Think Good and it Will Be Good

A Resource for Jewish Pastoral Counseling

A Dissertation/Project

Presented to

The Committee for Advanced Pastoral Studies

San Francisco Theological Seminary

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Doctor of Ministry

by

Joel Zeff

May 20, 2017

ii
 SAN FRANCISCO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

San Anselmo, California 94960

ADVANCED PASTORAL STUDIES

Think Good and it Will Be Good: A Resource for Jewish Pastoral Counseling

Student: Joel Zeff

Advisor: Scott Sullender, PhD

This Dissertation/Project is approved by the Advance Pastoral Studies Committee, upon

recommendation by the Advisor, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree

DOCTOR OF MINISTRY

---------------------------------------------------------
Advisor

---------------------------------------------------------
Date

---------------------------------------------------------
Director, Advanced Pastoral Studies

---------------------------------------------------------

Date

iii
 ABSTRACT

Think Good and it Will Be Good: A Resource for Jewish Pastoral Counseling

Joel Zeff

Advisor: Scott Sullender, PhD

May 20, 2017

The role of the rabbi has evolved from a scholar, who can authoritatively interpret Jewish

tradition, to that of a communal leader, with a strong emphasis on pastoral care and

counseling. Due to the relatively recent change in the function of the rabbi, there are

comparatively few resources available to the Jewish pastoral counselor that are firmly

rooted within Jewish tradition and that make use of Jewish sacred texts.

The assumptions and techniques of cognitive therapy, especially the centrality of

cognitive reframing, are particularly suitable for pastoral counselling. This

dissertation/project makes available a sampling of the texts of one of the foremost recent

interpreters of the Jewish mystical tradition, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, for the purposes

of cognitive reframing. Suitable texts have been selected, from the vast corpus of his

writings. They have been translated from Hebrew to English, some for the first time,

followed by a complete discussion of their meaning and relevance. The selection of texts

and discussion is followed by a critical reflection on the relationship between the

teachings of Rabbi Kook and the assumptions of cognitive therapy.

iv
 CONTENTS
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. iv

INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 1

BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................... 4

MY MINISTRY AND THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE RABBI .............................. 4

COGNITIVE THERAPY ................................................................................................ 6
COGNITIVE THERAPY AND PASTORAL COUNSELING .................................... 13
RABBI ABRAHAM ISAAC KOOK ............................................................................ 20
RABBI KOOK AND COGNITIVE REFRAMING ..................................................... 28
THE CHALLENGE OF RABBI KOOK’S WRITING ................................................ 33
STRUCTURE OF THE READINGS ........................................................................... 39
READINGS ................................................................................................................................. 43

SELECTION ONE: COSMIC TESHUVAH ................................................................ 43

SELECTION TWO: FAILURE AS SUCCESS ........................................................... 56
SELECTION THREE: THE CHALLENGE OF ENDS AND MEANS ...................... 64
SELECTION FOUR: NATURAL TESHUVAH .......................................................... 71
SELECTION FIVE: AUTHENTICITY........................................................................ 79
SELECTION SIX: THE PAIN OF CHANGE .............................................................. 92
SELECTION SEVEN: THE POSITIVE ROOT OF THE NEGATIVE....................... 98
SELECTION EIGHT: THE PROMISE OF SEXUALITY ........................................ 111
SELECTION NINE: THE ILLUSION OF DEATH................................................... 119
CRITICAL REFLECTION AND EVALUATION .............................................................. 130

REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................... 164

v
 Introduction

The title of “rabbi” has conventionally connoted a presumed expertise in the classical

texts of Judaism, knowledge of which enables the rabbi to provide guidance concerning

the practical aspects of traditional Jewish life. The function of the rabbi has become

increasingly transformed in the face of the congregational demand for clergy that will

devote themselves to pastoral needs. This change in the role of the rabbi has generated a

pressing need for the development of the field of pastoral counseling that is firmly rooted

in the general principles of counseling but also reflects and draws upon the specific

nuances of Jewish tradition. A search of the “Amazon” bookseller site for “Christian

Pastoral Counseling” produces a robust 7,356 results. The same search for “Jewish

Pastoral Counseling” generates a meager 50 texts.1 This reflects the imperative to create

more tools for Jewish Pastoral Counseling, especially resources that are organic to Jewish

tradition.

1
The current offerings in the field of Jewish pastoral counseling tend to be of two types.
Many of the works in the field are, in substance, no different than the classic texts of
pastoral counseling but without the Christian references which characterize the classic
guides- see, for example, Levitz, Yisrael N., and Abraham J. Twerski. A practical guide
to rabbinic counseling. Jerusalem: Feldheim, 2005. The second category attempts to
articulate an approach that is specifically rooted in Jewish theology and practice, see for
example, Friedman, Dayle A. Jewish pastoral care: a practical handbook from
traditional and contemporary sources. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2000.
.

1
One of the major themes in Jewish spirituality is “teshuvah.” This Hebrew term is often

translated as “repentance.” In fact, its literal meaning is “return,” but return to what? The

Jewish mystical tradition (Kabbala) widens and deepens the meaning of this term to refer

to any movement towards greater wholeness, not limited to a response to sin.

The cognitive schema provided by the Jewish mystical tradition can serve to encourage,

inspire, and empower personal growth within a broad range of circumstances. Whether

we are responding to “stumbling because of iniquity” or experiencing the emotional

malaise brought on by a lack of vibrancy and forward momentum in our lives, the

Kabbalistic tradition can serve as a powerful tool to re-frame our outlook, assumptions,

and self-talk, which may have served to handicap our efforts at resiliency and personal

growth.

Robert Eisen, Professor of Religion and Judaic Studies and Chair of the Department of

Religion at George Washington University, in his article, “The Revival of Jewish

Mysticism: Causes and Concerns,” 2 addresses the remarkable contemporary revival of

interest in Jewish mysticism. Eisen sees multiple reasons for this resurgence. Among

them are the continuation of the spiritual search of the “boomer” generation; the

perceived lack of intensity and engagement of many “mainstream” Jewish institutions;

the disappointment with the ability of science and technology to answer ultimate

questions; and the compelling mythic symbolism, which makes God relevant and offers

insight into our own psychic lives. The current interest in Jewish mysticism offers

2
Robert Eisen, "The Revival of Jewish Mysticism: Causes and Concerns," My Jewish
Learning, , accessed January 01, 2017, http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-
revival-of-jewish-mysticism-causes-and-concerns/.

2
compelling reason to think that the cognitive schema suggested by this spiritual approach

will resonate well for those seeking guidance towards greater wholeness.

One of the most profound and coherent contemporary syntheses of the past 2000 years of

Jewish mystical thinking on this topic is found in the writings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac

Kook (1865-1935). Unfortunately, few of his writings have been translated from their

original Hebrew. Interestingly, the best anthology of his writings in English was

published by the Paulist Press, a Catholic publishing project, as part of its series,

“Classics of Western Spirituality.” In addition to the inaccessibility of most of Rabbi

Kook's writings to the English-speaking public, there does not exist any work in English

which focuses on those texts of particular relevance to the cognitive reframing often used

in pastoral counseling.

This project offers inspirational texts that, for the first time in the English language,

present the insights of the Jewish mystical tradition, particularly as found in Rabbi

Kook's writings, with regards to the cognitive reframing so essential to personal growth.

It is my hope that this work will serve as the basis for a much larger published text that

would provide an important resource for Jewish pastoral counselors and lay people who

seek guidance from Jewish tradition to better cope with the rough and tumble of the

emotional and psychological forces buffeting our daily functioning and to better contend

with the challenges tossed our way by the exigencies of life.

3
 Background

My Ministry and the Changing Role of the Rabbi

My rabbinic career reflects the changing role of the rabbinate and the need for more

resources for Jewish pastoral counseling. My initial pulpit in Los Angeles, 30 years ago,

was with a young congregation. While worship services, preaching, education, and

congregational development were high priorities, pastoral care was not. For the next

seventeen years, I served in seminary academia, on the post-graduate level, including as

Dean. In this capacity, my primary focus was on teaching. Increasingly, however, my

concern for a more holistic commitment to students led to frequent counseling sessions

for which I felt less than optimally equipped.

Five years ago, I returned to the congregational pulpit as the rabbi of Kenesset Israel

Torah Center, in Sacramento. As a result of changes in the nature of congregational life

and internal changes within me, pastoral counseling has become a central feature of my

ministry. It is in this context that I decided to pursue the Doctor of Ministry degree in

Pastoral Counseling at the San Francisco Theological Seminary.

In the course of my studies in the Doctor of Ministry program in Pastoral Counseling, I

was exposed to the approach of cognitive therapy, which appealed to me in both its

theoretical construct and its suitability to the pastoral context.3 I have undertaken the

3
To be explored further on this work.

4
serious study of cognitive behavioral therapy through the Feeling Good Institute.4 This

organization promotes the TEAM approach towards CBT, as envisioned by Dr. David

Burns.5 My training was under the individual tutelage of Dr. Leigh Harrington, MD. Dr.

Harrington is a psychiatrist in private practice, the Medical Director of the Department

for Behavioral Health for Yolo County and a Master Trainer in the TEAM school of

CBT. I was also fortunate to have had personal interaction with Dr. Burns.

While much of the reading and coursework at the SFTS had a “Christian” nuance, I have

rarely found that to be problematic and enjoyed the comparison and contrast of religious

traditions in class discussion. At the same, the paucity of material relevant to Jewish

pastoral counseling that I could utilize in my own ministry has become quite clear.

4
See http://www.feelinggoodinstitute.com/
5
See https://feelinggood.com/

5
 Cognitive Therapy

A popular Yiddish saying has it, “Think good and it will be good,” (original Yiddish:

Trakht gut vet zein gut). This pithy assertion is not just an expression of wishful thinking.

This folk expression captures the central premise of cognitive therapy.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy is widely viewed as one of the most empirically supported

forms of psychotherapy. Recent years have produced a range of systematic and

comprehensive reviews of the research on the comparative efficacy of cognitive-

behavioral therapy. CBT is widely regarded as particularly efficacious and specific with

regards to mood disorders.6

Cognitive-behavioral therapy was formulated by Aaron T. Beck, M.D. Beck had been

trained as a psychiatrist in the psychoanalytic method but gradually moved towards a

cognitive model.7 He posits that emotions, or affects, are produced by thoughts which

occur automatically, hence termed automatic thoughts. These thoughts may be accurate

or erroneous. Beck offers the example of a client named Lucy:

6
See, for example, Hollon, S. D. and Ponniah, K. (2010), A review of empirically
supported psychological therapies for mood disorders in adults. Depress. Anxiety, 27:
891–932. doi:10.1002/da.20741
7
Beck relates his personal story and reflections in “The Past and Future of Cognitive
Therapy,” from the Journal of Psychotherapy and Research 1997; 6:276-284, retrieved
from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3330473/pdf/jp64276.pdf

6
 Lucy told the following story: "I really felt very discouraged yesterday, and I

came to the conclusion that you're wrong when you say that I do have the capacity

to have people like me, because nobody called me yesterday." I said, "That's a

very good automatic thought, 'Nobody called me yesterday.' What was the

meaning of that?" She said, "The meaning is that nobody likes me and that

therefore I must be unlovable." I asked, "Who are the people whom you would

have expected to call you?" … She said, "Well, there was Doris, there was

Dolores, and there was Cynthia." I said, "The fact that they didn't call you meant

that they didn't like you?" She said, "That's right." I said, "Now, can we think of

some alternative explanations for why they might not have called you?" She said,

"Well, come to think of it, Doris is out of town, Dolores said she wasn't feeling

well, and Cynthia is more depressed than I am. I should be calling her."

Lucy related feeling discouraged, associated with a spontaneous thought that she is

incapable of being liked. This is an example of what Beck refers to as an “automatic

thought.” Lucy then “proved” her discouraging thought by the fact that nobody had called

her the day before. Beck challenged the compelling nature of the causal relationship

between the lack of a phone call and Lucy’s being incapable of being liked. Beck’s

question led Lucy to realize that, in fact, there may have been many other reasons why

she had not received a call. Her viewing the lack of a call as evidence of being unlikable

is an example of a type of erroneous thinking Beck terms “arbitrary inference.”

From a therapeutic point of view, Lucy’s reaction to the realization of her arbitrary

inference is highly significant. Not only did Lucy’s mood change for the better, but her

7
behavior followed suit. She became more animated and enthusiastically began planning

her busy day ahead. The dependence of Lucy’s mood and behavior on her interpretation

of her experience is an example of what Beck named, “cognitive primacy” or “biased

processing.”

Beck concluded that biased processing reflects patterns as a function of the nature of the

mental “disorder.” Mania may express itself in an exaggerated positive direction, while

in depression, the erroneous thinking will be excessively negative. Beck offers a colorful

illustration, “A depressed patient would interpret a situation such as somebody leaving by

saying, ‘He left because I'm unlovable.’ The anxious patient would think, ‘Maybe I am

boring—and I may bore others in the future.’ The paranoid patient would say, ‘He is

really abusing me because he is hostile to me. I'll fix him.’”

Beck’s research led him to probe deeper into the basis of the automatic thoughts. He

suggested that these thoughts were driven by fundamental and identifiable beliefs. Once

again, Beck returns to a concrete example:

The depressed patient's belief would be something like this: "People generally

don't like me, and therefore if I am in any situation with other people, they are

going to reject me." The anxious patient would have the belief, "People may or

may not like me, but if I'm in a situation with other people, there is a danger that

they will reject me." The person feels anxious because he or she perceives danger.

The depressed perceive every situation in the past as being a loss in some way.

The paranoid patient would have the belief, "If people reject me, it just shows

what a rotten world we live in and what a bunch of rotters there are."

8
This insight was an important advance since correcting the multitude of automatic

thoughts is a daunting task. If the many distorted automatic thoughts could be traced to a

much smaller number of basic distorted beliefs, the therapeutic challenge of correcting

the cognitive process would become an easier task. Beck summarizes the cognitive model

as stating that, “dysfunctional disorders, psychiatric disorders, and psychological or

behavioral disorders are characterized by dysfunctional thinking, and that the

dysfunctional thinking accounts for the affective and behavioral symptoms.”

Cognitive behavioral therapy utilizes a wide range of strategies to undo disordered

thinking and beliefs. Beck relates a pithy conversation with a taxi driver curious to learn

about cognitive therapy:

Recently a taxi driver asked me what I was going to do at the conference he was

taking me to, and I answered that I was going to discuss cognitive therapy. He

asked, "What's that?" and I said, "It has to do with the way people talk to

themselves." He said, "Oh, I thought that's why they go to a psychiatrist in the

first place." I said, "Well, yes, but we teach them how to answer themselves."

Indeed, many of the therapeutic strategies used in cognitive therapy are designed to

enable the client to “answer themselves.” The client is given tools to become aware of the

erroneous automatic thoughts and their underlying beliefs, and to confront and refute

them.

CBT was widely popularized through the efforts of Dr. David Burns, M.D. Burns had

been a student of Aaron Beck at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1980 Burns published

9
“Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy,”8 which details the theory of CBT and its

techniques in a popular “self-help” format. This text has sold over 5 million copies and is

ranked by Amazon as the best-selling book in the “mood disorder” category. 9

In the past ten years Burns has expanded the scope of CBT to a highly systematic

approach which includes standardized testing, empathy and agenda setting techniques,

and a host of methods to combat distorted cognitions and self-defeating beliefs. Burns

has named his approach “TEAM,” an acronym for Testing, Empathy, Agenda, Methods.

The present writer has completed advanced training in TEAM-CBT therapy at the

Feeling Good Institute, based in Mountain View, California.

The most basic tool in TEAM-CBT is the “Mood Log.” 10 This practice, sometimes

referred to as the “triple column technique,” focuses on a specific upsetting event. The

client records the distressing emotions associated with the event and the automatic

thoughts underlying those emotions. This is followed by identifying the cognitive

distortions embodied by these thoughts, and finally, replacing the unhealthy cognitions

with more positive and realistic thoughts.

8
David D. Burns, Feeling good: the new mood therapy (New York: New American
Library, 1981).
9
"Best Sellers in Anxiety Disorders," Amazon Best Sellers: Best Anxiety Disorders, ,
accessed December 28, 2016,
https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/11128/ref=sr_bs_1_11128_1.
10
David D. Burns, When panic attacks: the new, drug-free anxiety therapy that can
change your life (New York: Morgan Road Books, 2006), 76-95.

10
For example, Mary is very upset in the wake of receiving a low score on a test. She feels

sad, inadequate, discouraged, and embarrassed. Among the automatic thoughts she

records is, “I am a complete loser.” Mary then subjects that thought to critique. Does it

reflect reality? Mary concludes that this thought involves a plethora of cognitive

distortions including all-or-nothing thinking, overgeneralization, labeling, discounting the

positive, magnification, mental filter, and self-blame.

The client is then challenged to replace the cognitive distortion with a more realistic

frame. She might suggest, “It is true that I failed the test and I would have preferred to

pass it. Though I did not study hard enough, there were other factors involved as well,

including the fact that I was not feeling well that day. I failed that test but I have passed

the vast majority of the tests in my academic career. I will take the test over and, based on

previous experience and adequate preparation, I will most likely do fine.”

In actuality, TEAM-CBT is more nuanced and complex than this example. The intensity

of the distressing emotions and negative thoughts is measured before and after the

exercise, and the client records the strength of belief in the alternative positive reframing.

As well, there are a myriad of techniques to more effectively and credibly undermine the

cognitive distortions. All along, there is great attention to proper empathy, therapeutic

alliance, and awareness of client resistance and the techniques for lowering that

resistance.

For the purposes of this discussion, it is important to note that, in the broadest sense, the

most fundamental component of CBT is the replacement and reframing of distorted

11
cognitions and self-defeating beliefs with those that are more positive and more firmly

rooted in reality.

12
 Cognitive Therapy and Pastoral Counseling

Mark R. McMinn, Ph.D. is one of the primary proponents of the use of CBT as the

therapeutic modality of choice in pastoral counseling.11 McMinn identifies the qualities

of CBT that particularly commend it to pastoral counseling.

Psychodynamic modalities focus on insight into childhood experiences. This process

requires a long-term commitment to analytic introspection which can last for years of

weekly sessions. This entails significant investment of time and expense. CBT, in

contrast, is a focused, short-term therapy, which can often achieve substantial results in

just a few meetings and rarely more than 20 sessions. In addition to the obvious benefit

to the client, it also benefits the pastoral counselor who may function as a clergy of a

congregation and has limited time to devote to counseling. The efficiency in time of CBT

well serves the pastoral framework.

Psychodynamic therapies tend to place the therapist in a powerful and superior role as the

guide and interpreter of the deeply hidden factors buried in the recesses of the client’s

subconscious mind. In contrast, CBT focuses on the client’s expressed thoughts without

probing hidden meanings. Indeed, the primary therapeutic experiences are often done as

homework assignments carried out by the client alone, after having been instructed in the

11
Mark R. McMinn, Cognitive therapy techniques in Christian counseling (Dallas: Word
Pub., 1991), 3-16.

13
use of the various techniques by the counselor. The counselor and the client collaborate

together in a manner which minimizes a hierarchal relationship. This deeply egalitarian

and respectful therapeutic alliance mirrors the spiritual outlook of many clergy.

CBT is a relatively straightforward modality, both in theory and practice. It is highly

systemized and relatively easy to learn. The pastoral counselor who has devoted many

years to academic and seminary training and will be hard-pressed to pursue many

additional years of training in a psychodynamic therapeutic technique. The pastoral

counselor who seeks to complement congregational work with serious counseling is well

served to pursue training in CBT, which can be learned in a relatively short amount of

time.

Finally, McMinn argues that CBT is particularly well-suited for Christians. CBT requires

that one’s thoughts be scrutinized based on some objective standard of reality. He claims

that this may be more challenging for the “agnostic,” who may not easily accept the

existence of an objective “truth.” A traditionally-minded Christian (and presumably, a

traditionally-minded Jew) is likely to be comfortable with the notion of absolute truth.

This theological posture should facilitate the self-critique of one’s thoughts and

assumptions, relative to an external standard of truth.

This last point of McMinn raises an important distinction between classical CBT and its

use in conjunction with pastoral counselling. Classical CBT defines cognitive distortions

as a function of the gap between objective empirical reality and the client’s perceptions.

A theological proposition is not a universally recognized empirical reality. As correct as

this distinction may be, it does not necessarily invalidate the use of CBT techniques to

14
challenge and replace unhelpful assumptions using a standard of truth derived from

religious tradition. This issue will be explored at length in the final chapter.

McMinn is, obviously, writing from a Christian perspective. The foundational axiom of

CT, that emotions and behaviors are largely a function of thoughts and beliefs, finds

particularly strong resonance within Jewish tradition. The title of this dissertation/project,

“Think Good and it will be Good.” a Yiddish aphorism, captures that sensibility.

One of the most striking aspects of Judaism is the radical centrality of the study of Torah.

The great significance of study is a recurring theme throughout Hebrew Scripture, “Let

not this Book of the Torah cease from your lips, but contemplate it day and night.”

(Joshua 1:8) It is the cardinal obligation of parents to their children, “You shall teach

them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when

you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” (Deuteronomy 6:7)

This ethic is further amplified by the ancient rabbinic teaching, “These are things the

fruits of which a man enjoys in this world, while the principal remains for him in the

World to Come: Honoring one's father and mother, acts of kindness, and bringing peace

between a man and his fellow. But the study of Torah is equal to them all.” 12

While prayer occupies an honored role in Jewish life, the study of Torah reigns supreme.

Why should an essentially cognitive activity trump the emotional intimacy of prayer?

One of the most classic treatises of Jewish theology emerging from the world of

Chassidism, deeply rooted in Kabbalah, is “Likkutei Amarim-Tanya,” first published at

12
Mishnah, Peah, 1:1

15
the close of the 18th century.13 The author, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady, founded a

movement popularly known by the name “Chabad,” a Hebrew acronym for “wisdom,

understanding, knowledge.” The use of this term for self-identification reflects the central

thesis of the founder’s text, that emotions and actions are a function of intellect:

Similarly is it with the human soul, which is divided in two—intellect and

emotional attributes… ChaBaD [the intellectual faculties] are called "mothers"

and source of the emotional attributes, for the latter are "offspring" of the former.

(Chapter 3)

The author utilizes this cognitive model to prescribe the path to feel love and awe of God:

For when the intellect in the rational soul deeply contemplates and immerses itself

exceedingly in the greatness of God, how He fills all worlds and encompasses all

worlds, and in the presence of Whom everything is considered as nothing— there

will be born and aroused in his mind and thought the emotion of awe for the

Divine Majesty, to fear and be humble before His blessed greatness, which is

without end or limit, and to have the dread of God in his heart. Next, his heart will

glow with an intense love, like burning coals, with a passion, desire and longing,

and a yearning soul, towards the greatness of the blessed En Sof [Infinite One].

This constitutes the culminating passion of the soul, of which Scripture speaks, as

13
See Stroll, Avrum. Encyclopaedia Judaica, 8th ed., s.v. “Shneur Zalman of Lyady.”
Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 1978 and Shneur Zalman, Likutei amarim: (Tanya)
(Brooklyn: "Kehot" Publication Society, 1962).

16
 "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth,.. ." and "My soul thirsteth for God,..." and

"My soul thirsteth for Thee...." (Ibid.)

