The Holy Delight of the Divine

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

I must draw down the holy delight of the divine, contemplative cleaving [to God] on everything that I learn, do, pray and speak. The revealed halachic matters will become enriched, filled with a vitality of pleasantness of supernal holiness, a lucid awareness shall penetrate so as to understand, learn intellectually and feel how all of the complex paths of the depths of halachah come from the same sweet and pleasant wellspring from which all holy delights and all sweet radiances of the most refined matters flow.

Chadarav, p. 133

Earthiness

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

Earthiness, and all insights based upon the senses, and all desires that have a connection to and a relationship with them, provide the substance from which afterwards comes into realization that spiritual might with which we ally ourselves in the supernal structures, in regard to the heavenly insights and desires that shine within us.

But if we rise higher than the plateau appropriate for our [ability to] apprehend, we slip off [this] earthly basis. And [then] all of those efforts whose foundation is in the physical basis are lost to us—[efforts that,] when transformed into spiritual mixtures, place within us the spark of the flame of spiritual life [in such a way] that we are cast upward and weakened. And [then] spiritual power, its brightness and its clarity, with the precision of its desire and the strength of its spirit, are lost to us.

Wretched, we are then immersed in the great sea of spirituality, which storms upon us with its multitudinous waves. And the boat upon which we had been sitting is shattered and sunken to the depths in the storm of great waves.

And there are two pathways to being saved.

One is to rush to the shore, and in order to do so to take hold of some fragment of the boat until we find relief and rescue, until we meet up with a rescue boat or a new boat sailing upon the great sea, which will be prepared to take us on board. [This corresponds to] new horizons of service, knowledge, logic and activities, connected to those same great thoughts and ideals that have already been absorbed into us.

[The second way is] to rise so [high] to the height of the elevation of the supernal spirit, to the point of the establishment of an independent and fundamental nature of true citizenship in the heavenly world, to become one of the fish of the sea, like one of the great sea creatures, one of the regular dwellers of the sea, so that then the great light of life of mighty spirituality transforms the entire physical world into a great treasury of the spirit, and everything is aligned together with the counsel of peace.

**

At times the spirit grows too penetrating, and goes into too much depth.

In knowledge, it analyzes details too much, and in moral correction it oppresses the heart too much, it causes too much trembling and casts too much bitterness.

Then we heal it with external visions and we make use of the superficiality of the mundane, and the light of joy within it, in a proper balance.

And then the depth and penetration are again illumined and healthy in a rectified fashion, from which come the qualities of the illumination of the face and the joy of the heart, which constantly accompany every quality of a perfected spirituality.

Orot Hakodesh III, pp. 103-104

I Will Go On Eating Oranges, I Said

by Yaacov Dovid Shulman

I will go on eating oranges, I said,
I will collect shards of tires on the highways,
I will stanch running noses,
I will collect desolate socks,
I will survey the vistas of littered floors
And hills,
Comprehensively, as though I had forgotten the flute,
The gaming parlor, the ululations,
The sharp sparkle of the pre-dawn wind.

The Light of the Life of Elijah Rising

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

Behold, I see with my own eyes the light of the life of Elijah rising. His power on behalf of his God grows ever more revealed.

The holiness within nature breaks through its boundaries. It proceeds powerfully to unite with the holiness that transcends nature, with the holiness that wars against nature.

We fought against nature and we emerged victorious. Nature had damaged us, dislodged our thighbone, but the sun has shone to heal us of our lameness.

Judaism of the past, from Egypt until now, is one long war against nature, against the nature of the world, against the nature of humanity as a whole—even against the nature of the [Jewish] nation, and against the nature of every individual.

We fought against nature in order to conquer it, in order to crush it within its house.

It is subjugated before us. The worlds grow ever more perfected. In the essence of the depth of nature, a great demand arises for holiness and purity, for a refinement of the soul and purification of life.

Elijah comes to proclaim peace, and within the inner soul of the nation a current of life of nature breaks forth, and comes ever closer to holiness.

The remembrance of the exodus from Egypt grows transformed into a memory of the exodus from the subjugation of nations, which grows ever closer to completion.

And all of us are in the process of coming closer to nature. And it approaches us, increasingly subdued before us, as its demands grow ever more attuned to our exalted demands, [which come] from the source of holiness.

The young generation, which demands its land, its language, its freedom and its honor, its literature and its might, its possession and its feelings—[all these things] flow via the stream of nature, whose inner being is filled with holy fire.

