Rav Shach

I wrote a little about the importance of Rav Shach but when I mention Rav Shach I really mean it as shorthand for the whole school of thought starting from Reb Chaim Soloveitchik, through Rav Baruch Ber and Shimon Shkop, and Naftali Troup.

What this means is that there is this whole school of thought that Reb Chaim started that basically says that there is a way to justify the Rambam. 

Now to some degree this process started a long time ago, but it just was not very effective. At the most you would get with the Beit Yoseph and others the source from where the Rambam got his law from. But almost never "Why" or "How?"

The אור שמח I think was the actual beginning of this process. But it is mainly attributed to Reb Chaim. The reason I usually mention Rav Shach is that he brought this process to the pinnacle of perfection is his book the Avi Ezri. Or at least that is how it seems to me. My own experience with the חידושי הרמב''ם of Reb Chaim is that it always leaves me unsatisfied. Always. I always end up more confused than when I started. Even though he goes a long way in solving the difficulties with his יסודות foundation principles. Still I always end up with a feeling that things are more confusing than when they started out. But with the Avi Ezri I always feel amazingly happy after I have finished a piece. I feel when he answers a difficult Rambam that the problem has in fact been solved.


[The general Litvak approach does not usually include the Rambam's idea of learning Physics and Metaphysics. I assume the reason is because even to the Rambam there is not question that knowing Shas come first and that is something that takes a certain amount of time. I learned Gemara for years and only recently did God grant me to write two small booklets on Bava Metzia and one on just a few places in Shas.]

the religious world

One problem I see in the religious world is that one that chooses it for a life style is essentially committing himself to a lifetime of asking people for charity. And to justify that claim he has to try to prove he is doing some kind of public service. And then when people ask him for charity the answer is always, "No" because he feels they are not as good as him.
[That is, it is not just you that noticed this. It came time for you that you needed a favor, and were surprised that you were refused. You thought this was an anomaly. But it is not. It is modus operandi.  



Of course there are great servants of God (like Bava Sali) whom people gladly gave money to because they knew he was helping others in many ways. But that is not the usual religious life style which is mainly to go around to secular Reform Jews and try to convince them to give him money.
[That is the religious world exists mainly by a kind of fraud. When they try to get money they always try to show how they are doing some kind of public service. But when someone actually needs helps they always refuse unless they think there is some way they can make more money out of exploiting him. In other words the very essence of the religious world is in direct contradiction to the basic values of Torah. I hope it is clear that this is an attack on those that misrepresent Torah and desecrate it, not against the Holy Torah itself. There are good institutions that are worthwhile to support like the great Litvak yeshivas [based on Rav Shach, Reb Israel Salanter and the Gra] that learn and teach authentic Torah.

Plato and Kant and the Law of Moses.

I might be optimistic but I do not think Dr. Bloom was. [Closing of the American Mind] He saw an essential contradiction in the Enlightenment itself and he definitely saw the universities (the humanities and social studies departments) as the major source of the problem.


He was not religious but he saw that Torah was an important source of value. But he was also aware that the problems of the Enlightenment did not pop up spontaneously. They had arisen as the problems with Throne and Altar in the Middle Ages had become apparent. That is he did not see any essential workable approach at all. And he thought that unless one was found we are all in hot soup.

That being said I should mention that I thought I had seen something amazing in the Litvak Yeshiva world. But I also saw the surrounding religious world is a kind of insane asylum.  So I saw I kind of solution to the problems that Allen Bloom saw. --that is to learn and keep straight Torah. But I also saw that the religious are mad. So It seems to me there is a simpler solution simply to join a Reform Temple or a Conservative Synagogue and to learn Torah in that context or on ones own.
That I I would avoid the religious at all cost unless there happens to be a legitimate Litvak yeshiva in the area. That is any yeshiva based on the Gra, Reb Israel Salanter and Rav Shach. For example: Ponovitch, Mir, Brisk, Chaim Berlin, Torah VeDaat and others based on that model.


To explain why I think avoiding the religious at all cost is important I have to make note that the major mitzvah in the Torah is to avoid idolatry. Since every religious group that I know of is heavily into idolatry it is therefore important to avoid them. That takes precedence of any kind of benefit you imagine you might gain from them.

