Date and Place: 19 Tamuz 5669, Rechovot
Recipient: Rav Dov Ber Hakohen Kook, Rav Kook’s brother. He would later be the first rabbi of Afula and start the Harry Fischel Institute, but at this point, he was still in Eastern Europe.
Body: [The letter begins with Rav Kook’s request of forgiveness for not writing as much as he wanted to. Then Rav Kook describes the beauty of and positive changes at the moshava of Rechovot, where he was visiting.]
Of course, here too I do not have free time. Even when I am far away from the great activity of the city, I am surrounded by very overwhelming responsibilities. This is especially true this year, as the very impactful preparations for Shemitta are upon us. They are challenging in practice, but much more than that, in the thought of the heart and of the spirit, in the need to delve deeply into the halachic details, and to elevate the thought to the principles of the matter. After all, on the one hand, our eyes see and our ears hear with great intention, the great desire of the soul to adorn the mitzva with all its many halachot. On the other hand, we see the weakness of the situation and how unprepared we are for it, to the extent that we are compelled into adopting severe leniencies based on great need and the obviation of the mitzva.
Nevertheless, the rest of the Land is coming and spreading its wings on the holy soil. It approaches the heart of the nation of Hashem, which lives in the Land with a silent wind. On the one hand, we are dealing with the authorization forms that are needed to obviate Shemitta. On the other hand, we are leaving many areas of work that are performed most years, because the world is ready for it. We are being careful to ask about the most minute details from the many good, hard-working farmers who work our Land with an idealism and the pleasure of internal sanctity that is unprecedented in the world. They are all proclaiming: “The holy year is coming!” The holy feelings of the holy nation on holy soil are taking form silently, even among souls that have not revealed their own depths. Fortunate is the nation that Hashem is their G-d!
I will not keep from you, dear brother, that I have recently begun to put into actions my plans for a “Central Yeshiva for the New Yishuv.” I cannot succinctly explain the great necessity and the expected benefit from bringing such a holy, lofty undertaking to fruition. The goal and spiritual form of such a yeshiva is loftier and much more distant than the humble practical form it will be forced to adopt at its inception. We will place our trust in He Who bequeaths Israel with power, that He will provide the blossoming of righteousness. We shall start with a few good young men, with reasonable abilities, whom I have taken from Yerushalayim, and I have found another few to join them from Yafo. I hope that we will establish proper and good study systems, and that they will include my heart’s desire, to educate Torah scholars, who will be outstanding students on the spiritual side of the Torah of truth, as I have always desired from the time I was young. By expanding and developing this nucleus, and establishing it with a good form, with wisdom and a pure spirit, there will be much blossoming of salvation and redemption.
The hard work in this matter is the practical side, including the financial elements, which I am totally not an expert in. On the spiritual side, it requires order, which is also against my nature. After all, I love to influence and inculcate every youngster in the marketplace and young man on the street, if it were possible. Still, I hope to succeed with the help of a group of friends and supporters, although it is difficult for me to find people to whom I can hand over the thoughts of my spirit in their full purity. After all, we are living in the air that is full of the sound of hope and beams of light of the life of loftiness. I hope that the merit of Eretz Yisrael will enable us to set a strong base for this project, which is one of the major, practical, spiritual foundations of my life plan.
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