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Beit Midrash
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- Chemdat Yamim
- Ein Ayah
When [Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai] was about to die, he said to [his students]: Remove the utensils from here because of impurity and prepare a place for Chizkiya, the king of Judea, who is coming.
Ein Ayah: It is a serious failure for a leader of the community at large to ignore physical needs because his aspirations lie only in the realm of shleimut (completeness) of spirituality. This is because the physical state has an impact on the spiritual state.
However, the above is a shortcoming in the leader only when he is not diligent about physical shleimut because he does not realize its value. This would be a sign of a diminished spirit, for a great spirit will, despite its high spiritual level, be able to "look down" and be careful about little things as well, as they impact on important matters. However, sometimes the leader decides that the nation has to give up on physical matters because of an important cause, in which case, one should respect his decision.
[Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai was the leader at the time of the fall of the Second Beit Hamikdash and Commonwealth, and he was in a special situation where he could ask a major favor of the Roman conquerors (see Gittin 56b).] Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai gave up on the national shleimut in the political realm and only asked that the rabbinical academy in Yavneh be preserved to create a shleimut of Torah in Israel. In this way he was similar to Chizkiya, who pressured the people to dedicate themselves to Torah study at the expense of financial advancement (see Sanhedrin 94b). Chizkiya realized that this was crucial because Bnei Yisrael had gone down several levels and became overly engrossed in physical desires at the time of his father, Achaz, to the extent that they had become estranged from Hashem. Therefore, it was seen that there was a need to take steps that are usually against the prescribed Torah-ordained balance and put an excessive emphasis on spirituality. Chizkiya’s laxness on physical pursuits was not out of a lack of understanding of its value, just that for the needs of the time, he trampled them to make way for great Torah scholarship.
We see from the Torah itself that financial concerns are of great importance. One such case in the Torah is the halacha that before a kohen declares a house to be afflicted with leprosy, he has the house evacuated of its utensils, so that they not need to be discarded (Nega’im 12:5, based on Vayikra 14:36). We find a similar concern for simple utensils regarding Yaakov, who with all his preoccupation with love of Hashem, found time and energy to go back for small vessels left behind as he traveled (Chulin 91:1).
Since great people know the value of material possession, if they give these up to gain other things, we can imagine how great the things that they purse are. This is what Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai was trying to communicate as he died and was entering the world of the holy. Chizkiya was to visit at that time, as the prototype of a leader, like him, who had sacrificed the physical for the needs of the spiritual, by preventing the Torah from falling. He also told his students to remove the utensils so that they not become impure to show that he, like Yaakov, valued even simple utensils, as he had not forsaken the concept of concern for worldly pursuits. It had been because of the crucial importance of preserving Torah leadership that he had appeared to be uninterested in other elements of the nation’s needs.
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 9 - "Seeing is Believing" (parag. 21-30)
These paragraphs elaborate on the theme that seeing and knowing is better than any attempt to prove logically, and begins explaining the difference between Israel and gentiles.
Ein Aya Various Universal Stages of the Geula Process
Rav Kook examines the various stages of redemption, explaining how (in addition to the obvious oft-mentioned stages of ingathering the exiles, reviving the Hebrew language, army, state etc.) the messianic dream of world prosperity, the State of Israel and world unity can and are realistically and logically gradually coming true.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 8- "Answering Questions on the Kuzari's Proof from Mass Revelation
How do we know that the "claim" of mass revelation to 2,000,000 witnesses at Mt. Sinai is really true? This important class answers all of the questions skeptics ask about this claim of the Kuzari.
Ein Aya Armies Still Necessary for Balance & the War Against Wars
Rav Kook explains why the world was originally divided into the various seemingly contradicting ideologies and cultures, in order to develop each one respectively. Swords or armies symbolize how each respective ideology defends themselves, as well as deters their opposing ideologies and cultures. On the other hand, the messianic era will be one of peace, and Rav Kook explains the transition to that stage, which mankind is already undergoing.
The Land of Israel LGBT'S IN ISRAEL
The question was asked, how can one make Aliyah with the LGBT parades?
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 7 - Five Accumulative Proofs of G-d
As a preparation for the Kuzari's classic proof of G-d from the mass-revelation at Sinai, we start here with 5 other directions to strengthen our belief which also contribute to what the Kuzari will present as well.
Ein Aya Muscle & Meaning: The Dual Nature of Gevurah (Physical Strength)
Is physical strength and fitness a necessity or an ideal? Although it if often totally overlooked among topics of Judaism, Rav Kook writes that it clearly is also a necessity to deter the many enemies of Israel, but even in Y'mot HaMashiach, in the Messianic era, to a certain extent, it's ideal continues even after our enemies will have been finished off.