I think Dr Bloom was thinking along the lines that Hegel would be an answer to the kind of dilemma he was seeing, but if he thought so why did he not write it openly? Same goes for the Oral and Written Torah. Why did he not say so? The only openly expressed answer in his entire book is for people to learn the Republic of Plato. [Read between the lines and you might see that Dr Bloom was also considering the three critiques of Kant. But he clearly was not going to choose between Kant and Hegel. If anything he would have suggested reading and learning intensely both.

The Alt Right is suggesting a return to kings but not to Altar.(the Catholic Church). They are also suggesting nationalism.
Both seem very close to Hegel with his Constitutional Monarchy and importance of the super organism. I however have a lot of trouble with Hegel.

But at least Dr. Bloom and I agree on the importance of Plato and Kant and see the importance of the Law of Moses. 

I am personally in favor of Plato and the whole Kant/Hegel school which is highly Platonic. Christians I think are not very happy with Plato because of the heresies of the Gnostics like Valentinus.

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The Closing of the American Mind (Allan Bloom)

The book, The Closing of the American Mind (Allan Bloom) attributed most problems-in the USA today to the Humanities and Social Studies departments of universities.

What I recommend instead is to learn the basic program of the Rambam, the Oral and Written Law, plus Modern Physics and Metaphysics of Aristotle. That plus Musar.
And for Musar {Mediaeval Ethics} I mainly think the best thing out there is the כוכבי אור [Stars of Light] by a disciple of Reb Israel Salanter, Isaac Blazer.

[I myself have a fascination with classical learning but today if you would want to learn that stuff, it is best to do it on your own. I doubt if the Rambam would agree with any of it. At least Kant he would include in his program of Metaphysics.]

On a side note:

The Gra would agree about the seven wisdoms. That is the Trivium and Quadrivium-grammar, rhetoric, and logic, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. See the introduction of Reb Baruch of Shkolov on his translation of Euclid. He quotes the Gra: to the degree that one lacks knowledge in any one of the seven wisdoms to that degree times a hundred he will lack in understanding of the Torah.





What I like about the Stars of Light  is how he makes the whole idea of Musar clear--fear of God and good midot {character}. Astronomy today is mostly Physics so there the Gra and the Rambam are on the same page. Geometry today is mainly Algebraic Topology and for that I recommend the book by Allen Hatcher. 


Incidentally in the Stars of Light, Rav Isaac Blazer does go into the importance of making a special place to learn Musar, but that never took off the ground. Rather Musar got absorbed into the straight Litvak (Lithuanian) yeshivas and that is where I think it has the most benefit. [These are yeshivas that follow roughly the path of the Gra, Rav Eliyahu from Villna.]


A parallel situation arose in Germany in the 1700’t when universities were considered to be destructive and to have a terrible influence of the student learning at them; and because of that, 22 were permanently closed. Ony because of Fichte, did the modern university arose, and now has gone a full circle. I think they are infinity destructive except for the hard sciences

Speed reading and learning fast.

I was fascinated by the idea of learning fast from an early age. I noticed that by just saying the words and going on, that the second time I would review material, it would become clear.

And this was a kind of thing that was just all around in the USA. There were speed reading courses, and speed reading books etc.  And I even remember applying to a college that specialized in this kind of thing for reading classical philosophy and literature.

Though in yeshiva this was frowned upon, still in on my own time [the afternoon and evening sessions after the morning class.]  I tried hard to make progress through the Talmud and Poskim [Rishonim, mediaeval commentaries on the Talmud]. 

I was not aware of the opinion of the Rambam that Physics and Metaphysics were important aspects of Torah, and I think I was not the only one who was unaware of that. But if I had been aware I probably would have done the speed reading thing with Physics + Metaphysics also.

The difference is that in the Talmud itself and in the Musar (Ethics) book the Paths of the Righteous the way that is recommended to do speed reading is to say the words  and then to go on.

[Incident to the above. The Rambam idea of Physics and Metaphysics is that that is the fulfillment of the mitzvah to love and fear God. That is since the Torah can not command an emotion we understand instead that it commands to learn the material of the wonders of God's creation that inspire one to love and fear God. The Rambam is very aware of the problem of spirituality with no boundaries and dry formalism and legalities on the other. Thus he comes up with this elegant idea.] 


