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Translation (Orot haTeshuva, Perek 14): [1]

Sometimes a person’s spirit falls into a state of smallness, and he does not find any satisfaction within himself. This feeling is due to the paucity of his good deeds, the quantity of his sins, insufficient diligence in Torah study.

Such a person must exert himself in the realm of thought. He must bear in the mind the teaching of the Zohar that “the thought of a person who understands one matter [via inference] from another is more valued by the Holy One, blessed be He, than all sacrifices and burnt offerings.” [2] This means that a person’s holy thought and supernal, mental visualizations possess all of the qualities of the sacrifices and all of the qualities of the physical acts of worship associated with them…

It is possible that many aspects of his descents come about because he has not properly appreciated the foundation of his thought. Therefore, [a person] should exert greater effort to understand with an inner understanding. [This is] because the rectification of the entire world and the healing of all people depend upon the foundation of thought. He should elevate his thought as much as he can and rise to teshuva out of out of inner love.

“Fortunate are the people who know the shofar blast (lit. teruah); G-d, they will walk in the light of Your countenance.” (Tehillim 89:161)

Commentary

A person realizes that he has not lived up to his dreams and expectations. He has performed few good deeds, learned little Torah, prayed inadequately, and failed to improve his personality traits. To the contrary, he has committed sins. Seeing no evidence of growth and improvement, he feels inadequate and believes that he has failed.

At first, he may hold onto his dreams — but that only makes him miserable, and sometimes those around him as well. Eventually, the discrepancy between his ideals and his reality grows so painful that he prefers to leave the world of deep thoughts and sink into the realm of smallness. He shrivels up and slips into a superficial way of thinking that he believes is appropriate for a person of few accomplishments. But that is just the opposite of what he should do — which is to maintain his great thoughts and aspirations.

A person must not allow himself to become small-minded. Rather, he must redouble his efforts to remain in the world of deep thought. There, he is free and can accomplish a tremendous amount. Even if he is not living properly, as long as he maintains his spiritual ambitions and insights into the nature of mitzvot and good deeds, he has the opportunity to improve. As the Zohar teaches, the thoughts of a Jew who does not settle for smallness, but rather lives in a realm of greatness, are more precious to G-d than all sacrifices and burnt offerings.

Now, we understand that holy thoughts are valuable, but what is the logic of comparing them with sacrifices? The two categories seem to lack any overlap that would allow us to place them on a spectrum and give the gold medal to holy thoughts. [3] The answer is that sacrifices are not an end of themselves, but a tool, a sacred technology for uplifting our consciousness and bringing us closer to G-d. Indeed, the very word קרבן derives from the root ק.ר.ב., literally ‘coming close.’ Sometimes, a person brings a sacrifice out of a voluntary desire to come close to G-d, [4] and sometimes he must bring it to repair the damage from some transgression or other spiritual failure. But the mere act of sacrificing an animal has no value unless it catalyzes an inner transformation. This is why many of the Nevi’im reacted furiously when ascribes were brought by their religiously and ethically corrupt contemporaries. In the words of Isaiah (1:11, 16-17), “Of what use are your many sacrifices to Me? says the Lord. I am sated with the burnt-offerings of rams and the fat of fattened cattle; and the blood of bulls and sheep and he-goats I do not want… Wash, cleanse yourselves, remove the evil of your deeds from before My eyes, cease to do evil. Learn to do good, seek justice, strengthen the robbed, perform justice for the orphan, plead the case of the widow.”

Although a superficial reading might suggest otherwise, the prophets are notmerely accusing the people of being hypocrites. [5] Nowhere in Nevi’im do we find the suggestion that keeping kosher, observing holidays or any other mitzvah is worthless if one is guilty of ethical failings! Evidently, korbanot generate a particularly pernicious type of religious hypocrisy. Someone who brings a korban despite leading a profane and unethical life has confused mistaken the means for the end. To quote another one of the prophets (Hoshea 6:6), “For I desire loving-kindness, and not sacrifices, and knowledge of G-d rather than burnt offerings.

Sometimes when a person has great and holy thoughts, various things prevent him from carrying them out. The source of that constraint may be external – his neighborhood, spouse, children, and the like – or internal. But even then G-d accepts his holy thoughts as offerings.…. even if a Jew’s practical life is in shambles, as long as he possesses holy thoughts, he can maintain himself in a place of greatness until miracles will yet occur.

If a person with a strong inclination to live in the realm of thought sees that he has not improved over the years, he may view his thoughts, ideals, dreams, and plans as feeble and insignificant. Not valuing them, he judges himself to be a small person with small deeds. He thus abandons his deep thoughts – and because his nature is to think, now he thinks deeply about foolish things. But this is the wrong approach. He must rather exert himself and receive counsel in order to continue giving credence to his large thoughts. It is true that he is having a hard time realizing them – nevertheless, they are authentic. As long as his deep thoughts remain important to him, he will be able to work them into his life and become a bigger person.

