When One Sees Only Evil

This post concludes the series drawn from Rav Kook's great essay, “LeMahalach HaIde'ot BeYisrael” (“The Development of Ideas in Israel”). After we presented the inner connection as the deep force of life within a person, and then the need for a connection between the practical and the spiritual in all that concerns nation and state, we now arrive at the profound warning that lies at the heart of the essay: what happens when this connection is torn. When the spirit is separated from life, when religion loses its soul, and when nationalism becomes a hollow shell, something deep breaks. The joy of life is replaced by cynicism, and the pleasantness of existence by inner gloom. Every good thing is interpreted as suspect, and every display of trust seems a deception. A person becomes his own enemy. The eye sees only evil. Rav Kook offers a different way. A life that has soul, a life connected to the depth of Judaism, whose essence is the joining of heaven and earth.

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