Chadarav, p. 201

Enveloped in God

by R. Nachman of Breslov

There are some people who do not have a proper belief. They say that the world has to exist. What a poor and confused consciousness they have. They think that they have proofs for this from the way the world works—heaven forbid!

But really “their mouths say empty things” (cf. Job 34:16). Really, the whole world and everything in it don't necessarily have to exist.

God is the only Necessary Being. All the universes, however, with everything in them don’t necessarily have to be. God created them out of nothing. It was totally up to Him whether or not to create them. So the whole world and everything in it didn’t have to exist.

So why do people think that the world must necessarily be—heaven forbid, heaven forfend! This is why: because really, now that the souls of Israel have been emanated and drawn down, the world must necessarily be.

Why? Because the whole world and everything in it were only created for Israel (as is well-known; see Vayikra Rabbah 36; also Rashi at the beginning of Breishit). “Israel rules the world.”

Now, after the souls of Israel have been emanated and created, there is no doubt that (if you could say such a thing) God has to create and maintain the world. That is why He emanated the souls of Israel: to create all the universes for them.

But when the souls of Israel themselves were being emanated, they themselves together with all the worlds that depend on them didn’t necessarily have to exist. God could have either emanated and created them or not created them. But once the Holy One, blessed be He, decided to emanate the souls of Israel, then the entire world became something that has to be. Once the souls of Israel were emanated, then God (so to speak) had to make the world—that was why He had emanated their souls: so that all the universes would be created for them and they would rule over everything.

Understand this well.

This is the source of the error of the non-believers, who say that the world has to be (heaven forbid). Really, however, only God has to be. All things don=t necessarily have to exist.

The main reason that God created the entire universe for Israel was so that Israel would do His will, and come back and cling to their root—meaning, that they would come back and be enveloped in God, who is the Necessary Being. That’s why everything was created.

So when Israel does God's will and are enveloped into their source—the Necessary Being—then the entire world (which was created for them) is enveloped into the Necessary Being too. That is the reason it was created. Only because of that does God have to (in a manner of speaking) create and maintain all the worlds: for Israel, so that they will do His will.

So when they do God’s will, that the world is enveloped into the plane of being necessary. The more they do God's will, the more are they enveloped with all the universes that depend on them into the Necessary Being. By doing God's will, they come back and are enveloped into Him, Who is a Necessary Being. Then all the worlds, which are dependent on their spirit, are absorbed into the One whose Being must be.

How can you reach this? How can you be absorbed into your root? How can you go back and be enveloped in God’s Oneness (Whose Being must be)?

You can only do that by becoming as nothing, by wiping your own being away until you are enveloped in God’s Oneness.

And so how do you become as nothing? You can achieve that only through hitbodedut: you separate mitboded yourself and talk things out to God, you wipe away all bad desires and traits. Finally, you wipe away all of your physical being and are enveloped in your root.

The essence of hitbodedut is in the night, when everyone is at rest from the trammel of this world. During the day, people’s running after this world prevent and disturb a person from clinging to and from being absorbed into God. Even if you yourself aren’t taken up with this, since other people are pursuing empty things of this world, it is difficult to come to such a state of self-dissolving.

Also, this hitbodedut has to be in set-aside place—which is to say, outside town, where a person is all alone, where there are no passers-by, because a place where people travel during the day, people who are pursuing this world (even though right now they aren’t there) also disturbs the hitbodedut, so that a person can’t dissolve himself and be enveloped into God.

So: you have to go out by yourself at night to a lone place, a place that people don't traverse, isolate yourself there and turn your heart and mind away from all the dealings of this world, and make everything as nothing, until you really comes to becoming as nothing.

That is to say, at first pray a great deal and speak out a great deal in hitbodedut at night in an isolated spot until you dissolve away one thing—i.e., you dissolve away a particular trait and desire. Then engage in a great deal more hitbodedut, until you wipe away another trait and desire.

Practice this hitbodedut for a long time, at that time of night, at that place, until you wipe away everything.

And then, something will still remain of you. So wipe that away too—until nothing at all remains of you.

Likutei Moharan 42

The Clear Thought of the Torah of the Land of Israel

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

Not only aggadah is illumined by the light of the clear thought of the Torah of the land of Israel, but halachah as well—explanatory principles, analysis of halachic decisions, the roots of various [halachic] approaches and their general understanding as rooted in the depths of a life of spirit and action.

And [this refers] not only to the Torah in its scholarly sense, to that which is to be found within the four cubits of halachah, but to an illumination of all life, all of which is dependent upon a wealth of thought.

