The Cruelty to the Children of the Spirit

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

The cruelty to the children of the spirit that are lost because I do not give them life by clothing them in the appropriate expressions for them, via which they would be able to appear in all their character, that cruelty embitters my heart, and fills me with spiritual languor and great anger of the spirit.

This is an echo of the proclamation, “Woe to people for the insult to Torah,” which comes forth every day from Mt. Chorev, which every individual hears on the tablet of his heart. And everything depends on how deep is the impression that remains of that hearing.

Indeed, repentance comes from hearing [that]. And the great compassion for strangled ideas will bring me to repent. [It will bring me] to an inner quickness, to express myself at breadth, with exactitude, in detail, that my soul will use to spring forth at every moment from the mass of feelings and ideal yearnings, which contain blessing for the individual and for the many, for the Jewish people and for mankind.

I will no longer tell my heart to be astonished and desolate, or entirely taken up with plans that are not the essence of the yearning of my soul. But I will indeed return to that inner, pure content, which my spirit within me constantly awaits.

“And I will wed you to me forever, and I will bind you with justice and with justice, and with kindness and with compassion. And I will bind you to me with faith and you shall know Hashem.”

Chadarav, p. 64