If You Have An Aptitude for Spirituality

by Rav Avraham Yitchak Kook

If you have an aptitude for spirituality, for clinging to God, and for elevated, abstract, spiritual wisdoms, you must know: it is for this that you were created. If you slacken in your supernal work, something that only a rare few can do, who will fill that great cavity?

So be happy in your portion and do not look at it in a negative way.

And do not look down on the portion of others, even if they are very far from this, because they certainly have other fields of goodness and usefulness, which are far from you.

Always be wealthy in your mind, with a good eye. Honor others. Love them all. And strive for their good and their elevation.

**

Even if you have no more than a small inclination for supernal spiritual sights, even if you do not really have intelligence and wisdom, but your imagination is elevated somewhat more than the usual, you are entirely responsibility to act in a supernally holy way.

You must proceed on your own, on your holy path. With good traits and elevated qualities, rise beyond the masses. And make an effort to learn from everyone—in particular from the simple-hearted masses, and from every individual who has any good quality.

If you will attempt to go on the usual path of the masses with their usual leaders, you will by no means be able to do so. Instead, make an effort to acquire excellent traits and a clear reckoning of the world.

And do not set aside the constant yearning to be close to God, which is deep in your soul, for any obstacle in the world.

Do not chase after honor—nor should you be confused when you find people heaping honors on you. And of course, do not be upset if people insult you or are disrespectful to you.

Orot Hakodesh III, p. 207

The Vision of the Man in the Circle

by R. Nachman of Breslov

I will tell you what I saw. And you tell your children.

Someone was lying on the ground, and people were sitting around him in a circle. There was a second circle around the first, a third circle, and so on.

Around these circles sat some other people in no particular order.

The man who was sitting in the middle on his side was moving his lips, and everyone around him moved his lips like him.

Then I saw that the man in the middle was no longer there, and all the people sitting around him stopped moving their lips.

“What is going on?” I asked.

I was told that the man had grown cold and died. Since he had ceased to speak, the others had ceased to speak as well.

Afterwards, everyone began running.

I ran after them. I saw two beautiful palaces.

Two ministers sat there.

The people ran to the ministers and began to complain to them, “Why did you fool us?” They wanted to kill these ministers. Finally, the ministers ran out.

When I saw the ministers, I liked them very much. I ran after them.

From afar, I saw a beautiful tent.

People shouted from the tent to the ministers, “Go back! Find all your merits. Take them in your hand and go to the candle hanging there. There you will be able to accomplish everything that you want.”

The ministers went back and took their merits. There were bundles of merits. They ran to the candle, and I ran after them.

A lit candle was hanging in the air. The ministers came and threw the merits at the candle, and sparks fell from the candle into their mouths.

The candle [HaNeiR] turned into a river [NaHaR], and they all drank from it.

Creatures were formed within them. When they opened their mouths to speak, the creatures emerged.

I saw them running back and forth. They were neither human nor animal--just creatures.
Afterwards, the ministers decided to return to their place. They said, “How can we get back to our place?”

One of them said, “Let us send a message to the person standing there who is holding a sword from the heavens to the earth.”

They said, “Whom shall we send?”

They decided to send the creatures. The creatures went there, and I ran after them.

I saw a frightening being standing from heaven to earth with a sword in his hand that reached from heaven to earth, which had many blades.

One blade was sharp for killing; another blade was for poverty; another blade was for weakness. And there were other blades for other punishments.

They began, “It is a long time that we have been suffering because of you. Now help us and bring us to our place.”

He said, “I cannot help you.”

They asked, “Give us the blade of death and we will kill the people.”

But he did not agree.

They asked for another blade, but he did not want to give them any blade. So they left.

Meanwhile, an order was given to kill the ministers, and their heads were cut off.

Then things went back to what they had been before.

A person lay on the ground and there were circles of people about him, and they ran to the ministers, and so forth, all over again.

But this time, I saw that the ministers did not throw their merits at the candle. Instead, they took the merits, went to the candle and broke their hearts and began to beg before the candle. Sparks fell from the candle into their mouths.

They pleaded more and the candle turned into a river, and so on, and the creatures were formed. And I was told, “These will live. The first ones were guilty of death because they threw the merits at the candle and did not plead, as these had.”

