Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
„Through toil and intellectual labor, a person rises to lofty traits, becoming inclined toward the intellect and toward all holy matters with love and desire of heart, and the study acts upon him to become wholly devoted and given over to his studies.”From Ein Ayah, Berachot 9, 344
'In whom do you find the butter of Torah? In one who spits up the milk he nursed from his mother's breasts over it.' In recent years there is a growing trend whose essence is to make things easier for learners. To lower, to narrow, to concede. Rav Kook explains that toil has an immense place, and this path is an important principle in our development. The difficulty creates an additional level of will, experience, and depth of understanding. This is not a quantitative achievement of one more line of study, but a qualitative achievement that changes the soul of the person by the very effort involved. 'If you walk in My statutes,' in the words of Rashi – 'that you toil in the Torah'! And this is true of every spiritual and physical labor that builds us.
From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.