Rav Kook (Ein Ayah, Gemara Berachot 9b)

“Speak, please (lit. נא) in the ears of the people, and they should borrow, every man from his fellow and every woman from her fellow, silver and gold vessels.” (Exodus 11:2).

Gemara Berachot 9b: G-d used an expression of supplication. He said to Moshe “Go and tell Israel, I beseech you, borrow vessels of silver and vessels of gold from the Egyptians in order to fulfill the promise I made to Abraham in theברית בין הבתרים  so that that righteous person (i.e. Avraham) will not say that God fulfilled “And they will be enslaved and afflicted,” but not “And afterward they will leave with great wealth” (Genesis 15:13–14).

The nature of a slave is to be accustomed to being ignored and abused. Slaves have no ambition and no desire for greater things. When G-d set our ancestors free, He summoned them to a higher level of existence as partners to a Divine covenant. Instead of building pyramids under the hot sun, they were build edifices of spiritual splendor. But this process of rehabilitation was not an easy or a natural one. The Israelites needed something to coax them into spiritual ambition and ignite their passion for religious development.

This was the deeper spiritual purpose of the wealth that G-d bestowed on the Israelites in the Exodus. Their newfound gold and silver was intended to stir them out of their brokenness and complacency, and awaken an awareness that they could long for more. However, there was a danger that the people would come to value Egypt’s wealth for its own sake, instead of using it as an engine to power their spiritual advancement. For this reason, G-d did not command the people to request gold or silver from the Egyptians, but so to speak “requested” it of them. This was G-d’s way of signaling that these treasures do not have intrinsic value.

Perhaps the spiritual purpose of G-d’s promise of wealth also explains why this promise was made to Avraham. More than the other Avot, Avraham yearned to spread knowledge of G-d throughout the world. He sought to establish a nation that would illuminate the pagan darkness just like he did as an individual, but on a greater scale. But Israel cannot influence other nations without a robust involvement in the world of wealth and commerce. Through vigorous and thriving economic activity, Jews come into contact with other nations, who are influenced by their ethical conduct and the unique spiritual life that they model. A nation of shepherds and paupers cannot be a light unto the nations.

Thus, Avraham desired not only that the Jews emerge from the purifying furnace of enslavement, ready to accept the yoke of Torah and mitzvot, but also that their spirits be rehabilitated and elevated through a desire for wealth and a healthy yearning for economic activity.

Printable PDF available here.

Last year’s post on Parshat Bo can be found here. It deals with many of the same themes, and is an interesting contrast/companion to the piece below.

Rav Kook (Ein Ayah, Gemara Shabbat)

When lofty spiritual illuminations are revealed to those who are unsuitable, they are lowered and debased. The transcendent light of G-dliness becomes distorted, in accordance with the shallow and corrupt character of its recipient, much like water takes the shape of its container. The G-dly light loses its supernal splendor.

However, there are exceptional cases, when the spiritual/moral level of the recipient can be disregarded. In these instances, G-d suspends the normal spiritual order and allows for a spiritual “leap.” G-d’s revelation to our forefathers in Egypt,[1]on the night of the first Pesach, is the paradigm for such a miraculous “leap.” Israel was mired in the impurity of Egypt and Egyptian paganism. Our Sages teach that spiritually, we seemed indistinguishable from our idolatrous masters. According to the Zohar, we were on the “forty-ninth level of impurity” and would have become spiritually destroyed had the Exodus been delayed by even a single moment.

For G-d to reveal Himself at this junction required a spiritual jump of historic dimensions. Indeed, the name “Pesach” connotes leaping or skipping, not only because G-d “skipped” over Jewish homes when striking the Egyptian firstborn, but also because He “leaped” over the natural, incremental spiritual order. On that night, every Jew in Egypt merited a revelation of the Shechinah, despite being sunken in the lowest levels of degradation and spiritual defilement. And this was not a one-off occurrence. It established a paradigm for the future, for future generations of Jews to be able to overstep the constraints of their failures and imperfections, to leap upward toward G-dliness without limits or hesitation.

Of course, this is not the normal, and most times, one must absolutely proceed step-by-step. There are many different levels on the ladder between heaven and earth, and while we all strive to rise upward, each person must be conscious of where he stands at any point in time. It is presumptuous and unsustainable for an ordinary person to try and become a tzadik overnight, and the attempt will only distort the tzaddik’s path. But even so, the “leap” of Pesach night sweetens the spiritual journey for future generations, for every Jew to make an occasional and intermittent “leap” towards G-d.

