Returning to the Root
„And at times, when the soul is weary from the multitude of branches, it is compelled to grasp hold of the root at its source, and its strength is renewed.”From Shemonah Kevatzim III, 252
Life fills up with branches. Tasks, goals, and people we wish to be there for. Every branch can be important and good, and yet the soul grows weary from the multitude of branches, because it is easy to get lost within all that they demand of us. In such a state one does not always need to add something more to life. One needs to return to the root. To family, to faith, to prayer, to quiet, to nature, to the people and places that remind us who we are. Returning to the root is not an escape from the world. Rav Kook describes how the soul afterward returns to the branches 'with a new face,' and is even able to bring forth things it could not bring forth before. A vacation can be a time of more entertainment and more motion. It can also be an opportunity to remember what holds all that motion together. To return to the root.
From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.