Editing Abraham Isaac Kook (section)

=== Criticism from rabbinic scholars ===
In formulating religious Zionism, Kook broke with many other Orthodox rabbis. 

Many Orthodox rabbis saw nothing but evil in the early Zionist pioneers who were hostile to religion, and in their belief that their labor rather than God would save the Jewish people.<ref name="Concentrating on Kook">{{cite news |last=Yudelson |first=Larry |date=29 December 2016 |title=Concentrating on Kook |url=https://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/concentrating-on-kook/ |work=Jewish Standard |access-date=2023-05-02 |quote=In formulating religious Zionism, Kook broke with most other Orthodox rabbis, who saw nothing but evil in the early Zionist pioneers, with their atheism, their Sabbath desecration, and their belief that their labor rather than God would save the Jewish people.}}</ref> Kook on the other hand, defended their behaviour in theological terms, and even hailed them as playing a role, by their labors, in hastening the messianic deliverance. His stance was deemed heretical by the traditional religious establishment.<ref name="Bokser">{{cite book |author=Ben Zion Bokser |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xtwXAAAAIAAJ |title=Conservative Judaism |publisher=Rabbinical Assembly |year=1981 |edition=1-3 |volume=35 |pages=26–30 |chapter=A letter by the Gerer Rebbe |quote=Many of them were not ritually observant; some were openly hostile to religion. Despite this, Rabbi Kook defended them, and even hailed them as playing a role, by their labors, in hastening the messianic deliverance. For the religious establishment of the old yishuv this was a heretical distortion which imperiled everything holy in Judaism, and they denounced Rabbi Kook as a misleader of his people.}}</ref>  

Although Kook was a very learned man, he was never accepted by the Haredi leadership.<ref name="Shapiro">{{Cite book |last=Shapiro |first=Rabbi Yaakov |title=The Empty Wagon |year=2018 |isbn=978-1647647926 |pages=488–608 |language=English}}</ref>
In 1921 his detractors bought up the whole edition of his newly published ''Orot'' to prevent its circulation,  plastering the offending passages on the walls of [[Meah Shearim]].<ref name="KaplanShatz1995">{{cite book |author=Shalom Carmy |title=Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and Jewish Spirituality |publisher=NYU Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-8147-4653-0 |editor=Lawrence J. Kaplan |page=227 |chapter=Dialectic, Doubters, and a Self-Erasing Letter (Notes) |editor2=David Shatz |editor3=Kayann Short |editor4=Abouali Farmanfarmaian |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-5gUCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA227}}</ref> Later, an anonymous pamphlet entitled ''Kol Ha-Shofar'' appeared containing a declaration signed by rabbis Sonnenfeld, Diskin and others saying: "We were astonished to see and hear gross things, foreign to the entire Torah, and we see that which we feared before his coming here, that he will introduce new forms of deviance that our rabbis and ancestors could not have imagined …. It is to be deemed a sorcerer's book? If so, let it be known that it is forbidden to study [let alone] rely on all his nonsense and dreams."<ref name="Mirsky2014">{{cite book |author=Yehudah Mirsky |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IDt9AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA168 |title=Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution |date=February 11, 2014 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-16424-4 |page=168 |quote=There quickly followed a pamphlet banning Orot, which included frontal attacks on Kook and Charlap, and a declaration signed by Zonnenfeld, Diskin, and others: "We were astonished to see and hear gross things, foreign to the entire Torah, and we see that which we feared before his coming here, that he will introduce new forms of deviance that our rabbis and ancestors could not have imagined… He turns light to darkness, and darkness to light... It is to be deemed a sorcerer's book, and let it be known that it is forbidden to study [let alone] rely on all his nonsense and dreams.}}</ref> It also quoted [[Aharon Rokeach]] of [[Belz (Hasidic dynasty)|Belz]] who stated "And know that the rabbi from Jerusalem, Kook - [[Yimakh shemo|may his name be blotted out]] - is completely wicked and has already ruined many of our youth, entrapping them with his guileful tongue and impure books."<ref name="Uffenheimer2005">{{cite book |author=[[Rivka Schatz Uffenheimer]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pqfXAAAAMAAJ |title=הרעיון המשיחי מאז גירוש ספרד |publisher=Magnes Press |year=2005 |isbn=9789654931830 |page=234 |language=he |quote=בקונטרס זה מופיע בפעם הראשונה דימויו של הרב קוק לשבתי צבי "וקאי באיסורא כיחידאי דאיהו נמי שיטתיה כיחידאי הש״ץ״. ולפני שהוא מביא ממאמרי הרב באות ׳תעודות׳ כגון מכתב בנו של הרבי מבלז, המזכיר את דברי הרבי: "וידוע דהרב דשם מירושלים ושמו קוק ימ"ש הוא רשע גמור וכבר טימא כמה צעירי עמנו ע"י מצודתו של חלקות לשונו ובספרים הטמאים, וד' יזכנו ויעביר רוח הטומאה מכל נפוצות עמו, ונזכה לעלות לציון ברנה, וכשנזכה שיהי' עת רצון מהש"י ולא עתה על ידיהם}}</ref> Returning to Poland after a visit to Palestine in 1921, Rabbi [[Avraham Mordechai Alter]] of [[Ger (Hasidic dynasty)|Ger]] wrote that he endeavoured to calm the situation by getting Kook to renounce any expressions which may have unwittingly resulted in a [[Chillul Hashem|profanation of God's name]]. He then approached the elder rabbis of the Yishuv asking them to withdraw their denunciation. The rabbis claimed that their intention had been to reach a consensus on whether Kook's writings were acceptable, but their letter had been surreptitiously inserted by Kook's critics in to their inflammatory booklet without their knowledge.{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}}

