Rav Kook on: "It's Best to be Normal People"

Ein Aya, Shabbat 2, 239

We find various rabbis in rabbinic literature who built their spirituality through fasting and depriving themselves of physical pleasure. Rav Kook explains that this is like "shock treatment" or bitter medicine, which healthy people don't need. In Torat Eretz Yisrael, the Living Torah most applicable to the modern world, the approach of unity is to reveal the harmony between the physical and spiritual worlds. In Israel, where even the physical is spiritual and the atmosphere is Jewish, it's much more conducive to living a life of modern orthodoxy without the dangers of losing our proportions, priorities or getting influenced by western society. Accordingly Rav Kook explains the machloket between Rava & Abaye in Masechet Shabbat.

So What’s the Goal of Life?!!

We all know that if you don't have a goal, you can't score! We all have many goals, but is there one which encompasses and is the common denominator of them all? Such a definition will prevent us from feeling torn between the many goals and roles we have. One theory is that the goal of life is pleasure, which is the common denominator of all people. On the other hand, all those people also have an ideal for which they are willing to forego all of their pleasure, inferring that ideals supersede pleasure! The class suggests that these 2 theories are 1 and the same, for we all want pleasure, but ideals are not 3rd class (short-term) pleasure, nor 2nd class (long-term) pleasure, but rather 1st class, eternal pleasure.

Life Always Interferes

Hospitality

Writing under influence of Shabbat

What is the basic obligation and purpose of living? Why are we here and what are we supposed to do with our existence on earth?

Do I Have to Tell the Truth?

The great importance of speaking the truth and only the truth. There are a few cases when one may not tell the truth...

Letting Emotions Flow

Some believe that putting the intellect in charge means suffocating the emotions and limiting their flow. The opposite is true. The intellect's job is to allow emotions to flow freely, while at the same time directing them into the correct channels.

To See Through Eyes of Sanctity

Look at the world through “eyes of sanctity,” with a point of view which strives to see the Divinity therein. Only the openness of a Torah point of view allows for true openness. Any other kind of openness will spell a divorce of man from himself.

Choosing a Place of Prayer

Abraham used to establish a fixed place for prayer. A fixed place of prayer creates a firm bond between the worshiper and his prayer. It transforms the supplicant's worship into a firm foundation and unchanging element in the structure of his life.

"And Zion said, 'God Has Abandoned Me!'"

It is forbidden to use arrogance in a contemptuous manner, placing oneself above others, yet there are certain situations in which one has to be bold, not reserved, and to know one's self-worth. Our sages teach that in the generation of the messiah chutzpah will abound.

In Order to Elevate You've got to Descend

The task of the Torah is to repair all. To plunge to the depths in order to elevate even the lowest of the low