Charity and Giving as Power

When a person severs himself from the connection to a single source of truth and mercy, the Creator of the world, he does not become more free but closed within himself. From here begins a gradual process of corruption. "Hatred of charity" means a hostile attitude toward kindness. Not merely a lack of giving, but a sense that charity is a problem, that it encourages weakness, that it harms the proper order of the world. In practice this is expressed in contempt for the weak, in the justification of indifference, and in language that presents mercy as a moral failing. "Veneration of arrogance" is the next stage. Arrogance is not merely a character trait but a cultural ideal. Whoever is strong, independent, and dominant is seen as worthy of veneration, even if it comes at the expense of others. Thus power is severed from kindness and might becomes a value unto itself. Rav Kook warns that this is the root of modern wickedness. Not overt lack of faith, but a world that glorifies the self and hates everything that recalls commitment. Against this he sets a different culture, in which strength and might live together with humility and mercy, and charity is not weakness but a foundation of a rectified society.

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