29 August 2024 · A sentence from the teachings of Rav Kook

Parashat Re'eh

„The idolatrous person is afraid of the great faith in God... he thinks that he will be swallowed up entirely and vanish in this great fire of infinite exaltation, and he flees into the clefts of the rocks, of material desires, of the wasting of times in revelry, and of all the affairs of life, needed and unneeded, in order to hide from the great light of the divine exaltation that blinds his eyes. But all his flight will not avail. The all-filling light penetrates.”From Shemonah Kevatzim I, 243

Faith is a frightening thing. Not for nothing does the world wish to flee from it, to abase and to blur it. This is a constant war of evil against good. This week's parashah is Parashat "Re'eh," and within it lies, in all its splendor and its strength, the choice we hold in our hands at every given moment between good and evil, between a life of meaning and eternity and a life of empty revelry.

Faith brings us out into the light, and it will indeed prevail, if only we flee from the fear and choose the good at every moment.

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From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.