RAV KOOK ON Shlach Part 3: Rejecting the Land of Israel

“And [the spies] began to speak badly about the land that they had explored.” (Num. 13:32) Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah Kook A dispirited discussion took place at Beit HaRav, Rav Kook’s house in Jerusalem, not long after the end of World War II. The Chief Rabbi had passed away ten years earlier; now it was his son, Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah Kook, who sat at the head of the table. One participant at the Sabbath table had brought up a disturbing topic: the phenomenon of visitors touring Eretz Yisrael and then criticizing the country after returning to their homes. “These visitors complain about everything: the heat, the poverty, the backwardness, the political situation — and discourage other Jews from moving here,” he lamented. Rav Tzvi Yehudah responded by telling over the following parable, one he had heard in the name of Rabbi Samuel Mohilever, the rabbi of Bialystok.