Rav Kook's Ein Ayah

Confidence in the Water Supply

(condensed from Ein Ayah, Shabbat 6:105)

Gemara: One who says: “I will drink and leave over” is in violation of the prohibition of following the ways of the Emorites.

Ein Ayah: Drinking is natural for man. It is in fact more pressing a need than eating food, and therefore water is provided in the most complete manner for living beings who need it to survive. It is available for all who need it at most times due to Hashem’s mercy for all of His creations.

This fact and viewpoint helps provide mankind with the light of trust in Hashem within the depths of the internal heart. Unnecessary concern, which is spawned by evil, can remove some of the trust in Hashem, to the extent that one will not have confidence that Hashem will provide him with enough of his necessities. Even if he has plenty water, he will be concerned that he will not have enough in the future. This is a characteristic of leaving Hashem, which causes him to leave by the wayside restfulness, pleasantness, and goodness which should be in his soul and spirit. It is based on this reasoning that the gemara calls one who drinks water and leaves it over, one who follows the ways of the Emorites.


The Will to Destroy All, Including, in Some Ways, Oneself

(condensed from Ein Ayah, Shabbat 6:106)

Gemara: One who breaks eggs on the wall in a manner that the live chicks will see is in violation of following the ways of the Emorites.

Ein Ayah: It is a characteristic of evil to want to destroy existence. An evil person continues to exist and to accumulate matters only because he was created with a life power that strives to fulfill the desires of his heart, which are as stormy as a rough sea. However, in essence, he has an embedded hatred of life. The more that civilization and society expand, the more the hatred of evil people increases, even though they function from within the wonderful auspices of society.

The characteristic of destructiveness, which was begun by the generation of the Great Flood, continues in all elements of life due to the inclination toward evil, which dwells within the spirit. The spirit of the evil person looks negatively on all of existence including itself. Just as it perceives that it itself does not deserve to continue to live, so too it extrapolates that nothing else deserves to exist either and that destruction is appropriate.

That is, for example, one of the reasons that castrating animals was popular in connection with idol worship. That also explains the Emorite practice to break the eggs, because the force of proliferation of the species is within the egg. Such a person thus sends a message of hatred of the continuance of the species. He does so in front of those chicks that are already hatched, who are not so easily destroyed. However, the person wants to demonstrate his disdain for life and his goal of having it cease. He shows regret that he did not kill the chick at an earlier stage. He shows that he thinks that it would have been worthwhile had the new chicks ended up with the same fate of destruction.

All of this “narrowness of the eye” (i.e., negative outlook) comes from the nerve center that cannot flow into the ways of Hashem and His goodness, and it is an expression of the ways of the Emorites.