Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
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- Chemdat Yamim
- Igrot Hare’aya
Recipient: Rabbi Douber Hakohen Kook, Rav Kook’s younger brother. After serving as a rabbi in Russia, he made aliya in 1925, became the rabbi of Afula, and the founder of the Harry Fischel Institute.
Body: [This letter’s background is the wave of pogroms in Russia, where Rav Kook’s brother still lived and the community in Eretz Yisrael’s flourishing during the Second Aliya.]
Igrot Hare’aya (200)
Beit Din Eretz Hemda - Gazit
36 - Looking for a New Council
37 - Come Home, Dear Brother
38 - Letter to the Family of Shlomo Buber
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We have reason for increasing hope that our nation will find salvation from the oppression it is experiencing. Good, pleasant signs of life are sprouting up before us in the beloved, pleasant Holy Land, the love of flesh, spirit, and soul. The voice of our Beloved is knocking (Shir Hashirim 5:2). A spirit of life is hovering. May Hashem open the hearts of the distant.
With a second version, and with greater vigor, depth, and sanctity, we are close to renewing all of the spirituality of the beginnings of Chibat Tzion (the late 19th century aliya movement). Then it lived in the hearts of the holy men who cultivated it, e.g., Rav Zvi Kalisher, Rav Eliyahu Griditz and their followers before their "vessels broke and their light fell in the depths of evil." Like the hidden spiritual elements of the creation of heaven and earth, we must retrieve them from the depths and return all the sparks of spirituality (a central kabbalistic idea) that fell, were lost, and became material that was defiled by unclean hands (irreligious Zionism) and return them to sanctity and blessing.
These matters will be heard with greater feeling when spoken properly. The thunder storms (hardship) have "straightened a lot of the curvature of the heart." It is now a necessity, based on both the physical and spiritual situation of the broad nation, to return to the Holy Land any way we can, as individuals or groups. We must reestablish the ruins of our once desolate Land with buildings, commerce, population, material and spirit – whatever gives it more activity and life. It all builds toward the future and creates hope. Everything paves the road toward the ultimate redemption, which can come with a "sudden jump" in Hashem’s historical plans – "The one we have been requesting will come to his palace suddenly" (Malachi 3:1).
Let me know … if the great rabbis are dealing with ideas to reinvigorate our nation and the Torah in the Diaspora. We must elevate ourselves in truth and sanctity at least as much as the secular community has increased its energy. They are (spiritually) like a clump of material waiting for a living soul. Just as they are damaging and defiling when on their own, they can purify and sanctify, bring light and life when the light of the world (Torah) will become their soul. We have to be vociferous and bold, using vitality and belief to grasp the Torah’s soul. Nothing can prevent Hashem from saving with His great grace. We can be liberated and rise from the dirt. Hashem will have mercy and give the Torah scholars the desire and strength to deal with the inner teachings of the Torah and explain it clearly (to the uninspired) with every possible literary tool, to make the light of Israel’s holiness shine clearly.
Certainly the first efforts should be on the physical/emotional side, which has been very neglected by Torah scholars, based on misconceptions in the realm of inner wisdom. "Springtime has come"! We are able to hasten the redemption and time of goodwill if we truly want it.
Beit Din Eretz Hemda - Gazit
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 Payments after a Gradual End of Employment
(Based on ruling 82024 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
P'ninat Mishpat Limits of Interest Rate for Loan with Heter Iska – part II
based on ruling 80033 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
Igrot Hare’aya Excerpts of Letter on Shemitta – #289 – part I
Date and Place: 6 Nisan 5670 (1910), Yafo
Rabbis in Midrash
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part I
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Our King on Rosh Hashana, Our Father on Yom Kippur.
Based on Aroch Siach, p. 221 (Rav Shaul Yisraeli)