Just as this model serves as a guide to cultivate a heightened spiritual state, so too does it

provide a model to understand the genesis of less helpful emotions:

For the emotional attributes are according to the quality of the intellect. Hence a

child desires and loves petty things of inferior worth, for his intellect is too

immature and deficient to appreciate things that are much more precious.

Likewise, is he provoked to anger and vexation over trivial things; so, too, with

boasting and other emotional attributes. (Chapter 6)

The author proceeds to describe the relationship between the emotions, generated by the

intellect, and consequent actions:

This, then, is the important principle regarding the Divine Service… to rule the

heart by means of meditation in the mind on the greatness of the blessed En Sof

[Infinite One] whereby his understanding will beget a spirit of knowledge and fear

of the Lord in his mind, to make him turn away from the evil … and [at the same

time arousing] the love of God in his heart… with a fervour and desire to cleave

to Him through the fulfillment of the precepts of the Torah … (Chapter 16)

Rabbi Shneur Zalman sees the primacy of thought and its ability to generate emotions,

and then behavior, as a central theme in Scripture:

17
 For this commandment, which I command you today, is not too difficult for you,

nor is it out of reach. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to

heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ Nor is

it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us to get it for

us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ But the word is very near you, in

your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. (Deuteronomy 30:11-14)14

The cultivation of the religious persona may seem a daunting task, but focused analysis

on ideas (“mouth”) arouses the emotions (“heart”), ultimately to motivate behavior (“do

it”). According to this reading of Scripture, a proper understanding of the role of thought

in the formation of emotions and actions, empowers us to consciously self-construct a

“homo-religiosus.”

It is no wonder that the fundamental assertion of cognitive therapy finds a welcome home

within the framework of Jewish sensibilities and is particularly appropriate for Jewish

pastoral counseling.

It would be presumptuous to claim that Jewish tradition offers a fully articulated method

of therapy. The different schools of CT have developed a myriad of techniques to

uncover and replace cognitive distortions and encourage behavioral change. It is not the

intention here to offer a Jewish form of CT with respect to methods, but rather to present

texts that can be reflectively contemplated that offer a healing perspective.

14
See Tanya, Chapter 17.

18
It should be noted that the very activity of thoughtful reading may itself be a powerful

catalyst for mood change. Burns, advocating for the efficacy of self-help books, cites a

host of studies indicating the efficacy of “bibliotherapy.” 15

This present work draws on particularly potent models in Jewish tradition, found in the

teachings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, for the therapeutic reframing of unhelpful

cognitions. The Jewish client or parishioner, who has invested credibility in the teachings

of rabbinic tradition and guided by the pastoral counselor, will find this more positive

reframing a powerful CBT tool in achieving liberation from self-defeating perceptions

and beliefs.

15
David D. Burns, When panic attacks: the new, drug-free anxiety therapy that can
change your life (New York: Morgan Road Books, 2007), 2.

19
 Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook

The Paulist Press, a project of the Paulist Fathers, is the largest Catholic publishing house

in the world, distributing over 20 million works each year. 16 One of its flagship ventures

is “The Classics of Western Spirituality: A Library of the Great Spiritual Masters.” It is

significant that the Paulist Press chose to publish in this series a volume devoted to the

writings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook.17 The Paulist Press justified its choice by stating,

“Rabbi Kook represents the most significant renewal of the Jewish mystical tradition in

modern times.”18 Professor Rivka Schatz, of the Department of Jewish Philosophy and

Kabbalah at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, writes in her introduction to this volume,

“The call to break out of the spiritual confinement in which the person finds himself, the

testimony to the richness of spiritual life, and the faith that all of existence of itself is in a

process that by necessity carries it to revelation, these are the landmark proclamations of

his teaching.”19

16
"About : PaulistPress," About : PaulistPress, , accessed December 28, 2016,
http://www.paulistpress.com/Pages/Center/about.aspx.
17
Abraham Isaac Kook and Ben Zion Bokser, Abraham Isaac Kook: the lights of
penitence, the moral principles, Lights of holiness, essays, letters, and poems (New York:
Paulist Press, 1978).
18
Ibid., back cover.
19
Ibid., xxv.

20
Rabbi Kook was born in Latvia in 1865 into a staunchly traditionally pious and scholarly

Jewish family.20 Though Kook’s education and upbringing were strictly Orthodox, he

was situated in the very epicenter of the various “isms” that were competing for the

hearts and minds of Eastern European Jewry of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Various movements and ideologies created a maelstrom of revolutionary changes which

competed with the traditional piety characterizing the world of Latvian-Lithuanian Jewry,

with its emphasis on Talmudic learning and strict adherence to the details of Jewish law

and tradition.

The Chassidic movement arose in the Western Ukraine in the 18th century and quickly

spread throughout Eastern Europe.21 Chassidism was a spiritual crusade which

emphasized ecstatic prayer and the cultivation of the sense of immediacy and

accessibility of God, even to the simplest person who turns to Him. Much of the rabbinic

leadership, especially in Lithuania, saw this as a rejection of the traditional emphasis on

study and punctilious observance of the Law as the highest embodiment of religious

practice. The conflict between the established rabbinic leadership and the Chassidic

movement resulted in excommunications, arrests, and occasional violence.

20
Yehudah Mirsky, Rav Kook: mystic in a time of revolution (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2014).
21
See Rubinstein, Avraham. Encyclopaedia Judaica, 8th ed., s.v. “Hasidism.” Jerusalem:
Keter Publishing House, 1978.

21
The “Haskalah” (“Enlightenment”) movement was opposed by both the established

Orthodox and the Chassidic rabbinate.22 This movement had begun in Germany in the

18th century in an attempt at “modernizing” Judaism and Jewish culture. This

modernization was multifaceted and comprised the promotion of rationalism, liberalism,

and freedom of thought and enquiry. On a social level, the “Haskalah” sought the

integration of the Jewish community into the surrounding society through adoption of the

national language, contemporary dress, economic productivity, and general cultural

awareness.

The “Haskalah” of Germany, in particular, called for radical reform and assimilation in

order to create German citizens barely discernable from the surrounding society. The

movement in Eastern Europe, including the area of Lithuania and Lativa expressed itself

in a more moderate form which sought modernization while maintaining basic traditional

religious structures and cultural distinctiveness. As mentioned above, the religious

leadership, of all stripes, viewed the Haskalah as a frontal assault on Orthodoxy and

aggressively attempted to suppress it.

The last decades of the 19th century saw the rise of the Zionist movement.23 This

movement, though founded by an assimilated Austro-Hungarian Jew named Theodor

22
See Slutsky, Yehuda. Encyclopaedia Judaica, 8th ed., s.v. “Haskalah.” Jerusalem:
Keter Publishing House, 1978.

23
See Hertzberg, Arthur. Encyclopaedia Judaica, 8th ed., s.v. “Zionism.” Jerusalem:
Keter Publishing House, 1978.

22
Herzl, found its greatest resonance among the Jews of Eastern Europe. Zionism, as

articulated by Herzl, was essentially an attempt at solving the age-old problem of the

precarious status of Jews as a vulnerable minority living in host cultures. The relationship

between the host and the “guests” wavered between reluctant tolerance and outright

hostility, with not infrequent violent expressions. Herzl envisioned the “normalization” of

the Jewish people, through their restoration to their ancestral homeland, as the ultimate

solution to anti-Semitism.

Herzl was decidedly secular, viewing religion as a minor element in his envisioned

national renaissance of the Jewish people. Zionism manifested itself in Eastern Europe in

forms ranging from a radical call for the utter rejection of Jewish tradition to a “Religious

Zionism,” imagining the preservation of moderate Orthodoxy within a Jewish state. Once

again, most rabbinic leaders of the late 19th century strongly opposed Zionism as a thinly

veiled attempt at replacing Judaism with nationalism.

Along with these threats to the status quo internal to Jewish civilization, the 19th century

witnessed revolutionary winds of change in intellectual, social, political, and economic

spheres. Among these world-shattering developments were Darwinian evolution, biblical

criticism, psychology, nationalism, and socialism. Rabbi Kook and his contemporaries

were forced to respond to these internal and external challenges and did so in a myriad of

ways.

The very “conception” of Abraham Isaac Kook embodied the tensions typifying his time.

His father, Shlomo Zalman Kook, hailed from a respected line of scholars staunchly

opposed to innovation of any sort. He had studied in the most prestigious yeshiva

23
(academy of Talmudic studies) of Eastern European Jewry, located in Lithuania. This

yeshiva was based on the approach of Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna, who had spearheaded the

attempts at crushing the nascent Chassidic movement. Yet, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman

married the daughter of a devoted adherent of the Chassidic movement. The young

Abraham Isaac seems to have synthesized the Talmudic intellectualism of his father’s

lineage with the spiritual spontaneity and vitality of his mother’s family.

Abraham Isaac was recognized as a rare genius at an early age and was educated by

private tutors, followed by a period of study in the same prestigious yeshiva in which his

father had studied. The young rabbi married the daughter of one of the leading rabbis of

Lithuania, who later became the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem. Rabbi Kook then served as

the spiritual leader of two communities for the next 17 years. During this period, he

began to publish essays containing the first glimpses of his highly original synthesis of

traditional learning and piety, with a strikingly creative outlook on the tumult of

modernity, flowing from an organic theology deeply rooted in Jewish mysticism. Among

his iconoclastic views was his nuanced support for the Zionist movement, despite the

secularity, and even hostility towards Jewish tradition, of many of its adherents.

In 1904, Rabbi Kook was invited to serve as the rabbi of the town of Jaffa in Ottoman

Palestine. Jaffa was the urban center of the Zionist pioneers that had settled in Palestine.

Rabbi Kook saw himself as a bridge between the various Jewish communities in conflict,

especially between the Ultra-Orthodox world, of which he was a product, and the Zionist

communities, for whom he had a unique appreciation.

24
Rabbi Kook’s originality, which defied categorization within the camp of any of the

competing ideologies of his time, was well expressed, and perhaps even explained, in an

essay entitled, “The Torah of the Land of Israel:”

In every generation, we must have great love for the “Torah of the Land of

Israel.” This is particularly true in our generation; a generation of withering and

rebirth, of darkness and light, of despair and courage. We must give our

generation the life-giving medicine particularly of the “Torah of the Land of

Israel.” We must show this generation the greatness of truth and clarity found

within our Godly treasure...

Whatever is a detail, when viewed from the perspective of the “Torah of outside

the Land of Israel,” becomes a collective totality from the perspective of the

“Torah of the Land of Israel…” Those elements that before the days of

renaissance were viewed as distant from each other and contradictory, are ready

to be unified in an authentic bond, whereby each complements the other, widens

and deepens it, expands it and perfects it… We must elevate ourselves to the level

of an understanding of the generality, and the generality of the generality, and the

details will be subsumed within.24

Rabbi Kook utilized a contrast, already found within Talmudic literature, between the

approach towards Torah learning of the Land of Israel and that employed in Babylonia. 25

24
Abraham Isaac Kook, Orot Hatorah (Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Yeshivat Merkaz Harav,
1940), 68-78.
25
See Bereishit Rabbah 16:4.

25
Rabbi Kook claims that the approach of understanding the Torah, in the context of the

Jews in exile, is typified by discrete and discordant details, without a unifying vision of

an underlying harmony. The Torah of the Land of Israel, in contrast, “connects the dots”

and sees the integration and complementary nature of the details, which only appear to be

in conflict and tension, as a result of superficiality.

This view, deeply rooted in Rabbi Kook’s mystical vision, insists upon an ultimate unity

underlying all existence and phenomena, flowing from the source of being, within the

perfect unity of God. The forces of secularism, traditionalism, and Zionism, all contain

kernels of truth and interact with each other in a complementary fashion. These

conflicting currents of thesis and antithesis, from the perspective of the Torah of Exile,

will be resolved within the synthesis of the Torah of the Land of Israel.

After ten years in Jaffa, Rabbi Kook traveled to Switzerland to attend a rabbinic

conference in order to encourage sympathy for the cause of the renewed Jewish

settlement of the Land of Israel. The outbreak of the First World War found him unable

to return to Jaffa. Rabbi Kook spent the war years in Switzerland and then in London,

where he served as a community rabbi. Many of Rabbi Kook’s most important literary

works date from this period.

Upon the conclusion of the war and the dismantling of the Turkish Ottoman Empire,

Palestine came under British mandatory rule. Rabbi Kook returned to Palestine where he

was appointed the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, and soon after, as first Ashkenazi

Chief Rabbi of Palestine, in 1921, a post he held till his death in 1935.

26
Rabbi Kook was revered by many and reviled by some. His highly original and

profoundly deep thinking, his fresh and poetic writing style, and above all his

extraordinary learning, piety, saintliness and love for all, even for those who bore him

malice, has left an enduring legacy which continues to fascinate and inspire ever greater

numbers of scholars and spiritual seekers.

27
 Rabbi Kook and Cognitive Reframing

Though this is not the context for a thorough discussion of Rabbi Kook’s teachings, it is

important to focus on one aspect of his approach. The revolutionary developments of the

19th and 20th centuries threatened religious orthodoxies of all stripes. The clerical

response to these threats was most-often a defensive circling of the wagons and

retrenchment into even more rigid positions.

Rabbi Kook’s approach was startling affirmative. In a general expression of his response

to the challenges of modernity he famously wrote, “The pure righteous do not complain

of the dark, but increase the light; they do not complain of evil, but increase justice; they

do not complain of heresy, but increase faith; they do not complain of ignorance, but

increase wisdom.”26 Perhaps of even greater significance was the fact that his positive

attitude was not despite his deep commitment to orthodoxy and immersion in the vast

corpus of sacred Jewish literature, but because of it.

Rabbi Kook’s was a master of all traditional Jewish literature. Yet, his worldview was

particularly a product of his preoccupation with Jewish mysticism, referred to by the

Hebrew term “Kabbalah,” meaning “received tradition.”27 Mysticism and Kabbalah are

often popularly perceived as forms of occult magic. In fact, Kabbalah is a set of

philosophical teachings meant to explain the relationship between an unchanging, eternal,

26
Shemonah Kevatzim (Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 2004), 2:280.
27
See Scholem, Gershom. Encyclopaedia Judaica, 8th ed., s.v. “Kabbalah.” Jerusalem:
Keter Publishing House, 1978.

28
and mysterious God and the material and finite universe. Kabbalah wrestles with defining

the nature of the universe and humanity, the nature and purpose of existence, and other

fundamental and ultimate questions of being.

In addition to being a student of this genre of Jewish spirituality, Rabbi Kook was a

highly significant contributor to its development and application to contemporary times.

Indeed, Gershom Scholem, Professor of Jewish Mysticism at Hebrew University,

Jerusalem, the foremost academic authority on Jewish mysticism wrote, “Rabbi Kook’s

great work… is a veritable theologia mystica of Judaism equally distinguished by its

originality and the richness of its author’s mind. It is the last example of productive

kabbalistic thought of which I know.”28

The Kabbalah envisions a particularly intimate relationship between the world and its

divine source. Pantheism sees this relationship as one of identity. God and the world are

one. Kabbalah is characterized as espousing “panentheism,” meaning that the world

emerges from God and remains internal to God, though not one and the same.

This approach led Rabbi Kook to seek, as a religious imperative, the divine root and unity

of all being, including the historical process: “All our endeavors must be directed toward

disclosing the light of universal harmony, which derives not from suppressing any power,

any thought, any tendency, but bringing each of them within the vast ocean of infinite

28
Scholem, Gershom. Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. New York: Schocken Books,
1961. p. 354.

29
light, where all things find their unity, where all is ennobled and exalted, all is

hallowed.”29

The seeking of the divine root and unity of all being requires the reframing of common

and superficial perceptions with a cognition informed by an understanding of the

underlying divine nature of the world. A remarkable example of this approach is Rabbi

Kook’s understanding of the ascendant phenomenon of atheism, ostensibly, a frontal

attack on religion. The development of science, biblical criticism, and materialism, as

well as the failings of organized religion, all contributed to undermining traditional belief

in God. While the church and the synagogue alike railed at the demise of belief, Rabbi

Kook wrote:

One must always cleanse one's thoughts about God to make sure they are free of

the dross of deceptive fantasies, of groundless fear, of evil inclinations, of wants

and deficiencies…

The greatest impediment to the human spirit, on reaching maturity, results from

the fact that the conception of God is crystallized among people in a particular

form, going back to childish habit and imagination. This is an aspect of the

offense of making a graven image or a likeness of God, against which we must

always beware, particularly in an epoch of greater intellectual enlightenment...

29
Shemonah Kevatzim (Hebrew) 8:249.

30
 Atheism has a temporary legitimacy, for it is needed to purge away the

aberrations which attached themselves to religious faith because of a deficiency in

perception and in the divine service…

But to what uprooting did the divine providence intend? To uproot the dross that

separates man from the truly divine light. In the ruins wrought by atheism will the

higher knowledge of God erect her Temple…

On seeing such convulsions people believe that religion is dying, that the world is

being overturned. In truth, however, the shadows are stirring, they are in flight in

order to make room for the light. If religious faith is to be revitalized, a great

effort is needed to deepen the knowledge of God, to follow the subtle paths of

mystical thinking, through which one rises above every kind of limitation in

God…

Then will religion regain its strength, it will rise out of its darkness toward a great

light, and it will become the life-giving force to the highest and the most sensitive

of souls, even as it is, in its authentic nature. Thus will it necessarily regain its

respect among all sections of humanity…30

Rabbi Kook, in an extraordinary act of intellectual and spiritual expansiveness, reframed

a deadly assault on the most fundamental underpinning of religion, the belief in God, into

a phenomenon created by divine providence itself! Far from being a curse, atheism is a

30
Bokser, 261-269.

31
blessing. Atheism will remove the distorted caricatures of the notions of God so that a

purified spirituality can take hold.

This type of reframing, deeply moored in the classical sources of Jewish tradition, is

typical of the thinking of Rabbi Kook. Rabbi Kook, in that same essay on atheism,

asserted that, “All the troubles of the world, especially the spiritual, such as grief,

impatience, disillusionment, despair, the truly basic troubles of man- they came about

only because of the failure to view clearly the majesty of God.”

Rabbi Kook’s writings can be powerful literary tools for use in cognitive reframing

central to CBT, as employed in Jewish pastoral counseling. Through the greater clarity of

“re-cognition,” the heavy troubles burdening the soul can be lightened.

32
 The Challenge of Rabbi Kook’s Writing

As promising a resource as they are, the use of the writings of Rabbi Kook is challenging.

Very little of Rabbi Kook’s work has been translated into English. This has resulted in his

inaccessibility and relative obscurity to the English reading public.

In addition, Rabbi Kook’s writing is particularly challenging to understand, even in the

original Hebrew, and is not easily translated. His writing was largely a spontaneous

activity, rather than an organized and systematic project.31 He once noted, “I write, not

because I possess the strength to write, but because I am unable to remain silent.”32 Rabbi

Kook would keep “spiritual diaries” in which he would jot down his thoughts as they

came to him. These writings were not necessarily in any order or organized around a

specific topic. Most of the Hebrew books published in Rabbi Kook’s name are, in fact,

anthologies of passages from disparate places in his notebooks, organized and edited by

his son and his students.

A further complication in deciphering Rabbi Kook’s intention is the idiosyncrasy of his

Hebrew. The revival of the Hebrew language as a spoken modern idiom is one of the

most fascinating developments in contemporary Jewish and linguistic history.33 After the

dispersal of the Jewish people during Roman rule, Hebrew became largely an

ecclesiastical language, reserved for religious purposes. For everyday communication,

31
Yaron, Tsevi. The Philosophy of Rabbi Kook. Jerusalem: Eliner Library, 1991. 9-19.
32
Ibid., 9.
33
See Eytan, Eli. Encyclopaedia Judaica, 8th ed., s.v. “Hebrew Language.”

33
Jews developed Jewish dialects of the various host cultures, such a Judeo-German

(Yiddish), Judeo-Arabic, and Judeo-Spanish (Ladino). The renaissance of the Jewish

community in Palestine in the 19th and early 20th centuries necessitated a lingua franca

common to Jews of differing linguistic backgrounds. In addition to the practical necessity

of a common language, the intellectuals associated with the largely secular Zionist

movement saw the creation of a modern Hebrew as a powerful means to create a new

Hebrew secular culture and a fresh sense of collective identity.

The modernization of Hebrew required revisiting fundamental issues of pronunciation,

grammatical rules, and, especially, vocabulary (the word for “electricity” does not exist

in classical Hebrew!). Rabbi Kook was a master of all the genre of classical Hebrew and

would use traditional rabbinic Hebrew when appropriate. Yet, for his writings intended

for a larger audience, Rabbi Kook advocated a fresh form of Hebrew, in order to speak to

the hearts and minds of the Zionist pioneers, who were often alienated from traditional

Judaism.

During the most fertile periods of Rabbi Kook’s literary activity there had not yet

crystallized a standardized Modern Hebrew. Rabbi Kook employed grammatical forms,

vocabulary, and even spelling, that is idiosyncratic and not infrequently unfamiliar to

both the traditional orthodox scholar of Hebrew religious texts and to those who speak

and read standardized Modern Hebrew. As a result, even the native Israeli speaker of

34
Hebrew often requires a “translation” of Rabbi Kook’s Hebrew into more conventional

Hebrew.34

The content of Rabbi Kook’s philosophical writing is often based on Kabbalistic notions

that are highly abstract and culled from ancient writings that employ obscure and

technical Hebrew and Aramaic phrases from the vast corpus of rabbinic and kabbalistic

texts.

Rabbi Kook felt that poetic language was best suited to convey these abstractions:

My thoughts are broader than the sea. I cannot express them in prose. Not out of

any self-aggrandizement, I must be a poet--but a poet in free verse. I cannot be

tied to the chains of meter and stanza. I flee simple prose because of the heaviness

within it, because it is so constricted, and I cannot enter other constrictions, which

are perhaps even greater and more oppressive than the oppression of prose, which

I flee.35

He expanded on the nature of his writing style in a particularly lyrical piece:

34
In fact, a Hebrew dictionary of terms employed by Rabbi Kook was published in 1990,
“Milon HaRaya,” Yosef Kellner, Jerusalem. As well, several editions of his writings have
been published with such Hebrew to Hebrew translations. See, for example, the online
Hebrew edition of “The Lights of Teshuvah,” https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/.
35
Shulman, Yaacov David. "Singer of the Song of Infinity." Ravkook.net. Accessed
December 09, 2016. http://www.ravkook.net/singer-of-the-song-of-infinity.html.

35
 Expanses, expanses,

Expanses divine my soul craves.

Confine me not in cages of substance or of spirit.

My soul soars the expanses of the heavens,

Walls of heart and walls of deed will not contain it.

Morality, logic, custom – my soul soars above these,

Above all that bears a name, above delight, above every delight and beauty,

Above all that is exalted and ethereal.

I am love-sick – I thirst, I thirst for God, as a deer for water brooks.

Alas, who can describe my pain,

Who will be a violin to express the songs of my grief,

Who will voice my bitterness, the pain of seeking utterance?

I thirst for truth, not for a conception of truth, for I ride on its heights,

I am wholly absorbed by truth, I am wholly pained by the anguish of expression.

How can I utter the great truth that fills my whole heart?

Who will disclose to the multitude, to the world, to all creatures,

To nations and individuals alike, the sparks abounding in treasures

Of light and warmth stored within my soul?

I see the flames rise upward piercing the heavens,

But who feels, who can express their might?

I am not like one of those heroes

36
 Who have found whole worlds in their inwardness.

Whether the world knew of their wealth or not, it was all the same to them.

