Part of Something Great
„Even when the body is broken and shattered, and the soul is terrified and wounded with many pains, spiritual and physical, the spiritual pleasantness does not cease to give its honey and the sweetness of its abundance, which calms and grants inner delight to the soul even within its darkness.”
A person who is truly in pain knows this from within: pain narrows consciousness to the here and now: to the aching body, to fear, to distress. Until life itself seems a burden without meaning. Rav Kook recognizes that in such a state there is one thing that can prevent inner collapse - a sense of belonging to something greater than the pain itself. "The spiritual pleasantness" is the understanding that our lives are connected to meaning, to a direction, to a good that continues to act even when we do not feel it. Therefore the bond to Torah and mitzvot calms, and the world of the spirit calms, because it restores to a person a sense of ground: I am part of an immense chain, of something great and vast. And this belonging is the sweetness that enables and grants strength.
*
From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.