27 May 2025 · A sentence from the teachings of Rav Kook

Destructiveness

„And when all the means are insufficient to contain its fury, it concludes with absolute heresy, in order to remove from the pained soul, consumed by rot, the sting of envy.”From Shemonah Kevatzim, I 129

Sometimes heresy is born out of pain, a desire to attain something greater than the measure of flesh and blood, and the disappointment and envy that follow failure. Rav Kook exposes here a deep and hidden layer – envy of God. The envy of one who yearns for infinite perfection, yet exists in a limited body and a limited world. When the soul cannot contain the gap between the longing and reality, it sinks into despair, and then come the breaking and the fury. And so, when the path to wholeness is difficult to the point of impossibility, there are those who prefer to “burn down the club” – in an utterance of despair, that if they cannot be part of it, let it all burn.

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