Parashat Eikev
„The constant holiness... guards the sanctity of life from stumbling through the power of the inclinations that lower the worth of the human being, the attachment to the nature of life and the flesh, and by its influence it sanctifies all of established life.”From Olat Re'iyah I, 125
The very lives of all of us are built of the day-to-day, and not of the extreme moments. And so too is holiness. We all experience elevations and peak moments, but what truly sanctifies life and builds it is not the rare moments but the constancy and the everyday. This is 'the constant holiness,' a deep force that sanctifies the very substance of life, the constancy and the gray of routine, and elevates them 'without cease, level after level, in a straight line.' It is a holiness found in the details of the commandments, in the small things that a person tramples with his heels, as this week's portion teaches us. And this is also the great goal of the Land of Israel. A holiness that is part of nature, part of life.
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From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.