Rabbi Moshe Kaplan lectures at Yeshivat Machon Meir on the writings of Rabbi Kook.
Lag B’Omer falls on the day 33 of the Counting of the Omer. The story of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and the cave appears on page 33B of the Gemara tractate Shabbat. Is this coincidental?
To escape Roman capture, Rabbi Shimon and his son, Rabbi Elazar, hid in a cave for twelve years. The Gemara informs us that a miracle occurred and a carob tree and water well were created for them. All day long they studied the secrets of Torah. Tradition says that Moshe Rabeinu and Eliyahu HaNavi appeared to teach them. They attained the insights into the highest level of the future ideal of mankind and of all existence - which were ultimately written in the Book of the Zohar.
When they finally emerged, they saw a man ploughing and sowing. “People forsake life eternal and engage in temporal life?!" they exclaimed. Whatever they cast their eyes upon immediately burnt. Therefore a Heavenly Voice came forth and cried out, “Have you emerged (from the cave) to destroy My world?!. Return to your cave! So they returned and dwelt there twelve months, saying, “The punishment for the wicked in Gehinnom is limited to twelve months. A Heavenly Voice then came forth and said, “Go forth from your cave!"
In order to shed light on the exalted depths of this story, we will quote from the commentary of Rabbi Kook which appears in his multi-volume treatise on the Aggadot of the Talmud, “Ein Ayah." Then we will present a summary of his understandings in hope of simplifying his very lofty insights.
The Gemara reads: "Whatever they cast their eyes upon was immediately burned." Rabbi Kook explains:
“From the highest vantage point - how the world ought to conduct itself so that people might see the light and life of truth - there is no room for compromise, for half-measures or partial reforms. What is needed is a sweeping erasure of all existing arrangements, of all the great injustice perpetrated in social life, and of all the degrading servitude that man has imposed upon himself by allowing his imagination and base desires to dominate him - thereby becoming lowly and contemptible, with all his good qualities becoming damaged and deficient, covered in a cloud of foolishness and wickedness. What is needed is renewal from the very foundation, until life stands upon the foundation of holiness and supreme purity, aligned with the pleasantness of God and the radiance of true wisdom that shines upon pure souls with a light of supreme holiness.
“The visions of how to renew all of life are so urgent, admitting no lengthy delays, because there is no measure to the anguish felt in holy souls at the sight of the wickedness that dominates present life. And the path seems very clear, since nothing stands in the way except the purification of human hearts through their inclination toward Torah and wisdom. To sages such as these, it is simply inconceivable that people delay their own supreme betterment when it is within their reach, or why they remain bound in the chains of wickedness and folly that they themselves place upon themselves.
"Therefore, wherever they cast their eyes and looked upon the state of things in relation to holiness and supreme morality - how things ought to be if people walked in the good and straight path - immediately it was burned, without delay or postponement, without compromise or half-measures."
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son, upon first emerging from the cave, looked at the world with such pure and uncompromising spiritual vision that whatever they gazed upon was consumed. Their instinct was total: the world's corruption, injustice, and moral degradation deserve not gradual reform but complete destruction and rebuilding from scratch. Even tending to worldly needs (the farmer) was seen as a waste of man's efforts when the 'supreme betterment' is available within their reach.
Rabbi Kook continues:
"A heavenly voice came out and said: Have you come out to destroy My world? Return to your cave!"
“The Divine Wisdom - which is infinitely higher than the wisdom of any sage - decreed that precisely from all the evils and degradations that exist in the present, and from all the corrupt arrangements of life, specifically when these are allowed to play out with all their ugliness and debasement, and precisely when they are given their dominion for the full time required according to the wisdom of the Creator - precisely from all this evil and ugliness , the most perfect light will emerge. For after its full expansion, it will be returned to goodness, and from it itself lights will shine for the righteous and the upright of heart."
Not by destroying an unperfected world do we reach the higher light. Rather, a higher level of perfection is attained by elevating this world and turning its imperfections to good. As the Ramchal teaches - by elevating this world the all-encompassing Oneness of Hashem is even more manifest (“The Knowing Heart," pgs. 49-50).