[In the Rambam's world view the beginning of one's learning would be to get through the entire Old Testament in Hebrew, and the Mishne Torah {יד החזקה} as as brief introduction to the laws of Moses, the Metaphysics and Physics of Aristotle. But this all would be just introductory material to prepare the way for further study.
The ultimate goal would be to finish at least once in one's lifetime the entire Oral Law--the two Talmuds and all the midrashim. Even if one does not understand it here he will in the next world.

I also discovered that to get to any decent level in any subject takes at least one year of concentrating on that one thing alone.  I discovered this in playing the violin. And later in the to great yeshivas Shar Yashuv and the Mir in NY I also realize that I only made progress because I directed all my fire power onto learning Gemara alone. I began to realize this is a general principle.

I can think of no worse nightmare than being under the control of the religious.

The Leftist policies in the USA need to be cleaned up and thrown out. Liberalism gone amok. 
--I am not sure what needs to be cleaned up exactly. I kind of think the Catholic church was in need of some kind of Reform. Yet looking at the general result of Martin Luther it is hard to see much good until you actually get to the creation of the USA and the Constitution of the USA. Kings also do not seem so great. I can kind of sympathize with John Locke and Hobbes and the other  Enlightenment philosophers that were looking for a good place of balance.


And from my standpoint it is hard for me to imagine living under the control of religious people. From what I have experienced, I can think of no worse nightmare than being under the control of the religious. I think it is clear something along the lines of the Constitution of the USA is absolutely necessary. Reform and Conservative Jews are Jews that have great faith in Torah but have been mugged by those that pretend to keep Torah.[The main trouble with the religious seems to be that they are insane.]   
This tendency was noted by Sapolsky of the Schizoid personality tending to be religious. This is at least something I noticed also. Thus you definitely do not want them to be in charge. When they are they manage to ruin everything they touch. But they make a whole song and dance about how we are all one happy family while they are love-bombing you.




From the way I see things, things in the USA were great as long as it was more or less going with John Locke and the Constitution and an underlying belief in the Law of Moses. What seems to me is that the Frankfurt school and the worst parts of Hegel got into everything. Maybe for Tzarist Russia, Lenin thought that Hegel and Marx were needed to end their involvement with WWI and the Russian Civil War. But that is what what necessary to get power and stop the chaos. The trouble is the USA was doing perfect well before people started trying to tear down traditional family values and belief in the Bible.  

Obviously the Antinomianism [anti Law] of Paul got into the early church deeply

I am surprised that many people that teach Christianity seem unaware of issues that I would think are important to know. Or at least to me they seem relevant.
The list could go on and on. For example I would have thought that Thomas Aquinas would be relevant. That is even if you don't agree with him on any or even every single point, still it seems that before I would speak about any topic, I might try to make it my business to be sure that I was familiar with the writings of people that had dealt with the exact same issues I wanted to speak about. Even more so. If you are in a classroom and the professor gives you a  hard equation in Calculus to solve, and the smartest kid in the room comes up with a different answer than you, would that not give you a minute's pause?  Would you not recheck your work? Would you not wonder if maybe you made a mistake?
But that is just one of many examples. For another, let's take the evangelical movement. How many people in that movement are even dimly aware of its history, or that it even has a history from Azusa Street? [They seem to think the movement was born in its full glory as Athena born from the forehead of Zeus.] [How many evangelicals today would even recognize the name Parham, arguably the father the evangelical movement? Or Seymour for that matter--the ipso facto founder of that  movement which has altered the face of Protestantism.

There is the issue of the many writings of early Christians that seem  relevant. I have not really formulated my thoughts about all this very well, and this is just a reminder to myself about some issues. There are plenty of issues in the printed NT also that are ignored:-- Christology for example. There are deep differences there between gospel writers about who and what they thought of Christ, and what kind of role they thought he fulfilled. Obviously the Antinomianism [anti Law] of Paul got into the early church deeply and it is a thread of Christian thought that continues until today.
[Marcion, Valentinus, Ebion church, Anabaptists, etc. The aspcet of anti Torah of Valentius was not apparent at first. It was seen he evaporate the meaning of the Law. But the immoral tendencies only became apparent when it broke off into two sects,  the Marcosians and the Ophites.]


