At the forefront of the Torah portion of “Vayigash” stands the confrontation and reconciliation of the brothers, Yosef and Yehuda. The Haftara employs this rivalry and reunion in a metaphorical fashion in depicting how these two great forces will ultimately come together in the Redemption of Israel, may it be soon.
Our Sages explain that this merging of powers is the basis of the concept that there are two Mashiachs, not one – Mashiach Ben Yosef and Mashiach Ben David.
Rabbi Kook explained this concept in a speech he gave at a memorial for Theodore Herzl. The speech is entitled “Eulogy of Jerusalem.” Without mentioning either Herzl or the Zionist Movement by name, the young Rabbi of Yafo used the opportunity to explain why the secular Zionist pioneers were a necessary part of the nation’s rebuilding in Israel. The following is a short excerpt from my illustrated biography of Rabbi Kook, “Above the Stream,” combining parts of his speech with explanatory letters he penned to his father, along with some colorful dramatization:
During the month-long voyage to the Holy Land, the Kook family traveled from Boisk to Odessa, where they boarded a ship sailing to Jaffa via Istanbul, Ismir, and Beirut. On the 28th day of Iyar, in the year 1904, the thirty-nine-year-old Rabbi Kook reached the shores of the Promised Land, which had been under the rule of the Ottoman Turks for nearly 400 years.
Not long after Rabbi Kook’s arrival, Theodore Binyamin Ze’ev Herzl died at the age of forty-four. Herzl was a talented writer and political activist, the father of modern secular Zionism. In Europe, Herzl established the World Zionist Organization and promoted Jewish immigration to Palestine in an effort to form a Jewish State.
In a letter to his father, Rabbi Kook wrote:
“Two gentlemen came to me and requested me to attend a gathering they were organizing in Jaffa to honor the memory of Dr. Herzl. It was their feeling that even the haredim of the Old Yishuv who oppose the secular Zionist Movement would not deny that Herzl’s heart was concerned with the betterment of Israel. Unfortunately, Herzl did not find the straight Torah path, nevertheless, the Holy One credits His People for whatever good deeds they perform.
"It seemed to me that as the Rabbi of Jaffa, it would be poor manners not to take part in a public memorial in his honor. Therefore I promised them I would attend. My colleagues advised me not to participate in the gathering. They maintained that my presence at such an event would give ammunition to religious Zealots in Jerusalem who accuse me of siding with the Zionists. But my heart and soul told me that I must go, in order to teach the generation how to understand the new light shining on Zion.”
The letter to Rabbi Kook’s father continues:
“Understandably, once I agreed to come, I could not refuse to speak some words, lest it be thought that I dishonored the memory of Herzl. I assessed that, G-d willing, benefit would derive from my address, though I knew that the haredi community held Herzl in scant esteem, since he was in no way a proponent of the Torah and its commandments. Recognizing the danger that my words might be interpreted as unreserved praise for Herzl, I did not mention his name at all in my speech. This, my revered Father, is the gist of what turned out to be a somewhat lengthy discourse:
“In the same way that Hashem, may His Name be praised, created man with a body and a soul, along with the physical powers to enable the body to function, develop, and endure; and the spiritual powers to sustain and develop the soul, with the goal that both the body and soul be as healthy and strong as can be, with the soul, with all of its powers, guiding the body to cleave to the pure and intelligent path of Hashem in the world, so too, the Almighty implanted in the Nation of Israel these two powers, the physical power which parallels the powers of the body of man, which seeks the material wellbeing and development of the Nation, which serves as the physical foundation for the great and holy qualities of Israel in its being a Divine and holy Nation, one Nation in the Land, a light to all the nations… and along with these physical powers, Hashem filled the Nation with the spiritual powers to guide the body of the Nation in its unique Divine mission.
"These two complimentary qualities, the physical and the spiritual, are the conceptual essence of Mashiach Ben Yosef and Mashiach Ben David.
“Dear, Father, imagine my chagrin when upon these words a commotion erupted in the hall. Some fellow cried out in Yiddish, ‘Herzl was a kofer! A heretic! May his memory rot!’ At the back of the large crowd there was shuffling and a scuffle. Someone yelled, ‘Get rid of him! Throw him out of the hall!’ The disorderly individual was quickly surrounded and escorted from the auditorium. ‘Boosha! Boosha!” (shame, shame, ed.) the man hollered until his shouts could be heard no more. When silence was restored, I continued on with my address…
“During our long wandering in the Galut, in foreign lands, without our own Jewish Nationhood, we forgot the importance of our physical sides, having only the spiritual world to sustain us. But in our return to being our own Nation in our own Land, we need to foster our physical natures as well, in order to build the strong physical vessel needed to house the great spiritual light which returns to the Nation when we return to the Holy Land, just as in our glorious days of old.
“I spoke, dear Father, pleasantly and politely, yet I did reveal the fundamental failure of the enterprise of the secular Zionists, namely the fact that they do not place at the top of their list of priorities the sanctity of G-d and His great Name, which is the power that enables Israel to survive... And, as I mentioned to you, in my remarks, I offered no homage to Dr. Herzl by name. What I did say was that in order to improve the situation of the Jewish People in Eretz Yisrael, we must return to G-d by observing and honoring the Torah. We must return to our age-old understanding that the foundation of our Nation, and its success in its mission amongst the nations of the world, derives from the power of Torah.
"Because the destruction of the Israelite Kingdom of old was caused by baseless hatred, we must rectify this failure by increasing our feeling of unconditional love.
" This wholehearted peace-seeking, as obligated by the Torah, will eventually result in success because it is G-d’s bidding and will. In building our future, we must make amends so that the sanctity of Torah be at the top of our list of priorities, in the spirit of King David who united the physical and spiritual sides of the Israelite Nation. If the ambition to advance in the material sphere of life will rest on Torah – then G-d will shine His blessing upon us and crown our every deed with success.
"At first, the salvation will be gradual, as our holy Rabbis remarked upon witnessing daybreak over the valley of Arbel, but afterward, it will gain momentum, appearing as a great and wondrous light, as in the days of our Exodus from Egypt.
“After my address, colleagues came to me and reported that some people read into my words ideas that I never intended. Unfortunately, a controversy has arisen, adding more fuel to the flame that my recent arrival in the Land of Israel has caused within a certain segment of the population.”
[The illustrated biography “Above the Stream” is available at Amazon Books.]