(ג) תורת אמת כזאת מוכרחת שתתקיים בתורת הכרח של מצוה ואמונה בפרטיה, כל זמן שתהיה האנושות עדיין צריכה להדרכה, כל זמן שעוד לא מלאה הארץ דעה עד שכל יחיד מוצא בבירור גמור את כל תעודתו מהכרת עצמו, שאז היא מתעלה מכלל אמונה לכלל מדע מבורר.
(3) A Torah of truth like this must be fulfilled in a framework of compulsion of commandment and faith in its details, so long as humanity still needs instruction, so long as the world has not yet achieved full knowledge, where every individual will have a clear understanding of his full destiny from knowing himself. At that point, following the Torah will no longer be based on faith and commandment, but it will transcend faith to become clear knowledge.
From Sefaria: Composed in Latvia (c.1896 - c.1904 CE). For the Perplexed of the Generation was written by Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook (1865 - 1935) before he moved from Latvia to Eretz Israel in1904, and published posthumously. It presents Rav Kook’s response to the issues of his time, including Zionism, critical scholarship and secular nationalism. This work was mentioned in a list of unpublished works by HaRav Kook that appeared in 1937. At that time, Rav Kook’s son, Zvi Yehudah Kook (1891-1982), denied its existence. It wasn’t actually seen until an electronic version appeared in 2010.
(5) Once Joseph had a dream which he told to his brothers; and they hated him even more.
(ד) הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, עֲשֵׂה רְצוֹנוֹ כִרְצוֹנְךָ, כְּדֵי שֶׁיַּעֲשֶׂה רְצוֹנְךָ כִרְצוֹנוֹ. בַּטֵּל רְצוֹנְךָ מִפְּנֵי רְצוֹנוֹ, כְּדֵי שֶׁיְּבַטֵּל רְצוֹן אֲחֵרִים מִפְּנֵי רְצוֹנֶךָ. הִלֵּל אוֹמֵר, אַל תִּפְרֹשׁ מִן הַצִּבּוּר, וְאַל תַּאֲמִין בְּעַצְמְךָ עַד יוֹם מוֹתְךָ, וְאַל תָּדִין אֶת חֲבֵרְךָ עַד שֶׁתַּגִּיעַ לִמְקוֹמוֹ, וְאַל תֹּאמַר דָּבָר שֶׁאִי אֶפְשָׁר לִשְׁמֹעַ, שֶׁסּוֹפוֹ לְהִשָּׁמַע. וְאַל תֹּאמַר לִכְשֶׁאִפָּנֶה אֶשְׁנֶה, שֶׁמָּא לֹא תִפָּנֶה:
(4) He used to say: do His will as though it were your will, so that He will do your will as though it were His. Set aside your will in the face of His will, so that he may set aside the will of others for the sake of your will. Hillel said: do not separate yourself from the community, Do not trust in yourself until the day of your death, Do not judge not your fellow man until you have reached his place. Do not say something that cannot be understood [trusting] that in the end it will be understood. Say not: ‘when I shall have leisure I shall study;’ perhaps you will not have leisure.
He = Gamaliel III: the son of Rabbi Judah haNasi, a 3rd century rabbi and a first generation amora. He was appointed in his father's place as Nasi.
“Man cannot live with intellect alone, nor with emotion alone; intellect and emotion must forever be joined together. If he wishes to burst beyond his own level, he will lose his ability to feel, and his flaws and deficiencies will be myriad despite the strength of his intellect. And needless to say, if he sinks into unmitigated emotion, he will fall to the depths of foolishness, which leads to all weakness and sin. Only the quality of equilibrium, which balances intellect with emotion, can deliver him completely” (Scholem, Devarim be-Go, 326-327)
Rav A.Y. Kook (1865-1935) was an Orthodox rabbi and the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine. He was one of the most famous and renowned rabbis in the 20th century.
(1) This is the record of Adam’s line.—When God created man, He made him in the likeness of God; (2) male and female He created them. And when they were created, He blessed them and called them Man.—
(1) . זכר ונקבה בראם, “He created them male and female.” The words “male and female” refer to the שכל, intelligence, and נפש, emotional life-force, respectively. These two components are major factors in the acquisition of wisdom, the body is quite peripheral, serving only as receptacle, a repository for the former.
(ב) ויברך אותם. ברכם ברבוי ותוספת חכמה. (ג) ויקרא את שמם אדם. כי אין האדם נקרא אדם רק בסבת הנפש והשכל שאלמלא הם נמשל כבהמות נדמה. ואחר שהיה בצלם אלהים היה לו להוליד בצלמו ובדמותו וכן עשה כי הוליד השכל והחכמה אשר כנהו בשת, לפי שהשכל עקר ויסוד הכל מלשון אבן שתיה כשם שהיה שת בנו עקר כל התולדות וראש לכל הצדיקים.
