The great love which Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook felt for all people shone from his face when he met with someone. The gleam in his eyes sparkled with extra warmth when he met with groups students from abroad on Bnei Akiva educational trips to Israel. You could sense the gladness of the young people as well in meeting with the famous Rabbi, the son of Rabbi Kook and the head of the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Yerushalayim.
At that time, some fifty years ago, there were not many English speakers at the yeshiva and I was always happy if called upon to translate the Rabbi’s words. Sometimes the visiting Bnei Akiva students knew a basic Hebrew and the Rosh Yeshiva spoke to them on their level. If not, the leader of the group provided the translation.
To begin, HaRav Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook would congratulate the young people on having received a new Israeli soul. He explained that Rabbi Avraham Azulai, author of the “Chesed L’Avraham,” lived in Hevron almost 400 years ago. Rabbo Azuli writes that when a Jew comes to Eretz Yisrael, during his first night of sleep, his soul rises to world of souls, then returns in the morning when he awakens. Normally, the same soul returns to a person after a night of sleep, but after coming to Israel, a remarkable change takes place. Once a Jew has breathed and absorbed the air of Eretz Yisrael, he is transformed. When he awakens his first morning in Israel, he has a new soul!
This distinct difference is manifested in Yaacov Avinu’s dream of a ladder upon his departure from Eretz Yisrael. He envisions angels going up the ladder and coming down. The angels who depart from him are the angels of Eretz Yisrael, and the angels who come down are the angels who accompany him on his descent into exile (Bereshit, 28:12, Rashi). When Yaacov returns to the Land, he once again sees this change of celestial guards (Bereshit, 32:2, Rashi).
When the sun rises, he is not the same Yaacov. His soul in exile has been replaced by the much higher soul of Eretz Yisrael. “And he said, your name shall no longer be Yaacov, but Yisrael,” (Bereshit, 32:29).
The Gaon of Vilna echoes this idea by saying that a Jew is not complete until he comes to the Land of Israel. On the verse, “And Yaacov came shalem, to the city of Shechem,” the Gaon of Vilna explains “shalem” in its meaning of wholeness, noting that Yaacov wasn’t complete until he came to Eretz Yisrael (Kol HaTor, 3:7).
HaRav Tzvi Yehuda explained that in the Diaspora, living as a foreigner in a foreign land, a Jew has a private, individual soul. Just as a sovereign Israelite Nation cannot exist within the confines of a foreign country, the soul of a Jew is not complete in a foreign land. In Eretz Yisrael, the Land which Hashem specifically created and designed for the Nation of Israel, a Jew has the complete soul of Clal Yisrael.
The Rosh Yeshiva referred to his father’s book “Orot” to explain this exalted transformation. When teaching “Orot” to his regular yeshiva students, HaRav Tzvi Yehuda would often simply read the text without offering any commentary on his own, in great respect for his father, as if to say that he had nothing to add to the profoundness of his father’s holy illuminations.
Rabbi Kook writes:
"The soul is filled with letters which are infused with the light of life, full of knowledge and will, full of spiritual seeking, and full existence… Upon approaching a mitzvah, the mitzvah is always full of the light of life of all of the worlds – every mitzvah is filled with letters, big, incredible letters from among all of the 613 precepts… As soon as we approach a commandment's performance, all of the living letters which constitute our essence expand – we grow bigger, and become stronger and more forceful in the light of life and sublime existence which is resplendent and rich with the wealth of universal holiness and with the light of Torah and of wisdom, and all of the universe is renewed with light and life” (Orot, 1:7).
The Hebrew letters are the atoms and basic building blocks of the Jewish soul. The letters which Rabbi Kook describes are not only the outer, graphic shape of the letters, which have meaning in themselves, but the inner essence and content of the letters. In another work, "Rosh Millin," Rabbi Kook writes in depth on the meaning of each of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Unlike the letters of the English alphabet which are mere symbols of sounds with no inner meaning of their own, the letters of the Holy Tongue have an independent existence, and spiritual roots in the celestial worlds above.
In the wisdom of the Kabbalah, letters are understood to be powerful, life-giving forces. The Gemara teaches that the Hebrew letters were used to create heaven and earth. Bezalel knew how to combine the letters which were used in Creation. It was this secret wisdom which enabled him to build the Mishkan.
The Torah itself is made up of letters. Each letter is said to represent one of the basic 600,000 Jewish souls in the world. In addition to their alphabetical form, each letter has a deeper, living nature. Every letter contains a concept, a direction, a will which finds expression in the soul. Beyond a person's individual ego is the deeper, general will of existence. There is a force of life which is Divinely inspired, and this is what inspires each individual ego and psyche. The inner components of this deeper life-force are the Hebrew letters. Just as the letters are the building blocks of Torah, and of the world, they combine to form the molecular blueprint of the soul. What atoms are to the physical world, Hebrew letters are to the spiritual.