What to think of all this is not clear as I myself stand outside the church. It is relevant because of people like Avraham Abulafia the medieval mystic that saw in Jesus the messiah son of Joseph predicted in the Talmud Suka. And there is a mention of this in the Ari. That is at the end of the book of Genesis when the burial of Joseph is discussed by Reb Chaim Vital, there is a comment that shows his agreement with Rav Abulafia. [That is not the only place though in the Ari.] Rav Yaakov Emden came to the same conclusion, but I am pretty  sure he did so on his own without knowledge of Rav Abulafia or the Ari. [Rav Abulfia's books were only printed a few years ago. And the reference in the Ari is kind of obscure.]

[The thing which bothers most people I think is the history of the church as it relates to Jewish people, and that is in fact a significant point. But it is no less significant that when you need a kindness nowadays you know the address to go to. That is a fact that has certainly not escaped people's attention when they are in need. And it is certainly forgotten about the minute they are no longer in need.]

[The simple fact of the matter is contained in the Ari in what he writes about the breaking of the vessels in which the light of kindness is contained in יסוד (foundation) after the tikun.]

The Left has clearly made politics into a religion and have found support for this from Hegel.

Politics is not numinous reality. It is not and ought not to be a religion. But it serves as religion for many. Perhaps it is better than some really bad religions. But as a rule there is no aspect of transcendence that applies to politics.

There is no reward in heaven for advancing some system of human organization. Not Democracy, not Socialism. Ziltch.

Even one's particular group or cult does not get one into Heaven.
You either act right,- or you don't. That is all there is to it.


[The Left has clearly made politics into a religion and have found support for this from Hegel. And almost all people that are religious also try to make their religion into a political system and assume that that great mitzva will get them into Heaven. That is just one more of the many ways people go wrong.]  

The religious world is a haunted house full of demons and goblins.

  It is more instructive to learn the writings of people that left cults than it is to learn about the cults themselves. There was one fellow that left a Hindu cult  that had a lot of great insights into the whole problem of cults. [I am referring to the cult of Adi Da. He had one disciple who left him and wrote about the problems with that cult in a very insightful way.]

  One thing he noticed that I would like to take a few minutes to discuss is the issue of archetypes. In short, the basic idea really begins with the fact  that people that get into the Intermediate Zone have a problem with ego inflation. 

  What he suggested was that even people that successfully get absorbed into some higher archetype are still to be avoided, because the human soul is higher than any archetype. Coming close to a person that you believe has successfully avoided the Intermediate Zone and the Dark Side, and you think has merited to become one with some higher archetype, will still have the effect of damage to your own soul.   


  That being said, there still were in history great people that merited to wondrous and amazing things. These people are not secret. We have no doubts about Einstein, Mozart, Moses, the Rambam, the Gra, Reb Israel Salanter, Rav Shach, Bava Sali, Plato, etc. 

  But we also know about people that were a mixed bag and some who were very great in intellect and yet did horrific damage. 

  The greatest problem seems to be in the area of numinous [religious] reality.-- because that is where when people fall and do damage that they fall the hardest and do the most harm. 

The trouble seems endemic in the religious world. The religious world is a haunted house full of demons and goblins. It is hard to find a corner of light.  

The best idea is to find examples of human excellence that truly were excellent and not take for one's goal to emulate people that were a mixed bag of good and bad ideas.


There are problems on two sides. One is religious fanatics of high self delusions, and the other is what is called anti-nomian-ism [anti-Law].   In this essay I have dealt mainly with the first problem because it fills the religious world today. The trouble is these two things are connected. Often the exact same group with the self delusions is the same as the antinomianism group. They use the Law of Moses as a cover and disguise.  

The Rambam's learning program

The Rambam has a learning program that involves dividing one day into three parts. A third for the written Torah [Tenach/Old Testament].Another third for the Oral Law. Another third for deepening one's understanding of the Oral Law, that is Gemara. It sounds at first when he says the Oral Law he means the Talmud. But the actual language he uses is "Oral Law,"- the same exact terminology he uses for his own Mishne Torah That means, he considers his book the Mishna Torah as containing the Oral Law. It is in the third part of deepening one's understanding of the Oral Law that learning the Talmud comes into his program. Included in the third part of his program is Metaphysics and Physics as he says openly in Mishne Torah. [He explained this is more detail in the Guide. In the beginning of the Guide he explains what he means by Physics and Metaphysics and later explains why they are important.] So he considers deepening one's understanding of the Mishne Torah as the essence of Gemara. Thus nowadays what one ought to do after finishing the Mishne Torah straight through [which should take a few weeks at most], is to learn it again with Rav Shach's Avi Ezri, Reb Chaim Soloveitchik's חידושי הרמב''ם, and the books of the disciples of Reb Chaim-- Reb Baruch Ber, and Shimon Shkop. Plus Naphtali Troupf (חידושי הגרנ''ט). I am pleased with seeing this with clarity because it has the benefit of fitting in with how I tend to learn the Gemara--that is to concentrate on one sugia at a time. That is-- to spend a great deal of time on one sugia (subject) which generally includes a few tosphots and a chapter or two in the Rambam, plus the portion of the Avi Ezri or Chidushei HaRambam that happen to deal with that particular sugia. It is nice to see that this in fact fits in exactly with what the Rambam was saying anyway before I even realized that this is exactly what the the Rambam was saying to do. Seeing this also has the advantage that it fits with something secret the daughter of Bava Sali told me.And also it fits with my parents idea about Torah.