(2) ויברך אותם, “He blessed them.” G’d blessed them with the ability to absorb additional wisdom. (3) ויקרא את שמם אדם, He called their name “Adam (Man).” The only reason a human being is entitled to the description אדם is due to his שכל ונפש, to his intellect and emotional life-force, not because of his body. Were it not for שכל ונפש he would be indistinguishable from the animals as we know already from Psalms 49,13 נמשל כבהמות נדמו, “he is like the beasts that perish.” Seeing that man had been created “in the image of G’d,” he should have reproduced children which fitted the same description. This is indeed what happened when Adam and Chavah begat Sheth. Sheth represented a combination of שכל וחכמה, “intelligence and wisdom,” seeing that intelligence is the foundation of everything.
From Sefaria: Composed in Middle-Age Spain (c.1290 - c.1310 CE). A commentary on the Torah written by Rabbi Bahya ben Asher, 1255-1340, in Spain. Rabbeinu Bachya’s commentary includes the pshat (contextual meaning) along with aggadah, philosophy and Kabbalah.
(א) מצות אהבת ישראל - לאהב כל אחד מישראל אהבת נפש, כלומר שנחמל על ישראל ועל ממונו כמו שאדם חומל על עצמו וממונו, שנאמר (ויקרא יט יח) ואהבת לרעך כמוך. ואמרו זכרונם לברכה (שבת לא א) דעלך סני לחברך לא תעביד. ואמרו בספרא (קדושים ד יב) אמר רבי עקיבא זה כלל גדול בתורה, כלומר, שהרבה מצות שבתורה תלויות בכך, שהאוהב חברו כנפשו לא יגנב ממונו ולא ינאף את אשתו, ולא יונהו בממון ולא בדברים, ולא יסיג גבולו, ולא יזיק לו בשום צד, וכן כמה מצות אחרות תלויות בזה. ידוע [גלוי] הדבר לכל בן דעת.
(ב) שרש המצוה ידוע, כי כמו שיעשה הוא בחברו, כן יעשה חברו בו, ובזה היה שלום בין הבריות.
(ג) ודיני מצוה זו, כלולים הם בתוך המצוה, שכלל הכל הוא שיתנהג האדם עם חברו כמו שיתנהג האדם עצמו לשמר ממונו ולהרחיק ממנו כל נזק. ואם יספר עליו דברים יספרם לשבח ויחוס על כבודו ולא יתכבד בקלונו, וכמו שאמרו זכרונם לברכה (ירושלמי חגיגה פ''ב ה''א) המתכבד בקלון חברו אין לו חלק לעולם הבא, והמתנהג עם חברו דרך אהבה ושלום ורעות ומבקש תועלתם ושמח בטובם עליו הכתוב אומר (ישעיהו מט ג): ישראל אשר בך אתפאר.
(ד) ונוהגת מצוה זו בכל מקום ובכל זמן. והעובר עליה ולא נזהר בממון חבירו לשמרו, וכל שכן אם הזיק אותו בממון או צערו בשום דבר לדעת בטל עשה זה מלבד החיוב שבו לפי הענין שהזיקו, כמו שמפרש במקומו.
(1) The commandment of love of Israel: To love [with] love of the soul each one of Israel - meaning to say that we have compassion for an Israelite and for his money, [just] like a person has compassion for himself and for his [own] money; as it stated (Leviticus 19:18), "you shall love your neighbor as yourself." And they, may their memory be blessed, said (Shabbat 31a), "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow." And they said in Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 4:12, "Rabbi Akiva said, 'This is a great principle in the Torah'" - meaning to say that many commandments are dependent upon it. As one that loves his fellow like himself will not steal his money, have adultery with his wife, cheat his money from him nor hurt him from any angle. And so [too,] are there several other commandments dependent on this - the thing is well-known [revealed] to all who have intellect.
(2) The root of the commandment is well-known - as in the way that he acts to his fellow, so will his fellow act to him. And there will be peace among the creatures with this.
(3) And the laws of this commandment are included in the commandment, as the general principle of everything is that a man behave with his fellow in the way that a man behaves [with] himself - to guard his money and to distance all injury from him. And if he recounts things about him, he recounts them for praise, and he relate to his honor; and he does not become honored through his disgrace - and as they, may their memory be blessed, said (Talmud Yerushalmi Chagigah 2:1), "One who is honored by the disgrace of his fellow has no share in the world to come, but one who treats his fellow with love, peace and neighborliness, seeks their benefit and is happy about their good, the verse states about him, 'Israel, about you will I be glorified' (Isaiah 49:3)."
(4) And this commandment is practiced in every place and at all times. And one who transgresses it and is not careful about the money of his fellow, to guard it - and all the more so, if he injures him with money or caused him pain in any matter, volitionally - has violated this positive commandment; besides the liability that there is in it according to the matter in which he injured him, as is explained in its place.