With the depth of the coming spiritual renaissance of the Torah of the land of Israel, the boundaries and iron curtains between topics, between fields, will diminish. The entire spiritual world will be surveyed at a [single] glance in the atmosphere of the souls of the land of life.

The glory of life of the enchanting mysteries, the flash of complex debate and the encouragement of the revival of the Congregation of Israel upon holy ground, the clarification of halachot and the broadening of vision and song, a desire for excellent diligence and a desire for physical development—all of these and their like (which outside the land of Israel, and which in accordance with the way of the world before the days of revival that stand behind our wall have been judged to be distant from each other and contradicting each other) stand for us now to be bound together in a collection of a connection and true bond. And each supports the other: broadening and deepening each other, expanding and perfecting each other.

Orot Hatorah 13:4

With All of the Singers

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

I desire with a complete yearning and desire to engage in the service of Hashem, a supernal holy worship, completely beyond any law of nature. I wish to put into all of nature the desiring light of the yearning, which is a holy of holies, for the divine ideal.

I unite with the entire Chapter of Song, with all of the singers—indeed, within all being—who rise in song and are elevated in song, and give glory and splendor to the beauty of the Life of worlds, blessed be He and blessed be His name.

Chadarav, pp. 143-144

I Must Know

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

Even though I yearn a great deal for various [supernal] levels, I must nevertheless know and clarify what my particular activity is.

And I hope for the mercies of heaven, so that the gates of light will be opened for me.

Chadarav, p. 143

When a Person's Consciousness of the Divine is Small

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

When a person’s consciousness of the divine is small, then the image that he has of divinity is also small.

And since it is the divine presence that makes clear to a person his infinite smallness, if his fear of heaven lacks proper awareness, then he becomes an abject scoundrel, to an extent beyond comprehension.

So how can a person attain an estimation of the divine greatness in such a way that the essential form of the glory of his spirit will not be degraded but will broaden?

That comes as a result of broadening the power of his knowledge. It comes as a result of freeing his imagination and giving free flight to his thought. It comes as a result of the knowledge of the world and life. It comes as a result of the wealth of feeling in all creation.

To this end, a person must indeed engage in all of the areas of wisdom in the world, in all teachings of life, in all the paths of the various cultures and forms of ethics and religion of every nation and tongue.

And with the greatness of the spirit, he will know how to purify them all.

Clearly, the entire foundation of his knowledge as a Jew will be built on the foundation of the Torah in its most complete breadth. He will always strive to be sure that his way will not be constricted, that his perspectives will not be suppressed and fragmented—rather, they will proceed with breadth and on a sure road.

He should not subject himself to a multiplicity of fears, which prevent his mind from its work and his spiritual powers from exercising their influence.

Instead, he should be strong. He should know the power, the good and the evil, and the supernal originality from which everything flows in a structured form, and which is in the process of gaining wholeness even as he gains his own wholeness.

Then, corresponding to the greatness of his soul, the divine light will shine upon him and his spirit will be great, and the divine supernal humility, which increases all of a person’s abilities, will fill his entire inner being. A heavenly might will strengthen him constantly, and he will do great secret things for himself and for the entire world.

Proper Eating

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

I am very confused in regard to matters of my eating. I experience a great struggle within me in this matter.

I would very much like to fast, and to fast properly—and at the least to eat very little. But on the other hand I must, both from the aspect of health and from the aspect of holy tendencies—which are hidden within my depths and which can be great lights, matters through which all the great people of the world would rise to high elevations. From the aspect of all these, I need to eat properly, and sometimes even a great deal.

And because of my digestive problems, eating is difficult for me, and because of the scattered spirit that I usually suffer from, it is difficult for me to reach a decision as regard to the [proper] arrangement for eating, and [to reach] a completely settled state of mind that is necessary for the holiness of supernal wisdom [and] that is needed in order to be able to eat with the holiness of truth that is proper for the purity of the soul, so as to raise the will to beautify and elevate the holiness of Hashem in His world.

And if this was difficult for me in the land of Israel, how more difficult it is outside of the land.

But nevertheless, I hope for supernal kindness, so that everything will be renewed for good, for a great light, for eternal beauty, for blessing and salvation, for the light of Torah and the flame of mitzvah. And in the paths of righteousness may the Rock of our salvation lead me; may He beautify the impoverished with salvation. “And You are with the oppressed and the lowly of spirit,” “and You save the impoverished nation.”

