Shabbat Parashat Toldot 5784

Igrot Hare’aya – Letters of Rav Kook: Making Sure There Will Be a Din Torah – #176 – part I

Date and Place: Yafo, 1 Kislev 5669 (1908)

Recipient: Zev Gluskin, the head of Carmel Wine and the Organization of Wine Producers. This letter is a follow-up of letter #173, in which Rav Kook appealed to Mr. Gluskin to use his influence so that certain people would agree to submit their dispute to adjudication according to Torah law. Mr. Gluskin responded in a manner that Rav Kook was unhappy with, as will become evident. Apparently, there was a dispute regarding inheritance, in which a daughter, who had more need for the money than her brothers, did not want to submit to Torah law, which gives inheritance to sons and not daughters (albeit often with a need for the sons to use some of the inheritance for their sisters’ needs).

Body: Just now, I received your respected letter, in which the spirit of the regal love for truth of a dear soul can be felt.

However, I must once again request you to internalize that no system of justice in the world can ever fulfill all the demands that every individual can make of it. The rules of justice, like the laws of nature, apply broadly, which is what makes them praiseworthy and powerful. When the sun shines powerfully, it will not hold back its good light and heat from all [those who benefit from it] because it beats down at times on the head of some living thing, whether it be animal or human. The prayers of travelers are not admitted before Hashem at a time that everyone requires beneficial rain (Yoma 52b).

The only thing we can demand of judges is to have sufficient expertise in their field (i.e., the relevant laws that are the basis for the adjudication) and impeccable integrity, without any inclination toward favoritism and bribes of any form, Heaven forbid. Beyond that, it is us who must be ready to accept their judgment, if we desire to maintain our communal life, as opposed to weak and wilting life, and as opposed to the life of others (i.e., non-Jewish systems of justice), which do not present us with anything other than destruction and decay.

Woe onto us if we treat lightly the attacking of the lofty sanctum of the halls of justice, even if he “adorns” himself with the values of mercy and extra-judicial integrity. You should know that this “attribute of mercy,” which wants to take the inheritance from the son who received it according to the laws of the Torah, because of mercy on the daughter, can be taken further. Following this logic, we should claim the resources of the wealthy out of mercy on the destitute who rely on handouts. Woe unto the world if we have such “mercy,” which is, in fact, the mother of all cruelty and abomination!

The claim [presumably found in Mr. Gluskin’s letter] of the superficial knowledge of the ways of the world is not unique to our religious courts. Experts in a spiritual field cannot also absorb all the practical information that impacts a case. However, good rabbis and dayanim should never be suspected of refusing to seek counsel from experts when they lack sufficient knowledge in a “matter of the world.” Obviously, the experts should provide only the missing information, as opposed to the whole “judicial apparatus,” which should return to its place, the hall of judgment.

It is wrong to forget the advantage we have [over other judicial systems], as we can be proud that we have righteous laws and statutes, because they emerge from He Who is Alive Forever and from His unblemished Torah. For our purposes, it suffices that we just treat our judicial ways like those of other systems. We should feel pride in our judicial system at least as people feel pride for our language and our spiritual resources. Dear gentlemen, do not attack the sanctity of justice, for justice belongs to Hashem.

We continue from here next time.

Top of page

Print this page

Send to friend