Parashat Korach
„The cry of 'the entire congregation are all holy and the Lord is in their midst' was a cry that mocked all the content of holiness and all the loftiness and inner preparation.”From Orot HaKodesh III, p. 284
Korach and his assembly wrapped themselves in lofty slogans, but in essence they sought to nullify the essence of holiness. They did not demand sanctification, but a false equality that abolishes the distinction between secular and sacred and allows everyone to claim that he is already there, without passing through the way. Rav Kook warns against a conception of spirituality that skips over the foundations of holiness. Just as a person may not intervene in medicine or the sciences without years of toil and without knowledge, so and even more so, one who engages in the sacred must be both full of knowledge and a person who fits his values and his daily deeds to the holy spirit and to the commandments of God. One cannot touch the sacred with sullied hands. The 'sacred' is not a costume, and it is not an automatic title. It is a whole way of life, full of responsibility, toil, and purity.
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From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.