I didn’t understand this.

I was told, “Go to such-and-such a room and you will be told what it all means.”

I went there, and an old man was sitting there. I asked him about this.

He grasped his beard and told me, “This beard is the explanation of the story.”

I answered him, “I still don't understand.”

He told me, “Go to such-and-such a room, and there you will find the explanation.”

I went there, and I saw a long, broad, endless room, full of writings. And wherever I opened up [a book], I saw an explanation of the story.

Chayei Moharan p. 36, #2

Joyfully

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

We must perform all of the commandments joyfully, because they develop our feeling of pleasure and of divine love, which is hidden in the very nature of our soul.

And separating ourselves from all sin is also good for helping us connect with this holy goal. Sin dims the illumination of the soul because of the turbidity of the sinful deed, which mixes into our spiritual lucidity, which blocks expansion of the light of the divine pleasantness.

And our consciousness has to expand—in its connections to deed and in its spiritual connections—until the power of our soul will expands so greatly that it will find the strength to organize all of life, in general and in detail, into a fitting form, so that the supernal blossom of life, which is the universal delight (which contains all ever-lasting delights and from which all time-bound delights flow), which is the delight of the pleasure of Hashem, will constantly blossom with success and greatness.

Orot Hakodesh III, p. 186

A Movement

by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov

Sometimes an ordinary Jew just makes a movement with his sidelock, and God takes great pride even in that.
Likutei Moharan 17:1

To Burrow Into The Smallest Details

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

The greatness of soul that yearns for supernal holiness and for great and exalted things must necessarily also deal with the rectification of traits and deeds, and at times descend into the depths of the life of deed and burrow into the smallest details, in order to rectify them and direct them in accordance with righteousness and straightness, in accordance with the Torah and halachah, and to penetrate into the depths of the traits of the spirit so as to remove from them all evil and all perversion.

But if the heart is directed only an elevated reality and not to the lower plain of purification and holiness, then all of that supernal light can shatter and turn into a stumbling block. The greatness of the soul can be transformed into an alien egotism, and the yearning for knowledge of the mighty mysteries into an illusion characterized a wealth of hues.

The might of the spirit, which elevates the phenomenon of life, can also bring to the fore stormy physical desires. The desire for illicit gain, for honor, and for sensory delights can break through all of their boundaries. And from the height of a powerful angelic, supernal yearning can come the most terrible fall.

And the hidden world is the trait of Leah, whose eyes are weak. She sits at the crossroads and prays not to fall into the hands of Esau. And because of her greatness and her weeping, she attained the foundation of prophecy and royalty, and the portion of Israel.

Orot Hakodesh III, p. 125

The Ant Walked Through The Door

by Yaacov Dovid Shulman

The ant walked through the door,
Which turned into a crescent sword.
The floor heaved, it bounded, it gently billowed,
Entire oceans drained into small wormholes.
Clouds were whisked away
And left skies with stark terror on their faces.
Cars that were driving purposefully
Tumbled into the San Andreas fault.
And no wonder old people tottered fearfully along the undulating boardwalk,
No wonder love shut the slats of its concession stand,
No wonder the Warbasse apartments shuddered,
No wonder buttered toast ceased to thrill the acquisitive mind.
The cat sat in the high cabinet
Meditating thoughtlessly,
The smell of salt was invisible, it rested upon the chestnut trees.
The curious automobiles came and went on their secret rounds,
And Mrs. Baum stood in her kitchen, preparing chicken.

Charity

by R. Nachman of Breslov

It is possible to draw God’s complete providence only when we break our lust for money.

We do that by giving charity.

“A spirit descends to cool the heat of the heart. When that spirit descends, the heart receives it with the joy of the song of the Levites” (Zohar Pinchas 244a).

This “spirit” is charity, which is “a voluntary spirit” (Psalms 51:14). With this, we cool of the heat of the lust for money. The verse “He cuts off the spirit of the princes” (Psalms 76:13) can be read, “The spirit cuts off the princes.” The spirit diminishes the lust for princeliness and wealth.

“The song of the Levites” is dealing faithfully in business—in other words, being happy in one’s portion and not rushing to grow wealthy. Song refers to business. In Hebrew, “business” is literally “lifting and giving.” This corresponds to the verse, “Lift up a tune and give the tambourine” (Psalms 81:32).