But even here, there are limitations. The Torah tells us (Shemot 12:43) that “This is the law of the Passover offering: no foreigner may eat of it,” and our Sages (Gemara Zevachim 22b) teach us that this encompasses Jewish apostates who have abandoned G-d. Jews who have forsaken the ideals of the Torah to such an extent fall under the category of “foreigners.” We see that even the spiritual leap of the Passover redemption was not boundless in its scope. It could not encompass Jews who had become so assimilated into the idolatrous culture of Egypt that they lacked even an elementary faith in G-d.

Food for Thought

Rav Tzadok haKohen (Tzidkat haTzadik 1): A person’s entry into the service of G-d must be with haste, as we find that the Pesach offering brought in Egypt was eaten in haste, which was not the case with the Pesach offering brought in later generations. Because when a person begins to sever himself from all the physical desires of this world to which he is attached, he must guard the moment in which the will of G-d stirs up within him, and make haste in that moment to leave his desires, perhaps he will succeed. Afterwards, he can once again proceed with moderation and slowness as is the law regarding the Pesach offering brought in later generations.

Maimonides (Guide for the Perplexed, III:32): It is… impossible to go suddenly from one extreme to the other: it is therefore according to the nature of man impossible for him suddenly to discontinue everything to which he has been accustomed. The Torah expresses this idea when it says (Shemot 13:17) “It came to pass when Pharaoh let the people go, that G-d did not lead them [by] way of the land of the Philistines for it was near, because G-d said, Lest the people reconsider when they see war and return to Egypt.” It is contrary to human nature to suddenly abandon all the different kinds of Divine service and the different customs in which he has been brought up and become habituated. It would be just as if a person trained to work as a slave with mortar and bricks, or similar things, should interrupt his work, clean his hands, and at once fight with real giants. It was the result of G-d’s wisdom that the Israelites were led about in the wilderness till they acquired courage. For it is a well-known fact that travelling in the wilderness, and the attendant deprivation of physical pleasures… produces courage, while the reverse is the source of faint-heartedness. And so another generation rose during Israel’s wandering in the desert that had not been accustomed to degradation and slavery.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (Covenant and Conversation, Shelach5777): It takes more than a few days or weeks to turn a population of slaves into a nation capable of handling the responsibilities of freedom. In the case of the Israelites it needed a generation born in liberty, hardened by the experience of the desert, untrammeled by habits of servitude. Freedom takes time, and there are no shortcuts. Often it takes a very long time indeed. That dimension of time is fundamental to the Jewish view of politics and human progress. That is why, in the Torah, Moses repeatedly tells the adults to educate their children, to tell them the story of the past, to “remember”. It is why the covenant itself is extended through time – handed on from one generation to the next. It is why the story of the Israelites is told at such length in Tanakh: the time-span covered by the Hebrew Bible is a thousand years from… Moses to the last of the prophets. It is why G-d acts in and through history.

Unlike Christianity or Islam there is, in Judaism, no sudden transformation of the human condition, no one moment or single generation in which everything significant is fully disclosed. Why, asks Maimonides (Guide, III:32), did G-d not simply give the Israelites in the desert the strength or self-confidence they needed to cross the Jordan and enter the land? His answer: because it would have meant saying goodbye to human freedom, choice and responsibility. Even G-d Himself, implies Maimonides, has to work with the grain of human nature and its all-too-slow pace of change. Not because G-d cannot change people: of course He can. He created them; He could re-create them. The reason is that G-d chooses not to…He wants human beings to construct a society of freedom – and how could He do that if, in order to bring it about, He had to deprive them of the very freedom He wanted them to create.

There are some things a parent may not do for a child if he or she wants the child to become an adult. There are some things even G-d must choose not to do for His people if He wants them to grow to moral and political maturity. In one of my books I called this the chronological imagination, as opposed to the Greek logical imagination. Logic lacks the dimension of time. That is why philosophers tend to be either rigidly conservative (Plato did not want poets in his Republic; they threatened to disturb the social order) or profoundly revolutionary (Rousseau, Marx). The current social order is either right or wrong. If it is right, we should not change it. If it is wrong, we should overthrow it. The fact that change takes time, even many generations, is not an idea easy to square with philosophy (even those philosophers, like Hegel and Marx, who factored in time, did so mechanically, speaking about “historical inevitability” rather than the unpredictable exercise of freedom).

Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch (Commentary on the Torah, Shemot 6:14):[The non-Jewish world erroneously believes that] a man could be known as a complete idiot today, and tomorrow proclaim the word of G-d. The spirit of G-d could suddenly descend on an ignorant and uneducated person and lo! he can speak in seventy languages… and then, the more ignorant, the more uneducated the prophet of today was yesterday, the greater the proof of the divinity of the Call that worked this change. Our [genealogical] register here [of Moses and Aaron in Parshat Va’era] counters this dangerous error…Moses and Aaron were… picked, chosen men. Had G-d wished simply to pick the first comer, other tribes than Levi stood at His disposal, and in Levi other branches than Kehat, and amongst the families of Kehat, other households than Amram, and among Amram’s children there was the older Aaron. But G-d chooses the noblest and most suitable to be His tools and messengers. Before he receives his call, the human being must develop and mature his human qualities. It was not Abraham nor Isaac but Jacob who became the real founder of the House of Israel. Not Reuben or Simeon but Levi is to be the chosen tribe. Not Aaron nor Miriam, but Moses became the “Messenger of G-d”. Everything has to ripen up to the degree of fitness which qualifies it for selection.

Rav Kook (Orot haTeshuva 14:18): Within every stage that a person may be on and within his every apprehension of the world, there is a treasury of holiness. When a person skips and soars with great rapidity beyond his level, he is deprived of the holy content of the lower stages that are appropriate for him. And he cannot cling to the upper because they are too spiritual for him. Therefore, he must return with a broken heart and with joy to the levels that he had left behind. Nevertheless, he should not forget the impression of the supernal levels – for once he has risen, he will not descend. And then everything will be transformed into good.

Rav Moshe Weinberger (Song of Teshuva, Vol. 4 Pg. 188): As a person moves toward his goal, there is a treasury of holiness at every step along the way. That is why, when G-d took the Jews out of Egypt, He did not bring them to Har Sinai in a single second and then to the Land of Israel a second later. Instead, He led them on a 49 day trek to Har Sinai and then led them in the desert for 40 years until they reached Eretz Yisrael. This is because there was a treasury of holiness in each of the encampments along the way.

Questions for Discussion

1. When does a person need to make a ‘leap’ in his or spiritual development?
2. What are some of the dangers of spiritual growth that doesn’t happen incrementally? Is there any evidence from later episodes in the book of Shemot?
3. See Rav Tzadok haKohen’s observations above in “Food for Thought.” How is his position different from Rav Kook’s? How is it the same?
4. Can you remember a time that you “leaped” to a spiritual level that had previously seemed beyond you? How did it go?
5. Is there a point beyond which a person can no longer return and do teshuva? Why or why not?
6. Other than the Exodus, where else in Jewish history (ancient or modern) are there instances of Israel ‘leaping up’ to higher spiritual levels?
7. Which religion do you think Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch is criticizing in “Food For Thought”?

[1] As described in the Haggadah –עַל שׁוּם שֶׁלֹא הִסְפִּיק בְּצֵקָם שֶׁל אֲבוֹתֵינוּ לְהַחֲמִיץ, עַד שֶׁנִּגְלָה עֲלֵיהֶם מֶלֶךְ מַלְכֵי הַמְּלָכִים הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא וּגְאָלָם.

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Translation (Ma’amarei haRe’iah, Pesach):

The history of the Jewish people is bounded by two redemptions. Our existence began with the Exodus from Egypt, and will reach its apex with the ultimate redemption of the messianic era. However, the future redemption will follow its own distinct trajectory, and will not be a simply a duplicate of the Exodus. In particular, the Torah emphasizes that we left Egypt “in haste” (lit b’chipazon). [1] This element is so essential that it is commemorated by the mitzvahof eating matzah and the prohibition of consuming chametz. And yet, regarding the future redemption from exile, Isaiah [2] proclaims (invoking the exact same word of חפזון) that “You will not go out in haste.” What accounts for this discrepancy?

To answer this question, we must turn back the clock and examine the spiritual state of our ancestors prior to the Exodus. The people had become accustomed to a life of crushing enslavement. The grandeur of their spiritual heritage – bequeathed from the Avot – had been entirely forgotten as the people sunk into the mire of paganism and idolatry.

And in a moment, God freed them from bondage. Our ancestors went to sleep as a motley amalgamation of slaves, but they awoke as a nation full of vigor and spiritual nobility, a nation of the sort that the world had never before witnessed. The genesis [3] of the Jewish people had to take place in haste, so that this fledgling nation could be separated from the darkened confusion of paganism which then corrupted the entire world. If God had allowed the Jewish people to develop organically like all other nations, they would have inevitably assimilated pagan influences. Instead of serving as a light to the nations, they would have died in the darkness. Thus, the haste of the Exodus is not a minor detail – it demonstrates the spiritual state of humanity at that junction in history.

But humanity will be in a very different spiritual state at the dawn of the messianic redemption. The Jewish people will have succeeded in driving out the last vestiges of paganism, and so there will be no need for a hasty flight from a spiritually corrupting atmosphere. Indeed, even in this pre-messianic era, our influence has greatly succeeded at elevating humanity. Through the sanctity of our way of life and centuries of sacrifice for the Torah, the light of Israel’s divine soul has driven away much darkness.

