Do Not Be Haughty

Sometimes, when we want to succeed and advance, we have a picture in our heads of how we would like to be, perfect. The problem begins when we make this goal the only one, and then the path becomes unbearably hard, if I did not reach the goal, I did not succeed. And then two things happen in parallel: on the one hand there is no inner reinforcement for real progress, and on the other hand every stumbling block is experienced as a total failure. Rav Kook identifies here a dangerous psychological mechanism: the desire to already be a "completely righteous person" sabotages the ability to return, to advance, and to be built up gradually. Rav Kook suggests that we be not righteous ones but penitents. That our life stance rejoice in progress, that the will be the next step, and then the one after it... that the fall give us the courage to rise and continue. That we take pleasure in the very fact that we have advanced.

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