Rigidity of Thought

Thoughts on Charlie Kirk's death and this week's Torah portion

The appalling assassination of Charlie Kirk, one of the best spokespeople for conservative ideas, is a sign that the culture war in the USA is heating up.

When I read the weekly Dvar Torah from www.ravkooktorah.org¹, I realized how timely the essay is. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Somehow, no matter when or where, the ancient weekly Torah portion is relevant to current events. In this essay, Rav Kook speaks of learning alone. This can be extrapolated to mean learning in a place where only one opinion is permitted.

Charlie Kirk’s tragic death exemplifies the truth of Rav Kook’s words. Since the 60’s, universities have been increasingly “progressive” to the extent that now students and faculty can be disciplined, fired, or failed for disagreeing with the official dogma.²

Rav Kook did not write specifically on the Torah portions, but his thought and writings were firmly based on the Torah. Here is Rabbi Morrison’s elucidation of some of Rav Kook’s writings that pertain to the Torah portion of Ki Tavo. This is a word-for-word copy of Rabbi Morrison’s essay. I have footnoted vocabulary and ideas that may be unfamiliar to my readers.

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Ki Tavo: Don’t Study Alone!

Moses commanded the people, “Pay attention (כתסה) and listen!” (Deut. 27:9).

The word has-keit - pay attention” - is unusual. The Talmud reads it homiletically:

“Form groups (asu kittot) and study Torah; for Torah knowledge is only acquired through group study.” (Berachot 63b).³

Intolerance, Ignorance, and Iniquity

Rabbi Yossi went further still. He warned that scholars who study in isolation are liable to acquire three destructive traits: intolerance, ignorance, and sin.

What is so terrible about studying by oneself?

The answer lies both in practical experience and in the very essence of Torah study.

On a practical level, there are three benefits when we study with others.

First, encountering opinions different from our own cultivates greater openness and tolerance. Those who study by themselves are not exposed to other perspectives and grow to be intolerant of dissent. This rigidity fuels disputes, hardens divisions, and breeds hostility.

Second, scholars who study alone or in small groups risk failing to properly understand matters of faith and fundamental Torah views. In these essential areas, they will remain ignorant and uninformed.

Third, solitary study can produce errors in Halachic⁴ judgment. Scholars who bear responsibility for others can cause harm when their legal decisions are misguided. Sometimes, their very isolation may lead them to needless stringency. These excessive burdens, like the case of the Nazarite,⁵ are counted as a form of sin.

Torah of Life

On a deeper level, isolation runs against the grain of Torah itself. The Torah is not a path of retreat from the world, but a Torat chaim, a Torah of life. It sanctifies the joys that enrich life and strengthen human connection. Its laws and mitzvot⁶ are designed for the home, the marketplace, and the community.

To withdraw into solitude, imagining that this leads to closeness with God, is foreign to the Torah’s vision. Such a path runs so contrary to Judaism, that even the pursuit of Torah wisdom is not meant to be a solitary quest, but a journey we take together.

(Adapted from Ein Eyah vol. II, pp. 389-390, by Rav Kook.)

Photo of Rav Kook, reprinted with permission from www.ravkooktorah.org

A Dvar Torah is a lesson about the Torah. Each week a portion of the Torah is read in synagogues across the globe, usually the same one everywhere. This week’s portion is Ki Tavo, Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8. It is near the end of Moses’s address to the Jewish People just before he died. Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935), from whose writings this dvar was adapted, was the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the land of Israel in modern times.

1. Ki Tavo: Don’t Study Alone, from ravkooktorah.org/kitav060.htm, reprinted with permission

2. https://adflegal.org/press-release/adf-sues-univ-n-texas-behalf-math-professor-fired-joke-about-microaggressions/ , https://adflegal.org/article/new-survey-reveals-a-crisis-of-self-censorship-in-higher-education/ , https://adflegal.org/press-release/adf-supreme-court-students-deserve-justice-free-speech-suit-against-georgia-college/ , and many more.

3. Berachot is a tractate of the Talmud.

4. Halacha is Jewish law.

5. For information about Nazarites, see https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/287358/jewish/The-Nazir-and-the-Nazirite-Vow.htm

6. For information about mitzvot, see https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1438516/jewish/Mitzvah.htm