Halakhah su Osea 8:78

When Israel’s awareness of its own spirit became foggy—“Israel rejects what is good”⁴²Hosea 8:3. See also Orot hakodesh, 3:140, where Rav Kook cites the same biblical verse to connote the spurning—by the individual or community—of one’s unique, divine source of being.—the people forgot its strength and pride. Looking superficially at their undeveloped and wild environment made them forget their inner greatness. The yearning for a refined, godly life slipped from their hearts, as did the sense of joyful strength that one has when life is clothed in deeds. Clear, simple, pure-hearted understanding ceased, and the light of justice was dimmed. In its place came the coarse imagination of a lawless society, and the dumb, evil delusions of idolatry, with all its attendant abominations. Under their burden, the sublime, divine character of the people was smothered, and there were no more pure, upright, and serene hearts. This moral collapse in the nation was matched by a decline in the spiritual character of the land, which had always been intertwined with the moral life of the people. As the people became spiritually weaker, the special qualities of the land could no longer find fulfillment. The spirit of the precious land, full of holy song and godly gladness, plummeted. “Thus the land became defiled; and I called it to account for its iniquity, and the land spewed out its inhabitants.”⁴³Lev. 18:25. The people absorbed bad influences, which coarsened its pure nature.

And likewise from the laws of the commandment are matters from which the sages are exempted from the angle of their honor and awe - such as building and digging for the country and similar to them; and likewise taxes that the kings impose on the people of the land, whether it is a tax that is fixed on all of the people of the city together (as a lump sum) or whether it is fixed on each and every man or whether it is not fixed at all. They are exempt from all of this, as it is stated (Hoshea 8:10), "Though they have hired among the nations, now I will gather them, and they will begin to be diminished by reason of the burden of kings and princes" (which is understood regarding this in Bava Batra 8a, "If all learn [Torah], I will gather them already now; and if only a few, they will be excused from the burden imposed by kings and princes").