
claim that his books were banned because of their heretical content.


*Nothing could be further from the truth.*

*And this is a ‘wrong' which must be ‘righted'!*

Let me be clear, I do not study too often his works because of their
difficult and what I find almost cryptic language.
Let me also disclose from the outset, that my Rabbeim rarely used his Seforim as his scholarly approach to Talmud and Jewish thought was clearly not your standard Lithuanian bent.


His approach certainly bordered more on the Chassidic and on the
Kabbalistic and neither of these important disciplines were part and
parcel of your typical Lithuanian styled yeshiva curriculum in which all of my Rabbeim were educated in (and are still not).

therefore, I am not advocating the study of his works per se, as I
am no equipped to make that determination.

However, what I am advocating is the following.
Irrespective of his unique and semi-Chassidic/Kabbalistic approach to Torah and Judaism 


*one wrong must be righted./*

And that is the clear and unchallenged fact that he was considered in his lifetime as a true and authentic Gadol.
Indeed, ‘the righting of this wrong' is one of greatest testimonials
to truth that a person can contribute to today's misunderstanding of
this great and beloved and respected Gadol HaDor.


Please do not take my word on the issue.
Please allow his ‘peers' to do the talking for me and then you can
decide on your own.


Here is a list of ten ‘authentic' Gedolim and what they said or
wrote about Rav Kook Zt”l.


1. **The Imrei Emes *
/(HaRav Avraham Mordechai Alter (25 December 1866 - 3 June 1948), also
known as the *Imrei Emes*, was the third Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Ger, a position he held from 1905 until his death in 1948. He was one of the founders of the Agudas Israel in Poland and was influential in establishing a network of Jewish schools there. It is claimed that at one stage he led over 200,000 Hasidim. Wikipedia)/

He refers to Rav Kook as an *“Ish HaEshkolos”* which is a title
reserved for someone who contains ‘everything' (Torah, Mishna,
Talmud, and Aggadah). (See Shir HaShirim Raba 1:60).
It is title given to some who has Torah, Middos and Chesed (see T.B Temurah 15a and T.B. Sota 47b).

It is a title reserved for Moshe Rabbeinu and Rabbi Akiva!
And it is the title which the Gerrer Rebbe referred to Rav Kook with in an open letter to his Chassidim in 1924 (page 78 “Osef Mechtavim of Admor M'Ger”) 


2. *Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski* : 

"Our friend, the Gaon, our master and teacher, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, shlita" and "The Glory of Honor, My Dear Friend, Ha-Rav Ha-Gaon, Ha-Gadol, the Famous One... The Prince
of Torah, Our Teacher, Ha-Rav Avraham Yitzchak Ha-Kohen Kook Shlit”a..."


3. *Rav Boruch Ber Leibowitz*:

 "The true Gaon, the beauty and glory of the generation, the tzaddik, his holiness, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak, may his light shine, may he live for length of good days and years amen,
the righteous Kohen, head of the beis din [court] in Jerusalem, the
holy city, may it soon be built and established"


4. *Rav Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn of Lubavitch*: 
"The Gaon who is renowned with splendor among the Geonim of Ya'akov, Amud HaYemini, Patish HaChazak..."

5. *Rav Chatzkel Abramsky*

"The honored man, beloved of Hashem and
his nation, the rabbi, the Gaon, great and well-known, with breadth of knowledge, the glory of the generation, etc., etc., our master Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, shlita, Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel and the head of the Beis Din in the holy city of Jerusalem"


6. *Rav Yitzchok Hutner*
"The glorious honor of our master, our teacher and rabbi, the great Gaon, the crown and sanctity of Israel,
Maran [our master] Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, shlita!"


7. *Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer and Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein*

"Our honored friend, the great Gaon and glory of the generation, our master and teacher, Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen, shlita"

8. *The Brisker Rov- Rav Yitzchok Zev HaLevi Soloveitchik*: “To his honor the Rav, the great and famous Gaon, and the honor of the generation…Chief Rabbi of Yerushalayim…”

*9. **The Satmar Rebbe- Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum- *

When asked why he refused to meet with Rav Kook- the Rebbe answered: “I certainly won't be able to influence him, and on the contrary, /I am afraid that he might influence me/.” 
(The Rebbe; Rabbi Dovid Meisels; page 43).
From this honest admission from the Satmar Rebbe we see how even he realized how great and persuasive and what erudition Rav Kook possessed as the Satmar Rebbe was not known as a man to back away from his position.
(One has to question how honestly the Satmar believed in his own
worldview if he refused to meet with someone who would and ostensibly /could /change his entire worldview; however, that is for another discussion.)


*10. **Rav Zvi Pesach Frank -* Rav of Yerushalayim. 

As is well known Rav Frank was active in establishing the office of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and was instrumental in appointing Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook as the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi.
I believe these ten Gedolim speak for all of us (or certainly should)
in establishing the fact that even if many of the aforementioned
Gedolim did not necessarily embrace the views of Rav Kook,
nevertheless, they respected him and accepted him as their peer and
their fellow Gadol.


If there is one aspect of Teshuva we can all engage in during this
month of Elul as we prepare for the Day of Judgment and we all desire to be judged fairly, let's begin by ‘judging' someone who deserves the reverence and admiration that our teachers and great Torah leaders accorded him during his life time.


It is high time that all of us when we mention the name of Rav Kook we should do it with the same love and respect we show to all the Gedolim of the last generation.

In the merit of ‘righting this wrong' and judging he who truly
deserves respect and love and reverence ‘fairly', may Hashem judge
all of us with compassion and mercy.