What happens in the soul when a person approaches a mitzvah? A mitzvah of the Torah is also filled with pulsating letters and a stream of Divine inspirational force. The commandments themselves are fountains of life, as the Torah says, "These are the mitzvot which a man shall do and live." The mitzvot are the channels which enable letters to flow from their Divine source to the soul. The life-force in the mitzvot adds vitality to the life-force in man. They are the circuits and conduits of life. And they too, like the letters, are microcosms of existence, bursting with the energy that G-d supplies to the world.
Rabbi Kook informs us that when a Jew performs a mitzvah, he receives a new dose of energy and life. When the letters of his soul collide and combine with the letters of the mitzvah, an explosion occurs. Like a nuclear fusion of atoms, new life is released to the soul and to all of the worlds. The union of the soul and the mitzvah is what gives the world its constant renewal. And because each individual mitzvah is integrally connected to all of the 613 precepts of the Torah, when we perform one mitzvah, we release the power of them all in a chain reaction which sends waves of Kedusha and light throughout the universe. This is the mechanism which brings life to the world. Thus, our Sages have taught that if the Jews were to stop learning Torah, G-d forbid, for even a moment, the whole world would come to an end.
When we come to perform a mitzvah, the energy in our souls and the mitzvah interact, and all of the letters which make up our essences grow bigger with an injection of Kedusha, Torah, exalted wisdom, and life. If we were on the proper level to experience this spiritual union, if our sensitivities were in tune with the immeasurable wealth of our Divine inner life, when we approached a mitzvah, we would feel the same ecstasy and joy that a bride and groom feel when they step under the wedding canopy to become husband and wife. The was the great joy which the Arizal experienced when he performed a mitzvah. It was the joy of the mitzvah, he said, which opened the channel of Divine Inspiration with which he was graced.
How is the Land of Israel connected to all this? Rabbi Kook writes: "In Eretz Yisrael, the letters of our souls grow bigger; there they reveal shining light; they are nurtured with independent life from the light of life of Knesset Yisrael; they are directly influenced from the secret of their original creation" (See the commentary “Lights on Orot, Eretz Yisrael,” Chapter One”).
In simple language, Rabbi Kook is saying that if there were a Geiger counter which could measure the existence of Hebrew letters, it would start to crackle with a thunderous noise the moment it approached the borders of Israel. For Eretz Yisrael is the land of GIGANTIC 3-D LETTERS. It is the Land of indigenous ALEFS and BETS. Like the giants which the Spies encountered in Hevron, and the gigantic fruit they found in the Land, the ALPHABET of Eretz Yisrael dwarfs the Lilliputian alphabet of Galut. The letters thrive in the air of Israel and draw body-building nutrients from its holy soil. In contrast, the letters of Chutz L'Aretz are stunted, like plants grown outside of their natural climate.
When a Jew makes Aliyah to Eretz Yisrael, the letters of his soul shift into high gear and multiply in size. All of his being gets bigger. He grows closer to G-d. Compared to the person he was in Galut, he becomes larger than life. He transforms into a giant, filled with greater valor, greater holiness, greater happiness and wisdom.
What is the secret of this change? IN ERETZ YISRAEL, OUR LETTERS, LIKE OUR SOULS, BECOME THE GIGANTIC LETTERS OF CLAL YISRAEL. They are no longer small, private, individual letters – THEY MULTIPLY AND MULTIPLY THROUGH THEIR UNION WITH KNESSET YISRAEL. IN THE LAND OF CLAL YISRAEL, OUR LETTERS MERGE WITH THE MEGA-SOUL OF THE ENTIRE NATION.
In his connection to the nation, the Oleh to Israel becomes a more complete Jew. He becomes a co-builder of the Jewish nation. He becomes a soldier in the Israeli Defense Force, in the army of G-d. He speaks the language of his Forefathers. He becomes independent in his own Jewish Land. His aspirations are filled with idealism. He becomes an architect of history, an active partner in Israel’s mission. His outlook and psyche are exponentially expanded by his new identification with the national aspiration and will.
Because he is living in Israel, his whole life is a mitzvah. A mitzvah which is equal in weight to all of the mitzvot of the Torah. Divine life flows and flows into his being through the infinite channel of his new mitzvah life. His house is a mitzvah, his job is a mitzvah, every step which he takes in the Holy Land is a mitzvah, every four cubits earns him a greater share in the world to come. Every holy breath he takes fills him with holy life. Letters and letters of Torah pour into his soul.
HaRav Tzvi Yehuda told the visiting students that the new souls which they had received upon coming to Israel enabled them to understand this exalted metaphysical teaching. He said that their yearning to live permanently in the Land of Israel made the letters of their soul even bigger. With a happy smile he told them that they could all grow much more in their learning of Torah if they made Aliyah to the Land of GIANT LETTERS, GIANT MITZVOT, and GIANT JEWS. By adding their letters to the Nation in Israel they would contribute to the physical and spiritual rebuilding of Am Yisrael, furthering the complete Redemption of Israel, may it be soon.