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Kol Dodi Dofek: Listen-my Beloved Knocks
Rabbi Soloveitchik's unique and widely influential approach to theodicy is that in the face of catastrophe and misfortune, we cannot ask why, since that question is unanswerable. Instead we must ask how we can grow and individuals and as a community. It is not the why? that is important, but the what?
Rav Soloveitchik grapples with the enormity of the Shoah and the miracle of the founding of the State of Israel and what our responses should be to both. He contrasts a life of fate, where one is an object, with the life of destiny, where one is the subject and acts. We ask not about the reason for evil and its purpose, but rather about its rectification and uplifting. How should a person react in a time of distress? What should a person do so as not to rot in his affliction? We can not try to explain the irrational hatred that prevailed in the world between 1935 and 1945, nor should we assign blame within. We must focus instead on what we can learn from that fearsome time. Rav Soloveitchik does not concentrate on theodicy but rather on going forward. He shows that the Covenant of Fate during our suffering in Egypt is completed in the Covenant of Destiny at Sinai. Destiny joined fate to form a unit. A Jew who participates in the suffering of his nation and its fate, but does not join in its destiny, which is expressed in a life of Torah and mitzvot, destroys the essence of Judaism and injures his own uniqueness. By the same token, a Jew who is observant but does not feel the hurt of the nation, and who attempts to distance himself from Jewish fate, desecrates his Jewishness (p.73).
He uses the language of the Song of Songs, Shir HaShirim, to describe the relationship between the Jewish people and our Beloved, Hashem. The response of the nation to kol dodi dofek, My Beloved is knocking (5.2) is tragic hesitation, not arising to answer the door, I have removed my cloak, how shall I put it on again? I have washed my feet, how shall I soil them? (5.3). By the time the nation awakens from its sloth, My Beloved had turned away, and was gone (5.6). Rav Soloveitchik gives examples of Hashem s knocking at our door : the United Nations resolution recognizing Israel; the miraculous victory on the battlefield when the Arab nations united against Israel and ended up ceding more land to the Jewish nation than had originally been planned; the theological implications of a Jewish government in Israel; Israel as a counterforce to assimilation and Jewish self-hatred, and as a factor in maintaining Jewish identity among the unaffiliated; Israel putting the power of self-defense in Jewish hands; Israel as a refuge for Jews how many lives would have been saved if we had possessed a country of our own in 1939. He shows that we have not answered properly, and how we should respond.
His essay demonstrates the need for sophistication in many fields of knowledge in order to appreciate the workings of Hashem. For example, he analyzes how problematic the events of 1948 were for Christian theology. Christian belief had been predicated on a new covenant superseding the old one between God and the Jews, a new testament that fulfilled the meaning of the old one (that is why Jews say the Hebrew Bible, not the Old Testament ). Christians could handle the Land of Israel being desolate; they believed that promises about Zion and Jerusalem should be interpreted as foreshadowing Christianity and the Christian Church. But the allegorical reading no longer applied when Zion and Jerusalem were flourishing in Jewish hands.
Rav Soloveitchik grapples with the enormity of the Shoah and the miracle of the founding of the State of Israel and what our responses should be to both. He contrasts a life of fate, where one is an object, with the life of destiny, where one is the subject and acts. We ask not about the reason for evil and its purpose, but rather about its rectification and uplifting. How should a person react in a time of distress? What should a person do so as not to rot in his affliction? We can not try to explain the irrational hatred that prevailed in the world between 1935 and 1945, nor should we assign blame within. We must focus instead on what we can learn from that fearsome time. Rav Soloveitchik does not concentrate on theodicy but rather on going forward. He shows that the Covenant of Fate during our suffering in Egypt is completed in the Covenant of Destiny at Sinai. Destiny joined fate to form a unit. A Jew who participates in the suffering of his nation and its fate, but does not join in its destiny, which is expressed in a life of Torah and mitzvot, destroys the essence of Judaism and injures his own uniqueness. By the same token, a Jew who is observant but does not feel the hurt of the nation, and who attempts to distance himself from Jewish fate, desecrates his Jewishness (p.73).
He uses the language of the Song of Songs, Shir HaShirim, to describe the relationship between the Jewish people and our Beloved, Hashem. The response of the nation to kol dodi dofek, My Beloved is knocking (5.2) is tragic hesitation, not arising to answer the door, I have removed my cloak, how shall I put it on again? I have washed my feet, how shall I soil them? (5.3). By the time the nation awakens from its sloth, My Beloved had turned away, and was gone (5.6). Rav Soloveitchik gives examples of Hashem s knocking at our door : the United Nations resolution recognizing Israel; the miraculous victory on the battlefield when the Arab nations united against Israel and ended up ceding more land to the Jewish nation than had originally been planned; the theological implications of a Jewish government in Israel; Israel as a counterforce to assimilation and Jewish self-hatred, and as a factor in maintaining Jewish identity among the unaffiliated; Israel putting the power of self-defense in Jewish hands; Israel as a refuge for Jews how many lives would have been saved if we had possessed a country of our own in 1939. He shows that we have not answered properly, and how we should respond.