In 1926 a harsh proclamation was issued against Kook that contained letters from three European rabbis in which [[Yosef Rosin]] referred to him as an "ignorant bore", Shaul Brach intimated that his Hebrew initials spelt the word "vomit" and likened him to [[Jeroboam|King Jeroboam]] known for [[Maisit|seducing the masses to idolatry]], and [[Eliezer David Greenwald]] declared him an untrustworthy authority on Jewish law adding that his books were full of heresy and should be burnt.<ref>[https://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/Hebrew/digitallibrary/pages/viewer.aspx?presentorid=NNL_Ephemera&DocID=NNL_Ephemera700174944 פסק דין של גאוני ארץ על אותו האיש]</ref> 

When Jewish prayers at the [[Western Wall]] were [[Western Wall#September 1928 disturbances|broken up by the British in 1928]], Kook called for a fast day, but the ultra-Orthodox community ignored his calls.<ref>{{cite book |author=Yehudah Mirsky |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TB_BAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA197 |title=Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution |date=February 11, 2014 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-16555-5 |page=197 |quote=When Rav Kook called for public fasts on October 22, 1928, to protest the indignities at the Kotel, the ultra-Orthodox ignored him, as they studiously ignored every prayer meeting and fast day that he called.}}</ref>

In response to a letter from Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky of Eidah Hachareidit on whether they could partner with the Chief Rabbinate led by Kook, [[Elchonon Wasserman|Rabbi Elchonon Bunim Wasserman]] wrote: "I have heard that there was a suggestion that there should be a partnership between the Eidah Hachareidis and the Chief Rabinate . . . It is well known that the monies from that fund go to raise deliberate heretics, and therefore someone who encourages people to support such a fund is a ''machti es harabim'' (causes the public to sin) on the most frightful level . . . thus, besides the prohibition of befriending a wicked person, since we see that he praises ''resha'im'' (evil doers), there would also be an issue of an enormous ''chillum Hashem'' (desecration of G-ds name) throughout the world..."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wasserman |first=Rabbi Elchonon |title=Kovetz Maamrim vol. 1 |pages=153 |language=Hebrew}}</ref>

[[Yitzchak Zelig Morgenstern|Rabbi Yitzchak Zelig Morgenstern]], the Rebbe of Sokolov also wrote against Kook, saying, "Rav Kook, although he is a full and robust ''talmid chacham'' as well as an excellent orator, cannot be considered among the successors and perpetuators of the ''geonim'' (genius rabbinic scholars) and ''tzaddikim'' (righteous leaders) of the past generations. Rav Kook is already connected with the spirit of the time, and speaks greatly about the ''techiyas umaseinu'' (our national rebirth). And despite the moral and religious decline of our generation, he sees in his mind's eye the ''techiyas hale'um'' (nationalistic rebirth) and the like, and he assigns to the Chief Rabbinate an important role in that process."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sonnenfeld |first=Shlomo Zalman |title=B'Dor Tahafuchos |pages=358 |language=Hebrew}}</ref>

It was claimed that Rabbi [[Solomon Eliezer Alfandari]] attributed the Chofetz Chaim's failed move to the land due to the disputes surrounding Rabbi Kook.<ref>Testimony of R Asher Zelig Margolis, quoted in Hamodia Inyan xxxiv no 1177, p.67. "The Saba explained that in Heaven it had been decreed that the Chafetz Chaim's seforim would be accepted by the entire Jewish people. If he was to come to Eretz Yisrael, he would visit R. Kook, which would cause R. Kooks rivals to reject him. He would also visit R. Sonnenfeld, which would cause R. Sonnenfelds rivals to reject him."</ref>