Brokenness and Hope

This time we are dealing with part of a poem. The period is the First World War; Rav Kook is stranded abroad and comes to London to serve as a community rabbi. Toward the end of this period he also falls ill and requires surgery. We do not know with certainty exactly when the poem was written, but it is hard to read it without hearing in the background a body growing weaker, and perhaps also a soul bearing upon it all the torments of the time. The violin is set aside. Weariness overwhelms, but it does not lead to shattering the violin. 'I still see brokenness,' but within it too 'hope shines.' The healing still 'stands behind my wall,' but it is already near. From this period of crisis that Rav Kook describes, we too learn the need not to shatter. At times it is right to stop for a moment, but always to connect to the hope that will lift us to the next stage.