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From Darkness will Spring forth Light

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Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook zt l

As we grapple with the most horrific slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, we can find comfort by turning to the great Jews who came before us.
On August 24, 1929, Arab rioters massacred 69 Jews and maimed scores of others in Chevron, sending shock waves through the Jewish community
worldwide. Personally shattered by the massacre, Rav Kook, the chief rabbi of the Yishuv, wrote the following powerful words of encouragement.
T hat holy spark of the foun- our fathers, as the days of old. But these remembering the holy, pure and innocent
dations of redemption, from
blood that was spilled by evil murderers…
great signs, which must shine with all of
their brightness and clarity, have faded
the holiness of the name of
We are certain that from this terrible
Mashiach, which was hidden
in the depths since the Beit HaMikdash was through sleight of hand. wound there will sprout a healing for the
destroyed and we were exiled from our The holy foundations of this great vision awful sickness of forgetting the name of
Land, has begun to burn from under the possess a hidden spark of the light of G-d, the distraction that has plagued some
heaps of the ashes of our bitter exile. Little Mashiach, the redeemer who is revealed, of the groups working to build the Land.
by little, this holy spark began to ignite then hidden, and then revealed once more. The foundational goal and higher purpose
through those who established the Old For this reason, the process of revitalizing of gathering the people of Israel to its
Yishuv, and more recently it began to grow the nation and expanding Jewish settle- beloved Land is that we will once again, as
in strength in a practical way through ment in the Land of Israel goes through in the days of old, carry the torch of holi-
the Chibbat Zion movement that preceded many ups and downs. Every yeridah, ness in all its purity before the nations of
modern Zionism. every descent in this process, is a hiding the world, to actualize the hidden holiness
of the redeemer, and every ascent, every
And the spirit of Hashem which is true for aliyah which follows it, is an aspect of his that lies in the inner soul of the nation
all eternity, remembering the kindness of revelation. in all its glory. This holiness will not be
our forefathers and the promise to bring revealed unless all of our efforts are in the
a redeemer to their descendants, has suf- And all those who have followed the tra- name of Hashem, the G-d of Israel, which
fused all the physical and spiritual aspects jectory of the Yishuv, from its beginning is revealed by living lives of holiness in the
of this holy building up of the Land, and until today, can clearly see that from every light of His Torah which will light up the
it has spread through all the communi- descent we have suffered there sprouted darkness of the world and through which
ties of Knesset Yisrael through the help of afterwards a far greater ascent and devel- the glory of redemption will be revealed…
the Zionist movement. All of this is from opment. From every crisis there springs a
Hashem, for the World War brought great great leap forwards… In the end, the community of Israel will
geo-political changes, leading to Great Brit- It is clear that in proportion to this “cover- awaken – both those who are settling
ain’s conquest of the Land and its assump- ing” [of the light of redemption], so will be the Land and those in the Diaspora who
tion of the mandate for the Holy Land, the greatness of the light that is revealed, are working to build the Land – to seek
whereupon Balfour’s declaration gave the the light that is buried under this great the soul of the rebirth of the nation, its
political seal of approval to the return of pile of darkness, to freedom from impris- redemptive secret, which is hidden in the
our children to their borders. depths of the present but which is the
onment. This time we hope that the force
These signs of the great times in which which binds all of Israel in every corner driving spirit of our people’s urge to wel-
we live are a testimony to every believ- of the exile to the building up of the Land come the renewal of our glorious future…
ing Jew that Hashem, as a Shepherd who of Israel will increase and grow stronger.
cares for His flock, is forming us once The love of holiness, which binds our souls  Shuvu L’Vitzaron, Ma’amarei Ra’ayah, 360-
again into a nation in the inheritance of to the Land of our desire, will multiply by 362. Translated by Rabbi Elie Mischel.

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