From Sefaria: Composed in Middle-Age Spain (c.1255 - c.1285 CE). The Sefer ha-Hinukh (Book of Education), is a work which systematically discusses the 613 commandments of the Torah and published anonymously in 13th century Spain. The work's enumeration of the commandments is based upon Maimonides' system of counting as per his Sefer Hamitvot; each is listed according to its appearance in the weekly Torah portion and the work is structured correspondingly. It separately discusses each of the 613 commandments, both from a legal and a moral perspective.
(1) Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone withdraw from me!” So there was no one else about when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. (2) His sobs were so loud that the Egyptians could hear, and so the news reached Pharaoh’s palace. (3) Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still well?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dumbfounded were they on account of him. (4) Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come forward to me.” And when they came forward, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, he whom you sold into Egypt. (5) Now, do not be distressed or reproach yourselves because you sold me hither; it was to save life that God sent me ahead of you.
How might we look at Joseph now? How did emotional intelligence change the perspective?
The Sages taught: There was an incident involving one gentile who came before Shammai. The gentile said to Shammai: How many Torahs do you have? He said to him: Two, the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. The gentile said to him: With regard to the Written Torah, I believe you, but with regard to the Oral Torah, I do not believe you. Convert me on condition that you will teach me only the Written Torah. Shammai scolded him and cast him out with reprimand. The same gentile came before Hillel, who converted him and began teaching him Torah. On the first day, he showed him the letters of the alphabet and said to him: Alef, bet, gimmel, dalet. The next day he reversed the order of the letters and told him that an alef is a tav and so on. The convert said to him: But yesterday you did not tell me that. Hillel said to him: You see that it is impossible to learn what is written without relying on an oral tradition. Didn’t you rely on me? Therefore, you should also rely on me with regard to the matter of the Oral Torah, and accept the interpretations that it contains. There was another incident involving one gentile who came before Shammai and said to Shammai: Convert me on condition that you teach me the entire Torah while I am standing on one foot. Shammai pushed him away with the builder’s cubit in his hand. This was a common measuring stick and Shammai was a builder by trade. The same gentile came before Hillel. He converted him and said to him: That which is hateful to you do not do to another; that is the entire Torah, and the rest is its interpretation. Go study. There was another incident involving one gentile who was passing behind the study hall and heard the voice of a teacher who was teaching Torah to his students and saying the verse: “And these are the garments which they shall make: A breastplate, and an efod, and a robe, and a tunic of checkered work, a mitre, and a girdle” (Exodus 28:4). The gentile said: These garments, for whom are they designated? The students said to him: For the High Priest. The gentile said to himself: I will go and convert so that they will install me as High Priest. He came before Shammai and said to him: Convert me on condition that you install me as High Priest. Shammai pushed him with the builder’s cubit in his hand. He came before Hillel; he converted him. Hillel said to him, to the convert: Is it not the way of the world that only one who knows the protocols [takhsisei] of royalty is appointed king? Go and learn the royal protocols by engaging in Torah study. He went and read the Bible. When he reached the verse which says: “And the common man that draws near shall be put to death” (Numbers 1:51), the convert said to Hillel: With regard to whom is the verse speaking? Hillel said to him: Even with regard to David, king of Israel. The convert reasoned an a fortiori inference himself: If the Jewish people are called God’s children, and due to the love that God loved them he called them: “Israel is My son, My firstborn” (Exodus 4:22), and nevertheless it is written about them: And the common man that draws near shall be put to death; a mere convert who came without merit, with nothing more than his staff and traveling bag, all the more so that this applies to him, as well. The convert came before Shammai and told him that he retracts his demand to appoint him High Priest, saying: Am I at all worthy to be High Priest? Is it not written in the Torah: And the common man that draws near shall be put to death? He came before Hillel and said to him: Hillel the patient, may blessings rest upon your head as you brought me under the wings of the Divine Presence. The Gemara relates: Eventually, the three converts gathered together in one place, and they said: Shammai’s impatience sought to drive us from the world; Hillel’s patience brought us beneath the wings of the Divine Presence.
"It is feelings that move us to act, give us the energy to aspire, and fuel our ability to hand on our commitments to those who come after us.
Without the prophetic passion of an Amos, a Hosea, an Isaiah, a Jeremiah, without the music of the Psalms and the songs of the Levites in the Temple, Judaism would have been a plant without water or sunlight; it would have withered and died. Intellect alone does not inspire in us the passion to change the world. To do that you have to take thought and turn it into song. That is Ha’azinu, Moses’ great hymn to God’s love for His people and his role in ensuring, as Martin Luther King put it, that “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.” In Ha’azinu, the man of intellect and moral courage becomes the figure of emotional intelligence, allowing himself to be, in Judah Halevi’s lovely image, the harp for God’s song.
This is a life-changing idea: If you want to change lives, speak to people’s feelings, not just to their minds. Enter their fears and calm them. Understand their anxieties and allay them. Kindle their hopes and instruct them. Raise their sights and enlarge them. Humans are more than algorithms. We are emotion-driven beings."
Jonathan Sacks, https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/emotional-intelligence-haazinu-5779/