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Jan 9, 2012
Rav Yaakov, Rav Kook And Rav Sonnenfeld
I read two interesting stories recently that I want to share with you. They are not connected to each other. just two separate stories (I guess one could figure out and make drashos how to connect them, but I am not going to do that).
The first is from AMI magazine, and the second is from an alon shabbat put out by an organization called Rosh Yehudi.
The first is from AMI magazine, and the second is from an alon shabbat put out by an organization called Rosh Yehudi.
- Rav Mordechai Laminetsky related this story of his grandfather, Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky, zt"l.
Rav Yaakov had gone into a small siyum celebration by a simple Jew named Yankele. Rav Yaakov wanted to congratulate him for finishing the portion he had learned, and then he sat down.
The gabbai got up shortly after and announced "And now our good friend reb Yankele will say the hadran, the closing paragraph, thus finishing the tractate."
Rav Yaakov didn't realize the gabbai was referring to the much younger host whose name was Yankele. He stood up and apologized saying that as he did not do the learning, he should not be the one to render the closing ceremony.
As Rav Mordechai Kaminetzky writes, "in his immense humility one of the oldest and most revered sages of the generation still replied when he thought he heard himself addressed as Reb Yankele, a name affectionately used for an unpretentious younger person."
- My friend Baruch Kelman scanned the Rosh Yehudi alon with the following story and sent it to me.
This story was told over by the assistant of Rav Kook, zt"l, and was told to the writer by his grandson. In the early years of Rav Kook's presence in Jerusalem, he went to a government ceremony with a performance. At the event there was a reception for the people to meet and see Rav kook, and his gabbai, along with Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, zt"l.
Suddenly, a the performance, a female singer took the stage and began singing and dancing. Rav Kook immediately got up and ran out of the area. Rav Sonnenfeld in the meantime stayed in his seat and stuck his fingers in his ears, looked down while shaking his head and didn't pay attention.
His gabbai asked him, how is it that you the kannoi could stay in and just not pay attention that while Rav Kook, who is not a kannoi, ran out?
Rav Sonnenfeld responded that it is against "kvod hamalchus" to leave, which is why he stayed. Rav Kook, on the other hand, was so careful about not listening to women sing that he was not willing to listen to the singer even at the price of causing damage to the kvod hamalchus.
Take what lessons you will from these stories.
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1) I got the opposite impression - did he really think that in any room he was in, that when someone called out "Yankele" they MUST have been referring to him?
ReplyDelete2) I don't put too much faith in "stories".
Re R. Kook and R. Zonenfeld - (sarcasm) Wow! Even a godol can be mistaken!! What a surprise! (/sarcasm)
ReplyDeleteStory #2 is based on a false assumption, that Rav Sonnenfeld was a kannoi, while Rav Kook was not.
ReplyDeleteRav Kook was a visionary, revolutionary, and creative thinker.
Rav Sonnenfeld, who was not in Rav Kook's league, intellectually or as Talmid Chacham, was concerned with keeping things as they always were. That does not mean he was, by temperament, a kannoi. Just conventional.
Rav Sonnenfeld was far more "modern," in the European sense. His wife wore a shaitel and spoke French.
Rav Kook, of course, felt that shaitels were insufficiently modest.
Rav Kook devoted all his thought to attaining higher and higher leveles of keddusha, boht for himslef and for the nation. He maintained very, very high personal standards of separating himself from physical temptations and pleasures.
It is perfectly consistent withthe two of them that Rav Kook would run away and that Rav Sonnenfeld would stay where he was.
Rav Sonnenfeld strove to not tamper with the status quo.
Dvid Shlomo - thanks. that is very interesting. WHile I knew that about Rav Kook, i never pictured him as a kannoi because he was also fairly liberal in a sense, specifically regarding his approach towards other people and to Eretz Yisrael.
ReplyDeleteAbout Rav Sonnenfeld as well, that he was not a kannoi is a surprise. He was always billed as typical of what eventually became the Eida
Rav Kook wasn't a kannoi in terms of his appreciation for people of different types, but personally, he was on the highest level, certainly no less than any of the other gedolim of the time.
ReplyDeleteRav Kook was no liberal.
ReplyDeleteHe was a true kannoi of HASHEM, willing to risk all personal interests for the sake of His Name.
Don't confuse being broad-minded and tolerant with not being a kannoi.
Kannoi does not mean primitive and pigheaded -- although that's what it connotes today.
Dovid Shlomo,
ReplyDeleteWho are you to say that Rav Sonnenfeld wasn't in Rav Kook's league? Did you test him?
It is not for us to judge or even contemplate our Gedolim's greatness.
They were both tremendous gedolim and tzaddikim with different outlooks on things. They both have tremedous amounts of stories about their leadership and Ahavas Yisroel.
Hal'evy we should have more gedolim like them today.