Remembering The Rav & Listening for the Knock at the Door

Friday was the 31^st yahrzeit of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, affectionately referred to as “the Rav” in the Modern Orthodox community.

I never saw the Rav in person. At the same time, as a child of Yeshiva University alumni, a student at MTA, and a card-carrying member of the Yeshiva University branch of the Modern Orthodox world, I grew up knowing all about him. I remember when and where I heard the news of his passing and vividly recall attending his funeral at the Maimonides School in Boston. In the weeks that followed, I attended a series of eulogies given by some two dozen YU rabbis. It struck me then – and now – how no two were the same. The Rav was different things to different people.

One of the Rav’s most famous works is Kol Dodi Dofek. Given first as an address at Yeshiva University on Israel’s Independence Day in 1956, it was later published and translated into English. It discusses God and the Holocaust, the importance of the modern State of Israel and the role of Zionism in American Orthodoxy and has become a classic text of Religious Zionist philosophy.

The title comes from Shir HaShirim (Song of Songs), Chapter 5, Verse 2: 

אֲנִי יְשֵׁנָה וְלִבִּי עֵר קוֹל  דּוֹדִי דוֹפֵק פִּתְחִי־לִי אֲחֹתִי רַעְיָתִי יוֹנָתִי תַמָּתִי שֶׁרֹּאשִׁי נִמְלָא־טָל קְוֻצּוֹתַי רְסִיסֵי לָיְלָה׃

(The maiden relates:) I was asleep, but my heart was awake. Hark, my beloved knocks!
(He says:) Let me in, my darling, my faultless dove! For my head is drenched with dew, my locks with the damp of night.

The Rav goes on to enumerate and elaborate upon six knocks, instances of God’s tangible presence in the recent history of the Jewish people and the emergence of the State of Israel. He also issues a clarion call to American Orthodoxy to embrace the State of Israel and commit itself to its development. The imagery is profound. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, the Jewish nation is in a state of despair. All of a sudden, God “knocks” at the door. Like the maiden in Shir HaShirim, will we listen to the knocks? Will we understand their message and respond?

1)  “First, the knock of opportunity was heard in the political arena. No one can deny that from the standpoint of international relations, the establishment of the State of Israel, in a political sense, was an almost supernatural occurrence.”

2)  “Second, the knocking of the Beloved could be heard on the battlefield. The small Israeli Defense Forces defeated the mighty armies of the Arab countries. The miracle of “the many in the hands of the few” took place before our very eyes.”

3)  “Third, the Beloved began to knock as well on the door of the theological tent, and it may very well be that this is the strongest knock of all…All the claims of Christian theologians that God deprived the Jewish people of its rights in the land of Israel, and that all the biblical promises regarding Zion and Jerusalem refer, in an allegorical sense, to Christianity and the Christian Church, have been publicly refuted by the establishment of the State of Israel and have been exposed as falsehoods, lacking all validity.”

4)  “Fourth, the Beloved is knocking in the hearts of the perplexed and assimilated youths. The era of self-concealment (hastarat panim) at the beginning of the 1940’s resulted in great confusion among the Jewish masses and, in particular, among the Jewish youth…Buried, hidden thoughts and paradoxical reflections emerge from the depths of the souls of even the most avowed assimilationists. And once a Jew begins to think and contemplate, once his sleep is disturbed—who knows where his thoughts will take him, what form of expression his doubts and queries will assume?”

5)  “The fifth knock of the Beloved is perhaps the most important of all. For the first time in the history of our exile, divine providence has surprised our enemies with the sensational discovery that Jewish blood is not free for the taking, is not hefker!”

6)  “The sixth knock, which we must not ignore, was heard when the gates of the land were opened. A Jew who flees from a hostile country now knows that he can find a secure refuge in the land of his ancestors…Now that the era of divine self-concealment (hester panim) is over, Jews who have been uprooted from their homes can find lodging in the Holy Land.”

The Rav challenged Jews in the 1950s to hear God’s “knocks,” realize they were a call to responsibility, and support the State of Israel. We’ve been trying ever since.

The imagery of God’s knocking on our door remains powerful today.

October 7 unleashed a series of challenges and opportunities for the Jewish people. In many ways, we have responded to that knock on our door in our support for Israel, advocacy for the hostages, and maintaining Jewish pride.

This week’s headlines of a dramatic rise in anti-Jewish activity on campuses across America are another knock. The fact that the college campus is not friendly towards Israel is not new. The fact that much of the anti-Israel activity is antisemitic is also sadly not new. What’s increasingly alarming is the acceptance of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish speech and behavior that would not be tolerated if directed against other minorities, groups, or issues. For universities to tolerate students claiming “I am Hamas” or calling the Hamas atrocities of October 7 part of legitimate resistance is criminal. This normalized double standard against Jews is a knock on the door.

What is our reaction? We will not change the minds of those who hate us. We must demand that university leaders enforce their own rules and regulations. Protests must adhere to codes of conduct and those violating the rules must be disciplined. If the universities can’t do it alone, they should call in the police.

Yet even when the rules are followed, we are living in times in which “the genie is out of the bottle” or, more aptly, “the rats are out of the sewer.” It is time for us to embrace our friends and separate from our enemies. Maybe there are campuses Jews should avoid. May 1 is “decision day” for many incoming college students. Based on this week, I wouldn’t encourage saying “yes” to Columbia or Yale. It might even be time to transfer out of these schools for the safer confines of a Brandeis or Yeshiva University.

The media coverage does not describe the lived experience of many Jewish students at schools in which anti-Jewish sentiment is surging. The situation is fluid, and there have always been – and will always be – challenges on the college campus. We must heed Rabbi Soloveitchik’s advice and listen to the “knocks on the door.” The Rav described the knocks after the fact. We should be proactive in hearing the knocks and taking the actions necessary to maintain our Jewish pride and safeguard our Jewish future.