RAV KOOK ON Shelach Part 2: The Lesson of Shiloh

A certain Torah scholar, recently arrived from America, was greatly agitated. He went to visit Rav Kook, unburdening his complaints and severe disappointment in the state of religious observance in Eretz Yisrael. He was shocked by the sight of irreligious Jews desecrating the Sabbath, eating non-kosher foods, and rebelling against Jewish traditions in the Holy Land. How could he raise his children in such an environment? He was so disturbed by what he saw that he contemplated returning to America. Traveling to Shiloh Rav Kook told him: Surely you remember the story from the beginning of the book of Samuel, a story which you studied as a child. It is related how Elkanah, the father of the prophet Samuel, “would ascend each year from his town to prostrate himself and bring offerings to God at Shiloh. There [in Shiloh], Eli’s two sons Hophni and Pinchas served as kohanim to God” (I Sam. 1:3). It is curious that the verse mentions the High Priest’s sons, Hophni and Pinchas. What did they have to do with Elkanah’s yearly pilgrimage to Shiloh?