16 October 2025 · A sentence from the teachings of Rav Kook
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Parashat Bereshit
„The sin of the first man, that he estranged himself from his own selfhood, that he turned to the opinion of the serpent, and lost himself; he did not know how to give a clear answer to the question 'Where are you?' because he did not know his own soul, because his true selfhood had been lost to him in the sin of bowing to a foreign god.”From 'Bakashat HaAni HaAtzmi'
The sin of the first man, which appears in this week's portion, stems from the fact that the human being did not know himself. The basis of all life's work, of every success, is our ability to believe in ourselves. To know how to say where we stand in the world being built around us and what our relation is to our surroundings. Only when a person manages to answer the question 'Where are you?' with 'Here I am,' do the processes of building begin. When we lose ourselves, through turning to places opposed to our soul, we cannot be part of the building of the world.
From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.