„In a small world, everything within it is small... The one who always…”
„In a small world, everything within it is small... The one who always looks toward great contents will feel a shortness of spirit as he sinks into the straits of smallness, and he has no remedy... except to look also at the root of the reality of all the small creations, and then he will see them in their greatness.”From Shemonah Kevatzim, V, 280
When one is in an environment of small-mindedness (katnut mochin), one may be in a constant state that arouses a difficult feeling of an inability to grow. Whoever aspires to truth, to growth, to greatness, will find himself dealing again and again with smallness. The counsel the Rav brings is truly fascinating - to look at the root of the smallness. At the root of the gray routine, at the root of the ordinary, everyday creations. Looking at the root removes the grayness that envelops us, because from the root great and immense structures can also grow, a great truth and goodness.
I think this passage should be studied especially by students during exam periods, or by people who are at a gray stage in life. To know that there is such a time when a thread of smallness envelops everything, and the way to fight it is the understanding of the root of things. A deeper way of looking that understands that beneath the gray, everyday covering there is something enormous that grows great and colorful life; to know and understand that the root of the gray before us now, and of the colorful that we desire, is the same root, and to aspire to advance further while understanding the need also for the gray routine.
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From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.