Chadarav, pp. 150-151

A Love for This World

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

I lack a love for this world, and that causes me great imperfection in spirituality, in learning Torah and in engaging in mitzvot “not for its own sake”—so that “out of its being not ‘for its own sake’ eventually it comes to be ‘for its own sake.’”

And I need guidance as to how to deal with these paths—which, although they are in themselves descents, yet are nevertheless necessary for ascent.

Chadarav, pp. 149-150

In Mind and Feeling

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

Meaningless words are not at all in accord with my nature. And even in order to sharpen my mind, I need to weigh thoroughly how to arrange that properly.

And usually, when my thought is settled, it is possible for me to sharpen my mind in a way that will contain within it an inner wisdom—in mind or at least in feeling.

Chadarav, p. 149

In Accordance with the Feeling of My Soul

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

In accord with the feeling of [my] soul, I cannot speak meaningless or superfluous words, and at a time that the arousal of the external physicality brings me to this—to speak as most people speak in the flow of my speech—I feel the protest of [my] soul within myself.

And I need a type of guidance that will give me a basis for feeling the progress of my soul, and to make it sovereign in my life, and in all of my movements and in all of my words.

Chadarav, pp. 148-149

Egotism

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

I hate egotism with an utter hatred.

It is not awakened within me from the aspect of the essence of my character and nature.

All of my aspects that are negative stand before me always deeply revealed.

Only external states of being—mingling with people, the need to diminish the soul for the sake of the communal life needs of the masses, arouse the repulsive character of pride, which I must take some part of for the purpose of leading, and must sometimes use it to diminish the supernal light, when it grows too overwhelming for the weak body to receive.

But it is in essence disgraceful. And the ugliness and falsehood within it are clearly recognizable to me.

Chadarav, pp. 147-149

A Weakness

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

The essence of my imperfection is a weakness of will, as well as a weakness of the body.

And at times, when I want to involve myself in repentance and in the awe of God, my will is further weakened, and I must afterwards rectify a great deal more.

Therefore, I must integrate into my repentance an inner might filled with lovingkindness, so as to strengthen and gird my will, and to make an effort together with the strength of the physical power.

And may Hashem’s help come to me so that everything will be in the proper order.

Chadarav, pp. 151-152

I Wondered Why You Were Breaking My Flowerpots

by Yaacov Dovid Shulman

I wondered why you were breaking my flowerpots.
But then you knew, didn’t you
(Even if you didn’t know that you knew),
That I hid my soul there,
That our family had stored its gold and silver there,
That there the constellations hid during the day,
That God Himself hid there.
It wasn’t just me you came to destroy,
For if you destroyed these flowerpots
You could crow naked on the top of the burly hills
And watch mountains of cities slip into the sea,
And your spirit would be freed
To march down the boulevards with squadrons of soldiers,
To requisition mansions without pay,
To dance with the Swiss ambassador’s wife,
To throw back your head and hoot at the moon.
But first you must break the city of stone,
First you must seed these hills with blood,
First you must fill the coastal towns with the winding smoke
Of weariness and decay,
So that the eyes of its pedestrians will not rise from the sidewalk
As your motorcade speeds resplendently by
Taking you to dance naked in your hotel room
And sleep with the corrugated idol
Whose thin loins sing
The odor of the grave.

I Must Deepen My Feelings

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

I must deepen [my] feelings and find the illumination of [my] natural soul within them.

And after that [I must] expand, with a holy and pure mind, one that is broad and encompassing, to gain wisdom via the purification of the wisdom hidden in [my] feelings, [for] a number of levels of supernal revelations are revealed in accordance with the nature of the holiness within them.

Even [if this is] in the form of smallness and dimness, [in accordance with] my impoverished worth, nevertheless, all of the highest levels are to be found even within the smallest spark—from the beginning of the supernal illumination of Adam to the lowest levels of imagination and feeling—with an ability similar to the ability of poetry and song and rhetoric. And every awakening of an elevated spirit—all of it has come forth from Hashem.

“He has done wondrous counsel, He has made great wisdom.”

Chadarav, p. 136

Suddenly It is Like That

by Yaacov Dovid Shulman

Suddenly it is like that.
You are pulling your feet out of the long, sticky brown mud,
And you will no longer compromise.
But it is only you against a bulldozer,
And the wind and the stars are thin.

Go to the caves in the valley, shake the elders in their casques.
You need more than echoes in the dark.
You need more than youths spilling across valley floors.
You need the strength of mountains,
The bulldozers must stand with gaping mouths.
You must overwhelm them utterly,
Not with your spirit but with your flesh.