Thus, the final redemption will come not for Israel to escape from a corrupted world, but for different purposes entirely. Only as a nation living in its own land can Israel’s spiritual light shine forth in its full measure of strength, in its most pure and essential form. In a world not entirely purged of the scourge of paganism, centuries of exile have caused Israel to imbibe foreign influences, and it must purify itself of these influences to fully consummate its role as a light to the nations. However, redemption’s scope is not limited to our role as an influence upon humanity. Our return to the Land of Israel is necessary on its own terms, so that we may live in accordance with our spiritual nature and the Torah’s righteous spirit of freedom. [4]

Thus, the future redemption is about ‘walking towards’ instead of ‘running away from.’ It is a spiritual state that we must strive for and work to realize, and so by its very terms, it must occur incrementally. [5] For this reason, Isaiah proclaims that “You will not go out in haste.”

Commentary

This excerpt touches on one of the most complex issues in Torah hashkafa – the relationship between Israel and the nations. It teaches us that we grossly oversimplify matters when we work with a binary model of ‘universalism vs. particularism.’ There is a third way, what Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has called “particularism for the sake of universality.” The Jewish people are charged to become a “light to the nations,” and are tasked with raising the spiritual level of all peoples. However, this requires a certain aloofness and isolation from foreign influences, one that is not motivated by hatred or fear, but rather a desire to preserve our distinct sanctity for the benefit of all humanity. (This is sometimes referred to as the “mission theory.”) This paradox illustrates what the physicist Niels Bohr once remarked, that “The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.”

If the Jewish people are meant to be a “light to the nations,” the darkness we are to illuminate – for Rav Kook, at least – is paganism. You may be thinking that paganism is irrelevant. “Isn’t that something that remains only in certain far-off corners of Africa or Asia? It plays no role in modern society!” Consider, however, that certain Torah sources [6] speak of man worshipping himself as the final form of paganism before the advent of mashiach. At its core, paganism is about acknowledging a reality and source of moral truth independent of God. The notion that every selfish desire is really a mandate, that man is the measure of all things – this is the founding premise of contemporary culture. Although has dispensed with the idols, it is simply an advanced form of paganism, which will dissolve and be dispersed as part of our march to the final redemption.

[1] Devarim 16:3.

[2] 52:12

[3] I am deliberately using this term in an evocative way – see Ramban’s introduction to the book of Exodus. An English translation is available here.

[4] When Rav Kook talks about freedom, he means the ability to live in accordance with one’s true self, uninhibited by desires or impulses that prevent us from fulfilling our deepest life purpose. This is what modern political theorists call “positive liberty,” as opposed to “negative liberty,” which is simply the ability to follow one’s desires without interference from other persons.

[5] The Talmud Yerushalmi (Berachot 1:1) relates that two scholars were walking in the Arbel Valley when they saw the first rays of dawn break forth over the valley. Rabbi Chiyya turned his colleague and said, “So will be the redemption of Israel. In the beginning it starts out slowly; then, as it progresses, it shines greater and greater.”

[6] See Letter Six of Rav Hirsch’s Nineteen Letters, along with footnote 4 of Rav Joseph Elias’ commentary.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

1. Are there other reasons you can think of (or have heard of) that the Exodus had to take place in haste?
2. What comes to mind when you think of the Jewish people serving as a ‘light to the nations’? Following halacha meticulously? Building orphanages in Kenya? Doing business honestly? And what do you think Rav Kook has in mind when he uses the term?
3. Rav Kook says that the Jewish people have absorbed unhealthy influences in the course of exile. What would you point you or identify as examples?
4. According to Rav Kook, the Jewish people at its inception was “full of vigor and spiritual nobility.” How does this fit with the rest of the Torah’s narratives about the people’s complaints and backsliding?
5. For Rav Kook, Israel’s role as a “light to the nations” is precisely what necessitates our eventual ingathering from exile and return to the Land of Israel. This is interesting, since other Jewish thinkers have used the “mission theory” to bring out the positive nature of the exile. Do you think the “mission theory” supports or impairs our relationship with the Land of Israel?
6. Rav Kook states that messianic redemption must come as the conclusion of a process. What are some practical differences that emerge between understanding mashiach as a process and expecting it to be an overnight event like the Exodus?

About this Piece

Ma’amarei haRe’iah is a collection of essays and articles written by Rav Kook. It has never been translated into English. However, because the pieces were written for a popular audience, they tend to be written in a simpler style of Hebrew and are less esoteric.