Monday, December 6, 2010

Rav Kook On: Depression and Divine Light

The depth of the depression that embitters the soul to the very essence of life has been formed in the nature of [a person’s] supernal spirit so that it may have a receptacle that will be filled with Divine light.

The only thing that will support and revive the soul when it is faint, when it is completely discouraged, when it is filled with anger at itself, when it sees itself in its emptiness and imperfection, is Divine light.

That Divine light is not an awareness that [the spirit] acquires only through measured and step-by-step logic, which is as nothing. It is true that the soul cannot be empty of that intermediate trait of awareness. However, it is not with this that [a person] will penetrate to the Divine light that he needs for his life, but [with] the light that radiates from the supernal light in the depth of [his] soul, as the soul inherently realizes that only it itself recognizes its own happiness and light via [that light], just as [the soul] alone recognizes the times that it sees its own dark situation, its suffering and sadness.

“The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger can mix into its joy” (Proverbs 14:10).

Kevatzim Mikhtav Yad Kadsho II, p. 69

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