The Teachings of Rav Kook: Seeing God in Reality – A Unified Vision of the World

The Nazir, one of Rav Kook’s most dedicated students, writes that the world which appears before us is an external world, a world of bodies and of matter – A world of Chol, secular knowledge, and darkness. But beyond the external façade, Divine Holiness is hidden, beyond the darkness a great light, beyond the matter a lofty spirit . This hidden world, unseen by our eyes, we are commanded to reveal. Levels of exposure to see real reality opposed to fragmented view. Israel is the place where everything comes together , the Prism through which the One Pure Light comes in and is then fragmented to the rest of the world in many colors perceived to all be individual. The unified light is waiting to be revealed by Hashem. There is a distinct difference between the two tractates of the Talmud: The Babylonian Talmud is mainly comprised of pilpulim, back and forth argumentative style of commentary. On the other hand, the Yerushalmi, Jerusalem Talmud, is a more collective discussion of the greater picture and more holistic understanding of the tradition. The Babylonian focuses on the process and the finer details sometimes without remembering that the reason for all the fine details is to appreciate the larger picture where as in the Yerushalmi the bigger picture is the topic of discussion and the smaller details are secondary. Regarding the “Darkness” outside of Israel — Bavli was a surrogate for the Yerushalmi, the exile is all of negation, rather than focusing on the concept of the wholeness of Israel. Being in the dark, a blind person is and has to be more sensitive to his surroundings due to the darkness which is a benefit that comes out of a constriciton/limitless. As appose to the the shefa of Divine Presence, the Shchina, in israel where the bigger picture is the focus due to more awareness and clarity. Shla haKadosh – talmidim learn more of the collective light, vs going back and forth since the discussion is one of clarity (lights on ) Sulam Yaakov made Yaakov realise where exactly he was in the world, that Har HaBeit is really shaar shamiim Midrash Tehilim 105 -If you wish to hear the schina learn torah in eretz israel The air in israel makes one wise, therefore the Yerushalmi Talmud is written on a higher level than the Talmud Bavli. The more holistic spiritual approach can only come from the Talmud in Eretz Israel. Bavli is to work toward redemption – exile was in order to gather lost sparks.. If we wouldve been good we would have had a super magnet pulling in these lost sparks, since it didn’t work out like that we had to go actively collect them .. Fractured view of galut that leads to unity, w/o details you dont pay attention to what matters Am Israel in galut all had different customs and tradition so we see everyone coming home now, why do we still have this fragmentation? Why is there still so much hilukei deot? It is similar to an orchestra during practice, the strings are alone practicing strings, the drummers with drums etc, when they make it to the hall together for the first time there is balagan, theyre not used to playing with others and their different sounds. ONLY when the conductor(meshiah( comes into the Hall to conduct and reveal the true harmony and synchronise all the different sounds together only then is the Pure sound/light/essence revealed . Divine is beyond the world, more than the limits we have Connection to Gd is limitless and endless, not finite like pleasures we go after in this world. You can keep growing and growing and getting more and more of this shefa since it is infinite and beyond the limitations, that’s why our duty to learn and reveal this unified vision wont ever be finished in this world, there is always more light to bring down. Siman vs Intuition (Tviut Ayin( in edut Siman can be passed from person to person but there is always doubt where as tviut ayin you KNOW the truth and there is no doubts even if all the simanim are not concrete Top of mountain you see much clearer, Jerusalem is that pisga R’ Zeira the enviroment in Israel made him realise in order to appreciate and learn again with this new outlook he needed to fast to forget the ways of bavel not necessarily the teachings but how to achieve the same knowledge in a more pure and refined way.. Not in the ways of Abaye and Raba negating.. White light is Israel, the light that goes into the prism. Prophecy is only here in the land or for it/ has to be started here Groping [fine details] is the way of attaining knowledge in Hul like blind people vs the Divine Assistence in the land Darkness takes away unity. We are all fragmented parts of the ONE. To summarize – Rebbe Nachman from Breslav in Likutey Moharan says that in order to reach a higher level you must forget previous reasoning . In order to get to the concepts of the Talmud Yerushalmi, we needed to go through the back-and-forth pilpul style of the Talmud Bavli. In order to achieve the unified spiritual cognition, we need to first go through the Halachic, more fragmented approach.