Q&A: Rabbi Kook and the Effect of a Person’s Prayer on the World
Rabbi Kook and the Effect of a Person’s Prayer on the World
Question
This is what Rabbi Kook, of blessed memory, wrote in Collection A, 664:
One who thinks in prayer that he changes the Divine matter is thereby blaspheming and reviling; and one who thinks that he changes nothing but himself thereby diminishes the value of prayer, and along with it the entire value of divine service. But one who intends that he is acting to change himself for the better, and through the relation by which the essence of his being changes, the whole value of all existence changes for him toward elevation and goodness—for all existence is affected by one of its spiritual parts in particular. And the more exalted and comprehensive the spiritual content that brings about these changes, the more tremendous the changes are and the more they act through the abundance of their goodness. This is the one who serves with proper intention, from which the soul is filled and the world is blessed.
I understand this to mean: the Holy One, blessed be He, does not change, but to say that prayer is only of psychological-moral-value significance misses the point. Through a substantive change in a person’s character, the broader world really does change, because there is a relation between a person’s character and other objects in reality.
I interpret it to mean that Rabbi Kook intends to say that although the Holy One, blessed be He, is not changed by prayer, there are spiritual systems that exist in reality and can act for the good, at least in the value-spiritual sense. This depends on the intensity of a person’s intention to change in various functions.
- Do you also understand Rabbi Kook’s words this way?
- Do you agree with him? (Even if you understand him differently.)
Answer
- Absolutely.
- No. I do not see the effect that prayer has on reality, whether this is divine involvement or a response of spiritual nature to a person’s spiritual state. Bottom line, we should have seen an effect, and I do not see one.
Discussion on Answer
Joshua, did you read what I wrote?
I didn’t say this can’t be accepted. It certainly can. You can also accept that there are horses with five legs. That contradicts no law and no logic. It’s just not something familiar to me, and I have no indication that it happens.
Does the Rabbi accept the premise that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not change? Even if this does not happen in our time, the question is on the philosophical level: can’t the Holy One, blessed be He, hear a prayer and answer it?
I see no reason to assume that. I also do not see why answering a prayer would imply change.
If I take random blocks and arrange them in a line one on top of the other, a wall will be formed. If I lift weights according to the guidance of a fitness trainer, my muscles will break down and rebuild, and I’ll become a little Hercules. Those are physical natural forces.
Suppose I have a soul (I do), and it is engaged in a struggle with my physiological and psychological needs (Likkutei Amarim, Tanya). And I decided to give my soul room to pray with great intention for its own sake, to develop practices so that it can cope better in the struggle. Now according to what Rabbi Kook suggested, there are also spiritual forces operating in the world that a person affects, and they affect him back and help him bring about change. (Say, strengthening the choice of good things.)
Why can’t this be accepted? I would almost say that what is obvious (the mutual influence of the individual on a system and its forces) needs no proof.
Actually, this idea in the world of group analysis (Bion, Foulkes) is old.