These herds of sheep walking on two feet – Of what use was it if they knew

Man's true height, and what loss in their not knowing?

I am bound to the world, all creatures, all people are my friends,

Many parts of my soul are intertwined with them,

But how can I share with them my light?

Whatever I say only covers my vision, dulls my light.

Great is my pain and great my anguish,

O, my God, my God, be a help in my trouble,

Find for me the graces of expression,

Grant me language and the gift of utterance,

I shall declare before the multitudes my fragments of Your truth, O my God.36

Rabbi Kook poetically conveys his struggle with writing. He refuses to be confined by

language that cannot do justice to the sublime and transcendent notions in his soul. Yet

he feels a weighty responsibility, flowing from his love of the world, to teach and inspire

others to strive for a lofty spiritual vision and a Godly life- a task which requires

language.

36
Bokser, Abraham Isaac Kook, 379-380.

37
Penetrating Rabbi Kook’s intent requires analytic dissection to discern his sources and

concepts from the vast corpus of Jewish sacred literature. At the same time, it necessitates

an ear attentive to his poetic images and an openness of heart to allow for their resonance.

It is with this spirit that we approach Rabbi Kook’s writing as a powerful

bibliotherapeutic tool in pastoral counseling.

38
 Structure of the Readings

This work features selections from various writings of Rabbi Kook. Each of the

selections offers a model for cognitive reframing of fundamental self-defeating

assumptions and beliefs. For the sake of authenticity and for the benefit of the pastoral

counselor or client well-versed in Hebrew, each text appears in the original Hebrew.

Following the Hebrew text is a fairly literal translation. As discussed above, the task of

translating Rabbi Kook’s writings is fraught with obstacles and challenges. The

translations are all original, unless otherwise indicated in the footnotes. In some cases,

this work represents the first published translations of these texts into the English

language.

Some of the texts selected appear in the Paulist Press anthology of Rabbi Kook’s

writings, edited and translated by Rabbi Ben Zion Bokser. Rabbi Bokser and the Paulist

Press, are to be commended on their pioneering efforts, yet a decision was made that all

translations would be original.

The reasons for this are two-fold. Since many of the texts have never appeared in

translation, it was felt that there should be a uniformity in translation style.

More significantly, it was felt that Bokser’s translations were not infrequently inadequate

to convey Rabbi Kook’s intention. For example, the second Hebrew selection, “Failure as

Success,” addresses the reframing of failure to change. A sample comparison of a bit of

the two translations, with the salient aspects in bold, is instructive:

39
 Example One

Bokser Translation Zeff Translation

When one desires truly to repent, he may When we truly desire to return, even

be held back by many impediments… though we may be hindered by a variety

of obstacles…

The Bokser translation renders the subject as “one,” while the Hebrew uses the plural

which conveys inclusivity. It is a universal challenge we all face.

Bokser translates the Hebrew word “teshuvah” as “repent.” This is serious distortion of

the intent of Rabbi Kook. Rabbi Kook’s entire approach removes “teshuvah” from the

exclusive confines of a response to sin and restores the Hebrew word to its literal

meaning, “return,” which encompasses all attempts to grow towards greater wholeness,

not limited to “penitence.”

Bokser fails to note the sense of Rabbi Kook’s direction, which is “Even though we may

have ‘failed’ to conquer the obstacles, yet it is not a failure, since…”

40
 Example Two

Bokser Translation Zeff Translation

Truly this comes to expression in the In truth, this matter is expressed with utter

Torah: “And you shall return to the Lord clarity in the Torah: “You shall return

your God;” “When you return to the Lord towards the Lord your God…you shall

your God.” return to the Lord your God.”

(Deuteronomy 30)

Bokser’s rendering of the two verses utterly fails to convey Rabbi Kook’s point. Rabbi

Kook is illustrating his thesis based on the contrast in the Hebrew prepositions employed

in the two otherwise identical verses (“towards” followed by “to”)!

The use of these teachings in the context of pastoral counseling requires more than literal

translation. As explained above, Rabbi Kook’s writings are challenging, both with

regards to style and content. Following each of the original Hebrew texts and translations

will be a discussion endeavoring to fully explain the concepts and their relevance to

cognitive reframing.

This dissertation/project is theological in its essence. It is a collection and exposition of

classic teachings culled from Jewish tradition with particular emphasis on the writings of

41
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, which are deeply rooted in the Jewish mystical tradition of

Kabbala, and the theological doctrine of “teshuvah.” The introduction to the Paulist Press

anthology of Rabbi Kook's writings describes his doctrine of teshuvah in the following

words, “The act of penitence (teshuvah), whether as a reaction to a specific wrongdoing

or to a general dissatisfaction with the state of one's life, is free of morbidity. It is, on the

contrary, a liberation from morbidity. It is a therapy that cancels out the anguish of

remorse and endows a person with a sense of elation for having ascended out of the mire

and toward the heights... He has released by his act a divine song and a divine joy

throughout the universe. All existence has been renewed through his renewal.” 37

Let’s begin our journey towards the return to wholeness.

37
Abraham Isaac Kook and Ben Zion Bokser, Abraham Isaac Kook: the lights of
penitence, the moral principles, Lights of holiness, essays, letters, and poems (New York:
Paulist Press, 1978), 26.

42
 ‫‪Readings‬‬

‫‪Selection One: Cosmic Teshuvah‬‬

‫מהלך כל היש הוא בנוי על יסוד התשובה‪ .‬ההויות מתגלות בתור ירידה מאלהיות לעולמיות‪ - ,‬שהיא כמו‬

‫השפלה ו"מיתה" נוראה‪ - ,‬אשר כל הירידות שבעולם‪ ,‬מדרגה לדרגה‪ ,‬מרבוי כשרון וקנין למעוט כשרון וקנין‪,‬‬

‫לא ישוו לה‪ .‬וכל זה נעשה ע"פ המשקל העליון של שפיטת הצדק‪ ,‬המשערת את משפט ההויות בטרם כל יציר‬

‫נברא‪ ,‬ויש בחסד עליון של "עולם חסד יבנה" משום מדת הגבורה והדין של רוח אלהים המרחפת על פני‬

‫המים‪ .‬אמנם ירידה זו הלא יסוד העליה העליונה גנוז בה‪ ,‬ולפני סדר זמנים היא‪ ,‬הרי העליה כרוכה כבר בה‪,‬‬

‫ותהום רבה של המשפט והררי אל של הצדקה יחדיו ישקו‪ .‬והולכים הדברים ומתבררים‪ ,‬שבים לאיתנם ביתר‬

‫שאת ברוח האדם‪ ,‬שהתשובה היא חלקו ונחלתו‪ ,‬והיא דוגמא לכל היש ברום רוממות ובשפל תחתיות‪" .‬אדני‬

‫מעון אתה היית לנו בדור ודור‪ ,‬בטרם הרים יולדו ותחולל ארץ ותבל ומעולם ועד עולם אתה אל‪ ,‬תשב אנוש‬

‫עד דכא ותאמר‪ :‬שובו בני אדם"‪ .‬וכל מה שאנו מתבוננים יותר עד כמה הדברים היותר פרטיים שבהויה‪,‬‬

‫הרוחנית והחמרית‪ ,‬יש בהם משום זעירות וקמוץ של כל הכלליים‪ ,‬וכל קוטן יש בו צללים של גודל בעומק‬

‫ישותו‪ ,‬שוב לא נתפלא כלל על רז התשובה החודר כ"כ לעמקי נפש האדם‪ ,‬וחודר הוא והולך מראשית תעופת‬

‫הלך מחשבתו והשקפת עולמו עד פרטיות דיוקי מעשיו ותאורי מדותיו‪ ,‬והדברים הולכים וחוזרים לפעולתם‬

‫במהלכים ההיסתוריים של כללות האדם‪ .‬וכשנדע עוד יותר את הערך האיכותי של האדם ורוחו ואת הצביון‬

‫שהוא נותן למציאות ע"י הטבעתו‪ ,‬מיד נביט בבהירות על היחש המזהיר של התשובה הגדולה הקוסמית‪,‬‬

‫במובנה היותר רחב והיותר עמוק ויותר רם‪ ,‬עם תשובתו של האדם‪ ,‬היחידי והצבורי‪ ,‬שעל אופניה סובבים‬

‫מתגלגלים כל תכסיסי החיים‪ ,‬המעשיים והרוחניים‪" ,‬ממעמקים קראתיך ד"'‪) .‬אורות התשובה יא‪:‬ד(‬

‫‪The course of all existence is built on the foundation of teshuvah. All being is revealed as‬‬

‫‪a descent from Divinity to worldliness…. This descent, however, contains within it the‬‬

‫‪basis of supernal elevation…. All matters become continually clarified.‬‬

‫‪43‬‬
They return to their strength with greater force through the spirit of mankind, for

teshuvah is his portion and his inheritance; it is the paradigm for all existence, from the

highest height to the lowest depths, “O Lord, You have been our refuge in every

generation. Before the mountains came into being, before You brought forth the earth and

the world, from eternity to eternity You are God. You return man to dust; You decreed,

‘Return you mortals!’” (Psalms 90:1-3)

As we further ponder to what extent the smallest details of being, spiritual and material,

contain smallness and diminution of generalities, that all smallness contains the shadows

of greatness in the depths of its being, so we no longer need to wonder at all about the

mystery of teshuvah which penetrates so deeply to the depths of the soul of man. It

continually penetrates to the very inception of the flight of his thought process and

worldview to the smallest details of his deeds and character traits. These matters

continually go forth to act upon the historical processes of collective humanity. When we

increasingly understand the value of man, his spirit, and the impact which he imprints

upon existence, we immediately gaze with clarity at the illuminating relationship between

the great and cosmic teshuvah, in its widest, deepest, and loftiest sense, with the return of

man, both as individuals and as a society; that all manner of practical and spiritual life

revolves around it, “From the depths I call to You, Oh Lord” (Psalms 130:1) (The Lights

of Teshuvah 11:4)

44
 Discussion

One of the central themes in Judaism is the concept of Teshuvah. Teshuvah is usually

translated as “repentance.” Indeed, the root of the Hebrew term is frequently found in the

Hebrew Bible in the sense of repentance, for example:

When all these things befall you—the blessing and the curse that I have set before

you—and you take them to heart amidst the various nations to which the Lord

your God has banished you, and you return [Hebrew= veshavta] to the Lord your

God, and you and your children heed His command with all your heart and soul,

just as I enjoin upon you this day, then the Lord your God will restore your

fortunes and take you back in love. He will bring you together again from all the

peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. (Deuteronomy 30:1-3)38

As is clear from the above example, the “return” is a response to sin. The biblical text

describes Israel in exile as a consequence of sin. Exile is remedied by the return to God,

as expressed in the abandoning of sinful behavior, hence the common and reasonable

translation “repentance.”

38
Tanakh = The Holy Scriptures: The New JPS Translation According to the Traditional
Hebrew Text (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1988). Unless otherwise stated,
all citations from the Hebrew Bible will be from this edition.

45
This normative definition of teshuvah, as the response to sin, is a major motif in Jewish

religious writing, from the Hebrew bible through the classical rabbinic literature of the

Talmudic period (approximately 50 BCE39 through approximately 500 CE), and up

through the medieval and modern periods. Rambam,40 one of the most renowned of the

medieval authorities, codified the components of Teshuvah, basing himself on earlier

Talmudic material:

What constitutes Teshuvah? That a sinner should abandon his sins and remove

them from his thoughts, resolving in his heart, never to commit them again as

[Isaiah 55:7] states "May the wicked abandon his ways...." Similarly, he must

regret the past as [Jeremiah 31:18] states: "After I returned, I regretted."[He must

reach the level where] He who knows the hidden will testify concerning him that

he will never return to this sin again as [Hoshea 14:4] states: "We will no longer

say to the work of our hands: `You are our gods.'" He must verbally confess and

state these matters which he resolved in his heart.41

The use of the Hebrew verb meaning “return” in the sense of repentance reflects the

notion that sin is straying from the Godly path and from our essential Godly/goodly

nature, as having been made “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27). While God has

39
The common Jewish practice of using “Before the Common Era” (BCE) instead of BC,
and “Common Era” (CE) instead of AD, will be utilized in this work.
40
The Hebrew acronym for Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, often referred to by the Greek
form Maimonides. From more information see Rabinowitz, Louis Isaac. Encyclopaedia
Judaica, 8th ed., s.v. “Maimonides ,Moses.” Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 1978.
41
Mishneh Torah, Laws of Teshuvah 2:2. Moses Maimonides and Eliyahu Touger,
Mishneh Torah (New York: Maznaim Pub., 1985).

46
created us good, we abuse our free-will, with our distorted cognitions, to distance

ourselves from God, “God created mankind upright, but they have gone in search of

many schemes” (Ecclesiastes 7:29).42 If sin is distancing ourselves from God, then

repentance is the return to God, hence “teshuvah.”

Rabbi Kook was preoccupied with the concept of teshuvah. He intended to write an entire

treatise on the topic but only sufficed with an introduction and three chapters. The work

was finished by his son during his father’s lifetime, who culled and edited relevant

selections from his father’s spiritual diaries. The work was first published in 1925 as,

“The Lights of Teshuvah” and it is the source of our passage. Rabbi Kook felt so strongly

about “The Lights of Teshuvah” that he studied it himself each year before the High

Holidays43, Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, commonly referred to as the “Ten Days of

Teshuvah.”

In the introduction to this short book, Rabbi Kook describes the forces propelling him to

address this issue:

For a long time now an inner struggle goes on in me, and I feel prodded by a

mighty force to speak about teshuvah. All my thoughts are focused on this theme

alone. Teshuvah holds a primary place in the teachings of Torah and in life; all the

hopes of the individual and of society depend on it. It embodies a divine

commandment that is, on the hand, the easiest to carry out, since a stirring of the

42
Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011).
43
"Rav Kook Torah," Rav Kook on Elul: "Teshuvah" for the Generation of Rebirth, ,
accessed December 12, 2016, http://ravkooktorah.org/ELUL_65.htm.

47
 heart toward teshuvah is a valid expression of teshuvah. And on the other, it is the

most difficult to perform, since it has not yet been effectuated fully in the world

and in life… My inner being impels me to speak about teshuvah but I recoil

inwardly from my intention. Am I worthy to discuss the subject of teshuvah?...

But no reticence can relieve me of this inner claim. I must speak about teshuvah,

to understand its significance for our generation, and the manner of its

implementation in life, the life of the individual and the life of the society.44

As significant as the amelioration of sin may be, it is difficult to appreciate Rabbi Kook’s

passion for this issue if teshuvah is understood as “repentance,” and thereby limited to an

after-the-fact response to an unfortunate moral lapse or improper behavior.

Indeed, according to Rabbi Kook, teshuvah is much larger than a response to sin. He

writes in “The Lights of Teshuvah:”

Teshuvah comes from the longing of the entire universe to become better and

more pure, stronger and more elevated than its current state. At the core of this

drive is a life-force that triumphs over the limited, weak character of natural

existence. The teshuvah of an individual, and certainly of the community, draws

its strength from this life-force, which flows unceasingly, at full strength. (6:1)45

44
Bokser, 41-42.
45
Rav Kook on Teshuvah: Healthy, Natural and Guaranteed," Rav Kook on Teshuvah:
Healthy, Natural and Guaranteed, , accessed December 12, 2016,
http://rechovot.blogspot.co.il/2010/08/rav-kook-on-teshuvah-healthy-natural.html.

48
Teshuvah, as repentance, is just one aspect of what might be termed “cosmic teshuvah.”

As mentioned above in the introduction, the panentheistic worldview of the Kabbalah

asserts that the world emerges into being within God. All existence contains an internal

drive and momentum to return to its source in the Divine. Ramban,46 the great 13th

century rabbinic scholar and kabbalist, illustrates this doctrine by comparing it to the

process of breathing.47 The act of creation can be compared to a divine exhale, which

presages an inhale, returning all being to its Godly source. Creation, by definition, brings

into existence an imperfect reality out of divine perfection. All existence contains an

essential and profound yearning for the root of its being in that divine perfection.

According to Rabbi Kook, this is the most true and essential sense of teshuvah, in its

literal meaning of “return”- the return to the divine source and godliness of all.

Ben Zion Bokser, in his introduction to his translation of “The Lights of Teshuvah,”

articulates well Rabbi Kook’s expansive understanding of teshuvah:

For Rabbi Kook penitence is the surge of the soul for perfection, to rise above the

limitations imposed by the finitude of existence. It is a reach for reunion with God

from whom all existence has been separated by the descent to particularity and

finitude as incidents of creation. Penitence in man is, in other words only one

46
Acronym for Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, (1194, Girona, Spain-1270, Acre) often
referred to by the Greek form Nachmanides. Katz, Jacob. Encyclopaedia Judaica, 8th ed.,
s.v. “Nachmanides.”
47
Gershom Scholem, "Commentary of Ramban on Sefer Yetzirah," (Hebrew) Kiryat
Yovel 6 (1930).

49
 episode in the entire drama of cosmic life, which is forever seeking higher levels

of development.48

The wrestling with all challenges in life, any striving for greater wholeness, are

expressions of teshuvah. A response to sin, an effort at improvement and growth, or any

movement towards fuller expression of divinity is teshuvah- alignment with the inner

momentum of cosmic return. Teshuvah is no longer limited to “repentance,” constituting

one aspect of the religious experience, but an all-encompassing “return to divinity” which

gives meaning and direction to life.

This theory of teshuvah informs Rabbi Kook’s writings and empowers his singular

capability to positively reframe the challenges of life. His fresh recasting of perspective

creates potent tools for the pastoral counselor seeking to help the client engage in the

healing process of “re-cognition.”

Teshuvah of the individual is not a purely private matter. As mentioned above, there is an

internal momentum that pushes all existence forward towards wholeness. The natural

world exhibits this internal drive.

Rabbi Kook’s unusual response to the theory of evolution is illustrative. Darwin’s theory

of evolution was vigorously rejected by British and American churches due to the

48
Bokser, p. 39.

50
judgement that the theory directly contradicted many of the core tenets of faith,49 a view

shared by many Orthodox rabbis of the time. In contrast, Rabbi Kook commented:

The theory of evolution is increasingly conquering the world at this time, and,

more so than all other philosophical theories, conforms to the kabbalistic secrets

of the world. Evolution, which proceeds on a path of ascendancy, provides an

optimistic foundation for the world. How is it possible to despair at a time when

we see that everything evolves and ascends? When we penetrate the inner

meaning of ascending evolution, we find in it the divine element shining with

absolute brilliance.50

The power of teshuvah moves all existence, including the natural world, towards greater

harmony and perfection. While Judaism does not necessarily accept every detail of

Darwinian evolution, Rabbi Kook sees an almost synonymous relationship between the

terms “evolution” and “teshuvah.” Both of these terms, according to Rabbi Kook,

describe the most fundamental directionality of being. The term evolution is derived from

a Latin root meaning “unfolding," and thus describes “the unfolding of something into its

true or explicit form [and] carries a connotation of gradual improvement or directionality

49
Joseph Liu, "Darwin and His Theory of Evolution," Pew Research Center's Religion &
Public Life Project, 2009, , accessed December 15, 2016,
http://www.pewforum.org/2009/02/04/darwin-and-his-theory-of-evolution/.
50
Abraham Isaac Kook, Orot Hakodesh (Hebrew), vol. 2:537 (Jerusalem, Israel: Mossad
Harav Kook, 1985), translation as cited in "Abraham Isaac Kook on Evolution," My
Jewish Learning, , accessed December 15, 2016,
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/abraham-isaac-kook-on-evolution/.

51
from a beginning to an end point.”51 This is, of course, the very essence of Rabbi Kook’s

kabbalistic understanding of teshuvah.

All progress, whether on the personal level or on the societal level, within economic,

judicial, or political systems, is a manifestation of the same force of teshuvah, as Rabbi

Kook writes elsewhere in “The Lights of Teshuvah:”

Universal teshuvah, which is the elevation of the world and its rectification, and

private teshuvah, which touches upon the particular personality of every

individual… are together one content. And so, all cultural progress, by which the

world emerges from its destruction, and the social and economic order, which

gradually become more perfect, together with the rectification of any sin… they

are all one inseparable unit that cannot be disconnected one from another, “and

they all ascend to one place.” (Zohar, Genesis 50:1) (4:3)

While the natural world is passively acted upon by the force of “teshuvah-evolution,” the

role of the human being is unique, as Rabbi Kook states above, “for teshuvah is his

portion and his inheritance.” The human being is part of the natural world, yet bound

simultaneously to the world of the supernatural, “And the Lord God formed man of dust

from the ground, and He breathed into his nostrils the soul of life, and man became a

living soul” (Genesis 2:7). The human being is both dust and soul. This unique

51
"Online Etymology Dictionary," Online Etymology Dictionary, , accessed December
30, 2016,
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&%3Bsearch=evolution.

52
composition both endows us with agency and empowers us to affect the world, both

materially and spiritually.

Every human being is consequential. We have the ability to engage in teshuvah as

individuals, and thereby to propel forward society, and the entire cosmos with us, towards

essential godliness. Our thoughts, speech, and actions are unimaginably significant and

impactful.

The most basic challenge of pastoral counseling is change. The client approaches

counseling driven by a desperate sense of brokenness, coupled with a glimmer of hope of

moving towards wholeness.

The sense of brokenness is not simply a function of any particular set of difficult

circumstances. It is often driven by, among other factors, the perception of the

overwhelming difficulty of change. We feel that change demands the daunting task of

swimming upstream against our internal impulses and psychic architecture, and of

battling the conspiracy of a myriad of hostile external conditions.

The doctrine of teshuvah posits a very different view. Teshuvah is the most natural and

authentic internal momentum. It drives forward all existence, both in the natural world

and in the world of human society. In another passage of “The Lights of Teshuvah,”

teshuvah is compared to mighty waves of energy erupting forth and flowing outwards

from the sun:

The particular and general currents of teshuvah flow forth. They are like waves of

flame on the sun, that burst forth in an eternal battle giving life to a multitude of

53
 worlds and countless creations. There is not the capacity to absorb the great

multitude of the many hues of this great sun, the sun of teshuvah, which

illuminates all worlds, due to their torrential flood, their wondrous speed, for they

come from the very source of life, in which time itself is only one of its limited

forms. (4:1)

Change is challenging, but it is not contrary to the innermost current of life. Change is

empowered by waves of positive energy flowing forth from the source of all being. A

contemporary image may be helpful. Change is not the desperate struggle of swimming

against the ocean’s current. It is more like a surfer riding its waves. It is undoubtedly a

serious challenge to stand up on the surfboard, but upon doing so, the surfer is propelled

by the powerful energy of the ocean itself and is flowing forward in profound harmony

with the sea’s currents.

Furthermore, there are few things as debilitating to an emergence from our sense of

brokenness as the despair driven by the feeling of inconsequentiality. In a profound

cognitive distortion, we see our existence as meaningless. Our birth is an accident, our

life is pointless, and death is its inevitable and empty dénouement.

The doctrine of teshuvah reframes this existential void. Each one of us is crucial. Each

one of us has an unimaginably potent role to play in the cosmic drama of repair. Through

our struggle to emerge from brokenness to wholeness, we both ride the wave of teshuvah,

and empower and accelerate it, moving ourselves and all being, towards the divine

wholeness from which all existence emerged.

