Rav Avraham Yitzchak Hacohen Kook
Rav Kook: the greatest Jewish kabbalistic thinker of the twentieth century--also a philosopher, poet, communal leader (Chief Rabbi of the Holy Land until he passed away in 1935), Zionist, humanist, who integrated opposites into a unified harmony.
If You Desire
by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook
If you desire, human being, look at the light of God's Presence in everything.
Look at the Eden of spiritual life, at how it blazes into each corner and crevice of life, spiritual and this-worldly, right before your eyes of flesh and your eyes of soul.
Gaze at the wonders of creation, at their divine lifeBnot like some dim phenomenon that is placed before your eyes from afar.
But know the reality in which you live.
Know yourself and your world.
Know the thoughts of your heart, and of all who speak and think.
Find the source of life inside you, higher than you, around you. Find the beautiful ones alive in this generation in whose midst you are immersed.
The love within you: lift it up to its mighty root, to its beauty of Eden.
Send it spreading out to the entire flood of the soul of the Life of worlds, Whose light is reduced only by incapable human expression.
Gaze at the lights, at what they contain.
Do not let the Names, phrases and letters swallow up your soul.
They have been given over to you.
You have not been given over to them.
Rise up.
Rise up, for you have the power.
You have wings of the spirit, wings of powerful eagles.
Do not deny them, or they will deny you.
Seek them, and you will find them instantly.
Orot Hakodesh I, pp. 83-84
From the Well of Kindness presents Rav Kook's teachings on a broad variety of topics, which are not available anywhere else in English: Rav-Kook-Teachings.pdf.
And even more material is available at ravkook.net.
You can contact me at [email protected].
If You Desire
by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook
If you desire, human being, look at the light of God's Presence in everything.
Look at the Eden of spiritual life, at how it blazes into each corner and crevice of life, spiritual and this-worldly, right before your eyes of flesh and your eyes of soul.
Gaze at the wonders of creation, at their divine lifeBnot like some dim phenomenon that is placed before your eyes from afar.
But know the reality in which you live.
Know yourself and your world.
Know the thoughts of your heart, and of all who speak and think.
Find the source of life inside you, higher than you, around you. Find the beautiful ones alive in this generation in whose midst you are immersed.
The love within you: lift it up to its mighty root, to its beauty of Eden.
Send it spreading out to the entire flood of the soul of the Life of worlds, Whose light is reduced only by incapable human expression.
Gaze at the lights, at what they contain.
Do not let the Names, phrases and letters swallow up your soul.
They have been given over to you.
You have not been given over to them.
Rise up.
Rise up, for you have the power.
You have wings of the spirit, wings of powerful eagles.
Do not deny them, or they will deny you.
Seek them, and you will find them instantly.
Orot Hakodesh I, pp. 83-84
From the Well of Kindness presents Rav Kook's teachings on a broad variety of topics, which are not available anywhere else in English: Rav-Kook-Teachings.pdf.
And even more material is available at ravkook.net.
You can contact me at [email protected].