Shall I Cast Away the Source of Love?

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

Shall I cast away the source of love and the wellspring of endless delights?

Shall I distance myself from that source—higher than all being and all non-being, than all nothingness and than all void—in its great radiance and exaltedness?

I constantly thirst for its light, and it is sweet on the palate. It always slakes my thirst, even as it increases yearning and amplifies thirst, elevating and refining, together with its refined humility within which my soul within me melts.

Mine is my secret, and my secret is my light, and my secret is with me, the treasure of my life.

[You are] august and sublime, living forever. Forever and ever I am filled with strength, with the glory filling Your being eternally—gladness and tranquility and eternal salvation.

And my eye is aware of every oppressed person. “You save an impoverished people”—the glory of repentance and the secret of worship and the hidden wisdom, whose gates are ever opening to pour forth many streams “in the breadths, streams of water.”


Chadarav