Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
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- Chemdat Yamim
- Igrot Hare’aya
Recipient: An open letter
Summary of previous parts: We are in the midst of Rav Kook’s public rebuke of the editor of the Hashkafa periodical. He had written that the Zionists for Zion who accused the Ugandists of turning their back on their pasts were hypocrites because all Jews, except the extreme religious, turned their backs on their past, and he is proud of that.
Igrot Hare’aya (200)
Beit Din Eretz Hemda - Gazit
13 - The Need to Be Connected to our Past
14 - The Need to Be Connected to our Past
15 - The Need to Be Connected to our Past
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We are confident that any person with a wise heart, whose inclinations bring him to deal with Jewish scholarship, will not be intimidated by the scorn of those who are disrespectful of our heritage, and he will continue to search for the truth concerning the teachings we have received from our ancestors. He will know properly that most of the words of wisdom and ethics [which we cherish] can be found in the writings of our Jewish texts. The fine expressions of emotion that elevate the spirit are much more accessible in our teachings than in the idle talk of the new "advisors," who turn their back on the past.
Our wisdom and history are not limited to one area of study or one historical period but can be found from the beginning of our historical scholarship until its most recent times. The inextinguishable hidden light is seen in the whole of our literature, which touches on all of the detailed points of wisdom. The wonderful power of life connects to the highest philosophical points and the purest characteristics, which have always been a part of our legacy. These remained constant in the Jewish mind thanks to the operative obligations, and the great love of Torah study, which causes one to act properly. This causes the character promoted by these ideas to remain forever as part of our national culture.
Our practical and intellectual powers develop in different ways, whether through wisdom that comes from Jewish sources or those that were "grafted onto us" from the wisdom of the refined nations with which we have contact. These can all impact us positively based on our true character, which when we have been true to it, we have built onto the base of our befitting nature. These are known to all except those who are addicted to the idea of trying to destroy us.
You, my dear brothers, the youth of Zionists of Zion, are yourselves aware that those who have given up hope are not worth much. They include many people who are coarse in their beings, whose ears have absorbed too much cheap and disgraceful heresy. However, these are not the thoughts of the choicest thinkers of the various nations, who are truly the pride of mankind. They know the value of the [authentic Jewish] enterprise, which is the greatest spiritual contribution to the world, and our adorned internal life, which was not spoiled even by the worst times of persecution. The most pious non-Jewish thinker of our time, Vladimir Solovyov (Russian philosopher and proponent of the Jews, died 1900), correctly said that the question about the Jews does not exist; rather, it is a question about Christians, who have not yet reached the moral level to know how to act toward such a special and talented nation as the Jews.
Beit Din Eretz Hemda - Gazit
P'ninat Mishpat Payment for Not Clearing Warehouse On Time – part II
based on ruling 75076 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
P'ninat Mishpat Repercussions of a Sale That Turned Out Not Happening – part II
(based on ruling 83045 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
P'ninat Mishpat A Commercial Rental for a Closed Business – part II
based on ruling 80047 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
Igrot Hare’aya Trying to Arrange Purchase of Land in Eretz Yisrael
#222 Date and Place: 2 Elul 5669 (1909), Rechovot
Igrot Hare’aya The State of Religion in Eretz Yisrael – #277 – part II
Igrot Hare’aya – Letters of Rav Kook Date and Place: 9 Adar I 5670 (1910), Yafo
Igrot Hare’aya Refuting Criticism by the Ridbaz – #311 – part II
Date and Place: 19 Sivan 5670 (1910), Yafo
Igrot Hare’aya Alternatives to Gymnasium and Grafted Etrogim – #286
Date and Place: 18 Adar II, 5670 (1910), Yafo
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Various Events FOR WHOM NOT TO VOTE
Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook stressed that Israeli politics is G-dly, so I have no problem answering this common question on a Torani blog. Also, Free-Will is a G-d-given right and obligation, to "destine one's fate" (R. Soloveichik, Kol Dodi Dofek, 67), so I obviously don't tell others how to vote. But once not a few (especially young) have already asked, a couple of personal words from experience and thoughts from chazal & Rav Kook which may be of help to others, mainly for whom NOT to vote.
P'ninat Mishpat Fallout from Failure to Install Elevator – part II
based on ruling 85007 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