“The joy” is the fact that one is happy with one’s portion.

And this is the incense [that was offered in the Temple]. This incense connects the heat of the heart to the spirit. “Incense rejoices the heart” (Proverbs 27:9).

“They will bring incense for Your nostrils” (Deuteronomy. 33:10). That incense nullifies the curse, “by the sweat of your brow shall you eat” (Genesis 3:19). The words for “nostril” and “brow” in the above two verses are similar.

And this is the revelation of the messiah. At that time, there will be no lust for money. “On that day, a person will cast aside his gods of silver and his gods of gold” (Isaiah 2:20).

The messiah is “the spirit of our nostrils, the anointed of Hashem” (Lamentations 4:20).

As long as the idolatry of money exists in the world, there is anger in the world (see Sanhedrin 113; Sifri Re’eh).

But when this idolatry is nullified, so is the anger nullified. “The spirit of our nostrils, the anointed of Hashem.”

Then love is drawn into the world: “He performs love for His anointed one” (Psalms 18:51).

When this love will be revealed, consciousness will be drawn down. And that is the building of the Temple: “In the greatness of Your love will come to Your house.” (Psalms 5:8). And: “His right hand [which indicates love] will build the Temple” (Zohar Pinchas 220b).

Consciousness is a house. “If a person has consciousness, it is as though the Temple was built in his time” (Berachot 33a).

Likutei Moharan I 13:1

People Who Do Not Believe In Themselves

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

How much goodness do some people hold back with their own hands because of their lowly consciousness—people in whose heart the spirit of Hashem is fit to beat, but who grasp smallness and do not believe in themselves, in the greatness of their soul.

Neither environment nor [one’s] actions in particular are the foundations upon which the happiness of the soul is built in its inner treasury. Rather, the foundations are greatness of the spirit, inner holiness and purity, strength of will and might of thought. A person’s environment and deeds are subjugated as he grows more intense, as his spiritual might rises.

Therefore, great, righteous people involve themselves in particular in their inner greatness. Of course, they are very careful in their deeds, they make an effort in regard to the purity of the environment—but all of this comes from the inner factor of the supernal light, which streams in their souls with its entire unique splendor, from the greatest and most fully-flowing conduit. And they do not lower themselves to cling constantly to the reality within the smallness of individual details with no end, which fill the spirit that rises upward.

And in general it is not the sensory world with the details of its actions that takes the greatest place in the eternal soul of life, which appears in the light of its greatness in supernal souls. It is rather the exalted splendor of the beauty of the Life of worlds, in which everything is incorporated—all ideational good, ethical and deed-oriented—an expansion of perfection across [one’s] deeds entirely comes of itself, when the great will for divine good with its immense purity acts with all of its power.

And at any rate the righteous turn at times from their immense greatness and look at their deeds in great detail. After they have already been satiated with the radiance of delights from the supernal pleasantness, after their spirit filled with strength has been encouraged and strengthened and the desire of good and purity, filled with the light of life, lives within their heart, then a self-reckoning comes with greatness and harmony regarding details and the details within details. Then there comes as well a spiritual and physical dolefulness, like a flowing stream and an awesome thunder, fear and greatness, hope and trust, confidence, and a hope of rectification for every flaw, and a supernal repentance that includes all repentances.

**

When the righteous find flaws in their deeds, even when they see that it is impossible to rectify them, they do not as a result fall from their supernal level, for they know that the reason for their inability to rectify every imperfection is that the light of the soul, which is the true strength of life upon all the branches of the passages of life, has still not shone.

Therefore, they make an effort to rise to more supernal heights, with attainment and with clearness of the spirit, so that the soul will be stronger, and this phenomenon will appear upon them. And they are confident that with the greatness of the appearance of the soul, their strength will grow so much that they will be able to rectify all twistedness, in spirit and in deed, near and far—between man and God, and between man and man, two areas between which they find no intrinsic difference.

