Mishpetei HaRav Kook / The Changing Attitude Toward Heretics

Alongside his deep appreciation for the new settlement, for its youthful spirit and for the yearning alive within it, Rav Kook rejected the heretics themselves. He saw such people as those who prevent the masses from drawing near to the truth on account of their own personal interests. And so, alongside his great embrace of all the young people of the Land of Israel, the Rav was very firm in the face of the heretics themselves. Yet even this harsh attitude toward the heretics changed with time. The Rav softened his spirit even toward the heretics, as part of his view of all reality as a process — understanding that their heresy is like the leaven in the dough, and that alongside its harm it holds immense importance for the redemption.