Despair and Hope
„At the very time when a person senses within himself the depth of his lowliness, and his imaginative faculty and the consensus of his intellect depict him as being lower than all creatures literally, then the whole world is sustained upon him, and in his elevation all creatures are elevated.”From Shemonah Kevatzim V, 89
Despair is one of the causes of total deterioration. A kind of understanding that we are in such a terrible place that there is no chance the world will forgive us. Rav Kook looks at this situation the opposite way. In the moment when we feel at the height of lowliness, the moment of growth begins. It is a moment in which we understand deeply the disgrace of evil, and there is within us the real need to make and to bring about change. A change that will lift us up, but together with us it will lift the whole world to a better place. Do you feel you are in a terrible place? Do you have a sense that you cannot go on like this? You are in the best possible state for a new beginning. For hope.
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From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.