Shabbat Parashat Vaykhel Pekudei 5783

Igrot Hare’aya – Letters of Rav Kook: Why Moshavot Do Not Appoint Rabbis – #146 – part II

Date and Place: 17 Sivan 5668 (1908), Yafo

Recipient: We continue presenting the letter to Rav Yitzchak Isaac Halevi. We have featured letters to him several times before.

Body: Regarding your suggestion about changing the lifestyle in the Old Yishuv, without damaging basic things, this is impossible, except very incrementally, over a long time. In the meantime, the situation is pressing.

Therefore, I have decided that it is impossible to make this major improvement, which is extremely important to the Jewish world of the New Yishuv, and which significantly affects the Old Yishuv, as the two groups are mutually impactful. Therefore, we must establish a yeshiva here in the center of the New Yishuv. Here (Yafo) life is essentially similar to life in the moshavot (agricultural settlements). With the necessary Divine Assistance and the good talents we have in the Holy Land, along with those who want to come from the Diaspora, which is ever increasing, we can have talented people come out of such an institution.

They just must do their job properly, with diligence and hard work in their Torah studies, learning analytically, covering material, and learning how to render rulings in depth, so that they will be able to be accepted in the midst of the New Yishuv and consistently raise the stature of Judaism there. It is impossible for me to do this fully based on my influence from a distance. I only get to meet people from the moshavot that are in close proximity, and only from time to time. That is why I have said that the top priority of the yeshiva will be that the most accomplished of the disciples can be rabbis in the moshavot.

I will now deal with your concern that the founding of such a yeshiva in Yafo will, Heaven forbid, harm yeshivot in Yerushalayim. This concern is based on the contention that the greatest lacking in Yerushalmi yeshivot is the lack of “ulterior motives” i.e., they do not strive to become among the generation’s great scholars, great rabbis, and leaders of the generation. If a yeshiva with a new approach will be established in Yafo, producing rabbis for the cities of Eretz Yisrael, the yeshivot of Yerushalayim will lose a lot more of their level, because the talented ones will go to Yafo.

You should know that while it is true that there is some lacking in the healthy factor of competition in life, which is cloaked by “ulterior motives” (mainly, money), in regard to the yeshivot in Yerushalayim, we anyway now lack the ability to remedy the problem. The potential for rabbinical positions in the moshavot is at most 20 positions. You obviously cannot count the smallest moshavot, which do not even have ten families. This number will not remedy the issue of lack of material gain in the Torah study in Eretz Yisrael. The aspiration to claim the minor position of rabbi of a moshava is unlikely to give much strength to students. Such positions do not innately make their holders great rabbis or leaders of the generation, just as such rabbinic positions in small towns in the Diaspora do not.

This is especially true nowadays, when the moshava does not pay the rabbinical salary, which comes from the the yeshivot’s coffers, and it is only slightly higher than the stipend of one who does not have the burden of the rabbinate. This difference is insufficient to change one’s thinking and be enthusiastic about a very difficult rabbinate. This comes from the fact that the members of the moshavot have for years been accustomed to avoid financial or spiritual responsibility for a rabbinate in their midst.

Add to this that already now it is unlikely that trainees of established yeshivot will be appointed to these positions unless they have a special spirit that can bring them closer to life in the New Yishuv. Therefore, concern of harming the yeshivot of Yerushalayim should not be a reason not to open a yeshiva in Yafo.

We will continue the letter next time.

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