Kaplan Street and Rabbi Kook

People who identity with the political right in Israel see the “Kaplan Street“ protesters as a divisive force in the Nation. While they may be small in number, their voice is immensely magnified by the leftist media. Their angry shouting, hate-filled faces, and their civil disobedience bordering on violence, broadcast night-after-night on televisions screens across the country, along with the strident backing of newscasters, is like a cancer spreading darkness and despair in the hearts and souls of the healthier segments of the Israelite Nation, the majority of which do not share the radical leftist views championed by the Kaplanists and their media supporters.

Just who they are is difficult to pinpoint. Judging by their appearance on television, they seem to be a group of motley and frustrated people with time on their hands, perhaps, like mercenaries, protestors for hire whose foremost ideological position is their obsessive hatred for Bibi. Whether they demonstrate against judicial reform or against the government’s handling of the war or the plight of the hostages, their animosity toward Bibi stands out more poignantly than all of their other cacophonous chanting. Behind this crowd are the professors, politicians and former military men who pretend to give an air of intellectual substance to the movement. And behind them, the elite leadership of the “Deep State” lurks in the shadows, manipulating the strings and providing immense financial backing, which, whether guised in the opposition to judicial reform or in bringing the hostages home, is intended to topple the rightest government and bring the Left to power.

What should be the response to these people? Should we do everything we can to oust them from our midst and encourage them to move elsewhere along with the supporters of Hamas in Gaza and Yesha, or should we try to engage them in dialogue, a long-attempted strategy which has obviously failed? Do we give up on them, or continue to relate to them as confused and mistaken brothers whose assortment of psychic and spiritual infirmities cause them to project their inner, repressed angst in a torrent of self-hatred against Bibi and against the healthy Israeli majority?

The tendency may be to say, “Enough of their rebellion and national treachery. We have tried to enlighten them for decades but they refuse to listen.” Personally, I often feel this way. But then a memory gives me  a small glimmer of hope. I remember how hard we tried to convince Yitzhak Rabin and his partners of their horrible mistake when they rushed forward to give Aza to the Arabs and to provide the Palestinian Authority with guns. “Don’t create a haven for terror in Aza and throughout Judea and Samaria” we pleaded. “Don’t give them rifles!” we begged. But Rabin and his comrades in crime built a wall around themselves which was deaf to all pleas and reasoning. “I will decide!” Rabin arrogantly replied. And yet, on the eve of the Oslo Agreement signing, when he was prepared to give away everything he could, Rabbis Chanan Porat and Menachem Porash met with him, pleading that he not surrender Kever Rachel to the Arabs. Miraculously, Rabin assented and thus the holy site was saved. Did the two earnest Rabbis succeed in igniting the Jewish spark in his soul, if only for that half-hour meeting?

There are theorists who maintain that in the tsunami of Jewish blood that was shed in the wake of Oslo,  Rabin began to harbor second thoughts about continuing onto the next stage of the cursed agreement and about canceling it completely, something which his assassination made impossible. If these sparks of t’shuva indeed filled his heart, perhaps the still-unwavering supporters of Oslo today, the Kaplan Crowd and leftist media and power-hungry politicians, can be enlightened to admit that the origins of October 7 can be traced back to the White House lawn when Rabin and Peres were duped by the smiling kefeyah-wearing weasel. Perhaps the Kaplaners can admit the tragic error of their actions and make peace with the majority of Jews in Israel, instead of fighting against them and dividing the Nation.

In looking to the teachings of Rabbi Kook for guidance,  we have to ask if the Kaplan Crowd can be compared to the “masters of “chutzpah” in Rabbi Kook’s day? For all of their socialist, communist, anarchist, and heretical beliefs, the early secular pioneers placed the building of the country first and foremost in their hearts. Is this true of the Kaplanists today and denizens of the “Deep State” who control them? Others, more knowledgeable in the teachings of Rabbi Kook and wiser to the complexities and contradicting streams of Israeli society can answer this question. I will merely quote a few views expressed by Rabbi Kook in order to facilitate discussion.

In his book, “Orot,” Rabbi Kook writes about vibrant force of secular nationalism:

“We will not be overcome if the streams (of secular nationalism) seem deformed in their outward appearance. The light of Hashem shines in them; the spirit of G-d empowers them. Secular nationalism may be infected with great pollution which evolves from many hidden and evil spirits, but we will not succeed by ostracizing it from the soul of the generation. Rather we must strive with great effort to elevate it to its exalted Source, to attach it to the holy Source from which it evolves (Orot HaTechiyah 22).

Rabbi Kook he reminds us that, as a general rule, as long as a Jew yearns for the betterment of the Israelite Nation in Israel, even though his or her beliefs may be terribly mistaken, the healing remedy of t’shuva is always possible (Orot HaT’shuva 4:11). In fact it is much closer than we might think. Rabbi Kook writes:

“A Covenant was forged with all of Clal Yisrael that it would never succumb to total impurity. Impurities can negatively affect it and cause blemishes but they cannot completely disconnect it from the Divine Source of its life. The spirit of the Nation which is awakening now, of which many of its supporters are claiming that they have no need for the spirit of G-d, if they could truly establish such a (secular) national spirit in Israel, they would be basing the Nation on a foundation of spiritual pollution and destruction. But what they seek they themselves do not know because the spirit of Israel is so connected to the spirit of G-d that even if they claim that have no need for the spirit of Hashem, when a person declares that he longs for the spirit of Israel, behold the Divine spirit rests in the innermost point of his aspiration, even against his will.

