Mishpetei HaRav Kook / Clarity That Creates Repair
„Repentance comes after understanding, when one strengthens the recognition of the good, which comes in its fullness together with the recognition of evil.”From Shemonah Kevatzim I, 127
True repair does not begin from a feeling of guilt, but from understanding. From deep contemplation in which a person once again recognizes the good in his life, the inner place where he is connected to reality. But for the recognition of the good to be complete, he must also know the evil, to see it in its full reality, to understand its power and its limit. Only from an honest knowledge of both sides does the whole picture become clear, and a person learns to distinguish between what leads to a good life and what distances him from it. Thus the statement fits within the whole passage: sin is not the result of evil, but of weakness. When the soul is weakened, both the will and the knowledge become blurred, and a person loses his ability to discern the good. Repentance comes to restore this ability: to strengthen the will, to illuminate the knowledge, and to return to a person his freedom to choose the good of his own will. This is the repair of the soul, and the repair of the whole world.
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From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.