You must make your home in the streets,
You must love the mortar and the asphalt,
Or you will be praying in the corner of your home
When you are carted out with the rubble
And the winding smoke of powdered stone blinds your eyes white.

The Hints That God Sends

by R. Nachman of Breslov

There can be someone who knows and understands this. He understands the hints that God sends him in everything. And so he might want to be involved in that alone—i.e., involve himself in the things of this world, since he understands the hints that God is sending him.

But that is not the way it should be. A person has to restrain himself—he has to restrain himself from this world, but only take what he needs form this world.

And there are two reasons for that.

The first is that this holiness that is clothed in the things of this world is on the level of “feet.” It is a low level of holiness—“the sinfulness [of my enemies] surrounds me” (Psalms 49:6). The “husk” of evil surround that holiness always and want to draw vitality from it. And so that is a dangerous place to be. And so one must only make use of what one needs in the world.

And in addition, there is a higher way of serving God, a higher level of holiness, and so a person has to serve God with those that are more holy and higher than looking for divine hints in the world.

Likutei Moharan I 54

I Will Stop at Nothing

by Yaacov Dovid Shulman

I will stop at Nothing.
You stop at Nothing too
(Robert Frost’s horse did.)
And there in the shapes of darkness,
The huge bent back of the silent slouching beast
Obscures the sight of the stars.
The air rushes up in a trice
Like a paper dancer in the flame,
And you stand like the tin soldier on one leg.

And manifold chambers open like a bright and airy origami.
At your feet the scrub whispers and murmurs,
Small nocturnal creatures.
Your nictitating membrane pops up, and
The dove of your spirit flies up on a gust of words
That are daylight,
That are a fountain of sparks,
That are a clapping of hands,
That are the night sky and its stone stars
And the marvelous humped silent huge back
Of the leviathan.

One Long Hand

R. Dovid of Lelov said, “If all the Jews put their hands together so that they had one long hand, it would reach to the Throne of Glory. And how good that would be, for then we would certainly lack nothing.”
This teaching was transmitted by the holy Worke rebbe to his grandson, R. Menachem of Amshinov, from whom I heard it.
Esser Sipurim

The Flow of Creativity

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

Sometimes constant [Torah] learning is difficult for me, because of the flow of creativity that arouses [my] spirit in every small part of [my] learning. [And] even though the matters [may] not grow clear but instead arise in a dim form, they are nevertheless bound to come to clarity.
And at any rate it is not because of spiritual sloppiness that this impediment to constant learning comes, but rather because of an abundance of blessing, which [I must] meet with respect and joy, [even] as [I] attempts to escape the imperfections within it.
Chadarav, p. 137

The Day Rose

by Yaacov Dovid Shulman

The day rose.
The night flowered.
Bakeries were open till dawn,
Pregnant women glided through the streets,
Ships upon the horizon glinted blue, yellow,
At small café tables women pecked at keyboards,
Sleek seals breached the freezing seas,
Eyes gazed upon the beach.
They were incandescent bulbs,
They were tulips,
They were ancient countenances,
They were beyond number.
Mountains floated in their field of vision,
Mountains and declamations.

To Encompass a Particular Topic

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook
I must make an effort so that I will be able to encompass a particular topic without leaping from idea to idea.
Even though [in] essence [I] leap from topic to topic because of [my] quickness of comprehension and [my] desire to embrace many topics, and [to attain] a complete breadth of knowledge with an elevated spirit, nevertheless, this faculty blocks [my ability to] internalize the ethical, intellectual and Torah material.
Indeed I must understand integrate the matter a great deal— i.e., that [my] particular internalization of a specific matter will be a kind of internalization that does not deprive [this] specific matter of the rich influences of all the [other] various matters.
Indeed, [within any] spiritual material, like existence as a whole, [every element] connected to another, and each one draws sustenance from the other.
And the words of Torah in particular are beloved to each other and each other’s comrades.
And this insight is not only germane to a specific area, but it is general. It touches upon every way of serving God and every mitzvah.
When a person performs a good act, his mind must be centered on that specific act. But at the same time he must broaden his thoughts to all of the mitzvot as a whole, and to all the branches of serving God, so that with this specific mitzvah all of the mitzvot with all of their branches—[each mitzvah with] all of its specifics and details and intents and the 613 mitzvot that depend upon it—will be encompassed.
Chadarav, pp. 137-139

Before You Shall I Pour Forth My Speech

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

Before You shall I pour forth my speech, Master of all worlds.

