Moreshet Shaul: Jewish Philosophy in Daily Life

Beit Midrash

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Chemdat Yamim
Moreshet Shaul

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[In the years that Rav Yisraeli was rabbi in Kfar Haro’eh, he taught Jewish Philosophy in the groundbreaking yeshiva high school, Midrashiyat Noam in Pardes Chana. The syllabus for this "new course" on the yeshiva scene became the basis for the book "Perakim B’machshevet Yisrael." In this piece, Rav Yisraeli addressed his students at the end of an "academic year."]
With a feeling of relief, you are sitting at this party and are enjoying the first "benefits" of the ability to breathe at ease. The period of work and sweat has passed; tests are completed; grades have been received. You can now lounge around with a mood of laziness and catch some extra sleep at a later than usual hour.
I want to share my personal thoughts with you. I would like to shake up the undoing of the tension [from the long year of study]. [On the obvious level,] the grades were received; but were they really received? This question is especially relevant in the topic that we have been involved in over the last two years – Machshevet Yisrael (Jewish Philosophy). You should remember that it was hard for me to give grades, and you would argue: "But we know the material!" You must realize that the main thing is not to know the material; the main question is to what extent Machshevet Yisrael turned into the way you think – Yehuda, or Moshe, or Shmuel. The real test will take place when you are in the swimming pool, or perhaps the ball fields, or the army base, or in the marketplaces of life.
This subject of Machshevet Yisrael has fallen into a difficult position – it is required to instill the spirit into the Torah, to reveal the light of the Torah, and to instill its soul into the soul of every student. After all, the Torah is part of the external framework of mitzva actions. Torah is indeed a guide to the life of activity. Our task today is the same one that stood before atomic researchers – to blast open the physical kernel and to return it to the energy from which it was formed. So, Jewish philosophy must demonstrate the light that is in the belief of the unity of Hashem, to inculcate in people the true essence of service of Hashem, and to explain that this service is not servitude but rather it is the full expression of our freedom.
It is also possible that you will be presented with the opposite task. Namely, it may be necessary to take the energy, and to return it to a practical framework, to apply it to different enterprises. This includes finding solutions for the most fundamental questions of life that arise and to operate in the public sphere in Israeli society according to this discovered spirit. It will not be sufficient to know the truth yourselves. We are calling upon you to do much more than that. You are called upon to blow a spirit of life into a downtrodden collective. If you do that, life will give you the grade you have earned.