The third of Elul, 5763 [Sunday - ed. note] will mark sixty-eight years since the pure soul of that great lover of Israel, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, of blessed memory, ascended to heaven.
Rabbi Kook was expressing his enormous love for his people when he wrote:
?Listen my people! I address you from the depths of my soul? from the living link by which I am connected to all of you and all of you are connected to me? You alone, all of you alone? you alone form the content of my life. It is through you that I live? Without you I have nothing? I must love you with an infinite love? Every single one of you, every individual soul from amongst you, is an enormous, important spark in the torch of eternal light that illuminates for me the light of life. You imbue content in my life, my work, my Torah, my prayer, my song, my hope? Through you I sense everything and love everything?
?On the wings of your affection I soar aloft towards the love of G-d? Through your eternity I attain eternal life? The pain in your souls fills me with sorrow? Your land, the land of your hope, is holy to me?? (Orot HaRe?iyah, 54)
Of Rabbi Kook, his disciple Rabbi David HaKohen, ?the Nazir?, had this to say: ?His whole life was dedicated to the public. Likewise, his Torah, in both its origins and its aims, was dedicated to the public.? (Orot HaKodesh, 1)
And Rabbi Kook also said, ?We want to elevate everything, the whole world, all its creatures, every soul.? (Orot HaKodesh)
Today, the more we march forward along the difficult, tangled path towards the complete redemption, the more we discover how much the loving universal soul of Rabbi Kook is continuing to sparkle and to illuminate the generations that follow his own. His words, ?I am building the nation,? which were uttered out of a sense of great responsibility as a faithful, loving shepherd to the nation rising to rebirth amidst enormous tribulations, are increasingly being fulfilled before our very eyes. Many, many Jews are studying and uncovering his sweet light. The day is not far off when his loving soul will illuminate the whole house of Israel.
Through that illumination, may we all merit together for a new light to shine over Zion.
Rabbi Kook was expressing his enormous love for his people when he wrote:
?Listen my people! I address you from the depths of my soul? from the living link by which I am connected to all of you and all of you are connected to me? You alone, all of you alone? you alone form the content of my life. It is through you that I live? Without you I have nothing? I must love you with an infinite love? Every single one of you, every individual soul from amongst you, is an enormous, important spark in the torch of eternal light that illuminates for me the light of life. You imbue content in my life, my work, my Torah, my prayer, my song, my hope? Through you I sense everything and love everything?
?On the wings of your affection I soar aloft towards the love of G-d? Through your eternity I attain eternal life? The pain in your souls fills me with sorrow? Your land, the land of your hope, is holy to me?? (Orot HaRe?iyah, 54)
Of Rabbi Kook, his disciple Rabbi David HaKohen, ?the Nazir?, had this to say: ?His whole life was dedicated to the public. Likewise, his Torah, in both its origins and its aims, was dedicated to the public.? (Orot HaKodesh, 1)
And Rabbi Kook also said, ?We want to elevate everything, the whole world, all its creatures, every soul.? (Orot HaKodesh)
Today, the more we march forward along the difficult, tangled path towards the complete redemption, the more we discover how much the loving universal soul of Rabbi Kook is continuing to sparkle and to illuminate the generations that follow his own. His words, ?I am building the nation,? which were uttered out of a sense of great responsibility as a faithful, loving shepherd to the nation rising to rebirth amidst enormous tribulations, are increasingly being fulfilled before our very eyes. Many, many Jews are studying and uncovering his sweet light. The day is not far off when his loving soul will illuminate the whole house of Israel.
Through that illumination, may we all merit together for a new light to shine over Zion.