As a result of holding onto his good, true, and deep thoughts, a person is able to stay connected to holiness. Those thoughts bring about healing, salvation, and other rectifications. This is so even if this person does not always carry out his thoughts. Now, a person who is living a small life has a natural tendency to abandon his great thoughts, because of the gap between the two. But to the contrary, he should elevate the thoughts inner life until he attains a deep, powerful teshuvah from inner love.

Rav Kook concludes with a verse from Tehillim – “Fortunate are the people who know the shofar blast (lit. teruah); G-d, they will walk in the light of Your countenance.” How does this verse connect to the previous teaching? It seems that Rav Kook is picking up on the notion of “knowing” the shofar blast. The verse is referring to someone who at least knows and understands the depths associated with the teruah, even if at present he cannot actualize them by doing teshuvah. Such a person should not despair or abandon his lofty thoughts– on the contrary, he is “fortunate” and will “eventually walk in the light of G-d’s countenance.”

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

• How exactly are korbanot supposed to lead to G-d-consciousness?
• Rav Moshe Weinberger writes that “A person who is living a small life has a natural tendency to abandon his great thoughts, because of the gap between the two.” Could this (paradoxically) explain any of the ‘off the derech’ phenomenon?
• Does the written Torah present any laws about the korbanot that indicate the importance of thought in the process?[6]
• Are there any behaviors or characteristics that you think characterize someone who leads a small-minded life?
• Rav Kook writes that “the rectification of the entire world and the healing of all people depend upon the foundation of thought.” How exactly does this work? Is it a mystical/metaphysical process, or something that operates in a way we can comprehend?
• What should you do to promote or hold onto thoughts of greatness?
• Rav Kook draws a connection between holy thoughts, teshuva and the shofar, but doesn’t elaborate on how they relate together. What do you think he is getting at?

[1]The translation and commentary are largely excepted from R. Moshe Weinberger’s Song of Teshuva.

[2]Zohar, Nasso 121b.

[3]To use more formal terminology, these seem like nominal concepts instead of ordinal ones.

[4]R. Menachem Leibtag notes that Sefer Vayikra starts off with voluntary korbanot, as if to emphasize that sin and atonement is not the primary motif of sacrifices.

[5]A widespread misconception (outside the Torah world) is that the Prophets opposed the legalism of the Torah, and emphasized the value ethical conduct to the exclusion of mitzvah observance.

[6]Ok, so you had to cheat and look at the footnote. See Vayikra 5:5 and 7:18.

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Translation (Orot haTeshuva, Perek 14): [1]

Sometimes a person’s spirit falls into a state of smallness, and he does not find any satisfaction within himself. This feeling is due to the paucity of his good deeds, the quantity of his sins, insufficient diligence in Torah study.

Such a person must exert himself in the realm of thought. He must bear in the mind the teaching of the Zohar that “the thought of a person who understands one matter [via inference] from another is more valued by the Holy One, blessed be He, than all sacrifices and burnt offerings.” [2] This means that a person’s holy thought and supernal, mental visualizations possess all of the qualities of the sacrifices and all of the qualities of the physical acts of worship associated with them…

It is possible that many aspects of his descents come about because he has not properly appreciated the foundation of his thought. Therefore, [a person] should exert greater effort to understand with an inner understanding. [This is] because the rectification of the entire world and the healing of all people depend upon the foundation of thought. He should elevate his thought as much as he can and rise to teshuva out of out of inner love.

“Fortunate are the people who know the shofar blast (lit. teruah); G-d, they will walk in the light of Your countenance.” (Tehillim 89:161)

Commentary

A person realizes that he has not lived up to his dreams and expectations. He has performed few good deeds, learned little Torah, prayed inadequately, and failed to improve his personality traits. To the contrary, he has committed sins. Seeing no evidence of growth and improvement, he feels inadequate and believes that he has failed.

At first, he may hold onto his dreams — but that only makes him miserable, and sometimes those around him as well. Eventually, the discrepancy between his ideals and his reality grows so painful that he prefers to leave the world of deep thoughts and sink into the realm of smallness. He shrivels up and slips into a superficial way of thinking that he believes is appropriate for a person of few accomplishments. But that is just the opposite of what he should do — which is to maintain his great thoughts and aspirations.

A person must not allow himself to become small-minded. Rather, he must redouble his efforts to remain in the world of deep thought. There, he is free and can accomplish a tremendous amount. Even if he is not living properly, as long as he maintains his spiritual ambitions and insights into the nature of mitzvot and good deeds, he has the opportunity to improve. As the Zohar teaches, the thoughts of a Jew who does not settle for smallness, but rather lives in a realm of greatness, are more precious to G-d than all sacrifices and burnt offerings.

