„When one goes out from the world of the holy to the mundane, or the r…”
„When one goes out from the world of the holy to the mundane, or the reverse, without gradation, there befalls the soul what befalls the body and its senses when they go from one extreme to the other, from darkness to light, from heat to cold — pain, and sometimes even harm. There are two protections against this harm: either to arrange the departure gradually, from a higher holiness to a holiness lower than it, and so on, until one comes to the content of the mundane — this is the measure of every person. But there is yet a higher level, which is the raising of all the mundane, in its entirety, up to the holy. This is the measure of the most excellent of the righteous, and the measure destined for the world in its exalted future: on that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses "Holy to the Lord."”From Shemonah Kevatzim 4:39
When does a person catch cold and become ill? When he goes out from a very cold place to a hot one or the reverse — an extreme change of climate causes a person to become ill.
Just as this is true of a person's physical reaction, so it is true of a person's spiritual reaction. We must know that extreme changes are liable to cause illness and pain. Thus, for example, the departure of the Sabbath: when the transition is extreme to a world of the mundane, a person can be steeped in sorrow and great distress.
This is also true of the renewed studies and of a person's life in general. Tomorrow, God willing, studies begin in the high schools, and the sharp transition of very many students from a low world of the mundane to a world of holiness is a difficult transition full of pains.
So what does one do? Two possibilities: the first is a bedieved (after-the-fact) option, which we will do at the first stage, and the second is a lechatchilah (ideal) option, a lofty option that can raise our lives to a higher place.
At the first stage we must enter gradually, not to pass from a world of complete holiness to a world of complete mundaneness, and likewise the reverse, but to do so gradually, step by step. For this purpose we now have the month of Elul, which allows us to do repentance, to step step by step in the way of God and not to make leaps that are liable to cause us harm.
At the second stage we must raise the world of the mundane so that it will not contradict the world of holiness, and so that it will draw from it. When we live in such a way, there will be no contradiction between the mundane and the holy, but rather a completion.
I wish great success to all the students returning this week to the school bench, and to all the House of Israel.
A good and blessed week!
For the elevation of the soul of Elinor bat Aliza.
From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.