At the End of Every Holy Sabbath

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

At the end of every holy Sabbath, Elijah sits beneath the Tree of Life and records the merits of the Jewish people.

Therefore, it is proper for anyone who possesses a connection to the desire for the secrets of the Torah—(which corresponds to a visitation of Elijah on some level) even if [that desire] exists only in some imaginary fashion or is an emotion or some product of human intellect; and certainly if he has risen (with the [help of God’s] supreme lovingkindness) to higher levels—that following each Sabbath, on Saturday night, he too emulate Elijah’s deeds and engage in [bringing to light] the merits of the Jewish people.

And he should recognize intellectually, and with a shining and clear insight, the holiness of the Jewish people and the preciousness of their qualities. And he should cling to the entirety of the holy nation, the nation of Hashem, which is the beloved jewel of [God’s] inheritance. Every single individual of that nation possesses an endless, infinite phenomenon of the light of [God’s] holiness, so that the entire world in its entirety is founded upon [these individuals], even on those [people of] Israel who are empty [of merit].

And he should tremble in holy awe at the holiness of the sublime, Godly holiness of the soul of every individual Jew. He should be filled with longing and endless love for the holiness of the exalted nature of the cornucopia of Israel in general, and for the success of each individual of Israel in all the work of his hands: in the physical, in the spiritual and in everything good.

Fortunate are you, O Israel: “fortunate are you, O Israel; who is like you, a nation saved by Hashem.”

I have loved you, my nation and my people, I have desired you with all my heart and with all my spirit. I have desired you with all the warmth of [my] heart, with all the fire of my bones.

I yearn to see your honor, your beauty and your glory, when you will be uplifted and elevated, when you will grow in the beauty of your nature, when all of your wondrous special traits hidden within you will come out of potential and into actuality, when you will be planted and titazrach in the land of your nature, in the land of your beauty, and the harmony of your might and the height of your horn will be revealed to all directions.

“The nations will see your righteousness and all of the kings you honor, and call you with a new name that the mouth of Hashem has chosen. And you will be a crown of beauty in the hand of Hashem, and a diadem of royalty in the palm of your God.”

Chadarav, p. 183