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Thursday, October 19, 2023

Emuna: Causeless Love – With Open Eyes

by Rav Lior Engelman, yeshiva.co, translated by Hillel Fendel. 




One of the most central topics in the philosophy of HaRav Kook is "love" – love in general, and love of Israel in particular. We are accustomed to thinking that love is simply a matter of emotion, and that therefore we cannot control it: One loves whomever his emotions motivate him to love, and hates those for whom his emotions direct him to feel antagonism. Given that our emotions command and direct our love, it is hard to utilize it for additional purposes; this is why we sometimes encounter destructive love, with which we seem to be unable to deal.

Rav Kook did not see love as the fruit of mere emotions. He posited that love is the strongest life force in the world. It stems from the fact that all of creation is a manifestation of G-d – Who is One and Whose Name is One – and therefore all the creatures that He created wish to unite together. The driving force towards this unity is called "love" – not a fleeting and frantic emotion as it sometimes seems, but a fundamental life force that can be developed and learned.

The love of Israel is nothing less than a discipline that must be studied and analyzed, as Rav Kook writes in Orot Yisrael:

"Ahavat Yisrael, and our efforts to see the good in Israel – both its community and its individuals – is not merely a work of emotions, but rather a great discipline in Torah and wisdom, deep and broad, with many branches, all of which grow and are nourished from the life-essence of the light of our Torah of kindness."

When we look at love, it seems to make no sense, and this is why "if a man gives all his wealth in love, he will be mocked and scorned" (Song of Songs 8,7). But in truth, love is in a place that is hidden from our eyes, and therefore in order to properly learn Ahavat Yisrael, one must delve into the innermost aspects of the Torah. Jewish Law can command us to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Vayikra 19,18) - but only a deep study into "faith" can reveal to us how natural this love truly is to us.

Generally, people who are in love are actually blind. They are unable to see the deficiencies in the object of their love, and they are even afraid to totally open their eyes and recognize the imperfect reality – because they don't want to lose the justification for their love. Only after the "in love" period has ended are their eyes opened, and then they do see the deficiencies of the other side, and then, sometimes, love turns into criticism and disappointment. It is hard to both love and be aware of faults, and so people tend to color everything pink and rosy when they love, or black when their love seems to have evaporated.

Despite Rav Kook's great preoccupation with calls for Ahavat Yisrael and the need to learn it in depth, he does not call for blind love. On the contrary, he seeks to base our love on "conscious awareness," so that it will also help us rectify that which is not worthy. This is why he writes there:

"The great love with which we love our nation will not blind us from criticizing all its faults. However, even after we do this in the broadest manner, we find its essence to be free of any stain. 'You are entirely beautiful, my beloved; you have no blemish' (Song of Songs 4,7)."

Rav Kook makes a fascinating and significant differentiation here. We love our nation for its very being; we know that the world's hope lies in this nation, and that it has the power to reveal the Divine dimension of life. Nevertheless, we do not say that everything Israel does is good; our love is not blind, but is rather clear and open-eyed and sees the problems and everything that needs to be fixed most clearly – yet the love persists.

Perhaps this is another meaning to the phrase Ahavat Chinam, which literally means "love for nothing" and which we are bidden to feel. That is, Ahavat Chinam stems not from open and revealed reasons, but rather seemingly from no reasons at all. In truth, this love is an expression of an inner grace that connects between the lover and the beloved, between each one of us and Am Yisrael.

In order to be precise, we must clarify that this love is not only for Israel. As opposed to other nations, whose self-love is liable to be a cause for apathy or even deep hatred for others, as we experienced in Europe eight decades ago – in Klal Yisrael, this is not the case. With us, our Ahavat Yisrael stems from the blessing that our nation is able to bring upon the entire world. This means that our love for Israel and hatred for others cannot co-exist. Rav Kook writes in Orot Yisrael most unequivocally:

"Ahavat Yisrael requires love for all people; when it leads to hatred for others, this is a sign that our soul has not yet been totally purified of its filth, and can therefore not yet commune in the delight of the supreme level of love."

Given that Ahavat Yisrael is such a fundamental concept in our tradition, the question arises of its own: How is it that infighting and even hatred have played such a painful role in our history? It began with Joseph and his brothers, and then continued with the tragic national split into two kingdoms, Israel and Judea. And it continues this very day with various manifestations of "causeless hatred." What is the source of this evil force, and how can we uplift it for good?

In his Ein Ayah commentary on the Aggadot in Tractate Shabbat, Rav Kook writes that precisely because of Israel's tremendous national mission, and because of its power of unity, the danger exists that the special uniqueness of each tribe, and certainly each individual, could be lost. This danger is acute, because our national success requires the participation of all the different strengths that our nation has to offer; we do not want to become a nation that obfuscates the identity of its individual parts.

Just before we became a nation, Joseph and his brothers took part in a "battle" that ultimately defined and sharpened the role of each tribe of the nation. Centuries later, during the period of Kings David and Shlomo, we were blessed to have all our forces and strengths unite under one leadership that did not blur their differences and unique identities. Most unfortunately, after Shlomo's death, under the leadership of Rehavam and Yerovam, the people of Israel were not able to understand that all of the nation's parts needed each other - and we divided into two kingdoms. However, during the period of Redemption, the tribes will again reunite (as explained at length in Rav Kook's obituary for Binyamin Zev Herzl).

The hatred that has sadly been a frequent part of our history began once again to sprout forth in our times, with our return to the Land of Israel – because it has the important task of honing our different ideas and views. This will ultimately be rectified, in that because the hatred causes each opinion in Israel to be sharpened and thoroughly refined, the end of the process will see each of the forces brought to its fulfillment – with the knowledge that its completion depends on its joining together with the other national forces in total Ahavat Yisrael.

As Rav Kook wrote: "If senseless hatred is what destroyed us, together with the world, it will be causeless love with which we will rebuild ourselves."

(originally written in 2012)


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