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Two problems with many people that are religious: ego inflation, and OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).

The problem with religion was noticed by Sapolsky.[Robert Sapolsky at Stanford]
The problem is that of motivation as it relates to schizoid personalities.
That is, since as the Ari says most of this world is evil, we have to assume the majority of people obsessed with religion are doing it from the standpoint of Schizoid personalities. [Their obsession with ritual and sex is really a form of OCD.]
And that also means those that are obsessed with religion from the standpoint of trying to disprove some religion, or all religion, are also coming from the standpoint of a a schizoid  personality.


But we also know of authentic mystics and tzadikim that were God filled. Their service towards God was certainly not from some personality defect. Some example might be Bava Sali or the Gra or the Rambam.


The way I think to deal with this is from the idea of Dr. Kelley Ross--that of intention.[That is he solves the problem of Ontological undecidability by means of intention and that is what I think makes the main difference here also.]


The other problem with religion I noticed is ego inflation. This can either be a flattering image of one's self as some kind of central world figure. Or it can refer in its beginning stages to one's group. In either case it is a terrible mental disease. And it exists in all religious teachers that I have seen. And in fact in a large majority of religious people.
Both effects OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and Ego Inflation are direct results of what Kant called "Antimonies."That is contradictions that results when pure reason enter into areas of the dinge an sich.

The problem with dentists

There is a lot to go into in terms of the issue about teeth. As I mentioned dentists are notorious for making up work to do that is totally not necessary and has the effect of making holes in one's teeth and then they fill up the hole they themselves make with some putty that eventually falls out and then food and bacteria get into the tooth and ruin it. As I said I would only trust the NYU clinic in Manhattan or dentists in former USSR that make sure never to do work that is unnecessary. [In Israel, I did find a great dentist in Netivot, but he was anyway trained in the former USSR.]

[The problem with dentists I noticed myself but it was also documented on American Journal.] [They walked into clinic after clinic after the producer' teeth had been found to be perfect and every single clinic claimed he needed lost of work to be done.]

[obligations of the Torah that are between Man and God and other obligations that are between man and man.

There seems to be some kind of equilibrium point where you maximize the בין אדם לחבירו ובין אדם למקום. 
[obligations of the Torah that are between Man and God and other obligations that are between man and man.]



For we see groups that are not religious at all. Then there are groups that are more religious and then even more until you get to the ultra religious. And the measure of menshichkeit/human decency seems to take a nose dive according to the degree people are religious.There seems to be a kind of inverse proportionality.

But to be not religious at all is not an option for there are plenty of obligations of the Torah that are בין אדם למקום between Man and God. [And being totally secular has already been noticed also seems to affect obligation between man and fellow man adversely. So what I suggest there is some middle point. Perhaps Conservative Judaism where you maximize both sets of obligations without detracting from the other.



Therefore you have to say there is some middle point where both functions are maximized.
[The fact of the religious being dismal in obligations between man and fellow man is something they will rigorously  deny  though anyone outside of their immediate close friends and family will admit this to be true after any degree of experience with them. Unless he happens to be one of the naive rich secular Jews that they make  a whole song and dance to impress. Other than that everyone knows the frum world is a nightmare when it comes to human decency.]


I wish I could say the more religious the better but the facts overwhelmingly point towards this terrible problem that the religious will vehemently deny and try to hide. You might not believe me now, but after letting them into your life, and seeing the  infinite, irreparable damage they cause, you will see my point.