54
55
 ‫‪Selection Two: Failure as Success‬‬

‫כשרוצים באמת לשוב‪ ,‬אע"פ שמעוכבים בשביל כמה מניעות‪ ,‬כמו מחמת בלבול דעת או מחמת חלישות כח או‬

‫מחמת אי‪-‬יכולת לתקן דברים שהם נוגעים בין אדם לחברו‪ ,‬אע"פ שהעכוב הוא גדול מאד והלב מוכרח להיות‬

‫נשבר מפני ידיעת גדל החובה המוטלת על האדם לתקן את כל פגמיו‪ ,‬באופן היותר טוב והיותר שלם‪ ,‬מ"מ כיון‬

‫שהרצון לשוב בתשובה הוא אמיץ‪ ,‬אע"פ שאין בכחו עדיין לסלק את כל המניעות‪ ,‬צריכים לקבל את ההארה‬

‫הזאת של התשובה בתור תוכן המטהר והמקדש עד שלא יזוז‪ ,‬מפני העכובים של אי השלמת התשובה‪ ,‬מכל‬

‫רוממות ומכל עליה רוחנית שהיא ראויה לו‪ ,‬ע"פ קדושת הנשמה וצביונה הקדוש‪ .‬וכשם שזה הוא כלל גדול‬

‫אצל היחיד‪ ,‬ככה הוא אצל הצבור בכללותו‪ .‬הארת התשובה ישנה בישראל‪ .‬התעוררות חפצה של האומה‬

‫בכללה לשוב אל ארצה‪ ,‬אל מהותה‪ ,‬אל רוחה ואל תכונתה‪ ,‬באמת אור של תשובה יש בה‪ .‬באמת הדבר‬

‫מתבטא בברור גמור בבטויה של תורה‪" :‬ושבת עד ד' אלהיך" "כי תשוב אל ה' אלהיך"‪ .‬התשובה היא תשובה‬

‫פנימית‪ ,‬אלא שהיא מכוסה בהרבה מסכים חוצצים ‪ -‬ואין כח בשום עכוב ומניעת השלמה לעכב את האור‬

‫העליון מהופיע עלינו‪.‬‬

‫‪When we truly desire to return, even though we may be hindered by a variety of‬‬

‫‪obstacles, such as confusion, or weakness, or the inability to set right interpersonal‬‬

‫‪matters, even though the obstacle may be exceedingly great and the heart must break‬‬

‫‪knowing the greatness of the obligation to correct our defects in the best and most‬‬

‫‪complete manner, nevertheless, since the desire to return in teshuvah is powerful, even‬‬

‫‪though we may not yet have the capacity to remove all the hindrances, we must accept‬‬

‫‪upon ourselves this illumination of teshuvah as a purifying and sanctifying force… In‬‬

‫‪truth, this matter is expressed with utter clarity in the Torah: “You shall return towards‬‬

‫‪the Lord your God…you shall return to the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 30) This‬‬

‫‪teshuvah is internal, concealed by many obstructive screens, but no obstruction or‬‬

‫‪56‬‬
hindrance can ultimately prevent the supernal light from shinning upon us. (The Lights

of Teshuva 17:2)

Discussion

As discussed in the previous selection, teshuvah, the journey from brokenness to

wholeness, is akin to riding the wave of the inner momentum of all being. As

encouraging and as empowering as this template may be, it does not detract from the

great struggle of change. There are multiple dimensions to this struggle.

Perhaps the most fundamental challenge of change is that of clarity. Clarity is the sine

qua non of cognitive therapy. There are numerous aspects to the lucidity needed to grow.

We occasionally suffer from an amorphous dissatisfaction from our lives, without

identifying a specific cause of our discontent. Even when we can narrow the scope of the

provenance of our unhappiness, we may be plagued by assumptions or beliefs that have

no basis in reality. And even when we may have identified those cognitive distortions,

there may be no clarity of how to move past them.

Change invariably demands inner fortitude. Weakness is not just a comment on character.

It is a kind of psychological equivalent of Isaac Newton’s First Law of Motion, “an

object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed

57
and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.”52 We naturally

maintain the status-quo unless acted upon by a disrupting power.

The challenge of change is to overcome the inertia described by Newton’s Law of Motion

by summoning up “an unbalanced force” from our inner resources of will. The Talmudic

sages comment, “Who is strong? One who overpowers his inclinations. As is stated,

‘Better one who is slow to anger than one with might, one who rules his spirit than the

captor of a city.’ (Proverbs 16:32)"53 In addition to the natural disinclination to alter

thinking and behavior, the contemporary zeitgeist does not put a premium on checking

impulse. The famous Nike promotional campaign slogan, “Just do it!” strikes a deeply

resonant chord reflective of the spirit of the times.54

When the nexus of the problem is an interpersonal relationship, the complexity of change

is exponentially compounded. While “it takes two to tango,” it is exceedingly difficult to

52
"Newton's First Law," Newton's First Law, , accessed December 18, 2016,
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/newtlaws/Lesson-1/Newton-s-First-Law.
53
Mishnah, 4. "Text of Chapter Four," Texts & Writings, , accessed December 18, 2016,
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/682518/jewish/English-Text.htm.
54
Interestingly, the slogan is based on the final words of Gary Gilmore, who in 1976
robbed and murdered two men in Utah. He uttered these memorable words right before
his execution! See Https://www.facebook.com/marcusfairs, "Nike's "Just do it" was
based on the last words of a murderer," Dezeen, 2016, accessed December 18, 2016,
https://www.dezeen.com/2015/03/14/nike-just-do-it-slogan-last-words-murderer-gary-
gilmore-dan-wieden-kennedy/.

58
unpack and reset the intricate tangle of relationships. The dynamic of blame is a deal-

breaking hurdle hovering over repair.55

The enormity of the challenge of change, does not, and should not, give rise to a

complacent surrender to misery. We are often heart-broken by our repeated failures at

accomplishing those things that hold out the prospect of achieving greater wholeness.

These repeated failures give rise to despair and this despair further immobilizes us.

Rabbi Kook sees in Scripture’s discussion of teshuvah a subtle, yet profound, refutation

of this common and debilitating distortion.

The classic treatment of teshuvah in the Torah is in chapter 30 of Deuteronomy:

You and your children will return to the Lord your God and obey him with all

your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today,

then the Lord your God will return your captivity and have compassion on you

and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. Even if you

have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the

Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the land

that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make

you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors. The Lord your God will

circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love

him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. The Lord your God will

55
For an analysis of this dynamic in TEAM-CBT see, David D. Burns, Feeling good
together: the secret of making troubled relationships work (New York: Broadway Books,
2008), 80-85.

59
 put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. You will return

and obey the Lord and follow all his commands I am giving you today. Then the

Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and

in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land.

The Lord will return and delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he

delighted in your ancestors, if you obey the Lord your God and keep his

commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and return to the

Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.56

This paragraph contains the Hebrew root of the word teshuvah a full seven times.

Umberto Cassuto, the renowned 20th century Italian-Jewish bible scholar points out that

the seven-fold repetition of a Hebrew root in a paragraph is a device used in Hebrew

Scripture to highlight a central motif.57 The return appears in multiple iterations; spiritual

return, physical return, Israel returns, and even God returns.

In addition to the numerous mentions of the theme of return, the paragraph has literary

“bookends.” The passage begins and ends with what appears, in English translation, as

the identical phrase “return to the Lord your God,” (appearing in bold in the text above).

In the original Hebrew, the two phrases are almost, but not quite, identical. The only

56
Slightly adapted from "BibleGateway," Deuteronomy 30 NIVUK - - Bible Gateway, ,
accessed December 18, 2016,
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2B30&version=NIVUK.
57
As cited in Nehama Leibowitz and Aryeh Newman, Studies in Devarim
(Deuteronomy) (Jerusalem: Eliner Library, Dept. for Torah Education and Culture in the
Diaspora, the Joint Authority for Jewish Zionist Education, 1996), 312.

60
difference is the Hebrew preposition between “return” and “the Lord your God,”

translated above both times as “to,” while the Hebrew uses two different Hebrew

words.58

Traditional Jewish biblical commentary demands a very careful reading of the text and

assumes purposefulness in every nuance. If the prepositions used are two different

Hebrew words, then they must convey two distinct meanings. Rabbi Meir Leibush

Wisser, commonly known as Malbim,59 one of the most prominent of the traditional

commentators and grammarians of the 19th century, suggests that the first preposition

implies direction, while the second connotes arrival. In light of this interpretation, the

text would begin with “return towards the Lord your God,” while ending with “return to

the Lord your God.”60

According to this subtle change in prepositions, the Torah is informing us that teshuvah is

not a binary, all or nothing, change. Teshuvah is a process which begins with a pivot

towards godliness, only eventually culminating in arrival, with a full rectification and

restoration of godliness. In other words, there are two forms of teshuvah: the teshuvah

which is towards God and the teshuvah which is to God.

Rabbi Kook fully fleshes out the spiritual and psychological import of this grammatical

observation. The heartbreak over the failure to achieve our goal of change should not be

58
Hebrew is ‫עד‬, followed by ‫אל‬.
59
See Yehoshua Horowitz, Encyclopaedia Judaica, , s.v. "Malbim. Meir Loeb Ben Jehiel
Michael."
60
Malbim, Peirush HaMalbim al HaTorah (Bnai Brak, 1989) (Hebrew).

61
interpreted as reflecting the lack of the fulfillment of the biblical imperative of teshuvah.

On the contrary, the deep disappointment is a sure expression of the accomplishment of

teshuvah “towards the Lord your God,” the form of teshuvah referred to at the beginning

of the biblical text. It is a teshuvah of the pivoting towards God, as manifested in the

profound desire to change, even if not yet actualized.

In traditional Jewish practice, we recite a blessing before fulfilling an act prescribed as a

“commandment.” A religious act, such as this, is referred to in Hebrew as a “mitzvah.”

The recitation of a blessing serves to frame a mindful engagement with the performance

of the mitzvah. The text of the blessing is, “Blessed are you, Lord, our God, who has

sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to (fill in the blank: light

Sabbath candles, put on phylacteries, study the Torah, etc.).” This blessing posits a

spiritual impact upon one who performs this act. The carrying out of a mitzvah sanctifies

the individual who has acted in harmony with the divine will, the ultimate source of the

mitzvah and the ultimate source of sanctity.

Rabbi Kook asserts that “since the desire to return in teshuvah is powerful, even though

we may not yet have the capacity to remove all the hindrances, we must accept upon

ourselves this illumination of teshuvah as a purifying and sanctifying force….” The

desire to change, so powerful as to break the heart, even without actualizing the change,

is a fulfillment of the mitzva of teshuvah “towards the Lord your God.” Rather than

despair at the seeming failure to affect the yearned-for change, Rabbi Kook exhorts us to

appreciate the great accomplishment embodied in the profound desire to change, which

creates purifying and sanctifying light, as with the performance of any mitzvah.

62
Furthermore, this light of sanctity acts as an empowerment to move us further along the

process of teshuvah, ultimately culminating in the teshuvah of “to the Lord your God.”

No obstacle, challenge, or hindrance has the power to derail this process, which is

propelled by human will riding and accelerating the wave of the inner momentum of all

being.

The struggle of the therapeutic process is inevitably fraught with disappointing failures.

The reframing of these “failures” is sorely needed to transform the temptation to despair,

into the savoring of success, hidden just below the surface of heartbreak.

63
 ‫‪Selection Three: The Challenge of Ends and Means‬‬

‫מתחלת הבריאה ראוי היה טעם העץ להיות גם הוא כטעם פריו‪ .‬כל האמצעים המחזיקים איזו מגמה רוחנית‬

‫גבוהה כללית ראוים היו להיות מוחשים בחוש נשמתי באותו הגבה והנעם‪ ,‬שעצם המגמה מורגשת בו כשאנו‬

‫מציירים אותה‪ .‬אבל טבע הארץ‪ .‬התנודדות החיים‪ ,‬ולאות הרוחניות כשהיא נסגרת במסגר הגופניות‪ ,‬גרם‬

‫שרק טעמו של הפרי‪ ,‬של המגמה האחרונה‪ ,‬האידיאל הראשי‪ ,‬מורגש הוא בנעמו והדרו‪ ,‬אבל העצים הנושאים‬

‫עליהם את הפרי‪ ,‬עם כל נחיצותם לגדול הפרי‪ ,‬נתעבו ונתגשמו ואבדו את טעמם‪ .‬זהו חטא הארץ‪ ,‬שבעבורו‬

‫נתקללה כשנתקלל גם האדם על חטאו‪ .‬וכל פגם סופו לתקון‪ .‬ע"כ מובטחים אנו בברור‪ ,‬שיבאו ימים שתשוב‬

‫הבריאה לקדמותה‪ ,‬וטעם העץ יהיה כטעם הפרי‪ ,‬כי תשוב הארץ מחטאה‪ ,‬וארחות החיים המעשיים לא יהיו‬

‫גורמים לחוץ בעד הנועם של האור האידיאלי‪ ,‬הנתמך בדרכו ע"י אמצעים הגונים‪ ,‬המחזיקים אותו ומוציאים‬

‫אותו מן הכח אל הפועל‪ .‬התשובה עצמה‪ ,‬המזרמת את הרוח הפנימי‪ ,‬אשר נטבע במצולות תהום של ההעדר‬

‫והפך המגמה האידיאלית ע"י נתינת רוח לרוח הצדק‪ ,‬שנתן בתחלה במועקה‪ ,‬תתן עז ‪ .‬לרוח האידיאלי לחדור‬

‫בתקפו גם בחלקי כל המכשירים הרבים‪ ,‬ומכולם יוטעם טעמו של הזיו המגמתי‪ ,‬ולא ישא עוד האדם חרפת‬

‫העצלות בדרך החיים האמתיים‪ ) .‬אורות התשובה ו‪:‬ז)‬

‫‪From the outset of creation, it was fit that the taste of the tree be like the taste of its fruit.‬‬

‫‪All means which strengthen a lofty and general spiritual goal were fit to be sensed with a‬‬

‫‪spiritual sense, with the same lofty pleasantness with which the imagined goal is felt. But‬‬

‫‪the nature of the earth, the dislocations of life, the fatigue of spirituality when enclosed‬‬

‫‪within the enclosure of the bodily, caused that only with regards to the taste of the fruit,‬‬

‫‪of the ultimate goal, of the primary ideal, would there be tasted its pleasantness and its‬‬

‫‪beauty. While the trees, which bear the fruit, with all their necessity for the growing of‬‬

‫‪64‬‬
the fruit, became thickened and material and lost their taste. This is the sin of the earth for

which it was cursed when man was cursed.

But all defects will ultimately be rectified. Concerning this we are assured with clarity,

that the days will come when creation will return to its primal state and the taste of the

tree will be like the taste of the fruit. The earth will return from its sin and the manner of

practical life will no longer cause separation from the pleasantness of the ideal light,

which is supported on its way by appropriate means which strengthen it and bring it from

the potential to the actual.

Teshuvah itself infuses the inner spirit which is sunk in the depths of the void and the

opposite of the ideal goal. It provides relief to the spirit of righteousness which was

initially oppressed. It empowers the spirit of the ideal to penetrate, with its strength, to the

multitude of means. In all of them there will be tasted the taste of the radiance of the goal.

Humankind will no longer bear the shame of indolence along the path of true life. (The

Lights of Teshuvah 6:7)

65
 Discussion

Our passage from Rabbi Kook’s “The Lights of Teshuvah” is as powerful as it is cryptic.

Unpacking this difficult passage will require some hard work.

The text is an attempt at interpreting a Talmudic teaching referred to as a “midrash.” The

Hebrew word midrash is derived from a root meaning to seek out or demand.61 A

midrash seeks out, or demands, meaning from a biblical verse that is problematic. The

difficulty being addressed by the midrash may be a grammatical, linguistic, or conceptual

peculiarity. The midrash may deal with a legal issue, associated with one of the legal

texts of the Torah, or it may be of an ethical or theological nature, referred to as

“narrative midrash.” These interpretative traditions are cited in the name of the rabbis of

the Talmudic period, encompassing the period of Roman domination of Palestine through

the early Byzantine rule.

Rambam, the great 12th century rabbinic authority, vehemently rejected understanding the

narrative midrashic teachings in a literal fashion, when doing so would violate reason:

They [the wise] know that the sages did not speak nonsense, and it is clear to

them that the words of the sages contain both an obvious and a hidden meaning.

Thus, whenever the sages spoke of things that seem impossible, they were

61
For a full discussion, see Herr, Moshe David. Encyclopaedia Judaica, 8th ed., s.v.
“Midrash.” Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 1978.

66
 employing the style of riddle and parable which is the method of truly great

thinkers.62

The great challenge of a narrative midrash is to decipher the “riddle and parable” and

arrive at the “hidden meaning.”

Our present text is Rabbi Kook’s attempt at decrypting a particularly difficult midrash.

The midrash is addressing a peculiarity in the Genesis narrative dealing with the creation

of fruit trees. God expresses his intention in the creation of fruit trees in the following

manner:

And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation: seed-bearing plants, fruit trees of

every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. (Genesis

1:11-12)

Yet, the very next verse, when describing the earth’s compliance with the divine

command, states:

The earth brought forth vegetation: seed-bearing plants of every kind, and trees of

every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that this was good.

(Genesis 1:13)

62
Maimonides Introduction to Perek Helek, retrieved from
https://www.mhcny.org/qt/1005.pdf.

67
The text initially makes reference to the earth’s mandate to sprout fruit trees, whereas in

actuality the earth brought forth, merely trees, without the appellation “fruit (trees).”

Concerning this gap between the directive issued to the earth and the earth’s actions, a

midrash comments:

It was taught in the name of Rabbi Natan: three entered for judgment, and four

emerged guilty, and these are they: Adam and Eve and the serpent entered for

judgment, and the Earth was cursed with them, as it says: "The earth will be

cursed because of you" (Gen. 3:17)…. Why was the Earth cursed?... Rabbi

Yehuda bar Rabbi Shimon [Shalom] said: because the Earth transgressed a

commandment; The Holy Blessed One said to her [Earth] "Let the earth sprout

vegetation: seed-bearing plants, fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit

with the seed in it," just as the fruit is eaten, so too the tree is eaten and she did

not do so, but rather "The earth brought forth vegetation: seed-bearing plants of

every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it" - the fruit was

edible, but the tree was not edible.63

The midrash begins with addressing a different textual peculiarity. The Torah describes

the punishment meted to those involved in the sin of eating the “forbidden fruit” in the

Garden of Eden, as described in Genesis 3. Despite the fact that the obvious “culprits”

were Adam, Eve, and the serpent, yet the text includes a cursing of the Earth, as well!

The midrash answers that the Earth is punished for a different sin, the disobeying of the

63
Midrash Rabbah, Genesis 5:9, retrieved from “Sefaria," Sefaria: a Living Library of
Jewish Texts Online, , accessed December 19, 2016, http://www.sefaria.org/texts.

68
command with regards to the fruit trees. The Earth was ordered to produce fruit trees,

whereby the sweet fruity taste would characterize the tree itself, in addition to the fruit,

hence the term “fruit trees.” In actuality, the Earth sinned and brought forth trees that

produced sweet fruit, leaving the tree itself tasteless, hence the term “trees.”

Though we now understand the midrash from a technical standpoint, in the spirit of

Rambam quoted above, what is the message the rabbis were trying to convey with this

fanciful parable?

Rabbi Kook suggests a map of symbolism to interpret the midrash. The sweet fruit

represent the goals we try to achieve. Goals excite our imagination and evoke the most

noble aspirations. The tree, which produces the fruit, represents the means necessary to

achieve those lofty goals.

With this map, Rabbi Kook proceeds to unpack the midrash as offering an incisive

treatment of one of the most vexing of life’s challenges. All of us aspire to lofty goals.

Our aspirations may be in the realm of physical health, emotional or psychological well-

being, interpersonal relationships, creativity, or spirituality, or any of a myriad of the

dimensions of life. We yearn for the sweetness of healing and wholeness.

To our dismay, we soon discover that all of these goals require means. These goals may

require a regimen of modified eating and exercise, psychotherapy “homework,”

conscious and consistent behavioral changes in interactions with others, disciplined

practice of artistic skills, commitment to daily prayer, among the numerous means

towards desired ends.

69
These means lack the sweetness of the goals. We soon grow weary of the seemingly

tedious and joyless path leading to the coveted destination. As a consequence, we

abandon the goal altogether, leaving us mired in the dreary status quo.

This dichotomy, between the ends and the means, is produced by the “sin of the earth.”

The earth, of course, is not capable of sin, but it is our “earthiness,” brought about by the

submergence in a material perspective, which causes the blindness and dulling of the

spiritual sense. There is a certain built-in inevitability to this malady. We are indeed

earthy and cannot be expected to have an angelic vision of reality.

Yet there are degrees of acuity of spiritual vision. We can remind ourselves that, by

divine intent, the tree itself should be as sweet as its fruit. Unfortunately, we tend to

create a virtual bifurcation between the means and the goal, which is not reflective of the

ideal, lurking in potential beneath the surface. If our senses were to be sufficiently

refined, we could indeed taste the fruit within the tree.

This perspective is a call to mindfulness. Reminding ourselves of the divine ideal can

enable us to glimpse the goal within the means and to savor the sweetness in those

means. We are called to reframe the means versus ends dichotomy, replacing it with a

fresh cognition that seeks identification of means and ends, as one continuum. This re-

cognition can empower us to embrace with vigor and consistency those healing processes

that will undoubtedly, and ultimately, lead to greater wholeness.

