Simplicity and Innocence

A child knows that one does not lie. That one who has been hurt must be comforted. That good friendship is worth more than winning an argument. That one must not rejoice when another person falls. Before we learn to justify, to explain, and to complicate, there is within us a simple compass that knows how to distinguish between straight and crooked. Over the years we become more sophisticated, learning to get by and to adapt ourselves to the world, but often we become corrupted and entangled. Rav Kook teaches a novel idea: that the world will be redeemed when the simple foundations, whose truth the upright heart feels, return to be the basis upon which life is built.