People are now being taught: Do not resist. Do not question them. To point out the problems is considered lashon hara  You must comply. Go along, to get along.  

World of the religious. Worship of corpses.

 Torah scholarship undoubtedly moves in fads, and  much of the literature has received less attention than it deserves. The general rule of thumb about the Rishonim (mediaeval authorities) is quite true--that they form the backbone of explaining the Torah. 

While some Achronim (later authorities after 1520) are very valuable, but a lot of trash got thrown into Torah thought in since the times of the movement the Shatz. [That is from around the time of 1660.]





While to some degree bad cults are weeded out over time, but sometimes not. Sometimes they just change form.

Nowadays to find out what authentic Torah thought says the worst place to go is to the religious. The world of the religious has sadlly become an epi-phenomenon of the Shatz and in fact uses the Torah as a cloak to disguise their anti Torah teachings and demonic essence which is Worship of corpses.  ["Kivrei tzadikim"]

The main problem with the cult that the Gra put a Cherem {חרם} excommunication on is idolatry. That is: people have a natural tendency to worship some idol. It does not really matter which one it is. That cult made worship of its leaders as a kind of supposedly kosher idolatry and created a sophisticated system to show how it is kosher based on the kabalah and also used ideas from the Shatz and also makes sure to look kosher in dress and rituals to try and get away with this fraud. 






[There are some islands of authentic Torah like Ponovitch in Israel and the NY yeshivas Mir, etc. But as a rule of thumb it is best to stick to Mesorati or Conservative and Reform in  order to avoid the kelipot (demonic forces) that fill the world of the religious.]

Vocabulary:
Mesorati means Conservative but it is roughly the same as Religious Zionism or Mizrachi or Bnei Akiva.--All very good.

Rishonim means the great sages from the time after Rav Hai Gaon until the Beit Joseph.
Achronim means from the Beit Joseph and on. That period in itself ought to be divided into two. The achronim before Reb Chaim Soloveitchik and after him. The reason is that after Reb Chaim Torah scholarship shifted in a way I can not describe but you can see easily if you compare  the achronim before him and after him. All the great yeshivas after Reb Chaim teach in more or less the basic approach of Reb Chaim.

I want to add that borrowing or finding the same themes and ideas does not mean identity nor does it mean conscious borrowing. The fact that the religious teach the doctrines of the Shatz does not mean they are doing it with intention nor that there are some variations. For example no one could consider Reb Nachman anything but  as  completely sincere and devoted to God and the holy Torah. Sincerity however does not mean there are no mistakes.  But Reb Nachman is the exception, not the rule and was not in fact under the excommunication of the Gra at all as you can see by reading the original documents.



The problem tends to be circumvention of the Torah. Most often what people in power are doing is finding ways of getting out of keeping the Torah according to its simple meaning. In general the text of the Holy Torah and the Talmud is perfectly clear.The religious in order to get out of things  they do not like simply ignore the Torah. In Torah we do not trust those in power and we always check the text. That is what the text of the Oral and Written Torah is for.
There seems to be some kind of equilibrium point where you maximize the בין אדם לחבירו ובין אדם למקום. For we see groups that are not religious at all. Then there are groups that are more religious and then even more until you get to the ultra religious. And the measure of menshichkeit/human decency seems to take a nose dive according to the degree people are religious.

brainwashing

The History of teaching  History is important to know. In the span of time from 1960 until today teaching history has become a kind of brainwashing meant to subvert the values of democracy and undermine the Constitution of the USA and the free market system. Allen Bloom in his very important book the Closing of the American Mind went into a detailed description of how the social studies and humanities departments of universities have become brain washing factories. Though it is easier to learn History than Math and more fun also still that does not give either of these departments much value. So be careful.  It is best to learn books of history that were written before 1960.

This IDF Soldier shuts off the lights for Islamic Terrorists.

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I should mention that  the best approach to the State of Israel that I have seen is in the book by the Gra קול התור.

In short that is the approach of basically what later was developed by רב אברהם קוק  

Rav Kook's approach itself was highly related to Hegel as is well known.

My own interest in Israel however began with my noticing the opinion of Nachmanides [The Ramban] that includes settling in Israel as part of the 613 commandments. I would have to say that that formed a lot of my motivation for actually making Aliya.

The approach of the religious [which is anti Israel] in this regard I think is nefarious and despicable.

Almost everything the religious do or think is exactly against the holy Torah