/“If Not Now- Then When?”- Hillel/
Ron Yitzchok Eisenman, Rabbi, Congregation Ahavas Israel, Passaic, NJ

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

A big shekoach to you, Rabbi Eisenman.
May he be a maylitz yosher for us in these difficult times.



the Derby

Anonymous said...

it was so righteously pointed out, that most of what these gedolim wrote about 'kuk', was before he veered off track, or while the jury was still out, however, later when he openly said those 'kfirah or close to kfirah' sayings, most every gadol distanced themselves from him. some gedolim especially.those in eretz yisroel who were more knowledgeable in what his deyos were, thought that what the satmar rebbe said wasnt enough, & that he is a skana to the ruchnios of klal yisroel, which proved to be 100% correct, by the way its exactly right that in the last few years of his life, he was left mostly with 'kipot serugot', because the ehrliche yidden left him, witness that now his followers wear those kipot, so please dont be 'tola kilelato baacherim', trying to do a 'orwell 84', & putting the blame on others, it aint going to work, the charedi tzibbur knows exactly where they stand with 'kuk', & that is, his place in Jewish history is alongside the masisim umadichim.

Anonymous said...

the name of that book is ''an angel'', we should add ''the yetzer Hora samech mem'', unfortunately he distributed his deos kozvos, just like the real yetzer Hora, he was his shaliach, chote umachty es horabim, in the way of yeravam Ben nvaat, maybe even surpassing him, being that it seems after yeravam the generations after him, didnt follow in ''his'' ways, whereas ''kuk'' who was ressurected posthumously, is credited (debited) for the aveiros of his current followers (kipot serugos).

Anonymous said...

Klal yisroel (shomrei tora umitzvos, hut a guten shmek), it is no wonder that by the end of his life a.y. Kook lost practically most if not all of his constituency, & also none that were his type, ie chasidim, while those few that remained with him were basically zionist chilonim, and thats his legacy till moshiachs day, no amount of PR or BS will change that, im sure that in olam haames where he sees what he did he totally regrets all that, do his poor neshama nidacha a favor, dont stick up for him, you are only ''pouring oil on the fire'' (of his geihinom), & ''salt on his wounds''.

Anonymous said...

The satmar rebbe, wrote this condemnation of kook, at the behest of the eretz yisroel rabbonim, he mentions the badatz and the rav of yerushalayim, the badatz was comprised by geonei ugdolei hador, and the gavad was the holy gaon & tzadik harav sonenfeld, so as you see, those rabbanim that were in close proximity to where kook spread his deyos kozvos, were totally against him, without exception, & wrote to the gedolim to ask their help in eradicating ''kooks'' influence, therefore all what the chutz laaretz gedolim wrote praising him is meaningless, some not being aware of kooks about face against the Torah, while others werent sure not having heard clearly & were still pondering the evidence, & meanwhile holding the statusquo,no amount of zionist inspired propaganda will help, as he is considered a 'one track minded zionist', by shelomei emunei yisroel, in lashan hakodesh a ''mumar ledavar echad'', mumar lechal hatorah.

Anonymous said...


OH MY... Just stepped into dog-doo & horse Hoo-Ha...what's this ??!!

Hard to understand this Nachash Hakadmoni's yeshivish-litvish mishmash Babel-babble, baby-prattle, of 15 tongues?.. I got the gist of it.. so here's my response to this evil ignorant shameless dog who has a semi-human voice...

To the liar and revisionist 1;31, 1;14, 1:02.

Had you been a goyishe anti-Semite I'd have told you to Drop Dead... But you, I urge to do tshuvah... No need to pin-point respond to this klavteh because that's what he wants... an extended conversation so he can spit his venom... He's already told us on another thread that he's leaving here... "good riddance" were his words, yet he's back again despite his rebbe/rav/gadol/ Daas Torah forbidding him.. So how much credibility does this recidivist thug have anyway? Less than zero..!!!... It's his right of course, as much as dogs have rights to bark and Belorussian katchkes to pass gas... Responding to his lying, angry cow Hoo-Ha, is what he wants... let's just be very, very glad and appreciative of R' Eisenman and enjoy the day..

the Derby... petitioning to stay the summer a month longer..

Anonymous said...

Of course you want the summer to extend another month, so that you can be matamei your eyes with reuyos asuros......., back to the point, we know that the thing you really cant swallow, is being proven wrong, 'der emes tut vaai', I wont even answer with your own words, 'tut tshuva', why? Because 'kal baehu lo yeshuvun', chazal add ' kol haporeish miminus.........', that puts you in a pretty awkward position, dammned if I do & dammned if I dont, pity pity........

Anonymous said...

So as I change shoes, I notice another pile at 7:18..
But now I know better than to step into it again. I'm old school---- fool me one, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. So I'm now DOOing my best to watch my step. A clock punching zhlubb like me must DOO with only 2 pair, so must wait till my mother-in-law treats me to a new pair for Succos.


the Derby.. Concerned for the public's shoes ; holding a yellow & red CAUTION sign in your neighborhood as a chessed-do (pardon the pun)

Anonymous said...

OOOOOOpppsss...

Der Teufel ist wieder hier..... !!!!!

Avoided 7:57 in nick of time... Ha ha... I'm outta breath...
But had my 3 coffees and am as alert as an owl now .
These droppings from above, I'm sure will continue but this'll be my last response... I live a full life and can't be bothered with chamor hoo-ha/ yeshivish languages balagan/deranged schizo babble all day ad -infinitum..

Cheers,
the Derby...Oh how I pine for next summer already..