An individual can detach himself from the source of life, but the entirety of Jewish People cannot. Thus all of the national properties which are cherished by the Nation because of its national spirit, all are imbued with the spirit of G-d, her Land, language, history and customs. And if it should come to pass that a spirit like this appears whereby people speak only of the (secular) spirit of the Nation and try to erase the spirit of G-d from all facets of national life – what should the Tzaddikim of the generation do? To stand up against the spirit of the Nation, even in speech, and to negate its national aspects, this is impossible for the spirit of Hashem and the spirit of Israel are one. Rather they must undertake the great work of revealing the light and holiness in the national (secular) spirit, to uncover the Divine light in all of these national elements until all of the people who possess the ideas of general secular nationalism will find themselves automatically immersed and rooted and living in the Divine light of life, shining in holiness and exalted valor” (Orot HaTechiya 9).

Regarding suggestions that the yishuv be divided in order to strengthen Torah observance, the Rav said on his deathbed, “Division is the basis of heresy. There is no permission for communal division in Israel” (LiShloshah BeElul, p. 48).

In an  essay on Pesach and freedom, Rabbi Kook indicates that the disunity and conflict between the religious and secular communities of his time was caused by the introduction of alien ideologies into the hearts and minds of the Jewish People during Israel’s long wanderings in Exile among the Gentiles. This “chametz” must be banished for unity to exist. This cleansing is a gradual ongoing process which continues to challenge us today.

“Freedom and the banishing of chametz — these two symbolize the Festival of Redemption, Pesach, the Festival of our Freedom. What can we learn from these two interdependent concepts? The eternal answer is that there are two conditions required for redemption: One is physical emancipation from any foreign subjugation, from any force which enslaves the Divine Image in man by diminishing its value, its splendid majesty and noble sanctity. But this liberty is acquired only through the freedom of the soul, the freedom of the spirit from all that diverts it from the firm, straight path etched in its essential nature. Yet these two types of freedom cannot be achieved, neither by the individual nor by the nation as a spiritually unique collective, without the banishing from one’s domain of everything which inhibits freedom, namely, the chametz in the dough, whose threat is greatest when the light of redemption flickers.

“During such a period of transition, the slumbering forces awaken. Waves of life roar mightily. At this time of agitation, that which is lowly — both physically and spiritually — awakens, as do the most noble of positive life forces. Hence, great caution is required. The pioneers of Redemption, the entire generation which is meriting to witness the first bud of the sprouting of Redemption, will necessarily contain many thoughts, images, and teachings which tend to destroy, defile, and annihilate all glory and strength in Israel.

“Have not educators and leaders risen in our midst who stand at the helm of education and leadership and offer our children to Molech, who inoculate them with every foreign thought and insipid idea because they prefer alien shoots taken not from the fields of Israel, but from the vines of Sodom and the fields of Gemorrah? What has led us to the black depth of brotherly hatred which threatens to destroy and undermine all that has been accomplished through generations of superhuman toil and self-sacrifice? It is the absorption of the chametz of alien spirituality which is a hindrance at the time that the flourishing of our Redemption is progressing. What has caused the blindness preventing us from looking Heavenward, from seeing how the Rock of Israel leads us on the wings of eagles to the heights of Redemption? We must awaken and rise above the lowly bondage to all that is alien, be it expressed in foreign languages or be it expressed in our own tongue but with an alien, poisonous spirit. Let us go, brothers, to the Seder together. Let us recognize that we are children of royalty, a nation whose eternal destiny is freedom, that Israel is neither a servant nor a home-born slave, nor an object of contempt. So it has been from the day of the Festival of our Freedom, when we raised high the flag of freedom and of banishing the chametz within us by fulfilling the word of God, the Eternal Redeemer of Israel. Preserve the freedom and observe the banishing of chametz and thus speedily bring the complete Redemption” Olat Re’iyah II, pp. 2445; Translation by Rabbi Pesach Yaffe].

Wouldn’t it be ironic if the Kaplan Crowd became the harbinger of Israel’s Redemption. What wonders they could accomplish if they redirected their endless energy, resources, and media skills to raise the banner of Torah in the world! Though it sounds like a far-fetched fantasy, this scenario is not foreign to our history. Our Sages note that the pathway to King David and Mashiach originated with the episode between Yehuda and Tamar, and later from a nation whose members are forbidden to marry Jews, from Ruth the Moabite, “the mother of royalty” (Baba Batra 91b).

In another essay on Pesach, Rabbi Kook writes:

“Furthermore, King David’s crown was taken from the booty captured from Ammon. The crown, which had previously rested on the head of their idol (cf. Rashi on II Shmuel, 12:30), fit David’s head perfectly. How can we explain this? The Davidic dynasty is destined to make the Holy One King over His world, and therefore must transform the impure into the pure. The crown of the idol was purified and sanctified on the head of David, king of Israel, who devoted himself to fighting for the benefit of the Jewish people, and who consecrated the spoils of his victories to construct the sanctuary of the Lord in Jerusalem. So shall the shofar of Mashiach, scion of David, awaken and draw near the souls who have strayed the farthest, “they who were lost in the land of Assyria and they who were oppressed in the land of Egypt,” and they will ascend and come to “worship the Lord at the holy mountain in Jerusalem” (Is. 27:13).

May it be soon.