Here and Now
„When a person wants... that all the practical flaws be straightened out at once and perfected in absolute rectification, he will find no standing place for his soul.”From Shemonah Kevatzim I 299
The desire to be sanctified all at once, to be whole immediately, wholly rectified without process, sounds very perfectionistic and ambitious, but in practice it paralyzes the person, because it creates an unbearable gap between the longed-for complete rectification and the practical life that cannot be overturned in an instant. When a person demands of himself that all weaknesses vanish immediately, he loses his inner grip; the soul has no place to stand, there is no stable rung, and there is no possibility of building a sustained will. The path to deep repentance and deep change is gradual. This is a profound Torah and psychological insight: the demand for absolute purity as a condition for advancement not only fails to advance us, but sets us back. We must continue to walk with the inner truth that our soul demands, knowing that true rectification is built out of movement, gradualness, and labor.
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From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.