Shabbat Parashat Beshalach 5785

Igrot Hare’aya – Letters of Rav Kook: Deflecting Criticism – #291

Recipient and Background: Rav Alexander Freind. Rav Freind was a prominent rabbi, originally from Hungary, who moved to Eretz Yisrael in the 1880s. There was a similar exchange of letters between the two around a year earlier (#199).

Body: I am writing to you with tears and the blood of my heart. This is one of several times that I have received from you letters full of painful matters. However, I judge you in a meritorious way, as I am assuming that [concern for] the Torah makes you upset. On the other hand, it is possible for a Torah scholar, especially one who lives in Eretz Yisrael, to choose a more pleasant and proper writing style.

Believe me that I never thought of being one who fights with others, Heaven forbid, and it is always my way to go against my opinion because of the opinions of my friends. If I would have had an inkling that the matter of the sesame oil [for Pesach use] would be the basis for grudges and quarreling, I would not have gotten involved in it at all, even though my opinion is that the leniency is simple. However, since I and our rabbinical court (of Yafo) already issued the ruling, how can I turn myself into one who changes his mind, when in truth I have not changed my mind at all? I do not have time now to answer you on all of your specific halachic claims, and truthfully all of the points are superfluous on this simple matter. Even if I would have, Heaven forbid, made a mistake on the matter of a doubt regarding the minhag [of kitniyot], it would have been proper to be tolerant of me and to gloss over the matter with love. This is especially so since my rabbinical approbation was only for Yafo and the moshavot, and if people elsewhere use it, it is not my responsibility to protest the matter.

Regarding [selling fields to non-Jews before] Shemitta, I was not, after all, the first one who ruled leniently, and the path was already paved by the brilliant rabbis, Rav Yitzchak Elchanan of Kovna and the Sephardi rabbi, Rav Yaakov Shaul Elyashar. My father-in-law, “the Aderet,” agreed to it for the previous Shemitta year. Notably, if not for the rabbinical permission, people would have worked the land in violation of Halacha, and the matter would have caused major breaches in other matters of Judaism. This is because one who acts on his own to violate the Torah will sink into all sorts of bad things, Heaven forbid. In contrast, if they act based on a lenient ruling, even if it is a tenuous one, it does not cause breaches. I followed that which I believed in, and I think that it is proper for you and every Torah scholar to judge me meritoriously.

Regarding the milk, I did what I could. I called the owners of the milk and threatened them, and they agreed in writing and with a solemn obligation that they would be present when the milking took place. What else could I have done? Hashem knows that I desire to fix whatever I can in halachic matters, it is just that I do not have the power to do it.  Also regarding ketubot, it is difficult for me to reverse old matters, which have already been entrenched in many holy cities. Still, I raise the matter at every opportunity that it is better to write ketubot by hand than to rely on printed ketubot, and whoever listens, listens.

This is what I found fit to write to you due to honor. I would firmly request that we show love one to another, and that you should send my regards to the rabbis of the rabbinical court, especially my friend, Rav Lipman David and inform them that my spirit is connected to theirs with love. May it be His will that these feelings will be reciprocated.

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