70
 ‫‪Selection Four: Natural Teshuvah‬‬

‫גדולה היא תביעתנו הגופנית‪ ,‬גוף בריא אנו צריכים‪ ,‬התעסקנו הרבה בנפשיות‪ ,‬שכחנו את קדושת הגוף‪ ,‬זנחנו‬

‫את הבריאות והגבורה הגופנית‪ ,‬שכחנו שיש לנו בשר קודש‪ ,‬לא פחות ממה שיש לנו רוח הקודש‪ .‬עזבנו את‬

‫החיים המעשיים‪ ,‬ואת התבררות החושים ואת הקשור עם המציאות הגופנית המוחשית‪ ,‬מפני יראה נפולה‪,‬‬

‫מפני חוסר אמונה בקדושת הארץ‪" ,‬אמונת זה סדר זרעים ‪ -‬שמאמין בחי העולמים וזורע"‪ .‬כל תשובתנו תעלה‬

‫בידינו רק אם תהיה‪ ,‬עם כל הוד רוחניותה‪ ,‬גם תשובה גשמית יוצרת דם בריא‪ ,‬בשר בריא‪ ,‬גופים חטובים‬

‫ואיתנים‪ ,‬רוח לוהט זורח על גבי שרירים חזקים‪ ,‬ובגבורת הבשר המקודש תאיר הנשמה שנתחלשה‪ ,‬זכר‬

‫לתחית המתים הגופנית‪.‬‬

‫ההתעמלות‪ ,‬שצעירי ישראל עוסקים בה בארץ ישראל לחזק את גופם בשביל להיות בנים אמיצי כח לאומה‪,‬‬

‫היא משכללת את הכח הרוחני של הצדיקים העליונים‪ ,‬העוסקים ביחודים של שמות הקדושים‪ ,‬להרבות‬

‫הבלטת האור האלהי בעולם‪ ,‬ואין גילוי אור אחד עומד בלא חבירו כלל‪( .‬שמואל ב ח יג)‪" :‬ויעש דוד שם"‪,‬‬

‫ו(שמואל ב ח טו)‪" :‬דוד עשה משפט וצדקה לכל עמו"‪( ,‬שמואל ב ח טז)‪" :‬ויואב בן צרויה על הצבא"‪.‬‬

‫ולא נענש אבנר אלא מפני (ירושלמי פאה פרק א הלכה א)‪" :‬שעשה דמן של נערים שחוק"‪ .‬אבל שיצחקו‬

‫הנערים לחזק כחם ורוחם‪ ,‬בשביל גבורת האומה בכללה‪ ,‬עבודת הקודש הזאת מעלה את השכינה מעלה מעלה‪,‬‬

‫כעליתה ע"י שירות ותשבחות‪ ,‬שאמר דוד מלך ישראל בספר תהלים; אלא שע"י הכוונות העליונות עולה‬

‫הנשמה הפנימית‪ ,‬וע"י המעשים המאמצים את גוף היחידים לשם הכלל עולה הרוחניות החיצונית‪ .‬ושניהם‬

‫כאחד משכללים את סדרי הקדושות כולם‪ ,‬בהבלטת אפיה של האומה בפרשה הקטנה שכל גופי תורה תלוים‬

‫בה‪( :‬משלי ג ו)‪" :‬בכל דרכיך דעהו"‪.‬‬

‫ואל יפלא אם יש חסרונות במהלך החיים של העוסקים באימוץ הגופני ובכל החיזוקים הארציים שבישראל‪ ,‬כי‬

‫אפילו הופעת רוח הקודש צריכה בירור מתערובות ציחצוחי טומאה שמתערבים בה‪ ,‬והיא הולכת ומיטהרת‪,‬‬

‫מתקדשת ומתבררת‪ ,‬פודה את עצמה מגלותה‪ ,‬עד שבאה לכלל דרך צדיקים ו(משלי ד יח)‪" :‬אור נוגה‪ ,‬הולך‬

‫ואור עד נכון היום"‪ ).‬אורות · אורות התחיה · פרק לג ופרק לד(‬

‫‪71‬‬
Great is the bodily demand made upon us. We require a healthy body. We have dealt

much with spirituality but we have forgotten the holiness of the body. We have

abandoned health and bodily strength. We have forgotten that we have holy flesh, no less

than we have a holy spirit. We have left practical life, the clarification of the senses, and

the bond with bodily, sensory existence- due to a “fallen fear,” due to a lack of faith in

the holiness of the Land… All of our teshuvah will only succeed if, together with the

splendor of its spirituality, there is, as well, a physical teshuvah which fashions healthy

blood, healthy flesh, solid strong bodies, a fiery spirit shining forth upon strong muscles.

Within the sanctified body will radiate the weakened soul- evocative of bodily

resurrection…

This holy service elevates the Divine Presence (“Shechina”) ever upwards, as its

elevation though the songs and praises uttered by King David in the Book of Psalms. The

elevation brought about by the supernal intentions, however, effects the inner soul, while

the actions that strengthen the body of individuals, for the sake of the collective, bring

about the elevation of the external spirit. Both of them together perfect the network of

holiness in its entirety through the accentuation of the character of the nation through that

brief passage upon which the entire body of the Torah depends, “In all your ways know

Him.” (Proverbs 3:6) (Orot 33-34)

72
 Discussion

In the previous selection Rabbi Kook had addressed the bifurcation between the inspiring

goals and the perceived tediousness of the means to achieve those goals. He identified the

source of this distorting split as the excessive submergence in the material, dulling our

sensitivity to the sweetness contained already in the means. In the present passage, from a

collection of Rabbi Kook’s early writings edited and published by his son with the

Hebrew title “Orot”64 (“Lights”), he, once again, insists upon the ultimate unity lying

beneath the surface of all being.

The path of religion and spirituality is often perceived, and experienced, as demanding

some sort of withdrawal from the material. In fact, the previous selection, attributing a

dulling of spiritual sensitivity to the effects of engagement in the material world, could

very well be understood as advocating precisely that.

In our present selection, Rabbi Kook fine-tunes and reframes the body-soul relationship,

advocating a holistic commitment to the integration of them both, as an organic whole.

The care for the body and physical vigor is a religious demand, no less than any other

sacred obligation. Rambam, in his monumental law code, codifies the care of the body

among the Torah’s obligations:

Since the body being healthy and wholesome is from the paths of God - as behold,

it is impossible for one to understand or to know anything of Godly wisdom when

64
Published in English translation with extensive footnotes by Bezalel Naor; Abraham
Isaac Kook and Betsalʼel Naʼor, Orot (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1993).

73
 he is sick - therefore one must distance himself from things that are damaging to

the body and to accustom himself to things that are healthy and therapeutic.65

Rambam, in addition to his rabbinic obligations, was also the court physician to Saladin,

founder of the Ayyūbid dynasty.66 He goes on to enumerate many details of healthy

living, including:

A person should always only eat when he is hungry, and drink when he is thirsty.

And he should not delay his orifices even one second, but rather whenever he

feels the need to urinate or defecate he should immediately get up. A person

should not eat until his belly is full, but rather he should reduce [his consumption

from that by] about a quarter of his satiation…67

Maimonides explains the basis of this law as utilitarian. Health is needed in order to

make possible the pursuit of “Godly wisdom.” In contrast, Rabbi Kook anchors this ethic

in a kabbalisticly informed “unitarianism.” Since all creation emerges from the ultimate

unity of God, all creation must also partake of that quality of unity. This approach seeks

to minimize all bifurcations, dichotomies, and polarization, including the perceived gap

between the mundane and the holy. Rabbi Kook asks us to re-cognize that “we have holy

flesh, no less than we have a holy spirit.”

65
"Mishneh Torah, Human Dispositions 4:2 | Sefaria," Sefaria: a Living Library of
Jewish Texts Online, , accessed December 20, 2016,
http://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah,_Human_Dispositions.4.2?lang=en&%3Bwith=al
l&%3Blang2=en.
66
Louis Isaac Rabbinowitz, Encyclopaedia Judaica, , s.v. "Maimonides, Moses ."
67
Mishneh Torah, op. cit.

74
The devaluing of the significance of the body is a distortion, a kind of “forgetting.” True

fear of God does not necessitate the ignoring or degrading of the body. Such a mistaken

impression is an expression of a “fallen fear,” a misrepresentation of the lofty awe of

God.

Teshuvah is a call for a holistic rectification of the entirety of one’s being. The return to

wholeness must include the reinvigoration of the body. The fuller expression of the

sanctity of the body, through a conscientious concern for its wellbeing, is necessary for

the full vibrancy of the soul. This holistic teshuvah is evocative of resurrection, the return

of the soul to a reborn body. It is the metamorphosis of death into the fullness of a

sanctified life.

Rabbi Kook begins his “Lights of Teshuvah” by defining the care of the body and

appreciating its interconnection with every other aspect of life as the most basic form of

teshuvah:

Bodily teshuvah encompasses any transgression against the laws of nature, ethics,

or spirit, which are bound up with the laws of nature. Any negative behavior

ultimately brings on sickness and pain. Humankind suffers greatly from this, as

individuals and collectively. Once it becomes clear that one is responsible,

through one’s own negative behavior, for the impoverishment of one’s life, one

can rectify the situation; returning to the laws of life, to observe the laws of

nature, ethics, and spirit, in order to return and live, and life will return, with all

its fresh vibrancy... (1:1)

75
Disregard for the body is a “transgression against the laws of nature.” The laws of nature

are of Divine origin, no less, and of no less significance, than the Torah’s decrees

regulating interpersonal morality and “ritual” commandments. Rabbi Kook advocates a

careful inventory of the state of our physical health as the first step in teshuvah.

He exhorts us to take responsibility for the “impoverishment of one’s life.” Owning our

problems may seem a harsh indictment and a heavy burden, but it is also a profound

empowerment to solve those difficulties. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, one of the most

fascinating of the early Chassidic masters of the 18th century,68 would say, “If you believe

that you can ruin, then you must believe that you can repair.”69 A holistic engagement

with the process of teshuvah, beginning with bodily teshuvah, holds out the promise of

the restoration of dynamic vitality to the entire expanse of our lives.

In a passage of our selection which evoked a firestorm of criticism from his more

conservative colleagues,70 Rabbi Kook compares a regimen of exercise and sport to “holy

service,” a term usually used in reference to the sacred rituals associated with the

Tabernacle or the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.71 In a daring comparison, sport is said to

accomplish the elevation of the Divine Presence, as does the sublime poetry of Psalms.

Cryptically, Rabbi Kook explains that, while both accomplish the elevation of the soul,

exercise elevates the “external spirit,” while a more overt spiritual activity elevates the

“inner soul.”

68
Joseph G. Weiss, Encyclopaedia Judaica, , s.v. "Nahman of Bratslav."
69
Likkutei Moharan Tanina (Hebrew), 68.
70
See Naor, ibid, 35-44.
71
See Numbers 7:9.

76
The selection concludes with a paraphrase of a Talmudic teaching:

Bar Kappara expounded: Which is a brief Scriptural passage upon which all the

principles of the Torah depend? "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He will

direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:6). Raba said: Even for a matter of transgression.

Rav Pappa said: This is the meaning of the popular saying, “A thief at the

threshold calls out to the Merciful One.”72

The Talmud is suggesting that the verse in Proverbs, "In all thy ways acknowledge Him,”

is the foundational bedrock of the Torah, informing all of its particulars. The entire

expanse of life is a context within which to find the presence of God. There is ultimately

no mundane, just the “not yet” sanctified. Even a thief, about to commit a theft, calls out

to God, asking for success. There can be a spark of God’s presence even in the most

profane!

Clients generally come for counseling motivated by pain in a specific area of life. The

client expects to focus on the specific presenting crisis. As understandable as this may be,

it is an unhelpful diminution of the scope of healing. This can be a particular challenge to

those who have the cognitive distortion of the bifurcation between the material, the

psychological, and the spiritual aspects of life. Authentic teshuvah will necessitate

72
"Berakhot 63a:37 | Sefaria." Sefaria: a Living Library of Jewish Texts Online.
Accessed December 20, 2016.
http://www.sefaria.org/Berakhot.63a.37?lang=en&%3Bwith=all&%3Blang2=en.
Emended in accordance with the version redacted in Ein Yaakov.

77
addressing multiple dimensions of our being, as an organic whole, with the entire

compass of life an opportunity for life-enhancing sanctification.

78
 ‫‪Selection Five: Authenticity‬‬

‫ואני בתוך הגולה‪ ,‬האני הפנימי העצמי ‪,‬של היחיד ושל הציבור‪ ,‬אינו מתגלה בתוכיותו רק לפי ערך הקדושה‬

‫והטהרה שלו‪ ,‬לפי ערך הגבורה העליונה‪ ,‬הספוגה מהאורה הטהורה של זיו מעלה‪ ,‬שהיא מתלהבת בקרבו‪.‬‬

‫חטאנו עם אבותינו ‪,‬חטא האדם הראשון‪ ,‬שנתנכר לעצמיותו‪ ,‬שפנה לדעתו של נחש ‪,‬ואבד את עצמו‪ ,‬לא ידע‬

‫להשיב תשובה ברורה על שאלת איך ‪,‬מפני שלא ידע נפשו‪ ,‬מפני שהאניות האמיתית נאבדה ממנו ‪,‬בחטא‬

‫ההשתחואה לאל זר‪ ,‬חטא ישראל‪ ,‬זה אחרי אלהי נכר ‪,‬את אניותו העצמית עזב‪ ,‬זנח ישראל טוב‪ .‬חטאה הארץ ‪,‬‬

‫הכחישה את עצמיותה‪ ,‬צמצמה את חילה‪ ,‬הלכה אחרי מגמות ותכליתות ‪,‬לא נתנה את כל חילה הכמוס להיות‬

‫טעם עץ כטעם פריו ‪,‬נשאה עין מחוץ לה‪ ,‬לחשוב על דבר גורלות וקריירות ‪.‬קטרגה הירח‪ ,‬אבדה סיבוב‬

‫פנימיותה‪ ,‬שמחת חלקה‪ ,‬חלמה על דבר הדרת מלכים חיצונה‪ ,‬וכה הולך העולם וצולל באבדן האני של כל‬

‫אחד ‪,‬של הפרט ושל הכלל ‪ .‬באים מחנכים מלומדים‪ ,‬מסתכלים בחיצוניות‪ ,‬מסיחים דעה גם הם מן האני‪,‬‬

‫ומוסיפים תבן על המדורה‪ ,‬משקים את הצמאים בחומץ ‪,‬מפטמים את המוחות ואת הלבבות בכל מה שהוא חוץ‬

‫מהם ‪,‬והאני הולך ומשתכח‪ ,‬וכיון שאין אני‪ ,‬אין הוא ‪,‬וקל וחומר שאין אתה ‪.‬רוח אפינו משיח ד'‪ ,‬זהו גבורתו‬

‫הדר גדלו‪ ,‬איננו מבחוץ לנו ‪,‬רוח אפינו הוא‪ ,‬את ד' אלהינו ודוד מלכנו נבקש ‪,‬אל ה' ואל טובו נפחד‪ ,‬את האני‬

‫שלנו נבקש‪ ,‬את עצמנו נבקש ונמצא‪ ,‬הסר כל אלהי נכר‪ ,‬הסר כל זר וממזר‪ ,‬וידעתם כי אני ה' אלהיכם‪,‬‬

‫המוציא אתכם מארץ מצרים להיות לכם לאלהים‪ ,‬אני ה'‪) .‬אורות הקודש ג‪:‬צז(‬

‫‪“I was in exile” (Ezekiel 1:1)- The inner, essential “I.” whether of the individual or of the‬‬

‫‪community, is only revealed within, relative to one’s holiness and purity, relative to the‬‬

‫‪supernal strength which is absorbed from the pure light of the divine splendor, which‬‬

‫‪burns within.‬‬

‫‪“We and our ancestors have sinned.” (Psalms 106:6) Adam sinned for being estranged‬‬

‫‪from his essence, for he turned for guidance to the snake and lost himself, not knowing‬‬
‫‪79‬‬
how to clearly answer the question, “Where are you?”. (Genesis 3:9) For he did not know

his own self. He lost the true “I” through the sin of bowing to an alien god.

Israel sinned. It whored after strange gods.

The Land sinned. It denied its essence, diminished its strength, and went only after goals

and ends. It did not give its full hidden strength so that the taste of the tree should be as

the taste of its fruit. It cast its eye away from itself to consider only fortunes and careers.

The moon complained. It lost its internal orbit, the joy of its lot. It dreamt of the external

grandeur of kings.

And so, the world goes, sinking into the loss of every “I,” whether of the individual or the

community.

Learned educators, looking only at the external, distract attention from the “I,” add straw

to the fire, give vinegar to the thirsty, stuff the minds and hearts with everything external.

And the “I” becomes gradually more forgotten.

Once there is no “I,” there is no “him;” and all the more so, there is no “you.”

“The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord.” (Lamentations 4:20)- This is his

might, the grandeur of his greatness. It is not external. It is “the breath of our nostrils.”

Let us seek out the Lord, our God, and David, our king. Let us tremble before the Lord

and his goodness. Let us seek out our own “I.” Let us seek out our selves. We shall seek

and find. Remove all strange gods, remove all alien and illegitimate! And you shall

80
know that I am the Lord that takes you out of the Land of Egypt, to be for you God, I am

the Lord. (The Lights of Holiness 3:97)

81
 Discussion

This passage from Rabbi Kook’s writings comes from the four-volume collection bearing

the Hebrew title “Orot Hakodesh,” meaning, “The Lights of Holiness.” This text is, once

again, a compilation of passages from Rabbi Kook’s journals edited by his foremost

disciple, Rabbi David Cohen.73

The selection begins with a creative reading of the very opening verse of Ezekiel. The

prophet is locating his words in time and place, “In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of

the fourth month, when I was in exile, by the Chebar Canal, the heavens opened and I

saw visions of God.” Ezekiel lived during the time of the fall of Jerusalem in the late 6th

century BCE at the hands of the Babylonian conquers. He joined the Judean exiles in

Babylonia and prophesied from there. 74

Exile is a central leitmotif in the Hebrew Bible. Adam is placed in Paradise, from which

he is exiled, in consequence of sin. Cain murders his brother, with God pronouncing his

punishment:

A wanderer you will be on the earth. And Cain said to the Lord: My punishment

is more than I can bear. See, You have driven me out this day from the face of the

land; and from your face shall I be hidden; and I shall be a vagrant and a wanderer

73
Mirsky, 181-182.
74
Moshe Greenberg, Encyclopaedia Judaica, , s.v. "Ezekiel."

82
 in the earth…. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelled in

the land of Nod, east of Eden.” (Genesis 4:12-16)

It is interesting to note that Cain dwells in “Nod,” which is the very same Hebrew root

meaning “wander.” Cain lives in a kind of existential oxymoron, he dwells in wandering.

Furthermore, the text alludes to exile as mirroring a spiritual state, “from your face shall I

be hidden… Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.” Estrangement from home

reflects estrangement from God.

This theme continues with the dispersion of the builders of the Tower of Babel, “Thus the

Lord scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:8)

The murderous conspiracy against Joseph and his ultimately being sold into Egyptian

slavery sets the scene for the exile of Jacob and his family for hundreds of years.

Moses names his son “Gershom,” meaning “stranger there,” explaining, “I am a stranger

in a strange land.” (Exodus 2:22)

Even when the exile is about to end, with Israel about to finally return to the Land of

Israel, they are warned, “should you act wickedly…. I call heaven and earth this day to

witness against you that you shall soon perish from the land that you are crossing the

Jordan to possess; you shall not long endure in it…. The Lord will scatter you among the

peoples.” (Deuteronomy 4:25-27)

83
The remainder of the history of Israel, as recorded in the Hebrew Bible, is the playing out

of this dynamic, culminating in the exile of the northern tribes by Assyria and the final

exile of Judea to Babylonia, with Ezekiel among them.

Rabbi Kook suggests that exile is not limited to estrangement from home and Homeland.

Exile can be a state of mind, as well, the estrangement from the most essential self. It is

as if Ezekiel was saying that the real ‘I,’ the truest inner self is in exile. I am estranged

from myself. The primal punishment of exile is caused by the primal root of all sin- the

exile and alienation of the self.

What is this “inner self” of which Rabbi Kook speaks? It is nothing less than “the pure

light of the divine splendor, which burns within.” As mentioned in the introduction,

Rabbi Kook’s maternal grandfather was an adherent of the Chabad Chassidic movement.

At a young age, Rabbi Kook was exposed to these teachings and became a life-long

serious student of the writings of Rabbi Shneur Zalman, the founder of Chabad.75 It is

instructive to examine a brief selection from the opening passage of the magnum opus

(“Likutei Amarim-Tanya”) of Rabbi Shneur Zalman, defining the nature of the soul:

[The soul] is truly a part of God from above, as it is written, "And He breathed

into his nostrils the soul of life," and "Thou didst breathe it [the soul] into me."

And it is written in the Zohar, "He who exhales, exhales from within him," that is

75
Mirsky, 11.

84
 to say, from his inwardness and his innermost, for it is something of his internal

and innermost vitality that man emits through exhaling with force.76

Why does the Torah describe the bestowing of the soul to Adam with the metaphor of

breath? Rabbi Schneur Zalman cites the explanation of the Zohar, the classic text of

Kabbalah. Upon exhaling, the breath, which had been internal and integral to the

“breather,” is now externalized. God blows the soul into the body, inserting into Adam a

bit of Himself. Our most internal essence is godly, “the pure light of the divine splendor,

which burns within.”

A life of authenticity is an expression of that internal purity, through the prism of the

unique hues that comprise our individuality. The betrayal of authenticity is the foundation

of sin.

Rather than being true to his natural internal sense of propriety, Adam allows an external

and alien influence, symbolized by the snake, to distort fidelity to his authentic self. The

all-knowing God does not need to ask Adam concerning his location! God’s inquiry to

Adam, “where are you” is a rhetorical question that Adam must ask himself. Where is the

authentic “you”? It has been sent it into exile by the compromise of integrity. You,

Adam, have submitted to an external authority, betraying your own internal divine

compass.

76
"Chapter 2," Likutei Amarim, , accessed December 22, 2016,
http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1028875/jewish/Chapter-2.htm.

85
This submission to an external and alien authority is the very essence of idol worship. In

this sense, Adam worshiped idols, as did Israel.

Betrayal of authenticity deeply plagues the world. Rabbi Kook refers to several

Midrashic teachings that characterize this alienation from authenticity to be so subtle and

pervasive that it is even associated with the natural world. In selection three, we

examined the Midrash in which the trees were intended, by divine design, to be as sweet

as the fruit, yet the Land betrayed the divine intent and created a distorted bifurcation of

ends and means. In a distortion of authenticity, only the fruit (the goal) is sweet, while the

tree itself (the means), is tasteless, if not bitter, disheartening us from a consistent and full

commitment to a process of healing.

Rabbi Kook proceeds to allude to another Midrash portraying the deep-seated gap

between the primal genuine self and its contorted reality, using symbolism from the

natural world. As previously explained, Midrash always plays on a linguistic or

conceptual peculiarity in the Biblical text. When God declares his intention to create the

sun and the moon, the text states, “And God made the two large luminaries: the large

luminary to rule the day and the small luminary to rule the night…” (Genesis 1:16) The

verse initially describes both luminaries as “large.” In an awkward shift, the verse refers

to one as “large” and the other “small.” What happened?

The Midrash addresses the issue:

R. Simeon b. Pazzi pointed out a contradiction [between verses]. One verse says:

And God made the two large luminaires, and immediately the verse continues:

86
 The large luminary . . . and the small luminary. The moon said unto the Holy One,

blessed be He, 'Sovereign of the Universe! Is it possible for two kings to wear one

crown'? He answered: 'Go then and make thyself smaller'.77

In this tongue-in-cheek Midrash, both the sun and the moon were created “large.” The

moon was dissatisfied with being “large,” desiring to be even larger. Instead of a joyous

celebration of self, the moon sunk into the psychic quagmire of alienation and the

ensuing and inevitable diminution and contraction.

Rabbi Kook seems to suggest that these portrayals of estrangement from self, attributed

to the natural world, convey just how pervasive are the temptations to inauthenticity. In a

painful condemnation of typical education, Rabbi Kook accuses “learned educators” of

eroding the deep respect for individual authenticity of students. Instead of encouraging

the wondrous journey of self-discovery and fidelity to the “I,” their insistence on

standardized curricula, focused outwardly on the accumulation of information, leads to

further obliteration of self-recognition.

Loss of self-recognition, along with the prospect of self-actualization (in the most noble

sense) is not just a tragedy for the individual. The loss of self-appreciation inevitably

cripples the entire system of human relations and interactions. Without a firm mooring in

self, without the ability to “live in one’s own skin,” we lose the clarity to appreciate and

accept those around us for who they are. Once there is no “I,” there is no “him;” and all

the more so, there is no “you.” At best, we are left with deeply cynical transactional

relationships.

77
Babylonian Talmud, Chullin 60b.

87
Rabbi Kook calls for a return to authenticity in a bold reading of a verse from

Lamentations, “The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord.” (Lamentations 4:20)

The phrase “the anointed” is the literal meaning of the Hebrew “ma’shiach,” or messiah.

This is the term used to refer to the kings of Israel who were anointed with oil as a rite of

consecration and induction to office.78 Most traditional Jewish commentary sees the verse

in Lamentations as a reference to one of the kings of Israel, who was as precious as the

very breath of life.79 Messiah, as an eschatological term, is a result of the notion that the

national restoration of Israel will be accomplished through the renewal of the Davidic

monarchy.

