„The world is full of sorrow, and what does it grieve over? Because th…”
„The world is full of sorrow, and what does it grieve over? Because there is in the inner soul of a person such greatness and loftiness that the world does not yet befit it at present, since he draws his greatness, the greatness of his soul, from a world very distant and lofty, from a place full of glory, and from a rich, radiant future. Were it not for this greatness, sorrow would have no place. And the wise one who discerns the source—from where the sorrow comes, how important and precious is the source of the life of this sorrow—immediately the sorrow itself is transformed for him into delight, and the affliction into pleasure.”From Shemonah Kevatzim, I, 329
One hundred years ago Rav Kook taught us that we must transform affliction into delight.
Our world is full of sorrow, but this sorrow has a positive cause. We all have aspirations. When we want to reach something that appears possible in our eyes and do not succeed, we grieve. The thought that we are capable comes from a very deep place in each and every one of us.
A person, when he is born after nine months of gestation, comes into the world complete with infinite knowledge—'they teach him the entire Torah... and when he comes into the air of the world, an angel comes and strikes him on his mouth and makes him forget the entire Torah' (Niddah 30b). This infinite knowledge is seemingly superfluous. What benefit is there for us to know so much, and why, after gathering this amazing knowledge, does an angel come and destroy everything??
The answer is that our ability to rectify the world has its source in our aspirations, and even in our sorrow. When we understand the depth of the matter, the sorrow can turn into joy, and the affliction, by a rearranging of its letters, is delight.
Delight not because it is good for us to be in a state of lack, but delight because we understand that our ability to advance from the hard situation has grown, on account of the ability to learn from the situation—to learn from the affliction and to transform it into delight.
A good and blessed week
For the recovery of the world.
From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.