* The Constant Anticipation of the Great of Soul
--By Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook

* Patience (Conclusion)
--By Avraham Stern

* The Bowl of Golden Fruit
--By Yaacov Dovid Shulman

* Regret
--By Rabbi Nachman of Breslov

It is necessary to develop that which is closed and hidden. The hidden light must send forth the rays of its light in order to bring life to those who are lowly in spirit.

It is impossible to remain in the terrible constricted state in which the world finds itself. However, not even the most supernal longings may skip any level. [They must go through everything, for] everything must be enhanced through them and by them. When we wish to rectify everything, when we wish to improve the soul of all existence, to refine the very highest of the high, then we must rectify all human qualities. We must perfect the life of the individual and the life of the community, using the appropriate means.

A straight mind, Torah, the light of divine manifestation, the vision within holiness, the purity of the Holy of Holies, the emanated image (drawing sustenance from the very primal heavens): all these will help to perfect and rectify, to scatter the darkening clouds, to circumcise the foreskin of every heart and all flesh, to broaden the boundary of knowledge and intelligence, to free the spirit from all chains of foolishness and evil, to lift everything small and lowly by means of idea and desire, by means of awareness and natural tendency, to the height of abundance of what is great and high, to the heights that transcend every name and label, to a total elevation in the presence of whose brilliance all radiance and all brilliance are dulled.

For every most supernal goal, we must use all means and combine all paths, matching them to each other so that every path will add to the other might and life: expertise and craft, power and strength, song and beauty, prayer and Torah, talent for business and Godly service and true strength, love and full kindness, and the force of a spirit filled with strength, clarity of mind and a broad, rich, analytical power and a simple heart--with supernal faith, with a treasury of force and vigor, in the treasury of goodness and its source and the elevated aspect of all being. All labels, all sparks, everything integrated and everything in order, everything individually emphasized and everything in harmony, everything in vision and in potential, and everything in actuality and true sovereignty, in the full understanding of existence and being, everything together: the Almighty unites them together.

This, and more than this, is the constant anticipation of the great of soul. Arpelei Tohar, pp. 3-4

[R. Israel of Rizhin continued explaining why the son of the Yeshuos Yaacov died and why he himself was imprisoned.]

When the Yeshuos Yaacov reflected that, [unlike me,] his father had never received such an honor [of being allowed to lead his own private minyan], he grew very upset. And so, as an important member of the Lemberg town committee, he persuaded the committee to issue a proclamation forbidding me from organizing my own minyan in my lodgings.

I spent the holiday of Shavuos in Lemberg. And I ask you, a Jew such as you: if you had your own Torah scroll, yet were not given permission--on the holiday of receiving the Torah--to read from that Torah scroll and to pray, wouldn't that bother you? But believe, that did not even begin to upset me.

When my medical treatment came to an end, my followers requested that I go to the Yeshuos Yaacov as a gesture of respect. They said that since he was a misnaged, if I did not do so, he would persecute them after I left. I lit my pipe and set out. As I was climbing the stairs of the Yeshuos Yaacov's house, his son came out to greet me. When he saw that I was smoking, he said in an irritated, loud voice: "It is utterly disrespectful to come to my father smoking a pipe."

My followers [who were accompanying me] told him, "When our rebbe visited the Apter rabbi, [the Oheiv Yisroel], he smoked a pipe then as well." To this, the Yeshuos Yaacov's son responded, "How can you compare a little rebbele of Kalbisov to my father, the Yeshuos Yaacov, the rabbi of Lemberg?" (The Apter rabbi was first rabbi in Kalbisov--then in Apt, afterwards in Yass, and finally in Mezhibozh.) It was this [statement of the Yeshuos Yaacov's son] that harmed him [and caused his death].

As for my imprisonment, I will tell you a secret--and this will also be the sign that you will bring to my mother [to prove that you spoke with me personally]..

Before my wife conceived my youngest son, R. Mordechai Shraga (who later served as the first rebbe of Husyatin), I went to my mother to ask her advice. I told her, "Mama, there is a soul that has not come down to this world for over eight hundred years. But now it has been decreed that it must do so. This soul will enrich the world spiritually and physically with its mighty service of God. But it was also decreed that the tzaddik who wants this soul to be his child will have to agree to spend a period of time in jail. And so, I would like you to advise me what to do." My mother answered me, "What will a father not do for his children?" And that is why I am now in jail.

Later on, when this Hasid delivered Rabbi Israel's message to his mother, she recalled that episode, and she thanked the Hasid.

As for Rabbi Israel's imprisonment, it came to an end in the following manner. Rabbi Meir'l of Premishlan promised a smuggler the world-to-come if, after Rabbi Israel escaped from jail, he would carry Rabbi Israel on his back across the frozen river separating Russia from Austria. [This plan worked out.] And after coming to Austria, Rabbi Israel finally settled in Sadigura.

Chasidishe Maasiyos

Before the sun caressed the moon,
The moon was, in her own way, traveling,
Spilling from each silver dune

Silver traces of the lunar
Longing, streamers sparkling on the velvet folds,
Silver bow of a star-shearing schooner.

Our globe was rolling, glowing blue
In spaces of the night, of dancing
Asteroids beneath their canopies of heavenly bamboo.

The sun was but a latecomer
When moon, earth, night, were whispering,
Trembling from their spring to yellow summer.

Mars was turning red then, Saturn aquamarine.
Beneath the strands of colored hair of the Horsehead Nebulae,
Jupiter floated like a time-slowed tangerine.

They sought one goodness then, from whom
They, these signs of heaven, in their slow,
Majestic sailing, could find their glow. They sought one bloom

That, from the slow, the timeless start
Of galactic cycles, explosions of flower-universes,
Could warm their airless expanse with its slow-beating heart.

They sought a goodness breathing on the breathless place
Who promised, with the caring of her art,
To soothe all troubles, to shadow them from all disgrace,

A presence presaged by the silver flute,
Who wrapped the quilt of care about the tired stars,
Who bore the bowl of golden fruit,

Who brought the gift of love to every brash aurora,
Whose white-hemmed dress would dust the trusting Milky Way,
Whose presence lent the golden light to tin samsara.

Without her, crags of lonely ice would forever roam,
The melting slags of Mercury would ceaselessly weep,
The wandering comets with their wild-blown hair, without a home,

Would only know an exile at the bone.
You gave these stars a memory of warmth,
This earth you gave a lilt, a gigue, a flowing tone,

This space you gave, within the freezing night,
Within the straying strands of rings and spinning discs,
A ray of warmth within the frozen light.

Wicked people are full of regret. But they have no idea what regret is.

The very fact that they act even more evil is itself regret. Because they have feelings of regret, they respond by acting yet more evil. This is like two men who are struggling with each other. When one sees that the other one is gaining over him, he summons up yet more strength to fight back. In the exact same way, when evil sees that some good is awakening in those people, it grows stronger.

Sichot Haran 10

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