Rabbi Kook sees the phrase “the breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord” as

alluding to an equation of a kind of messianic restoration with “the breath of life.” The

breath of life is our divine essence, that essential soul that was granted to Adam though

the divine breath, as described in the creation narrative. The root of redemption, the

restoration of wholeness, is to be found in the very breath of our nostrils. True self-

recognition and a life of authenticity is, the redemption of the “I” from exile.

The implications of this analysis are of vital significance in the therapeutic process. We

approach therapy broken, seeking wholeness. The sine qua non of wholeness is fidelity to

self. In our brokenness, we all too often see repair through external validation. The

78
See for example, 1 Samuel 9:16.
79
See, for example, Rashi, “The breath of our nostrils, the Lord’s anointed: That is
Josiah, as it is stated in Chronicles (II Chron. 35:25): ‘And Jeremiah lamented Josiah.’”
"Eichah - Chapter 4," Eichah - Chapter 4 - Tanakh Online - Torah - Bible, , accessed
December 25, 2016, http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16460#showrashi=true.

88
dependency on external validation is an alienation from self and a surrender of autonomy.

It is the fundamental form of slavery. Rabbi Kook writes elsewhere:

The difference between a slave and a free person is not just a matter of social

standing. One may find an educated slave whose spirit is free, and a free person

with the mindset of a slave. What makes us truly free? When we are able to be

faithful to our inner self, to the truth of our Divine image — then we can live a

fulfilled life, a life focused on our soul's inner goals. One whose spirit is servile,

on the other hand, will never experience this sense of self-fulfillment. His

happiness will always depend upon the approval of others who dominate over

him, whether this control is de jure or de facto.80

The address for self-fulfillment is the self. The joy of freedom is the joy of fidelity to self.

On a more challenging level, the search for fulfillment and wholeness, when directed

outwardly, makes us vulnerable to “solutions” which become our problems. As in many

other cultures, there exists within Jewish literature the notion of the “evil eye.” The

common understanding of this idea is that a malicious gaze can cause harm.81 Rabbi

Kook removes this concept from the realm of the supernatural and see this as a

fundamental principal of psychological and spiritual health:

By means of the interaction of souls upon each other there is the capacity for the

“Evil Eye” to act for the bad… But it can only have this effect through the

80
Abraham Isaac Kook, Ma'amarei HaRaya (Jerusalem: Golda Katz Fund, 1984), 157.
81
Dov Noy, Encyclopedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Encyclopedia Judaica, 1971), s.v. "Evil
Eye."

89
 weakness of the soul which is affected. The content of this weakness is the

inability of the soul to recognize its own value and its focusing its actions on the

external view of the eye. This weak soul, which is so influenced by external

forces in the determining of its path in life, is particularly prone to receiving

external influences which are evil, as well. By means of finding authentic

happiness and equanimity within his internal world, he will not be enslaved to the

external effect of those who surround him, so that their glances not become the

center of his life and path. Through this he will transcend the power of external

evil which impacts those low and weak souls. 82

The lack of an internal compass leads to external guides to navigate the complex journey

of life. We become vulnerable to self-destructive beliefs and behaviors. We cling to the

false-messiahs of the seductively medicating effects of hedonism, materialism, pursuit of

power, ego-gratification, and countless other paths to self-destruction.

In a tragic cognitive distortion, we become convinced that fidelity to the good and the

sacred requires the suppression of our innermost desires. The Talmudic sages, in a

midrashic play on the Torah’s description of the tablets containing the Ten

Commandments, accentuate this point:

82
Abraham Isaac Kook, Ein Aya, vol. 2 (Jerusalem: Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook Institute,
1994), 277.

90
 “The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God,

engraved upon the tablets.” (Exodus 32:16) Read not charut [which means

engraved] but cherut [which means freedom].83

The Law was not written on the tablets. It was carved and engraved into the stone itself.

This image of “carved in stone” has become evocative of permanence and inflexibility- a

kind of conceptual incarceration. This rabbinic teaching points out that the Hebrew word

for “engraved” is almost identical to the Hebrew word for “freedom.” It is as if the verse

could be re-read to say that there was “freedom on the tablets.”

The adoption of ethics, morality, and wholesome living does not demand true self-

suppression. This is a mirage. It is a life most in harmony with our inner, most authentic,

self. While it does pose a formidable challenge, in Rabbi Kook’s words, to “transcend the

power of external evil,” the confidence that this is the path to genuine freedom and “of

finding authentic happiness and equanimity within his internal world,” is a powerfully

motivating re-cognition.

83
Mishnah, Avot, 6:2.

91
 Selection Six: The Pain of Change

‫ שאין‬,‫ שחלקי הנפש הרעים‬,‫ הוא בא מפני הנתוקים‬.‫ בראשית זריחתו‬,‫ שמרגישים ברעיון התשובה‬,‫המכאוב‬

,‫ מקלקלים את כל הנפש ופוגמים אותה‬,‫להם תקנה כל זמן שהם מחוברים בחטיבה אחת באורגניות הנפשית‬

‫ ככאב של‬,‫ וכל נתוק מביא כאב‬.‫ מעצמיות הנפש היסודית בעקרה‬,‫וע"י התשובה הם הולכים ונתקים ונעקרים‬

‫ שעל ידם ובהם האדם‬,‫ ואלו הם היסורים היותר פנימיים‬.‫עקירת אברים המקולקלים וכריתתם מטעם הרפואה‬

‫ "מקל וחומר משן ועין‬.‫יוצא לחרות מהעבדות החשוכה של חטאיו ונטיותיו השפלות ותוצאותיהם המרות‬

,‫ "אל תקרא תלמדנו אלא תלמדנו‬- "‫ "אשרי הגבר אשר תיסרנו יה ומתורתך תלמדנו‬,"‫שעבד יוצא בהן לחרות‬

)‫א‬:‫ (אורות התשובה ח‬."‫דבר זה מתורתך למדתנו‬

The pain that is felt at the prospect of teshuvah, at the beginning of its illumination, is a

result of detachments. The irreparable dysfunctional parts of the personality, as long as

they are organically connected to the soul, damage the entirety of the soul and injure it.

Teshuvah brings about their progressive detachment and uprooting from the essence of

the foundation of the soul from their very root. Any detachment results in pain, like the

pain of amputation of a diseased limb for medical reasons. These are the most internal

afflictions by which and through which one emerges into freedom from the dark

enslavement of transgression and base inclinations and their bitter results…. “Happy is

the person whom You afflict, O Lord, and instruct in Your teaching.” (Psalms 94:12)

This matter You have instructed us.

92
 Discussion

Perhaps ironically, while it is often the desire to find relief from pain that motivates us to

change, yet the process of change itself is fraught with pain, as well. One of the great

challenges of the therapeutic process is what David Burns, founder of the TEAM school

of CBT, refers to as “Agenda Setting.” 84 This challenge can be so formidable as to

require a careful “cost-benefit analysis” of the desirability of therapy.

Rabbi Kook addresses this issue in his “Lights of Teshuvah.” Distorted cognitions and

self-defeating behaviors are compared to a diseased limb which has afflicted the entire

body. The process of the removal of these dysfunctional aspects of our personality are

like the therapeutic amputation of a limb. There can be no denial of the pain and fear

associated with the prospect of such surgery, yet it is a necessary element in the

restoration to health.

This image is utilized in one of the classic medieval guides to spiritual growth, “The

Duties of the Heart.” This work, originally written in Judeo-Arabic, was composed in

Spain in the early 11th century by Rabbi Bachya ibn Pakuda.85 In the section entitled “The

Gate of the Service of God,” the author portrays a kind of CBT “Cost-Benefit Analysis”

in a conversation between the enlightened intellect and the soul struggling for wholeness:

84
For a full discussion see David D. Burns, When panic attacks: the new, drug-free
anxiety therapy that can change your life (New York: Morgan Road Books, 2006), 221-
233.
85
Baḥya Ben Joseph ibn Paḳuda et al., Duties of the heart (Jerusalem: Feldheim
Publishers, 1970). The complete text appears online at
http://dafyomireview.com/article.php?docid=384

93
The Intellect: Only a person who longs for health will put up with the bitterness of

a medicine; but one who does not long for health will not submit to the severity of

the treatment…. If you are telling the truth in what you are saying, the treatment

may possibly be successful in your case. But if it is not the truth, why should you

deceive yourself? For a sick person who lies to his physician only cheats himself,

wastes the physician's efforts and aggravates his sickness…

The Soul: My desire was never other than weak, and my longing was always

deceptive, from the time when my only incentives (to the service of God) were

the records of former ages that have passed away up to the time when the truth of

what you have stated has become scientifically clear to me, first through the

exhortation of the Torah, and later by rational demonstration, so that my longing

now is genuine and my desire definite.

The Intellect: If what you say is true, then prepare yourself to bear the pain of the

treatment, and endure the bitter taste of the medicine and its unpleasantness, after

you will have first given up the pernicious diet to which you were accustomed.

The Soul: What is the pernicious diet to which I was accustomed?

The Intellect: It is the reprehensible disposition that has mastered you from the

first and the forces which have maintained it, from the earliest years of your

growth….

94
 The Soul: To renounce these faults would be very hard for me, on account of the

long time that I have been habituated to them; therefore, be kind enough to show

me in what way I can do so more easily.

The Intellect: Surely you know that a sensible man will consent to the amputation

of one of his limbs and to its loss, if it is attacked by some disease which he fears

will spread and affect the remaining limbs, as soon as he considers the difference

between the two states and realizes the inequality of the two evils. So, too, if you

wish that the separation which is so hard should seem easy to you, concentrate

your mind and employ your intelligence in weighing the good you will derive

from the separation and the evil which will befall you if you continue your

association with it; and then separation from your reprehensible disposition,

which seems so hard, will be easy.

While ibn Pakuda is referring to “pernicious diet” and “reprehensible disposition,” upon

which there is moral judgment, the same dynamic of healing can apply to any deeply

entrenched self-defeating behavior. The confidence that the pain is part of the healing

process empowers not only the tolerance of hurt, but even its embrace.

The Talmud relates a fascinating narrative of one the most highly revered of the

Talmudic sages, Resh Lakish, and his complex relationship with Rabbi Yochanan, who

became his teacher and brother-in-law. Resh Lakish is initially portrayed as a man of

great physical strength, who had adopted a life of violence as a gladiator in the Roman

95
circus.86 His transformation from fighter to sage is described in a curious encounter with

a certain Rabbi Yochanan:

One day Rabbi Yochanan was swimming in the Jordan. Resh Lakish saw him and

leapt into the Jordan after him. He [Rabbi Yochanan] said "Your strength belongs

to Torah." He [Resh Lakish] said, "Your beauty belongs to women." He [Rabbi

Yochanan] said "If you return [repent], I will give you my sister, who is more

beautiful than me." He [Resh Lakish] accepted, He [Resh Lakish] tried to go back

and collect his weapons but he was not able to lift them. He [Rabbi Yochanan]

taught him [Resh Lakish] scripture and he taught him the Tradition and he made

him a great man.87

While this remarkable story deserves much thought, for the present discussion, one detail

warrants attention. Resh Lakish has a moment of epiphany in the waters of the Jordan.

Despite his extraordinary strength, he is no longer able to bear the weight of the tools of

his trade, “He [Resh Lakish] tried to go back and collect his weapons but he was not able

to lift them.” The transformation from bandit to sage is fraught with the debilitating and

weakening impact of the amputation of the diseased parts of the personality. Over a long

and painful process of rehabilitation, Lakish is once again “a great man,” newly

invigorated with the vitality of wholeness.

86
See Beer, Moshe. Encyclopaedia Judaica, 8th ed., s.v. “Simeon be Lakish.” Jerusalem:
Keter Publishing House, 1978.
87
Talmud Bava Metziah 84a.

96
Rabbi Kook, once again,88 invokes the image of dysfunctionality as servitude, while the

struggle of repair, “the most internal of afflictions,” leads to joyous freedom. He asserts

that this is the meaning of the difficult verse from Psalms, “Happy is the person whom

You afflict, O Lord, and instruct in Your teaching.” (94:12) What happiness can there be

in affliction and what is its relevance to “instruct in Your teaching?” Rabbi Kook

suggests that the confident knowledge that tradition provides of the therapeutic impact of

the pain associated with the restoration of health motivates us to persevere. This re-

cognition of the nature of teshuvah allows for a seemingly paradoxical exuberant

engagement with the painful process, as we move towards the joyous prospect of

wholeness.

88
See the previous selection.

97
 Selection Seven: The Positive Root of the Negative

‫ שמקורם השאיפה הגדולה הצפונה בעומק הנפש האנושית‬,‫הרבה רעות מוסריות ומעשיות נמצאים בעולם‬

‫ ומפני שאין הנפשות משיגות את הדרך המוביל‬.'‫ שהוא אור ד‬,‫להיות שבעה מזיו אור החכמה והשגת האמת‬

‫ והם משתבשים לפעמים לשבר צמאונם בדברים שאינם‬,‫ הם מלאות חלי וקצף‬,‫לשקיטת צמאונם הפנימי הלזה‬

‫ ואשרי מי שנוטה‬.‫ כי אם מהממים את רגשותיהם לבל ירגישו מכאב לבבם הפנימי‬,‫עלולים כלל לשבר הצמאון‬

.‫ ד' אלהים אמת‬,‫ ואינו משקיט צמאו כי אם במקור מים חיים‬,‫שכמו לסבול דוקא את העול של דרישת ד' ועוזו‬

)‫ פנקס יפו ח‬:‫(קבצים מכתב יד קדשו‬

There are many ethical and practical evils found in the world whose source is the great

aspiration hidden in the depths of the human soul to be satiated from the radiance of the

light of wisdom and the perception of truth, which is the light of God. Since the souls

cannot perceive the path which leads to quieting of this internal thirst, they are full of

sickness and anger. They occasionally become confused by attempting to slake their

thirst with things which cannot satisfy at all; things which stun the emotions so that they

not feel the inner ache of their hearts. How fortunate is the person who inclines the

shoulder to bear the yoke of seeking the Lord and His might, who only quenches thirst

from the fountain of life, the Lord, God of Truth. (Kevatzim MiKtav Yad Kodsho; Pinkas

Yafo 8)

98
 Discussion

Our present selection brings us full circle, in a daring culmination of the themes

developed so far. We began our first selection with the notion of “cosmic teshuvah,” by

which all creation flows into being from God and exists within God, sometimes referred

to as “panantheism.” Just as God is an absolute unity, so too that which comes into being

reflects, on the most ultimate level, that sublime unity.

The role of evil in this kabbalistic worldview is complex. There is certainly no room for

an autonomous force of evil, fragmenting the world and competing, as it were, with God.

At the same time, the existence of evil, pain, suffering, and misfortune is undeniable.

Rabbi Kook posits that the divine root of all is, and must be, good. All existence has an

internal momentum and yearning to return to its beneficent divine root. Human beings,

possess a uniquely divine soul, bound up with great complexity with our “terrestrial”

nature. The longing for anchoring ourselves in our divine root is refracted through a

prism of a myriad of complications. In Rabbi Kook’s words:

There is no pain in the world comparable to the pain of the yearning for the

absolute good; of the terrible thirst, which afflicts the soul in its search for

spiritual bliss, to be filled with the radiance of integrity, of wholeness, of

righteousness, of divine communion- associated with purification from all sin and

transgression. “God, You will not despise a contrite and crushed heart.” (Psalms

51:19)

99
 All righteousness and all evil, all truth and all falsehood, all good and all bad, join

together in one great and wondrous bond, over which shines the supernal good of

creation.

Fortunate is the person that can deeply encompass the unitary compass of all. He

will find pleasantness in the bitter, purity in the impure, truth in falsehood,

righteousness in evil. He will subdue all bad, all evil, all falsehood, and all

ugliness so that they be transformed to their nature of truth and righteousness,

light and good. All supernal instruction is founded on the explication of the details

of these principles. 89

Everything derives from the root of absolute good. Our yearning for the absolute good

generates a tension and unavoidable frustration, as Rabbi Kook articulates elsewhere,

“We sense in the fullness of our souls the unavoidable necessity for the absolute good

and the interminable yearning in the depths of the soul to ascend to it, to approach its

heights, to gaze at its pleasantness.” 90 The misunderstanding and distorted contortion of

this yearning generates all manner of dysfunction and suffering. Healing requires finding

the positive root even in those contortions.

A fascinating and instructive application of this model is found in the writings of Rabbi

Eliyahu Dessler, a younger contemporary of Rabbi Kook, who was immersed in the same

89
Abraham Isaac Kook, Orot Hakodesh (Hebrew), vol. 3 (Jerusalem: Mossad Harav
Kook, 1985), 185.
90
Abraham Isaac Kook, Shemonah Kevatzim (Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 2004), 1:114.

100
Kabbalistic and Chassidic texts. 91 The Talmud presents a lengthy discussion of the

symbolic interpretation of dreams. Among the more perplexing of these passages is the

following:

Who dreams of having intercourse with his mother may anticipate understanding;

as it is said, "Yea, thou wilt call understanding 'mother'" (Proverbs 2:3) …. Who

dreams of having had intercourse with his sister may anticipate wisdom; as it is

said, "Say unto wisdom, thou art my sister" (Proverbs 7:4). 92

The Talmud cites verses from Psalms that refer to “understanding” as “mother;” while

“wisdom” is referred to as “sister.” In contrast to how Freud might have understood these

dreams of incestuous attraction to mother and sister, the Talmud sees these dreams as

portending highly positive developments: the acquisition of understanding and wisdom.

But how so?!

Rabbi Dessler offers a bold, but obscure, explanation of this problematic passage:

There are dreams which reveal the positive root which lies in the subconscious,

for which the evil impulse is a substitute, as in the Talmudic passage, “Who

91
See Zvi Kaplan, Encyclopedia Judaica. "Elijah Dessler" (Jerusalem: Encyclopedia
Judaica, 1971).
92
Isidore Epstein, The Babylonian Talmud (London: Soncino Press, 1978), Berachot 57a.

101
 dreams of having intercourse with his mother may anticipate understanding; as it

is said, "Yea, thou wilt call understanding 'mother.” 93

Elsewhere, Rabbi Dessler elaborates on the underlying theory upon which he bases his

commentary on the Talmud:

The entire basis of man’s longing for all manner of worldly pleasures derives

from a desire to silence, through the substitution of something similar, the sense

of deficiency that he finds within himself- which in fact is nothing other than a

spiritual hunger, the longing of the soul for perfection… but a substitute cannot

satisfy. 94

Rabbi Dessler, precisely in the same vein as Rabbi Kook, suggests that we suffer from a

“spiritual hunger, the longing of the soul for perfection,” a phenomenon which Rabbi

Kook had described as a “thirst” or “the pain of yearning.” We naturally attempt to

silence that state of frustration.

For reasons that are beyond the scope of this discussion, we are often unaware of the true

nature of the discomfort, which is, in fact, a sublime spiritual yearning for wholeness.

Instead, we are prone to “translate” the desire into some action that we misperceive as

having the ability to restore us to calm, or in Rabbi Kook’s words, “things which stun the

emotions so that they not feel the inner ache of their hearts.” This is the source of much

destructive behavior, including the abusive forms of eating, sexuality, alcohol, drugs,

93
Rabbi Eliyahu E. Dessler, Michtav MeEliyahu (Hebrew), vol. 4 (Jerusalem: Feldheim
Publishers, 1985), 164.
94
Ibid. vol. 1, 100.

102
anger, and emotional dependency. The way out of this destructive cycle involves the

identification of the authentic nature of the longing and channeling it into appropriate

avenues.

Rabbi Dessler reads the Talmud in this vein. The incestuous dreams, rather than

expressing latent neurotic tendencies, are a window into the positive root underling the

distorted cognition. The desire for mother is masking the desire for understanding, while

the desire for sister is masking the desire for wisdom.95 The beginning of clarity

regarding the positive root underlying the distorted desires opens the door to the healing

process.

Rabbi Kook uses this model to understand the positive roots underling a wide assortment

of negative traits and behaviors including narcissism, depression, anger, abusive

sexuality, fear, and envy.

The rabbis of the Talmud consider envy as one of the most destructive of emotions,

“Envy, lust and honor drive a person from the world.”96 Rabbi Kook explores the dangers

of envy:

Spiritual paths follow unique configurations, each world to itself. One standing in

his own world is likely to perceive the path unique to someone else as empty and

95
Though it is not obvious why “mother” is symbolic of “understanding,” while “sister”
is symbolic of “wisdom,” the Talmud is relying upon biblical passages which can be read
to make those associations.
96
Avrohom Davis, Pirkei avot: a new translation with classical commentaries (New
York: Metsudah Publications, 1979), 4:21.

103
 desolate, as a dark ruin, even though for the other person, for whom it is his

world, it is full of structure and brightness. Each person needs extra caution to

remain in the boundaries of his own world. If he dares to peek into a world which

is not his, he must guard his spirit and only to peek. He must not to attempt to put

down roots and to settle there, lest he uproot himself from his own world while

not absorbed by the foreign world. He may temporarily be accepted as a guest, but

if he establishes his dwelling there, he may find himself sitting on scorpions

(Ezekiel 2:6), with a narrow and dark vision, even cast aside- “Now why should

you, my child, be intoxicated by a stranger, and embrace the bosom of an alien

one?” (Proverbs 5:20) 97

Envy is a betrayal of one’s own identity and unique path. As Rabbi Kook developed in

our fifth selection, it is a profoundly self-defeating abandonment of authenticity, in a

futile attempt at expropriating that which organically belongs to someone else. The

envious person is left asunder in a self-imposed exile.

Yet, Rabbi Kook argues, envy has a positive root:

Envy is strange. Many do not recognize it, since there are many factors that

prevent language from expressing it. It sleeps, slumbering in the hidden recesses

of the human soul. It occasionally emerges in different forms, other than its

genuine form…

97
Shemonah Kevatzim (Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 2004), 5:142.

104
 This strange envy is envy of God. The human being is envious of God’s unlimited

bliss and absolute perfection. This envy leads to the distortion of perception, the

darkening of thought, the dulling of the intellect, and the agitation of the spirit.

When all means fail to contain its fury, it culminates in absolute denial of God, in

order to remove from the aching soul, devoured by rot, the sting of envy which

pricks so terribly. 98

Rabbi Kook returns to his central premise of the primal urge of all existence, and

especially of the human being, to return to the divine source of all and the actualization of

godly potential. Our celestial-terrestrial nature sets up an unavoidable limitation and

tension, as Rabbi Kook expressed above, “There is no pain in the world comparable to

the pain of the yearning for the absolute good; of the terrible thirst, which afflicts the soul

in its search for spiritual bliss, to be filled with the radiance of integrity, of wholeness, of

righteousness, of divine communion.” This disparity between desire and reality is the

primal root of envy: the desire to possess that which belongs to the other.

We can never truly possess the “unlimited bliss and absolute perfection of God.”

