To Hear a Talk based on the Text below:
The Future of Ephraim and the Reason for Exile and Loss of Identity
Based on a message from Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook
by Yair Davidiy
Who Was Rabbi Kook? Selected Extracts
The Source of the Present Extract Subject of Our Study
The Language and Our Translation
The Message Explained
Commentary on the Message
The Message Translated Quite Literally
Poem. Ephraim Coming Back
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Contents in Alphabetical Order
Extracts:Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935) was the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the British Mandate for Palestine, the founder of the Religious Zionist Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav, Jewish thinker, Halachist, Kabbalist and a renowned Torah scholar.
He was one of the most celebrated and influential Rabbis of the 20th century
Kook built bridges of communication and political alliances between the various Jewish sectors, including the secular Jewish Zionist leadership, the Religious Zionists, and more traditional non-Zionist Orthodox Jews. He believed that the modern movement to re-establish a Jewish state in the land of Israel had profound theological significance and that the Zionists were agents in a heavenly plan to bring about the messianic era. Per this ideology, the youthful, secular and even anti-religious Labor Zionist pioneers, halutzim, were a part of a grand Divine process whereby the land and people of Israel were finally being redeemed from the 2,000-year exile (galut) by all manner of Jews who sacrificed themselves for the cause of building up the physical land, as laying the groundwork for the ultimate spiritual messianic redemption of world Jewry.
Kook was critical of the secularists on certain occasions when they went "too far" in desecrating the Torah, for instance, by not observing the Sabbath or kosher laws.
Rabbi Kook was a prolific author. His style was an archaic, flowery kind of Hebrew very different from the spoken vernacular that was being revived at the time.
The Source of the Present Extract Subject of Our Study
Rabbi Look during his lifetime published a good many works. He also wrote numerous letters that were later published in several volumes. In addition he left a great number of writings in manuscript form. After he passed away his son (Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah Kook who himself was a great scholar and who Yair Davidiy met several times ) and assistants edited many of the manuscript works and compiled books from them. These works were studied intensively and widely by thousands of the greatest minds in Israel. Rabbi Kook had himself founded an important Yeshiva but his followers set up hundreds along the same pattern along with other institutions and Ulpanas or Girls Colleges. In all of these establishments the works of Rabbi Kook held an honored place and his opinion would be referred to as much as possible. Amongst the manuscripts of Rabbi Kook had been what are known as The Eight Folios (Shemoneh HaKevatsim).
These were collected spontaneous impressions the Rabbi had had the
habit of writing in his spare moments. Extracts from some of these may have been
included in some of the works published under the name of Rabbi Kook but much
remained until 2004 when the whole was published as it was in unedited format.
It is from this work that the extract below is taken. Chances are that despite
the esteem Rabbi Kook is held in this particular opinion of his may not yet be
widely know of.
The Language and Our Translation:
We have attempted below to translate a short note by Rabbi Kook.
Even in Hebrew the language and terminology used by Rabbi Kook is quite difficult. A great many Commentaries on his works have already appeared. Learned Rabbis give lessons in which they go over his teachings sentence by sentence.
At all events in the extract below we believe we have captured the main gist of what Rabbi Kook was saying and have interpreted it faithfully. Read our explanation of the message. Read what Rabbi Kook wrote as we have translated it. One does not need to thoroughly comprehend every expression: It is enough that the overall message comes through.
The Message Explained:
Rabbi Kook says that Ephraim i.e. the Ten Tribes were assimilated amongst the Gentiles. In our times Israel (i.e. the Jews in his terms) are returning. Rabbi Kook uses the name Israel for both Ephraim and Judah. The assimilation of Ephraim will be revealed has having been for the benefit of both Israel and the Gentile nations. The Israelite Spirit that was contained within Ephraim is continually striving to express itself. It is more and more making itself felt in our times since we are drawing close to the Latter Days where everything returns to its source. Assimilated Israelites (from Ephraim) are becoming more and more assertive of the Israelite spirit. They are striving to make the nations amongst whom they live become Israelite. Consequently the world is progressing. They will evolve until in the end a complete realization of Israelite National Consciousness by the Israelites of Ephraim will take place. This will bring about the salvation of humanity.
Commentary on the Message.
Rabbi Kook was a great man. No-one denies that Rabbi Kook knew his sources very very well and that his opinion deserves consideration. Nevertheless, not everyone agrees with him. Nor do we have to agree with him but we can still learn from his insights.
Amos indicates that the Israelites will not have intermixed to such a degree that Rabbi Kook supposes.
[Amos 9:9] FOR, LO, I WILL COMMAND, AND I WILL SIFT THE HOUSE OF
ISRAEL AMONG ALL NATIONS, LIKE AS CORN IS SIFTED IN A SIEVE, YET SHALL NOT THE
LEAST GRAIN FALL UPON THE EARTH.
The Zohar (VaYechi) also supports our interpretation of Amos as to Israelites having remained relatively whole.
Nevertheless some intermixing will have occurred (as Rabbi Kook says) and the fruits of this also has to have had an influence.
In addition, whether physically mixed in or not descendants of the Lost Ten tribes historically spiritually and psychologically (as well as legally) have become part of the Gentiles.
Eventually they will return to becoming complete conscious Israelites themselves and they will uplift themselves and the whole world in the process. This was the purpose for the Ten Tribes getting Lost in the first place. This is what Rabbi Kook says and on this point we can agree with him.
The message of Rabbi Kook also brings up another possibility: The Lost Ten Tribes may actually in some places be a minority but as a result of their descendants constantly instinctively (unbeknown to themselves as to why) striving towards the Light they transform those Gentiles amongst whom they live into Israelites like themselves, or something close to it!
The Message Translated Quite Literally:
##Every curse at
its close turns into a blessing. All evil happenings become good. Everything
that happens emanates from the far-sighted planning of the Source of all
Benefit. FOR THE LORD IS A GOD OF KNOWLEDGE, AND BY HIM ACTIONS ARE WEIGHED
[1-Samuel 2:3]. The depreciation of the Israelite spirit seriously harmed
Ephraim and the Tribes associated with him. This resulted in the calamity of
Ephraim being assimilated amongst the nations [Hosea 7:8]#1. This assimilation
in itself will qualify all the world for ultimate salvation. This especially
applies to Israel in these End Times that are approaching and coming closer
before our eyes.
Rabbi Avraham Isaac Kook, Shemoneh Kevatsim, Kovets 8;205 written
ca. 1917 in London, Great Britain. Published straight from the unedited
manuscript in ca. 2005 though it may appear elsewhere in one or other of the
Extract translated freely by Yair Davidiy and may not due justice to the original.
Offering to Brit-Am
The name "Ephraim" in Hebrew Letters as Seen
by Satellite in the Hills of Ephraim
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