Your greatness will not prevent me from coming close to You, for indeed [Your] greatness is [Your] humility, and they have no end—as is the case with all of Your traits.

Neither will my awareness of my smallness and my nothingness prevent me from having the vigor to come close to You, the light of life and the source of good, for there is no end to the greatness that my heart will cause me to feel in that I am one of Your creations.

And even if I look down on some of Your creatures and they are inconsequential in my eyes, only foolishness causes that.

You are the source of wisdom. Only You know Your greatness. And in the power of that greatness, truly all of Your creatures are of equal worth, insofar as they are Your creations, great and awesome God.

And for me as well, it is enough for me to be considered one of the works of Your hands—that covers all of my imperfections.

And behold, with a trembling of the holy I come to You, my King. Save me. From all of my sins help me escape, and from all of my enemies deliver me. Save [me] please, save [me] please, Father Who is compassionate and gracious regarding all deeds.

“To Hashem belongs salvation; upon Your nation is Your blessing selah.”

Chadarav, pp. 153-154

Deliver Me From Oppression

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

Save me, Hashem, deliver me from human oppression.

Grant me the merit to truly brighten my entire being.

Strengthen and gird my will and my abilities to walk upon the straight path of the light of the holiness of Your straightness, for “You desire straight things”—You, Hashem my God.

Chadarav, p. 153

The Purifications That I Perform on Myself

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

The purifications that I perform on myself, my thoughts, my ideas, my traits and my feelings—they will be general purifications for the entire world.

Chadarav, p. 153

I Need to Strengthen My Will

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

I need to strengthen my will, to free it from any subservience [caused by] phantasm.

Then it will be connected to Torah and prayer, to a mindful clinging to the divine and to an inner awakening in a depth of holiness.

And the merit of the land of Israel will stand by me even in my exile, to bring me back to the holy land with great mercy.

Chadarav, p. 152

I Cannot Move from Clinging to the Divine

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

I cannot move from clinging to the divine, and so I have to obligation to strive to see the divine light and its pleasantness in all mundane matters, in all speech and in every deed and movement, whether my own or of others, and certainly to feel the revelation of the supernal light as it comes through the conduits of truth and righteousness within the entire Torah, including its simple meaning, halachic discourse and Talmudic disputation.

And that is why I always tend to align such Talmudic disputation with the character of conceptual logic, which includes as well the feeling of the heart.

And it is all out of an inner tendency—the fact that I desire with all my heart that the divine light, with its delight and light, should be revealed to everyone, and that everyone should be refined by it and take delight in it.

And I need constant encouragement not to move from that level, and to increase its light and to stride forth well upon its path, and to incorporate all the paths of learning and [Torah] leadership on this general path, which is the path of the righteous that grows ever more illuminated until the fullness of the day [arrives].

And the effort of proper direction in the essence of the portion of the Torah that belongs to oneself, [an effort] supported by the [natural] tendency of the soul, is the most assured path of going in the direction of the root of the soul, and of guiding it in the manner fit for it.

And even though everyone in whole world may think that he has no connection to this at all, nevertheless there exists within the core of the heart a tendency to shine the light of Hashem in that point where feeling and intellect and every power of life join.

In order to cause this light to shine well, in order for it to truly perform its task, a person must repent fully out of love. And [then,] due to the great value of repentance, the power of [its] influence onto the entire world will increase.

And the path of that repentance must go through everything: [it must be] in deeds and in traits, in speech and in thought. And at any rate one must not push away any good point. And whatever part of repentance comes to mind, one must be lively and bring it into actuality, with mindfulness and joy and trust [in God] and a depth of faith.

Chadarav, pp. 134-136

There is a Messiah Without God

by Yaacov Dovid Shulman

There is a messiah without a God.
We have seen him visiting our beaches,
He commanded the waves and tar infested the sand.
He commanded the heavens
And missiles rained like stars.
He thundered at the mountain
But his voice rattled like the crinkling of a newspaper.
We turned the page, we snoozed,
Our chin bobbed upon our chest
And the air turned red and sullen.

The Ideal Totality of Being

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

The ideal totality [of being] reveals its power only through the multitude of [individual] particulars, as they are well-organized in a proper arrangement in both the spiritual life and the life of action.

But these particulars they have no value without the universal soul.

And [so] when I feel very weary because of the weight of the burden of details, which are boring and heavy, I must revive my spirit by watering it with the universalist phenomenon.

And when that universal brilliance flows upon the multitude of our particular, hewn structures, we return to work on the particulars with precision and verve.

Chadarav, p. 132