Likewise, desire flowing from envy, in all its more mundane manifestations, can never be

satisfied. Nonetheless, a clear vision of the primal root of envy can guide us to living with

this tension creatively and constructively, without the soul-rotting consequences of

unchecked envy. Rabbi Kook explains:

There is no healing of this sickness other than the supernal illumination of the

knowledge of God, with clarity and appropriate depth…. To the extent that

98
Ibid. 1:129.

105
 awareness is elevated, the person and the world approach godly greatness. With

the supernal elevation of the person and his full awareness, he finds that

everything is included in God and that the unique essence of each individual

detail of existence is nothing other than the revelation of godliness which shines

with different hues before us. According to this, divine bliss is the bliss of all…

This is the secret of the lofty delight of divine perception, which continuously

senses supernal bliss, eternal wholeness, full of joy and strength. Here, there is no

room for any envy.99

Paradoxically, the unity and wholeness of God, is expressed through the multiplicity of

our uniquely defined individuality. When we preserve boundaries, we contribute to the

wholeness of the tapestry which expresses the perfection of the sublime unity of God and

the “divine bliss is the bliss of all.” Boundaries and expansiveness coexist with a creative

and interdependent tension, a tension which motivates growth, rather than the rot of envy.

As mentioned in the discussion of the second selection, in traditional Jewish practice,

formulated blessings are recited as a tool to mindfulness. One particularly interesting and

relevant blessing, to be recited when in the presence of 600,000 people, is prescribed in a

text of Midrash:

99
Ibid.

106
 If one sees a great gathering of people, one says, “Blessed are you, Lord of God,

sovereign of the universe, wise knower of secrets.” Just as their faces are

dissimilar, so too are their outlooks, each possessing his own. 100

Rabbi Kook explains the intent of this blessing:

Since their outlooks are so dissimilar and their appearances are so dissimilar, the

more one gazes upon these differences, the more one is liable to be astonished by

these differences… Nevertheless, it is precisely because of these differences that

they all unite to one goal- the building of the world though each one’s appropriate

task. We need to be in wonder at the supernal wisdom, that through those internal

secrets, only known and revealed to God, all of these opposites are connected and

bound relationally to each other so that a most fit harmonious structure emerges

from the joining of these mindsets and appearances.

If the internal similarity of all people were overly obvious, each person would not

be drawn towards their uniqueness with zealousness. Individuality would be

nullified. This nullification of individuality would result in the absence of the

substance to build the unifying collective. For this reason, God created nature so

that each person would relate to the world through the boundaries of individuality

and thereby each would fulfill their appropriate aspect…

For this reason, differences remain apparent in all their strength, while only

within, in the depths of the secrets of the supernal wisdom, are they united.

100
BeMidbar Rabbah (Hebrew), 21:2.

107
 Ultimately, when human education is completed, individuality will no longer

require such elevated protection- “For then I will transform the peoples to a pure

language, that all of them call in the name of the Lord, to worship Him of one

accord.” (Zephaniah 3:9)101

Here Rabbi Kook further addresses the interplay between individuality and the

underlying mystical unity of all. Both are “true” and both are necessary. Ironically, envy,

in its various forms, can serve as a motivational energy, yet it can also threaten the

preservation of boundaries, so necessary to the building of the world.

The notion that the negative has its roots in the godly/goodly has powerful implications

for the therapeutic struggle. We all too often feel immovably anchored by the deep-seated

conviction of being irredeemably broken. We perceive that our misery flows from an

essential flaw within us.

The Jewish mystical tradition, as expressed in the writings of Rabbi Kook, challenges this

assumption. Even our destructive behaviors and emotions can be traced to a positive root.

We are not fundamentally damaged. We are redeemable because our core is healthy. A

therapeutic journey, according to the thinking of Rabbi Kook, might involve the

identification of the positive root, the nature of its destructive expression, and the

realignment with the positive core.

101
Abraham Isaac Kook, Ein Aya (Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook
Institute, 1994), Berachot 2:284.

108
Furthermore, the assertion that maladaptive aspects of our lives are rooted in positive

qualities, dictates a critical path in the process of healing. It negates the wholesale

suppression of these various aspects of behavior and feeling. Suppression would not only

be an exercise in futility, but a dangerous negation of an essential productive component

of our being. Rabbi Kook writes, with regards to suppression in the name of fear of God,

“It destroys the goodness of the person; it transforms him into a lowly creature, incapable

of action and reduced to reclining and quaking. A person must believe in his life; to

believe in both his material and ethical potential and strength.”102

There is a whimsical anecdote about Rabbi Kook engaging in a type of psychotherapy.

While he was living in London, he was asked to speak to a man who had become

convinced that he was the messiah and was constantly declaring to all his status as “the

redeemer.” He had been brought to a variety of psychotherapists who had been unable to

disabuse him of his newfound identity.

Rabbi Kook agreed to meet with the self-proclaimed messiah. After listening

empathically to the man’s story, Rabbi Kook said, “You should know that it is correct, to

a certain degree, you are the messiah, for in every person there is a spark of the messiah.

Some have a small spark and others, a large spark. You have a large spark. Yet, this spark

is only beneficial if you don’t talk about it. If it is talked about, it can be lost altogether,

God forbid!”

Though this story is amusing, it also reflects a serious and fundamental insight into the

approach of Rabbi Kook. Rabbi Kook did not attempt to negate or suppress the messianic

102
Shemonah Kevatzim (Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 2004), 1:231.

109
self-understanding of his “client.” In fact, he affirmed the root truth of his claim. Every

person has an essential role to play in the redemptive process and we must all believe in

the profound significance of our roles. Yet, this fundamentally vital confidence becomes

destructive if overly swollen and contorted. 103

The detailing of the therapeutic process involving the identification of the positive roots,

the tracing of their distortion, and their rehabilitation, is beyond the scope of the present

discussion. Yet the beginning of the journey lies in a re-cognition that moves us from

despair to belief in our lives.

103
Chaim Lipshutz, Shivchei HaRaya (Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Harry Fischel Institute,
1979), 130.

110
 Selection Eight: The Promise of Sexuality

,‫ את חיי העולם הבא בעולם הזה‬,‫ שיביא הזמן‬,‫ אל שכלול החיים‬,‫הנטיה המינית הולכת היא וזורמת אל העתיד‬

‫ על כן גדולה היא שאיפת החפץ ועז הרצון של נטית‬,‫ומתוך שהחיים העתידים הנם מלאים הוד ונועם מלא‬

,‫ והנפש הטהורה מנהגת את נטיה זו למגמתה‬,‫ והקדושה המגמתית רק עליה היא משרה את אורה‬,‫עולמים זאת‬

‫ ויסוד קדושתן של‬.‫ כל מאן דנטיר ברית איקרי צדיק‬.‫ מקורי הצדק‬,‫ היושר והצניעות‬,‫ החכמה‬,‫בגידור התורה‬

.‫ ועמך כלם צדיקים‬.‫ ורוח קדושה הולך וחופף על כלל האומה ופרטיה‬,‫ישראל הוא קשור בעולם העתיד‬

)‫תנו‬:‫(שמנה קבצים א‬

The sexual drive continuously flows into the future, to the perfection of life that time will

bring; the life of the “world to come” within this world. Since the future life is full of

grandeur and pleasantness, the desire and the strength of will of this eternal drive is great.

Ultimate holiness confers its light only upon it. The pure soul steers this drive towards its

purpose within the boundary of the Torah, wisdom, integrity, and modesty- the sources of

righteousness. (Shemonah Kevatzim 1:456)

111
 Discussion

In the previous selection, Rabbi Kook asserted the positive and godly root of all,

including dysfunctional and destructive behavior. It is difficult to exaggerate the

centrality of sexuality and its ability to mirror the complexities of our lives.

Characteristically, Rabbi Kook’s understanding of sexuality begins with identifying its

positive root- a source which is as powerful and all-pervasive as the sexual drive itself.

“The sexual drive continuously flows into the future, to the perfection of life that time

will bring- the life of the ‘world to come’ within this world.” With these words, Rabbi

Kook locates the source and purpose of the sexual drive. The phrase “the world to come”

is an eschatological term found throughout rabbinic literature referring to the ultimate

resolution of history into a perfected world. 104 Rabbi Kook sees an essential association

between sexual intercourse and the perfected “world to come.”

In the most superficial sense, the reproductive function of sex is an obvious projection

into the future. It is clear that Rabbi Kook is not limiting the significance of sex to the

perpetuation of the species. If that were the sole meaning of sex, there would be no need

to speak of bringing “the world to come within this world,” with all its implications of

perfection.

As discussed throughout our selections, Rabbi Kook sees history as being inexorably

propelled by a subtle but powerful force towards divine wholeness, when the divine unity

104
See Rosenblatt, Samuel. Encyclopaedia Judaica, 8th ed., s.v. “Olam Haba.” Jerusalem:
Keter Publishing House, 1978.

112
from which all sprang, will be manifest. The reproductive function of the sex act can be

seen as a metaphor for the deeper significance of sexuality:

Sexuality is the foundation of the drive towards eternity. Just as the infinite

perpetuation of life is revealed through this power in a bodily manifestation, so

too does it function on a spiritual level, within the essence of the person.

The root of this power within the innermost aspect of the soul is the foundation

that sustains the light of life, which radiates and illuminates with a multitude of

hues, sparkling in their wondrous brightness. Since the life-force is concretized,

the original radiance cannot be contained within the individual personality. Since

the force which maintains individuality cannot contain this flowing spring, which

powerfully flows forth infinitely, with an abundance of lights, it gushes forth into

sexuality and the generations. 105

Sexual intercourse offers the potential to transcend limitation, to go beyond our finite

selves and the confines of individuality. The projection towards the future is a taste of

immortality and ultimate self-transcendence. It is through sexuality, perhaps more than

other experience, that we can taste a bit of that perfected unity of the world to come.

Rabbi Kook undoubtedly had in mind the tradition recorded in the Talmud, “Three things

offer a foreshadowing of the world to come: the Sabbath, sunshine, and sexual

105
Abraham Isaac Kook, Ein Aya (Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook
Institute, 1994), Shabbat 2:38.

113
intercourse.”106 All of these experiences offer a taste of transcendence, each in their own

way, and none as palpably as sexuality.

The delight of the sexual experience is precisely because it offers a taste of the bliss of

the perfected world, in which tensions, contradictions, and conflicts are resolved. The

sexual drive is, therefore, extraordinarily powerful and pervasive.

Rabbi Kook even suggests that the sexual drive can be more powerful than our personal

instinct to survive as individuals, “The sexual impulse can envelop a person more deeply

than the root of one’s own attachment to life, for it is attached to the inclination for the

continuity of life for all generations.” 107 The sexual drive can even trump the aversion to

death.

It is no wonder that the primal power of the sexual drive is seen as the root of all other

impulses and as the engine empowering our engagement with the world. The rabbis of

the Talmud suggest that were it not for the sexual inclination, a person would not build,

would not marry, would not have children, and would not engage in business. 108

The centrality of sexuality is responsible for its serving as a lightning rod and barometer

for the entirety of the complexities of life. At the same time, mindful and intentional

sexuality has the unique potency to bring healing to the totality of our being. In a

106
Berachot 57b. Later strata of interpretation in the Talmudic era question the meaning
of the Hebrew word which usually signifies sexual intercourse (tashmish) and offer a
different meaning. Despite this, the original reading of the text remains coherent.
107
Orot Hakodesh, 3:298.
108
Bereshit Rabbah 9:7.

114
particularly powerful discourse on the symbolism of the “Covenant of Circumcision,”

entitled, “The Covenant of Circumcision and the Cosmic Good,” Rabbi Kook writes:

Sexual desire in its essence—and in related expressions, physical, imaginative and

spiritual—comprises the basis of all drives. If we experience sexuality in a way

that our exalted spirit can rise to it and surround it, can unify it with all the wealth

of human abilities (physical and spiritual), leading it to one integrated ethical and

supernal goal, then that unity, in its power, is revealed. the revelation of godly

unity will appear in our flesh…109

As discussed above, Rabbi Kook sees in sexuality unprecedented opportunity to

experience self-transcendence which affirms the underlying divine unity and goodness of

existence. The sublime promise of sexuality is realized when, as Rabbi Kook expresses it

in our present selection, “The pure soul steers this drive towards its purpose within the

boundary of the Torah, wisdom, integrity, and modesty- the sources of righteousness,”

indeed, “ultimate holiness confers its light only upon it.”

This analysis explains a perplexing aspect of the synagogue service on the holiest day of

the Jewish calendar, “Yom Kippur,” the Day of Atonement, dedicated to introspection

and self-improvement. The afternoon prayer service includes the public chanting of the

Torah from Leviticus 18, delineating the Torah’s code of sexual conduct. The choice of

this passage is puzzling. On a day devoted to a general moral accounting and

109
Orot HaKodesh 3:298, from Yaacov David Shulman, "Ravkook.net," Ravkook.net, ,
accessed January 23, 2017, http://www.ravkook.net/.

115
commitment to teshuvah, why chose a Torah-reading that focuses exclusively on sexual

conduct?

The passage in Leviticus is immediately followed by the exhortation, “You shall be holy,

for I, the Lord your God, am holy.” (Leviticus 19:1) The rabbis of the Talmud saw an

intrinsic connection between the prescription for sexual conduct and the call to be holy:

Why is the Torah passage of improper sexual relations adjacent to the passage of

holiness? To teach that wherever you find restraint in sexuality, there you find

holiness. 110

The Hebrew word for “holy” (kadosh) actually means “separate” or “transcendent.” God

is the ultimate “Transcendent One.” The sexual drive is the most potent and pervasive

aspect of our personalities. It is the power and promise of sexuality to manifest the

capacity for self-transcendence and thereby give expression to our divine potential.

Sanctified sexuality reverberates throughout the totality of our lives, bringing sanctity and

holiness to every other aspect of our personality. Contemplating the sexual tenor of life

on the Day of Atonement is taking the full measure of the fabric of life.

Returning to Rabbi Kook’s essay on circumcision, he writes:

“From my flesh do I see God.” (Job 19:26) If we have the power to harness all the

abilities of our soul and all our drives to an enlightened and ethical goal, we will

see unity in our internal world and the unity of the outer world will become

increasingly clear. But if our abilities are splintered, if we cannot conceive of

110
Vayikra Rabbah 24:6.

116
 overall control of our drives and desires, we will conclude that the entire world,

like ourselves, is splintered, and that no unity can be found in existence…111

There is no area of life more challenging within which to exercise intentionality. The

integrity of sexuality is the key to our sense of psychic integrity and the ability to

perceive the integrity of the world around us. When intentionality is absent, the person is

reduced to being the object of uncontrolled and uncontrollable chaotic forces, fracturing

and splintering the personality and the experience of life.

What is the ultimate cognitive key for a sanctified integrating sexuality? According to

Rabbi Kook, it is none other than the faith in the goodness of the world, a deep-seated

theological optimism rooted in the identification with God’s affirmation of the goodness

of the world, “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good”:

It is understood that pessimism, which leads to ethical decline, drives the

disconnect of sexual desire from idealism. Since existence in general is such a

great evil, how can there be an ideal associated with the multiplication of

miserable creatures? According to this view, there can be no idealistic root for

the sexual drive at all. It is merely the eruption of desire making its way.

How different is the outlook of general goodness, of optimism: “God saw all that

He had made, and behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31) This view allows

idealism to extend over the sexual drive as well...

111
Ibid.

117
 From your flesh, will you see God. You will sanctify the Holy One of Israel, the

one God.112

Rabbi Kook’s analysis offers much material by which to address the profoundly complex

issues which may emerge surrounding sexuality in the context of pastoral counseling.

The power of the sexual drive is bewildering. Rabbi Kook normalizes that experience.

Indeed, there is no more powerful drive and it is the root of all other drives.

Once sexuality becomes a source of anguish through destructive entanglement, it is too

easy to associate it with a deep-seated sense of shame, especially for those from a

conservative religious background. Rabbi Kook asserts that sexuality is a vehicle which

redeems us from isolation and limitation. It connects us to the world and its perfected

future. Sexuality is a sublime divine gift, within an intentional framework. The painful

expressions of sexuality are a call to return it to its healthy vitalizing root.

Finally, Rabbi Kook traces our experience of sexuality as flowing from a fundamental

attitudinal posture: a cynical pessimism or a life-affirming optimism. Sexuality is the

ultimate affirmation of the value of life and the goodness of existence. The Creator of

existence has declared about his creation, “and behold, it was very good.” The cultivation

of a sense of trust in this divine characterization is the essential pivot which can restore

sexuality to its life-affirming and life-enhancing function.

112
Ibid, with adaptations in the translation.

118
 Selection Nine: The Illusion of Death

.‫ מה שבני אדם קוראים מות הרי הוא רק תגבורת החיים ותעצומתם‬,‫ טומאתו היא שקרו‬, ‫המות הוא חזיון שוא‬

‫ הרי הוא מצייר את תגבורת החיים‬,‫ אשר יצר לב האדם השקיע אותו בה‬,‫ומתוך השקיעה התהומית בקטנות‬

.‫ שהוא קוראה מות‬,‫הזאת בצורה מדאיבה וחשוכה‬

‫ שאי אפשר להמלט ממנה כל זמן שהממשל הכזבי כל כך‬,‫מתעלים הם הכהנים בקדושתם מהקשבה שקרית זו‬

‫ על כל נפשות מת‬,‫ כי אם בהעברת העינים מהמחזה המביא את רשמי ההטעאה הללו אל הנפש‬,‫שולט בעולם‬

)‫שפ‬:‫ (אורות הקודש ב‬.‫ לנפש לא יטמא בעמיו‬,‫לא יבא‬

Death is an illusion. Its impurity is its falsehood. That which people refer to as death is

actually the strengthening of life and its empowerment. As a result of the profound

submergence in small-mindedness, we envision this strengthening of life as something

painful and dark that we call death.

The priests, in their holiness, are required to avoid this falsehood, for it is impossible to

escape it as long as the rule of lies so dominates the world, unless the eyes are averted

from the vision which brings erroneous impressions upon the soul: “And he shall not

come upon any dead bodies.” (Lev. 21:12) “Let none [of you] defile himself for a dead

person among his people.” (Lev. 21:1)

(Orot Hakodesh 2:380)

119
 Discussion

It is difficult to imagine an issue as mysterious and impacting as death. Whether as an

imminent end-of-life crisis, the existential anxiety of midlife, or the seeming denial of

mortality characterizing some youthful behavior- death looms as a profound motivator,

whether consciously or not. From time-immemorial, we have sought the elixir of life

which would conquer death.

In a Talmudic legend, the ancient rabbis wonder if eternal existence would put an end to

our angst. They portray the biblical city of “Luz,” as a kind of Shrangi-La, wherein

people would live forever:

That is the Luz against which Sennacherib marched without disturbing it, against

which Nebuchadnezzar marched without destroying it, and even the Angel of

Death has no permission to pass through it, but when the old men there become

tired of life they go outside the wall and then die. (Sotah 46b)

The coming to grips with a healthy concept of death may be the greatest determinant of

how we can live meaningful and satisfying mortal lives.

Our selection is an attempt at explaining the directive of the Torah that the “kohanim,”

the priestly descendants of Aaron, responsible for the rituals in the Tabernacle and

subsequently in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, are to distance themselves from the dead

and thereby avoid the “ritual impurity” associated with death. This is commonly

120
understood as a rejection of the widespread phenomenon in the ancient Near East of the

cult of the dead and the central role of the priesthood in that cult. 113

Rabbi Kook sees these laws as central to the educational leadership role of the priests, as

reflected in Moses’ blessing of the Levitical Priests, "You shall teach Jacob your

judgments and Israel your instruction." (Deuteronomy 33:10) As such, it is imperative

that the kohanim not fall victim to the illusory and fearful impression of the finality of

death.

The notion of the survival of the soul after death is firmly rooted in the Torah’s

description of the essential composition of Adam, “the Lord God formed man from the

dust of the earth and He blew into his nostrils the soul of life, and man became a living

being.” (Gen. 2:7) The human being is a composite of a material-bodily element and a

spiritual-soul component. Death is the separation of these two factors. While the body is

subject to decomposition, the soul, not being material, is immune to decay and cessation

of being, “And the dust returns to the ground as it was, And the soul returns to God who

bestowed it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7)

The illusory view of death as the cessation of being is a natural function of our rootedness

in a material perspective which challenges the ability to appreciate the notion of an

afterlife. A younger contemporary of Rabbi Kook, Rabbi Yechiel Michal Tukachinsky,

composed a now-classic Hebrew work on Jewish mourning practices. Rabbi

113
See Baruch A. Levine, JPS Torah Commentary: Leviticus (Philadelphia: JPS, 1989),
141.

121
Tukachinsky presents a charming parable to explain the vulnerability to the illusory

nature of death:

Twin brothers, fetuses in their mother's womb, enjoyed a carefree life. Their

world was dark and warm and protected. These twins were alike in all aspects but

one. One brother was a 'believer': he believed in an afterlife, in a future reality

much different from their current, miniature universe. The second brother,

however, was a skeptic. All he knew was the familiar world of the womb.

Anything besides what he could feel and sense was only an illusion. The skeptic

tried to talk some sense into his brother. He warned him to be realistic, but to no

avail. His naive brother insisted on believing in an extraordinary world that exists

after life in the womb, a world so immense and fantastic that it transcends their

wildest dreams. The months passed, and the fatal moment arrived. Labor began.

The fetuses became aware of tremendous contractions and shifting in their little

world. The freethinker recognized that 'this is it.' His short but pleasant life was

about to end. He felt the forces pressuring him to go down, but fought against

them. He knew that outside the womb, a cruel death awaited, with no protective

sack and no umbilical cord. Suddenly, he realized that his naive brother was

giving in to the forces around them. His brother was sinking lower! "Don't give

up!" he cried, but his twin took no heed. "Where are you, my dear brother?" He

shuddered as he heard the screams from outside the womb. His poor brother had

met his cruel fate. How naive he had been, with his foolish belief in a bigger,

better world! Then the skeptic felt the uterine muscles pushing him out, against

122
 his will, into the abyss. He screamed out ... "Mazal Tov!" called out the doctor.

"Two healthy baby boys!" 114

One might say, with a tongue-in-check pun, that this life is comparable to the womb, but

with faith, we can sense that it is a “womb with a view!”

A further challenge to the notion of the finality of death is the traditional Jewish belief in

the bodily resurrection of the dead. The Book of Daniel concludes, capping off a cryptic

eschatological vision, with the verse, “But you, go on to the end; you shall rest, and arise

to your destiny at the end of the days.” (12:13) Traditional Jewish eschatology envisions

the ultimate reviving of the body, together with the restored soul. 115

It is tempting to view Rabbi Kook’s characterization of death as “illusion” in the context

of the traditional Jewish affirmation of belief in the after-life. Upon closer examination,

he seems to be suggesting a far greater, and more complex, vision.

The selection above on the “illusion of death” is part of collection of ten short essays

under the title “Eternal Life.” 116 The longest of these brief essays, “The Liberation from

the Fear of Death,” follows our selection. Rabbi Kook states there:

114
As translated and adapted by Chanan Morrison, "Rav Kook Torah," Rabbi Abraham
Isaac Kook on the Weekly Torah Portion, Jewish Holidays and Psalms (Tehillim), ,
accessed January 26, 2017, http://ravkooktorah.org/.
115
See Boyarin, Daniel. Encyclopaedia Judaica, 8th ed., s.v. “Resurrection.” Jerusalem:
Keter Publishing House, 1978.
116
Orot Hakodesh 2:371-386.

123
 The fear of death is a disease of all humanity, which came as a consequence of

sin. Sin caused death and teshuvah is the only medicine to eradicate it from the

world.

Rabbi Kook is referring, of course, to the biblical narrative introducing death. Everything

is permitted in the Garden of Eden, “but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad,

you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die.” (Gen. 2:17) Given that

Adam lived on to the ripe old age of 930, the text cannot intend that eating from the fruit

results in immediate death! Rather, sin creates mortality. Immortality was the default

intention for humankind, while death is an aberration. The ultimate response to sin is

teshuvah and teshuvah will remove this aberration.

