„(Orot HaTorah, Chapter IX, section 6) Following Asaf Asher's explana…”
„(Orot HaTorah, Chapter IX, section 6) Following Asaf Asher's explanation of the previous status, I chose to bring part of the passage in Orot HaTorah (and I recommend that those interested read the entire passage). In this passage Rav Kook speaks of two specific people who lived in his generation and whom the Rav greatly respected, and from them emerged his explanation for all of us. Bialik was a student at the Volozhin yeshiva, which was a Lithuanian yeshiva where they studied mainly Talmud. Asher Ginzberg (known as...”
"Ahad Ha'am") was a student at a chassidic yeshiva.
These two important figures studied in places opposed to their spirit, their temperament, and their talents. Bialik was a humanist poet who studied in a very realistic place that stifled his spirit. "Ahad Ha'am" was a rationalist thinker whom the chassidic world did not suit.
When a person is in a place that does not suit him and tries by force to do things contrary to his spirit and his talents, he is liable to come to hate what he does - this is expressed in studying something unsuitable, in the choice of a profession, and in many other choices in life.
Every person must find the place where he can express himself and his talent in the best way, both within the world of Torah and in the wider world in general.
This passage, which in our postmodern world seems clear and fitting, was a great innovation in the generation of the Rav, the seer of lights.
A good evening to all!
From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.