Orot Hakodesh III, pp. 123-124

A Quantity of Wheat

by Yaacov Dovid Shulman

It seems that such a quantity of wheat will be sold today,
That the markets will be filled with the rustle of cloths,
The sun will beat down hotly on sandaled feet,
Storekepers will cry their wares with distorted faces,
In shadowed alcoves, men will drink sweetened, yellow drinks,
The long lines of camels will shimmer from the distance in the hot, bright air,
The pastry boy will rush through the crowd
With a fragrant tray of sweet loaves,
From the bakery to which merchants brought flour
From mills that stand silent upon the river flowing to the sea.
In the bakery men work frantically
Shaping flour into dough and dough into bread and pastries
That is carried on platters through the bazaar blazing streets,
To the homes of satraps,
To the doors of impoverished widows,
Bringing satiety, bringing delight,
Bringing the mystery of their scent.

From the Conversation of Women

by R. Nachman of Breslov

From the conversation of women, one can know the status of God=s Presence.

Mordechai would Awalk before the courtyard of the house of the women to know the welfare of Esther@ (Esther 2:11).

Esther represents God=s Presence (cf. Me=orei Or, Devash; and Netzutzei Orot Zohar I 240a; and Shaar Hakavanot, Derush 4 of Pesach with notes of Maharshu).

Mordechai understood and was able to know the welfare of God=s Presence from Athe courtyard of the house of the women@--from their conversation.

Likutei Moharan 203

The Mirror of Self-Examination

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

The movement of the spirit, in regard to [its] self-recognition, rolls forward, passes before the mirror of self-examination.

Sometimes the fresh aspects of the spirit pass by, and then a person is filled with greatness and might.

But sometimes the desolate aspects pass, and then he clothes himself in trembling, with a melting spirit within him.

The entirety of the circle demands that when the full and settled aspects pass by, a person not grow conceited but remain aware that only one aspect is passing by and that after this vision, which is full and fresh, an impoverished and painful vision will come. And when he is encompassed by the dark, he must know that very soon a joyful and uplifting vision will appear.

And in this way, a person’s traits will be perfected, and he will never be under the rule of a coarse egotism, which destroys all abundance, nor will his spirit be depressed by a dark melancholy.

Instead, he will keep hold of the fortress of goodness, wisdom and righteousness, and the name of Hashem will be at all times the tower of his strength.

Orot Hakodesh III, p. 121

Two Types of Personality

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

There are people whom God has made straight, whose character is quiet. And honest guidance and inner tranquility is their constant fate.

If they toil in Torah, in ethics and wisdom, they will rise to great levels, but they are at any rate people who are straightness, good and worthy.

The fate of these people is to be involved in areas of active deed or in wisdoms that involve deed. Their ethical aspect stands in inherent independence, on its own and in tranquility. It is possible that it will not rise to an elevated level—but neither will it descend to a lowly level.

But there is a second type of person, one who does not have tranquility.

Such people always stand in the balance—either to rise to the heights of heaven or to descend to the depths of the deeps.

These people need to rectify their spiritual individuality every day. When they choose for themselves the path that they need, they will rise ever higher, but if they abandon it, they are liable to fall and fall.

These are people who must be constantly involved in Torah and worship, in ethics and feelings of holiness. And heaven forbid that they turn aside to engage in this-worldly matters and in wisdoms involving deeds.

**

In the course of the generations in general, there are at times found generations whose general nature is of the first type—who are tranquil, with a fixed character. And their education should be similar to those individuals with a fixed nature.

But there are also generations with a wandering nature, whose spiritual income must be constant, with an on-going flow.

And sometimes we find that in some particular part a person or a generation has an aspect of tranquility, and in another part an aspect of movement.

And the leaders, those who are concerned for the good of the entirety, must to bring to heart how to educate the generation in regard to each part by itself.

Orot Hakodesh III, pp. 126-127

The Moon Swiveled Around

by Yaacov Dovid Shulman

The moon swiveled around
So that I could only see the back of her head.
How silent were the stars.
But we, we were chattering in the back seat,
In the front seat,
We flipped through the puddles,
We raced through the snowfields,
We rushed up the mountains to fields of caravans,
We hunched over and dug for radishes,
We were pursued by a beating heart through the windy downtown tenements in our dreams,
We curled in sleep in the branches of the universal tree
And slept, beloved.