His essay demonstrates the need for sophistication in many fields of knowledge in order to appreciate the workings of Hashem. For example, he analyzes how problematic the events of 1948 were for Christian theology. Christian belief had been predicated on a new covenant superseding the old one between God and the Jews, a new testament that fulfilled the meaning of the old one (that is why Jews say the Hebrew Bible, not the Old Testament ). Christians could handle the Land of Israel being desolate; they believed that promises about Zion and Jerusalem should be interpreted as foreshadowing Christianity and the Christian Church. But the allegorical reading no longer applied when Zion and Jerusalem were flourishing in Jewish hands.
114 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 2006
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104 people want to read
About the author
Joseph B. Soloveitchik
62 books65 followersRabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik (1903-1993)
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik was born into a family already known for its great Torah learning. His grandfather and father, emphasized a thorough analysis of Talmud, and it is in this way that Rav Soloveitchik studied and taught his own students. He was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Berlin, and then settled in Boston in the early 1930’s. He became Rosh HaYeshiva of Yeshiva University, and gave weekly shiurim to senior students, while delivering philosophy lectures to graduate students. His accomplishments in both Halachic study and secular study made him a unique Torah personality to Torah scholars all over.
His limitless expertise in and appreciation of secular disciplines never lessened his total devotion to Torah study. Indeed Torah study was the central focus of his life and his teachings. His public historic shiurim in memory of his great father, Rav Moshe Soloveitchik, and his public shiurim between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur organized by the Rabbinical Council of America known as Kinus T’Shuva, were attended by thousands of Torah students from all groupings in the Torah community. Thus he was one of the leaders of the generation.
He never engaged in pejorative or invectives when speaking of non-orthodox Jews. He was polite and respectful to others. Yet he was firm and inflexible in protecting and advocating the Mesorah of Torah tradition. His ruling, written by him, that one is not allowed to pray in a house of worship that violates Halachic standards even if it would result in not fulfilling the Mitzvah of Tekiath Shofar is an illustration of his strong stand on Torah and Mesorah.
This can also be seen from his opinion that while dialogue with non-Jewish faiths may be necessary, it may not deal with theological topics. This was a historic principle which guided his disciples in all their dealings with non-Jewish clergy, and continues to this very day.
His teachings and shiurim are responsible for literally thousands of men and women in the educational and academic community today.
F.S.
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik was born into a family already known for its great Torah learning. His grandfather and father, emphasized a thorough analysis of Talmud, and it is in this way that Rav Soloveitchik studied and taught his own students. He was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Berlin, and then settled in Boston in the early 1930’s. He became Rosh HaYeshiva of Yeshiva University, and gave weekly shiurim to senior students, while delivering philosophy lectures to graduate students. His accomplishments in both Halachic study and secular study made him a unique Torah personality to Torah scholars all over.
His limitless expertise in and appreciation of secular disciplines never lessened his total devotion to Torah study. Indeed Torah study was the central focus of his life and his teachings. His public historic shiurim in memory of his great father, Rav Moshe Soloveitchik, and his public shiurim between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur organized by the Rabbinical Council of America known as Kinus T’Shuva, were attended by thousands of Torah students from all groupings in the Torah community. Thus he was one of the leaders of the generation.
He never engaged in pejorative or invectives when speaking of non-orthodox Jews. He was polite and respectful to others. Yet he was firm and inflexible in protecting and advocating the Mesorah of Torah tradition. His ruling, written by him, that one is not allowed to pray in a house of worship that violates Halachic standards even if it would result in not fulfilling the Mitzvah of Tekiath Shofar is an illustration of his strong stand on Torah and Mesorah.
This can also be seen from his opinion that while dialogue with non-Jewish faiths may be necessary, it may not deal with theological topics. This was a historic principle which guided his disciples in all their dealings with non-Jewish clergy, and continues to this very day.
His teachings and shiurim are responsible for literally thousands of men and women in the educational and academic community today.
F.S.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 20, 2024
I read this on a plane ride to Israel, to put myself in the proper and appreciative frame of mind. The Rav's insights are marvelous and unique, and the 6 knocks gave me lots of pause and reflection. It made me think, a lot, and me realize, plenty. I fell a little more in love with his teachings, and a lot more in love with Israel.
November 17, 2024
On the eve of the 1956 Suez War, Rabbi Soloveitchik wrote the key text of non-messianic religious Zionism. This polemic, first delivered in Yiddish at Yeshiva University, insists that God is knocking at the door, trying to rouse us to a miracle: the creation of the State of Israel. But that is only the historical side of the argument. Rav Soloveitchik’s core theological claim is that suffering—terrible, inevitable suffering—is meaningless, until (or unless) you wrest something from it. Israel is the meaning that must be wrested from the Holocaust. A miracle, he says, must be seized, or else remain a mere historical event.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews