Letter 89 - Part I - Slavery (part b)
RAV KOOKS LETTERS
By Rav Tamir Granot
Lecture #15b: Letter 89 Part I Slavery (part b)
There is no doubt that Rav Kook viewed liberty as a value of the first order.
However, as we have seen, he did not understand liberty in its negative sense
meaning the absence of subjugation as in the liberal view. According to Rav
Kook, true liberty is the manifestation of ones essence.
Even at this early stage, we discover an important connection between the
principle of liberty and the principle of equality. When we speak of negative
liberty, there is no room for distinction between one person and another, since
the liberal view defines liberty only as the right of every individual to
choose; it adopts no position as to the desired nature of the choice, other than
that it should be freely made.
From the point of view of positive liberty, in contrast, we must ask whether
the awarding of freedom will in fact bring about positive results. Here the
connection between liberty and equality is no longer automatic. Someone may not
be suited or ready for freedom because he will use it badly; in that case, it is
proper to deny it to him.
However, the positive interpretation of liberty also includes negative
dictatorial potential. In every generation, there have been individuals who
denied the liberty of others because they thought that those people could not or
would not make good use of it. Dictators, kings, or other political or religious
leaders often managed to persuade their people that they were truly incapable of
doing anything good with freedom. This manipulative side of the concept of
positive liberty has been responsible, to a large extent, for modern cultures
support of the minimalist, negative interpretation of the concept of freedom,
which is the basis for the existence of liberal societies.
We have already commented in a previous lecture that Rav Kook does not suffice
with a definition of release from external chains; he understands proper, true
freedom as a spiritual movement of the revelation or manifestation of a persons
essence and its expression. In this positive sense, liberty is actually the main
meaning of life itself. A person who lives according to the standards, desires,
beliefs, or plans of someone else is not actually living a real life for such
is not a life that is destined for him and him alone.
Rav Kook expressed this view in many different places. Here is one of them:
The freedom of
spiritual expression: Spiritual expression is free; it takes no external
influence into account, [but rather] expresses itself in accordance with its own
inner spirit. And as its self-confidence grows, so it ascends to the pinnacles
of truth. Deceit, and the wickedness that adheres to it, come about only from
external influence, which attacks it like a sore and directs it by force
contrary to its spirit. For because it followed an [external] command, that
command represents idolatry. (Orot Ha-Kodesh I, p. 179)
Rav Kook is explaining the opinion of R. Yitzchak, who understands the inclusion
of the prohibition against idolatry among the Seven Noahide Laws as being based
on the word va-yetzav (and He commanded) (see Sanhedrin 56b).
His explanation is simple and sharp: the very obedience to a command applied to
a person from the outside is itself the root of idolatry. The source of deceit
and wickedness lies in a person being distanced from the essential sources of
himself and of his creation. The root of faith is belief in essence, and the
corollary is also true: the root of wickedness and idolatry is having the soul
subjected to external influence. Clearly, then, slavery as a cultural and
psychological phenomenon is the negation of the most fundamental point of life
the negation of the meaning of a persons
existence in the world as a special, unique creation.
However, as Rav Kook teaches in a well-known exposition preceding his commentary
on the Pesach Haggada,[1]
it is possible for conditions of actual slavery not to negate the spiritual
freedom to act in accordance with ones essence, and vice versa. There are
people who are free in terms of their status, but they are psychologically
enslaved. A country may be altogether liberal, with no subjugation whatsoever,
but its citizens may live their lives far removed from themselves, subjected to
cultural and media manipulations, entrapped in intellectual fads, full of ego,
and incapable of being themselves and truly expressing themselves.[2]
The difference between
a slave and a free person is not just a matter of status i.e., that one
happens to be subjugated to another person while the other is not. We can find
an intellectual slave whose spirit is full of freedom, and on the other hand a
free person whose spirit is that of a slave. Definitive freedom is that lofty
spirit by means of which a person and the nation as a whole is elevated to
be faithful to his inner essence, to the spiritual quality of the image of God
which is inside him. Through this quality, he is able to experience his life as
purposeful life, worthy of its value. This is not the case in a person who has
the spirit of a slave: the substance of his life and his experience [of it] will
never be illuminated with the quality of his spiritual essence; rather, it will
reflect what is good and fine for whoever controls him, in whatever form
whether formally or morally, as the controller sees fit.
Slavery, then, is not just a negative social phenomenon, but also a negative
quality within the psyche of a slave (or someone who lives his life enslaved to
the ideas or fancies of others). Worse still, it is a mode of life that is
disconnected from a persons essence, which is the core significance of his
creation. The Torahs negative attitude towards slavery pertains, then,
according to Rav Kook, to the most fundamental meaning of life.
The question of the license for enslaving the Canaanites now becomes even more
troubling. How can the Torah permit something that is so profoundly negative in
terms of the essence of man and his life?
Shadows of Freedom
In order to answer this question, we must examine the other side of the coin of
freedom and essence. Freedom is justified because it gives a person the space in
which to actualize and express his essence. But what about someone who is
incapable of this someone whose point of life is far removed from his essence,
whose material existence is focused on fulfilling his desires, and who is driven
by jealousy and inflated ego? Here, freedom may be harmful. First, it may lead
to negative external results in the form of harm to himself and to others.
Second, and more importantly, it cannot uplift someone whose psyche is low and
far removed from his essence to a higher level; it leaves him in the same
position.
Lest this be misunderstood, we must reiterate that every person, including the
cursed Canaan, has an important and valued point of essence. Every person, and
every nation, has a special power and quality that must be exercised. However,
for long periods in history, the Canaanites were incapable of this, and
therefore freedom would harm them rather than benefit them.
To take an example closer to our experience: do we give complete freedom to
children? No one would argue with the premise that a child has his own important
essence. Why, then, do we not give him unlimited freedom? Why do we teach him to
accept authority? Why do we expect obedience from him? Why do we repeat, Hear,
my son, the teaching of your father
, and Every person shall fear his mother
and his father? Does this negation of freedom not negate his essence? Are we
not destroying his personality?
In truth, there are many people today who do feel this way from radicals who
speak of education that is completely open to the greatest prophets of modern
and post-modern education, who place the childs autonomy at the center of the
system. Unquestionably, in the view of Rav Kook, education that aims to deny a
child freedom of thought or to halt the flow of his free will is negative.
However, our question here concerns not the objectives of education, but rather
the path to those ends. Children are at a stage where they have not developed
their emotions and character. They are motivated by immediate wants or
jealousies, they are focused on the here and now, and they lack the ability to
direct or control their will and feelings. At this stage, freedom is a heavy
burden, and it may halt the development of their personalities. We try to bring
them to a situation in which freedom becomes an opportunity for growth, for
broadening their personality, rather than a source of confusion and
helplessness. Acceptance of authority and respect for parents are the slavery
from within which children must emerge into freedom.
And here we get to the positive substance of slavery.
(To be continued)
Translated by Kaeren Fish
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