"How Miniscule Are Your Works, Hashem!"

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

In the worldly fields of knowledge about our sensory environment, we see that just as it is correct to say, “How great are Your works, Hashem,” so also should we exclaim in astonishment, “How miniscule are Your works, Hashem!”

Yes, just as we are filled with wonder at the great astronomical lights, at the vast distances filled with wondrous stars, and marvelous forces of nature, so also are we struck with wonder when we look at the depth of creation on the microscopic level, at the details of the limbs of the smallest living creatures, of the fineness of matter and the most sensitive forces in the most inaccessible planes.

Then, with a full knowledge of these two opposite poles, of such great size and such smallness, the picture of the universe is filled in a person’s heart in its proper dimension.

And the same applies to the Torah.

The totality of supernal concepts within Torah, in its general principles, in its supernal paths of justice and in its exalted spiritual wisdom show us the Torah’s complete world of greatness, its general concepts that are like the stars of the sky.

But it is precisely from that elevated perspective that we must realize that just as we find great wealth in those great principles, so also will he find mountains upon mountains, masses of original and precious insights in its every jot and title, in its every smallest detail. The precise definitions and the breadth developed in every branch grow into all the details of its leaves and shoots, to an immeasurable degree.

So then, even a person who very much tends to enjoy the greatness of mind that comes from contemplating expansive ideas will find it pleasant to engage in Torah for its own sake in the very finest of details.

Then he will succeed in attaining both the great and the small. “A great thing—that is the study of the mystical chariot; a small thing—those are the halachic discussions of Abaye and Rava.”

Orot Hatorah 3:8