Now, we understand that holy thoughts are valuable, but what is the logic of comparing them with sacrifices? The two categories seem to lack any overlap that would allow us to place them on a spectrum and give the gold medal to holy thoughts. [3] The answer is that sacrifices are not an end of themselves, but a tool, a sacred technology for uplifting our consciousness and bringing us closer to G-d. Indeed, the very word קרבן derives from the root ק.ר.ב., literally ‘coming close.’ Sometimes, a person brings a sacrifice out of a voluntary desire to come close to G-d, [4] and sometimes he must bring it to repair the damage from some transgression or other spiritual failure. But the mere act of sacrificing an animal has no value unless it catalyzes an inner transformation. This is why many of the Nevi’im reacted furiously when ascribes were brought by their religiously and ethically corrupt contemporaries. In the words of Isaiah (1:11, 16-17), “Of what use are your many sacrifices to Me? says the Lord. I am sated with the burnt-offerings of rams and the fat of fattened cattle; and the blood of bulls and sheep and he-goats I do not want… Wash, cleanse yourselves, remove the evil of your deeds from before My eyes, cease to do evil. Learn to do good, seek justice, strengthen the robbed, perform justice for the orphan, plead the case of the widow.”

Although a superficial reading might suggest otherwise, the prophets are notmerely accusing the people of being hypocrites. [5] Nowhere in Nevi’im do we find the suggestion that keeping kosher, observing holidays or any other mitzvah is worthless if one is guilty of ethical failings! Evidently, korbanot generate a particularly pernicious type of religious hypocrisy. Someone who brings a korban despite leading a profane and unethical life has confused mistaken the means for the end. To quote another one of the prophets (Hoshea 6:6), “For I desire loving-kindness, and not sacrifices, and knowledge of G-d rather than burnt offerings.

Sometimes when a person has great and holy thoughts, various things prevent him from carrying them out. The source of that constraint may be external – his neighborhood, spouse, children, and the like – or internal. But even then G-d accepts his holy thoughts as offerings.…. even if a Jew’s practical life is in shambles, as long as he possesses holy thoughts, he can maintain himself in a place of greatness until miracles will yet occur.

If a person with a strong inclination to live in the realm of thought sees that he has not improved over the years, he may view his thoughts, ideals, dreams, and plans as feeble and insignificant. Not valuing them, he judges himself to be a small person with small deeds. He thus abandons his deep thoughts – and because his nature is to think, now he thinks deeply about foolish things. But this is the wrong approach. He must rather exert himself and receive counsel in order to continue giving credence to his large thoughts. It is true that he is having a hard time realizing them – nevertheless, they are authentic. As long as his deep thoughts remain important to him, he will be able to work them into his life and become a bigger person.

As a result of holding onto his good, true, and deep thoughts, a person is able to stay connected to holiness. Those thoughts bring about healing, salvation, and other rectifications. This is so even if this person does not always carry out his thoughts. Now, a person who is living a small life has a natural tendency to abandon his great thoughts, because of the gap between the two. But to the contrary, he should elevate the thoughts inner life until he attains a deep, powerful teshuvah from inner love.

Rav Kook concludes with a verse from Tehillim – “Fortunate are the people who know the shofar blast (lit. teruah); G-d, they will walk in the light of Your countenance.” How does this verse connect to the previous teaching? It seems that Rav Kook is picking up on the notion of “knowing” the shofar blast. The verse is referring to someone who at least knows and understands the depths associated with the teruah, even if at present he cannot actualize them by doing teshuvah. Such a person should not despair or abandon his lofty thoughts– on the contrary, he is “fortunate” and will “eventually walk in the light of G-d’s countenance.”

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

• How exactly are korbanot supposed to lead to G-d-consciousness?
• Rav Moshe Weinberger writes that “A person who is living a small life has a natural tendency to abandon his great thoughts, because of the gap between the two.” Could this (paradoxically) explain any of the ‘off the derech’ phenomenon?
• Does the written Torah present any laws about the korbanot that indicate the importance of thought in the process?[6]
• Are there any behaviors or characteristics that you think characterize someone who leads a small-minded life?
• Rav Kook writes that “the rectification of the entire world and the healing of all people depend upon the foundation of thought.” How exactly does this work? Is it a mystical/metaphysical process, or something that operates in a way we can comprehend?
• What should you do to promote or hold onto thoughts of greatness?
• Rav Kook draws a connection between holy thoughts, teshuva and the shofar, but doesn’t elaborate on how they relate together. What do you think he is getting at?

[1]The translation and commentary are largely excepted from R. Moshe Weinberger’s Song of Teshuva.

[2]Zohar, Nasso 121b.

[3]To use more formal terminology, these seem like nominal concepts instead of ordinal ones.

[4]R. Menachem Leibtag notes that Sefer Vayikra starts off with voluntary korbanot, as if to emphasize that sin and atonement is not the primary motif of sacrifices.

[5]A widespread misconception (outside the Torah world) is that the Prophets opposed the legalism of the Torah, and emphasized the value ethical conduct to the exclusion of mitzvah observance.

[6]Ok, so you had to cheat and look at the footnote. See Vayikra 5:5 and 7:18.