Wise’s Elul Challenge provides activities focused on four Holy Day themes: T’filah (Reflect), Tzedakah (Repair), Teshuvah (Repent), T’hadesh (Renew). The next four days of Kavanot will each address one of these themes.
Today: T’hadesh (Renew)
Rav Abraham Isaac Kook (1865–1935) was one of the most influential—and controversial—rabbis of the twentieth century. A visionary writer and outstanding rabbinic leader, Kook was a philosopher, mystic, poet, jurist, communal leader, and veritable saint. [He was] The first chief rabbi of Jewish Palestine and the founding theologian of religious Zionism.[1]
Rav Kook famously said: The old will become new and the new will become holy. In Hebrew: HaYashan yitChadeish v’haChadash yitKadeish. With an eye to tradition, Rav Kook asserted that when revitalized in the as yet unrealized Jewish state (he died before Israel was born) Jewish tradition would reach new levels of vitality and sanctity. That which had been zealously preserved for thousands of years while yearning for a state would find its realization in ways never before imagined when brought to life under Jewish sovereignty. As an orthodox rabbi, the notion that the tradition could be reinvented was not without controversy. And yet, he remains one of the most influential religious Zionist thinkers that inspires Jews of all persuasians.
Renewal in the final series of the Elul Challenge reminds us that regardless of our age, our tradition holds faith that we can begin again. We can reset the habitual patterns of our lives, find new meaning through the acquisition of knowledge, experience, and insight. As we open our eyes to that which is new, different, challenging and maybe even unfamiliar, we can enrich our lives, and as Rav Kook would say—find a level of lived holiness never before imagined.
What are your entrenched patterns, ideas, or habits? How can you open your mind and heart to new ways of thinking and behaving? Are you prepared to be an observer, a listener, one who engages in personal renewal? Can your own preparation for the Holy Days lead you to explore new paths to holiness in your own life?
— Rabbi Ron Stern