Tuesday, the third of Elul, marked the 84th yahrzeit of Rav Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook, a brilliant gaon who served as the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Palestine.
To mark the occasion, The Jewish Press spoke with Rabbi Dov Begun, head of Yeshiva Machon Meir in Jerusalem – considered the ba’al teshuvah wing of Mercaz HaRav, which Rav Kook founded in 1924.
The soft-spoken, ever-smiling rosh yeshiva, 79, grew up on a secular kibbutz and began learning Torah when he was 23.
The Jewish Press: Students of Rav Kook maintain that the State of Israel is the at’chalta d’geula (the beginning of redemption). What do you say to those who disagree?
Rabbi Begun: There is a famous photograph of Rav Kook holding up two fingers together as if to say, “Be patient.” The Jerusalem Talmud describes how the redemption of Israel will transpire: “kimah kimah – little by little,” in gradual stages like the dawning of the day. We are still in the beginning, but look at the miraculous progress we have made.
Materially, yes. But not necessarily spiritually.
The very opposite is true. The media highlights the secular, but there has never been more Torah learning in the Land of Israel since the time of the First Temple. Every day, new yeshivot, ulpanot, and Talmud Torahs open throughout the country. The ba’al teshuvah movement is flourishing.
The forces of impurity in the world sense their end is near, so they do everything they can to interfere. But they’re only here to make us stronger. Rav Kook foresaw this in his writings, and assures us that this period of chutzpah will pass when the soul of the nation senses the emptiness of endless material pursuit and the futility of searching for freedom in empty foreign wells. At that point, there will be a great desire to reconnect with our nation’s holy roots.
Wherever one sees the name of your yeshiva in advertisements, one sees the slogan, “With love and faith.” Why?
Rav Kook wrote that the mission of our times was to strengthen ahavah and emunah. In his day, the spirits of secular Zionism and all sorts of foreign, heretical creeds were rampant. Nonetheless, Rabbi Kook stressed the importance of embracing all Jews for the good in them.
Regarding emunah, Rav Kook taught that faith was much more than a feeling and an abstract belief. Emunah is a Torah discipline that must be learned. Who is Hashem? How does he appear in the world through Am Yisrael? What does He want for the His nation?
Rav Kook stressed the importance of seeing the acts of Hashem in our times and being His partner in the unfolding redemption coming to pass through the return of our scattered and exiled people to our Biblical borders and the rebirth of the nation in Israel – a miracle we are privileged to experience every day.
The charedi community has never recognized Rav Kook as a leading Torah figure. His books aren’t found in charedi yeshivot and his teachings are largely scorned.
The leading charedi rabbis in the time of Rav Kook all respected him for his outstanding scholarship and sterling character traits. There were disagreements about how to relate to the secular pioneers, but on a personal level, Rav Kook was esteemed by all of the gedolim.
Early in your life, you were a secular Zionist. Why did you become a ba’al teshuvah?
During my service in the army, I met many religious soldiers. Often in the army, there is no immediate assignment, so there’s a lot of time to sit and talk. It was the first time I came to know religious people in a serious fashion. Their idealism and beliefs moved something in me. I discovered that the Jewish people existed a long time before Herzl.
So you see, although there are people who claim the army makes soldiers irreligious, G-d forbid, many return to the Torah davka in the army.