Page 31 - HaMizrachi Yom Yerushalayim - Shavuot 5782 USA

opened up the gates of Chassidut for us. Over the last few years, I have begun collective spirit of Rav Kook. Is anyone
For the first time, I opened the Tanya, to question this Chassidic revolution else yearning for the Torah of both the
Rav Nachman and the Zohar, and I felt in our community. Have we lost some- individual and the nation? In the years
them quench the thirst of my soul. I thing by replacing Rav Kook with Rav ahead, will anyone still be teaching the
felt that this Torah spoke to me; it was Nachman? In our commitment to our Torah of Rav Kook?
a Torah that spoke to the individual personal spiritual quests, have we lost
and to the perfection of the internal something of our commitment to the  This article was originally published in
world within each person. I felt the broader community of Am Yisrael? Hebrew in Yediot Achronot.
lights, the Orot – not the Orot of Rav What are the core ideals that our chil-
Kook, but the Orot of Chassidut. I could dren are now growing up with? I feel
feel that I was part of a shift within confident today that the religious edu- Dr. Netanel Fisher is a senior lecturer at the
the Religious Zionist community, that cation system incorporates a lot about Academic Center for Law and Science in Hod
a group of us were moving away from personal growth and spirituality. But Hasharon.
the classic nationalistic outlook we had will the students of today grow up with
grown up with to a more individualis- the sense of commitment to Klal Yisrael
tic spiritual world. and Eretz Yisrael that we grew up with?
Does anyone still talk in terms of those
Within a short period of time, I ideals and ideology any more?
switched to Yeshivat Otniel, which The Religious Zionist community is
was one of the leaders of the Chassidic still a warm, caring community with
revolution in Religious Zionism, a rev- an admirable sense of mutual respon-
olution that can now be seen in many sibility. However, I think the Kookian
parts of our community. The “White revolutionary spirit is being replaced
Talmud” of Rav Kook has been replaced by the existentialism of Breslov, and (PHOTO: CHAIM TWITO/YEDIOT ACHRONOT)
by the brown covers of the Chassidic I believe it has reduced our desire to
sefarim. Carlebach tunes have taken help the broader community. Exac-
over within our shuls. One is more erbating the problem, the Religious
likely to hear the teachings of the Sfat Zionist community has simultaneously
Emet or Netivot Shalom in a derasha in become more bourgeoisie and subur-
shul than the Torah of Rav Kook. There ban, which has caused us to focus more
is even a movement among the “hilltop on ourselves than on others.
youth”, the fringes of Religious Zion- I don’t want to return to the Religious
ism, that sees themselves as “post-Re- Zionism of 20–30 years ago. My soul
ligious Zionist”, led by Rabbi Yitzchak yearns for the songs and dancing of
Ginsburg. Tzamah. But my soul also yearns for the (PHOTO: CHAIM TWITO/YEDIOT ACHRONOT)

| 31