“Thusly," Rabbi Kook continues: “One must certainly descend - together with supreme holiness - to the very depths of lowly life, to sustain it as it is and to refine it gradually, until it ascends to what it is destined for according to the wisdom of the Creator. But since you have not yet reached that level - how to connect all of life in its descent, as it is, to its supreme purpose - and your desire is to destroy the present state in order to build a repaired world quickly upon its ruins, rather than perfecting it little by little (kimah kimah) until it returns to complete repair and the evil is converted to good - therefore, return to your cave, to add yet another level, until through the abundance of wisdom and holiness you will be able, precisely through them, to descend into life, to repair it according to the will of God, Who said: "The world is built with kindness" (Ps. 89:3), and "He did not create it for void" (Is. 45:18).
When they emerge from the cave and begin to burn up the world, a Heavenly Voice pushes them back. Divine Wisdom operates on a different logic - not revolution but evolution. The world must be refined from within, gradually and patiently, until the darkness itself is transformed into light. "Go back - you are not yet ready for this."
"They sat for twelve months. They said: The judgment of the wicked in Gehinnom lasts twelve months." Rabbi Kook explains:
“They felt within themselves that they now needed to elevate themselves to that level of closeness to Divine Wisdom, so that despite all their loftiness and great demands, they would nonetheless be filled with willingness to engage with life and busy themselves with its repair - as we see that the will of God is for its improvement according to His measure. But to do this, they needed to transform certain aspects of their very souls, which would need to change in accordance with this perspective: the need to raise life as it is to its proper level, rather than aspiring to a sudden revolution that is impossible without the destruction of the world.
"Therefore they designated for this purpose the same period of time set aside for rectifying souls from flaws embedded in their very nature - to prepare them toward goodness through a transformation of their inner selves."
We are to understand the twelve months not as a punishment but as a necessary stage of continuing spiritual uplifting. They return to the cave as part of an educational spiritual process - analogous to the soul's refinement in Gehinnom. They need to internalize a new capacity: to hold their lofty vision and engage lovingly with imperfect reality at the same time.
"'A heavenly voice came out and said: Leave your cave.' Rabbi Kook clarifies: “The goal of their return to the world was not that the world - with all its evil and lowliness - should find favor in the eyes of these supreme holy ones (Rabbi Shimon and his son) who see the light of truth and justice in its splendor - for how can one call evil good?. Rather, the goal was that the faculty of perception should be tempered in such a way that they would be drawn to repair.
"Therefore they could not know for themselves how much they had adapted and aligned themselves with reality during those twelve months, for in the end they still found within themselves a tremendous opposition to all the prevailing arrangements of life. However, according to the counsel of God and Divine Providence - which refines all thoughts and inclinations toward its supreme purpose in the governance and ordering of the world - since the measure of their opposition had already been sufficiently diminished such that the world could receive what would come forth from them, to grow from it, to be elevated by it, and to be brought to its destined greatness - therefore the Heavenly Voice came out and said: ‘Leave your cave.’"
With the second emergence, when they finally come out again, they are still not fully at peace with the world's flaws - but enough of their inner opposition has been tempered that they can now be a constructive force rather than a consuming fire. The world can now receive what they have to offer. Thus we learn that true holiness must learn to work with reality, not against it. - descending into life with patience and love, refining it gradually toward its destined purpose.
The story embodies the overall tension between revolutionary change and the wish to immediately bring about Tikun Olam vs. the need for gradual reform. Rav Shimon bar Yochai's impulse to "burn" what is corrupt and not living up to the ultimate ideal is a sublime desire but premature. God's plan requires working within reality gradually rather than destroying it.
As Rav Kook writes elsewhere, patience is not acceptance of the present with its flaws, making us passive. It is the awareness of the inner content and recognition of the stages of its development, which makes us even more active to guide and bring that content to full expression.
So too today, we must uplift our perspective when we look upon the beginning stages of Redemption embodied in the State of Israel. Instead of seeing how imperfect it is and deciding to ignore or "burn" it, we must learn to recognize the inner Divine Essence within and work to bring it to its full development. Then we can work with Hashem to bring the full Redemption, may it be speedily in our days.