The mystic moon was as clear as steel,
As tearless as glass,
As bright as a scintillating day
That waited patient and expectant,
That was the absence of all self
Except for the lumbering Jackson Pollack souls,
All of us, spattered exclamations of black, red, yellow ferment
Seeping into the sere dawn,
Our scattered colors catching on the colors of others,
The moon turned her head and the heavens were still,
And in that stillness
Our hearts were seized with stillness
And then spoke, of their own accord.

Righteous People Who Do Not Penetrate Their Inner Greatness

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

There are very righteous people, people who possess supernal characters, who are crushed within, within their soul[s], because they do not penetrate into the inner greatness within them, and [because] they do not have a perfect faith in the holiness of their yearnings.

Thus, they do not truly recognize the foundation of light in the breadth of their ideas. And so they go about stooped over beneath the burden of the mundane—of universal foolishness, of “the agitation of fools”—which weighs heavily upon them. And as a result they are placed in a sea of spiritual sufferings. The narrow ideas of the masses oppress their spirit, so that they lack the power to rise to the full height of their own thought, to the tremendous nature of their will.

They must in the end awaken from their slumber, and [despite] all of the peace and respect with which they relate to guidance for the masses, they [must go on their own path in order to] return to God, Who is revealed to them always from their unique windows and crevices.

**

If you yearn for the Source of the Torah, elevate yourself and gird your loins to meet that supernal [state of being], which pulses deep in your spirit, together with all of your thoughts and speech, with all of the spiritual and physical obligation that has been placed upon you.

Be a warrior and look directly at the light that is revealed to you from between the crevices.

Orot Hakodesh III, p. 122

The Revelation Wasn't Old

by Yaacov Dovid Shulman

The revelation wasn’t old.
It struck with all the force of a meteor.
There was a red fire and there was a white pillar
That was shining now, not then.
It was a time when every track is new,
When every landscape is a red fire and a white pillar of cloud.
Where is the red fire today?
Where is the white pillar of cloud?
Where is Egypt? Where is the terror of its cavalry?
(The cavalry that is real.)
Where is the glory of the constant press
Into the unknown redemption?
On the path to the sea,
Babies were still crying,
They still needed their diapers changed.
What a thing:
To see nothing on the way to the Red Sea
But the changing of diapers!
On the first night of Passover,
The Jews could not sleep.
And then,
They no longer wished to sleep.
When all of creation sleeps,
If we sing the words and listen,
We can hear that we are already singing within ourselves.
Already, we are awake,
Very busy, in fact.
Already, red fires blaze,
White clouds of smoke.
What color is your voice?
Are your words intaglio or bas relief?
Don't guess. Look inside.
See the drifting leaves of words upon your stream of prayer,
The green trumpet of voice,
The printer’s lead letters dripping indigo ink,
The granite statues of words like mountains
Among which you wander,
The white and pastel acrylic oils of words,
The stainless steel monuments with sharp edges,
A landscape of solid, skyscraper steel words.
What is your pillar of fire,
Your pillar of cloud?
What is its fresh, clear scent?

The Cessation of Being

by R. Nachman of Breslov

Each one of us has to see to it that we become assimilated into the root of who we are, to return and be assimilated into the oneness of God, Who is the One Reality.

This can be achieved only when we make ourselves totally stop, when we cease our being. And we can only come to this cessation through hisbodedus. When we are in seclusion with God, we can cause all desires and bad traits to cease. We can cling to God and be drawn into the root of who we are.

Likutei Moharan 52

When a Great Soul Rises

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

When a great soul rises, it impresses a seal of an exalted reality, of purity and supernal greatness upon all being. That is the foundation of the concept of “the righteous person is the foundation of the world.” The pure and elevated soul is the inner core; all souls and all of their deeds, all the powers of existence and all the revelations of life proceed solely to perfect its being.

The world lacks a goal as long as the supernal soul does not shine upon it. And when it comes and shine with the light of its preciousness, the world is perfected, and the heavens and earth rejoice, like the joy at the time of their creation.

**

Those who are straight of heart, and supernal righteous people, know that it is they who are the conduits of the richness of life to all of reality. They feel the waves of the flow of goodness that descends onto them, and through them onto the world. And this feeling of theirs clothes them in humility and awe, and brings them to rise ceaselessly with a brilliance of mind, and with a preciousness of character traits.

Orot Hakodesh III, p. 156