„If the holy enthusiasm and the lofty desire for redemption that flows…”
„If the holy enthusiasm and the lofty desire for redemption that flows from it have ceased, and if even a natural, national, human feeling and a desire for a life of the nation in dignity have also ceased, if it is impossible to blow a kosher shofar for redemption, then the enemies of Israel come and blow in our ears for redemption. They compel us to hear the sound of the shofar; they sound the alarm and clamor in our ears and give us no rest in the exile. The shofar of an impure beast is transformed into the shofar of the Messiah. Amalek, Petliura, Hitler, and so on, arouse toward redemption. And whoever did not heed the sound of the first shofar, and even the sound of the second, ordinary shofar he refused to hear because his ears were stopped up, he will hear the sound of the impure, invalid shofar; against his will he will hear. And he too fulfills his obligation - even this nationhood of the whip, of...”From Berachot, ch. 6, 44
Processes occur in the world; it is often in our hands to choose whether to receive the process in a straight way or in a crooked way. At times we are the ones who choose, at times these are broad national choices, and at times there is no one who can foresee and choose how the process that comes his way will be.
The people of Israel became established in the exile at a time when the shofar of the Land of Israel began to be heard. In very many places they refused to hear the sound of this shofar - far be it from us to judge them.
In the sermon the Rav delivered, he says that the process that is meant to happen will happen. I do not know whether the Rav foresaw the terrible Holocaust, whether there was any person who could foresee such wickedness. But this whip of the Holocaust was, in the end, part of the shofar of the Land of Israel. Part of what forced the world to affirm the existence of the Land of Israel as a home for the Jewish people.
On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day 5777, let us pray that we will succeed in passing through the processes coming toward us in a straight and positive way, and that the Holy One will not place us in trials.
The things the Rav said were, as noted, written in 1933. There is in these words no criticism of that generation, nor any attempt to explain the terrible Holocaust. There is in them enough to teach us all of the need to listen constantly to history and to the present, so that our future may be better.
In memory of the six million Jews who perished in the terrible Holocaust, and for the recovery of the survivors.
From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.