The striking assumption is the kabbalistic notion that bodily existence is the original

ideal. This was, in fact, a dispute among the great medieval rabbis. While the doctrine of

the bodily resurrection of the dead was universally held, the rationalists suggested that

those who were resurrected would die again, in order that the soul find its ultimate

disposition, freed from the confines of bodily existence. 117 In contrast, the kabbalists

viewed resurrection of the dead as ushering in the final disposition of the soul, a perfected

soul, embodied within a perfected body.118

117
See Rambam, “Essay on Resurrection of the Dead,”
http://rambam.merkaz.com/Class%2013%20-%20Letter%20on%20Resurrection.pdf
118
See critical comments of Rabbi Avraham ben David (12th century, Provence) on the
approach of Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Teshuvah 8:2). It is worthwhile noting
that the mystical understanding of bodily resurrection as the ultimate disposition of the
soul is the historically dominant view of rabbinic thought. See Arthur Marmorstein,

124
The view of the kabbalists, including Rabbi Kook, is a profound affirmation of the value

of creation and a rejection of the notion that the paradise of “the world to come” is

incompatible with corporal physical existence. After all, the idyllic pre-sin “Garden of

Eden” was part of creation and an embodied state of being for its two inhabitants. The

resolution of history and the ultimate purpose of teshuvah is the return to Eden.

Perhaps the most succinct presentation of the mystical approach is presented by Rabbi

Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (1707, Padua- 1746, Acre), known by the acronym Ramchal, in

his classic “The Way of God.”119 Ramchal describes the intended task of humanity in

Eden as being:

…to purify even the physical matter of the body. The soul has the power to

elevate the body step by step, until even the body can derive pleasure from

perfection along with the soul. If Adam had not sinned, he would have been able

to attain this without restraint. His soul would have purified his body step by step,

until he reached the level required to permanently partake of the everlasting bliss.

(1:3:7)

The intended destiny of the human was that the body and soul would co-exist in a state of

harmonious integration and unity, reflecting the divine unity.

Studies in Jewish theology; the Arthur Marmorstein memorial volume (London: Oxford
University Press, 1950), 145-161.
119
Moshe Ḥayyim Luzzatto, Derech haShem = The way of God: and, An essay on
fundamentals = Maʼamar haIkkarim, trans. Aryeh Kaplan (Jerusalem: Feldheim
Publishers, 1977).

125
Death is not punitive. It is a self-inflicted corrective aberration necessary to ultimately

restore the original intention of the creation of the human being:

Instead, the soul would have to exit the body, leaving the body to die and

disintegrate, after which the body would be built anew. The soul would then re-

enter the body and purify its physicality… Thus, it has been decreed that man

should die and live again – this is the Resurrection of the Dead (1:3:9)

The separation of body and soul upon death is a process of reconstruction, not just for the

body, but for the soul, as well:

When the soul leaves the body, and enters the Soul World, however, it can then

radiate freely with a brightness that befits it…the soul is able to regain the power

that it lost while associated with the body. This in turn makes it more qualified for

its ultimate function after the resurrection, namely the purification of the body.

(1:3:12)

In our selection, Rabbi Kook describes death as “actually the strengthening of life and its

empowerment.” Death is a gift! It is the opportunity for the soul to be reinvigorated and

re-empowered for its ultimate reunification with the refined body. This will allow for the

attainment of the blissful integrity for which we are destined.

Rabbi Hillel Rachmani, in an essay on the thought of Rabbi Kook, offers a contemporary

analogy to convey this approach towards death, which is predicated upon the kabbalistic

understanding of resurrection:

126
 Imagine a politician whose entire life centers around politics. One day, he loses

his position. At first, he feels as though he's died. Gradually though, he discovers

the world of spirit, of books and learning. After a while, he looks back in disgust

at the world of politics, amazed that this superficial world ever attracted him. And

then, one day he is called to return and lead the party. Let us imagine that he

accepts. His return now is different than before. What is central and what is

peripheral has been completely transformed… Our politician will perform his job

with seriousness and commitment - based, this time, on an enthusiasm for values

and not personal honor and prestige.120

In Rabbi Kook’s essay, “The Liberation from the Fear of Death,” mentioned above, he

further develops the consciousness needed to free ourselves of this primal dread. Rabbi

Kook identifies the fear of death as a powerful motivator of a frantic engagement with the

worldly, “All of the toil of humankind revolves around the salvation from death.” Yet,

without clarity of vision, all this energy is expended to avoid death is for naught:

The immersion in the dust of materialism, the pursuit of excitement, only

magnifies death, compounding fear. All of our efforts to avoid the fear of it are of

no avail, since we invest the totality of our being in those areas over which death

rules… As long as life has no goal, death is bound to be threatening. The battle

against it is for naught.121

120
Hillel Rachmani, "Introduction to the Thought of Rav Kook,” accessed January 31,
2017, http://etzion.org.il/en/rav-kooks-approach-death-part-2.
121
Orot Hakodesh, 2:381.

127
In a deep cognitive distortion, we attempt to prevent our falling into the abyss of oblivion

through the accumulation of possessions and thrills. It is as if we subconsciously perceive

that this desperate clutching of life will tether us to existence and shield us from the

perceived finality of death.

While misguided energy is counterproductive in neutralizing the fear of death, the

fulsome engagement with life, with proper awareness, is effective:

The essential guidance for the removal of the fear of death must come by

accustoming oneself to love life in its true value… This requires the cultivation of

the appreciation for the all-encompassing dimension: for existence in all its

aspects, for the person and the soul; the appreciation of the desire for the good, for

absolute eternal ethics; the appreciation of the spiritual harmony with life and

material existence. This constitutes the preponderance of divine wisdom and its

internal awareness. 122

Far from advocating a monastic withdrawal from the “vanities” of life, Rabbi Kook calls

for a transformation of consciousness that will invigorate a love of life, in its most true

nature. When we love the panoply of life, as an abundance of opportunities to give

expression to the divine goodness underlying all existence, we experience a taste of the

integrity of body and soul, intended for Eden.

The foundation of this process requires “the elevation of desire and its deep grounding

within higher consciousness; the absolute unification of desire and higher

122
Ibid. 382.

128
consciousness.”123 The harmonizing of the will with a spiritually enlightened vision is the

great task of religion.

Rabbi Kook asserts that death is a necessary component of the great rectification to fulfill

the unrealized promise of Eden, wherein reigns harmony and integrity of body and soul.

When this noble vision informs our lives in this present world, death is no longer a

frightful specter, but another chapter in the grand drama of cosmic teshuvah. A life

permeated by this lofty outlook empowers us, in Rabbi Kook’s words, “to gaze upon the

day of death and to sing, ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul; O Lord, my God, You are very

great; You are clothed in glory and majesty.’” (Psalms 104:1)124

123
Ibid. 383.
124
Ibid. 382.

129
 Critical Reflection and Evaluation

Fitting A Round Peg Into A Square Hole?

This dissertation/project is not intended to be a manual for a spiritually based cognitive

therapy. Nor is meant to be an in-depth compare and contrast of the principles and

techniques of cognitive therapy with the writings of Rabbi Kook. Its purpose is to explore

making accessible to the English-speaking public a sampling of Rabbi Kook’s writings as

useful tools for Jewish pastoral counseling. Yet, the fundamental premise of this work is

that of cognitive therapy, namely, the critical and decisive role of thoughts and beliefs in

determining mood and behavior. It is the hope of the writer that Rabbi Kook’s lyrical and

penetrating discourses can serve as alternative, healthy, and life-affirming schemata that

can fuel positive transformative changes for those struggling with mood issues,

dysfunctional relationships, and self-destructive habits and addictions.

Much work has been invested in the selection, translation, and elucidation of the nine

samples of Rabbi Kook’s thinking that constitute the bulk of this dissertation/project.

This process has raised fascinating meta-issues concerning the relationship between

cognitive therapy, spiritually based therapy, and the specific ideas of Rabbi Kook.

Though a complete analysis of these matters is beyond the purview of this project, I am

most grateful to Dr. Scott Sullender for his pointed and provocative inquiry to me, “If

you could imagine Burns and Kook talking, what might they say to each other as support

and critique?”

130
Dr. Burns has formulated a popular list of the ten most common cognitive distortions

responsible for much of our self-imposed misery125:

1.) ALL-OR-NOTHING THINKING: You see things in black-and-white

categories. If your performance falls short of perfect, you see yourself as a total

failure.

2.) OVERGENERALIZATION: You see a single negative event as a never-

ending pattern of defeat.

3.) MENTAL FILTER: You pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it

exclusively so that your vision of all reality becomes darkened, like the drop of

ink that discolors the entire beaker of water.

4.) DISQUALIFYING THE POSITIVE: You reject positive experiences by

insisting they “don’t count” for some reason or other. In this way, you can

maintain a negative belief that is contradicted by your everyday experiences.

5.) JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS: You make a negative interpretation even

though there are no definite facts that convincingly support your conclusion.

A.) MIND READING: You arbitrarily conclude that someone is reacting

negatively to you, and you don’t bother to check this out.

125
David D. Burns, Feeling good: the new mood therapy (New York: New American
Library, 1981) 42-43.

131
 B.) FORTUNE TELLING: You anticipate that things will turn out badly,

and you feel convinced that your prediction is an already-established fact.

6.) MAGNIFICATION (CATASTROPHIZING) OR MINIMIZATION: You

exaggerate the importance of things (such as your goof-up or someone else’s

achievement), or you inappropriately shrink things until they appear tiny (your

own desirable qualities or other fellow’s imperfections). This is also called the

“binocular trick.”

7.) EMOTIONAL REASONING: You assume that your negative emotions

necessarily reflect the way things really are: “I feel it; therefore, it must be true.”

8.) SHOULD STATEMENTS: You try to motivate yourself with should and

shouldn’t, as if you had to be whipped and punished before you could be expected

to do anything. “Musts” and “oughts” are also offenders. The emotional

consequences are guilt. When you direct should statements toward others, you

feel anger, frustration, and resentment.

9.) LABELING AND MISLABELING: This is an extreme form of

overgeneralization. Instead of describing your error, you attach a negative label to

yourself. “I’m a loser.” When someone else’s behavior rubs you the wrong way,

you attach a negative label to him” “He’s a damn louse.” Mislabeling involves

describing an event with language that is highly colored and emotionally loaded.

10.) PERSONALIZATION: You see yourself as the cause of some negative

external event, which in fact you were not primarily responsible for.”

132
It is instructive to review the nine selections from Rabbi Kook’s writings, briefly

formulating the negative thoughts and posited distortions, alongside the advocated

positive thoughts.

Selection One: Cosmic Teshuvah

Negative Thoughts-Distorted Cognitions Positive Thoughts

Positive change requires resisting the Positive change is the most natural

natural momentum of forces and factors internal dynamic of all existence. I just

challenging my life. It is in uphill battle. need to get up on the surfboard and ride

the wave.

I am impotent and my life is I have the power to impact and accelerate

inconsequential. the forward progressive evolution of the

entire universe through the way I live my

life.

Selection Two: Failure as Success

Negative Thoughts-Distorted Cognitions Positive Thoughts

My failure to implement the desired My broken heart reflects how much I

positive changes in my life constitute desire to grow and that, itself, is positive

utter failure. I am a loser and I am heart- change. Change is a process, not all-or-

broken in despair. nothing. My broken heart, properly

understood, will empower further progress.

133
 Selection Three: The Challenge of Ends and Means

Negative Thoughts-Distorted Cognitions Positive Thoughts

The means to positive change are only The journey and the destination are part of

“instrumental.” They are meant to get me one continuum. Just as my desired goal is

to the goals I seek, but in themselves are sweet, so I will be mindful to sense the

unappealing and even painful. As much as delight in the journey, as well.

I want to “arrive,” I just can’t get past all

the drudgery of the journey.

Selection Four: Natural Teshuvah

Negative Thoughts-Distorted Cognitions Positive Thoughts

The world is bifurcated between the There is no bifurcation. All things are

physical and the interconnected. I am prepared to embrace

spiritual/psychological/emotional. I am a holistic approach to healing,

struggling with a psychological issue. I encompassing all aspects of my life.

want to focus on that. My physical state is

unrelated.

134
 Selection Five: Authenticity

Negative Thoughts-Distorted Cognitions Positive Thoughts

I don’t know who I am and allow others The most authentic “I” is within and I will

to define me. be faithful to that.

“The good, the sacred, and the “The good, the sacred, and the

wholesome” are foreign impositions wholesome” are my most inner and

limiting my freedom and I will resist authentic nature. Faithfulness to these

them. values brings me to the joy of

authenticity.

Selection Six: The Pain of Change

Negative Thoughts-Distorted Cognitions Positive Thoughts

Change is too painful. The pain of change is therapeutic and is

an inevitable aspect of the restoration of

wholeness. I embrace the pain, anticipate

it, and know that it reflects healing.

135
 Selection Seven: The Positive Root of the Negative

Negative Thoughts-Distorted Cognitions Positive Thoughts

My dysfunctional behavior and emotional My problematic state is a distortion of a

state are indicative of my being diseased very positive core impulse. I need to

at my very core. Change would require a straighten out the distortion, while leaving

suppressive “root canal.” my positive core intact.

Selection Eight: The Promise of Sexuality

Negative Thoughts-Distorted Cognitions Positive Thoughts

Sexuality is the bane of my existence. It is Sexuality is the expression of my

my most base drive and is at the root of commitment to a perfected future. It is the

much of my anguish. affirmation of the goodness of life and a

sublime taste of the world to come, in this

world.

136
 Selection Nine: The Illusion of Death

Negative Thoughts-Distorted Cognitions Positive Thoughts

Death is the absolute cessation of being. I Death is a healing transformation of

can only respond by an ever-more existence, necessary to lead to the ultimate

desperate clutching of material life. goal of a harmonious integration of the

renewed body and soul. With this

clarity, I can now energetically and

positively navigate life, infused with

purpose and meaning.

Can the classic patterns of cognitive distortions apply to the distortions of the theological

truths promulgated by Rabbi Kook?

One could suggest the applicability of a variety of cognitive distortions as formulated by

Burns, including:

ALL-OR-NOTHING THINKING- I have not been able to completely change so I

accomplished nothing (as in the selection “Failure as Success”).

LABELING- I have behaved in a rotten way, so I must be rotten to my very core

(as in the selection “The Positive Root of the Negative”).

137
 MAGNIFICATION (CATASTROPHIZING)- This change is painful. I cannot

bear it and would rather be diseased than suffer the treatment (as in the selection

“The Pain of Change”).

EMOTIONAL REASONING- Since I feel that change is so hard and unnatural,

like swimming against the current, it must be true (as in the selection “Cosmic

Teshuvah”).

The basic tool of TEAM-CBT is the Daily Mood Log.126 The log involves five steps:

 Describe a specific upsetting event

 Describe the emotions felt at the time and their intensity, on a scale from 0 to 100.

 Describe the negative thoughts associated with the feelings (when I was feeling

X, what thoughts were going through my mind) and record how compelling these

thoughts were, on a scale from 0 to 100.

 Identify the distortions in each negative thought, using Burns’ checklist of

cognitive distortions listed above.

 Suggest more positive and realistic thoughts to replace the negative thoughts,

while recording how compelling these new cognitions are, on a scale from 0 to

100. Revisit the negative thoughts, recording how compelling those thoughts are

now, subsequent to reconsideration, on a scale from 0 to 100. Finally, record the

intensity of the initial emotions, on the same scale.

126
David D. Burns, When panic attacks: the new, drug-free anxiety therapy that can
change your life (New York: Morgan Road Books, 2006), 77.

138
The goal of this process is, obviously, to replace the distorted cognition with a realistic

thought or belief, and thereby transform the emotional state generated.

A pastoral counseling session, utilizing the cognitive schema of Rabbi Kook, might

generate a mood log like this (simplified):

Mood Log

Upsetting Event: I have been trying to stop smoking and engage in “teshuvah” with

regards to this habit. I went a week without cigarettes and then on Saturday night I just

could not resist and lit up. I have been smoking like a chimney since then.

Emotion % Before % After

Despairing 90 20

Negative % % Distortion Positive Thought %

Thought Before After Belief

I failed at 100 20 All or Nothing Teshuvah is a 90

accomplishing Thinking process. My week

teshuvah. The of sobriety and my

week of “sobriety” disappointment

was a worthless reflect the intensity

illusion. of my desire. I

accomplished

139
 “teshuvah towards

the Lord.”

Though we could make such a case for alignment, as suggested above, I am reminded of

the remark of Dr. Sullender when suggesting this exploration, that it may seem like

“fitting a round peg into a square hole.”

It seems that the fundamental tension lies in the rather narrow scope of the definition of

cognitive distortions in classic cognitive theory. In classic cognitive theory, distortions

are perceptions that have no basis in reality and can be empirically proven to be false.127

In fact, the interventions of CBT often involve the empirical testing of the belief. If I

think my boss hates me, the therapist might suggest that I find out if this is true. It might

even be suggested that I ask the boss directly!

The theological postulates of Rabbi Kook deal with ultimate spiritual issues such as the

nature of the soul, God, the whys of creation, and the like. These are not empirically

provable views. They are rooted in sacred texts and traditions, not subject to objective

verification. We can argue that one who is willing to accept these interpretations will be

127
See Feeling Good, 30.

140
more resilient, happy, or more capable of accomplishing change, but this is not the litmus

test for “truth” in CBT.

Perhaps more problematic from a “Rabbi Kook perspective,” is the seeming lack of

concern with issues of morality, ethics, or “the good,” within CBT. These issues are

obviously a central priority for a religious worldview committed to a value system

presumptively rooted in divine revelation. Burns, in demonstrating the significance of our

subjective cognitive “lenses” in our experience of reality, is fond of quoting

Shakespeare’s Hamlet declaring, “there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes

it so.”128 It is tempting to see CBT as advocating an essentially amoral outlook.

This tension comes to fore particularly within the cognitive distortion termed “Should

Statements,” as listed above. A common emotional response to a “should statement” is

anger. If I am angry over being mistreated and think, “He should not have lied to me, or

cheated me, or…,” I am, according to CBT theory, reacting to an irrational cognitive

distortion. The distortion is the very notion of “should.”

What is “irrational” about my expectation to not be mistreated? Burns writes, “There is

no such thing as a universally accepted concept of fairness and justice. There is an

undeniable relativity [sic] of fairness.”129 According to the assumptions of cognitive

therapy, my anger is a product of my insistence that the perpetrator abides by my

standard of morality. It is a distortion, since it is irrational for me to demand of others to

conform to my personal sense of fairness, which is, in fact, only relative and subjective.

128
Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2. See Feeling Good, xviii.
129
Feeling Good, 160.

141
According to Albert Ellis, one of the early proponents of cognitive therapy, “should (or

must) statements” are responsible for the bulk of human misery, “There are three musts

that hold us back: I must do well. You must treat me well. And the world must be

easy.”130

In the spirit of Dr. Sullender’s guidance to imagine a dialogue between Dr. Burns and

Rabbi Kook, I posed this issue directly to Dr. Burns in a personal communication. Burns

responded generously and subsequently published my question, with his lengthy

response, on his feelgood.com website, which I quote in full131:

Should Statements: Is there a moral / ethical dimension?

Hi Website visitors,

I got an interesting email from a brilliant colleague, Rabbi Joel Zeff, who joined
one of the Sunday hikes a year or so ago. He asked about the ethical implications
of one of the ten cognitive distortions: Should Statements. This is a cool topic, and
I hope you enjoy the exchange! Feel free to comment, too, as usual!

David Burns

Dear Dr. Burns,

130
"REBT Network," The Three Majors Musts - REBT Network: Albert Ellis | Rational
Emotive Behavior Therapy, accessed January 12, 2017,
http://www.rebtnetwork.org/library/musts.html.
131
Dr. Burns, "Should Statements: Is there a moral / ethical dimension?" Feeling Good,
January 05, 2017, accessed January 12, 2017,
https://feelinggood.com/2017/01/05/should-statements-is-there-a-moral-ethical-
dimension/

142
You might remember me from one of the Sunday morning walks. (I am the
rabbi being trained by Leigh Harrington.) I am most pleased to report that
I completed the TEAM-CBT Level One training in November. Leigh was
absolutely marvelous and I look forward to continuing my training with
this powerful approach towards healing.

Meanwhile I have returned to Israel and am completing my dissertation

for the doctorate in pastoral counseling from the San Francisco
Theological Seminary (Presbyterian), an affiliate of the Graduate
Theological Union in Berkeley. I recently posted the following inquiry, for
my dissertation work, on the TEAM listserv and wonder if you would
consider addressing it (many thanks!):

Dear Friends,

I am currently working on a doctoral dissertation in pastoral

counseling. I am creating a source book for Jewish pastoral
counseling which presents examples of cognitive re-framing found
in the Jewish mystical thinking of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the
Chief Rabbi of Israel during the “Pre-State” period of the British
Mandate (died in 1935).

My point of reference is the wonderful TEAM training I received

from Dr. Leigh Harrington (thank you so much Leigh!). As part of
my writing, I want to address the interface of ethics and cognitive
distortions. One gets the impression that cognitive distortions are
not defined by ethical considerations. The primary criteria seems
to me whether or not the cognition is firmly rooted in reality and to
what extent it is helpful in living a relatively happy and productive
life.

Do ethical considerations play a role in defining a “distortion”

and/or impact on the course of therapy?

143
 This question was particularly accentuated with regards to
“Should Statements.” Ethics would posit that people “should,” for
ethical reasons, behave in certain ways. Why should we not expect
certain standards of conduct, on ethical grounds? I can understand
why we might work on not becoming overly emotionally reactive,
but that is not the same as saying “why should he/she behave
otherwise?”.

I would very much appreciate your thoughts on this, as well, any

references to writing on this particular issue that I could
incorporate into the dissertation.

If you are able to address the issue, might I have permission to

quote you referenced as “in private correspondence?”

Many thanks,

Joel Zeff

Hi Rabbi Joel,

Good to hear from you! I still have vivid memories of the Sunday hike you joined
not long ago!

In my writings (books, blogs, etc.) and teachings (workshops, podcasts) and

therapy work, I have always emphasized that there are three valid uses of the
word, “should”—the legal should, the laws of the universe should, and the moral
/ ethical should.

Legal should: You should not drive at 100 miles per hour because you’ll get a
ticket.

Laws of universe should: If I drop this pen, it should fall to the floor due to the
law of gravity.

144
Moral / ethical should: “Thou shalt not kill,” which is straight from the Ten
Commandments.

Other uses of the word, “should,” are generally not valid, and they can be
painful, too. When you say something like this–“I should be a better teacher (or
therapist, or Dad, etc.),” or “I shouldn’t be so screwed up,” or “I shouldn’t have
made that investment,” or “I shouldn’t be so shy,”—these are not valid uses of
the word, should.

Let’s say you have a fear of bridges, like a psychologist I once treated. She told
herself that she “shouldn’t” have this fear, and therefore was “screwed up,” and
“shouldn’t be screwed i[.” Is this a valid use of “should?”

Well, it is not illegal to be “screwed up,” or to have a fear of bridges. Also,

having a fear of bridges does not violate any of the laws of the universe. Nor is it
immoral or unethical to have a fear of bridges. For example, you don’t see ,
“Thou shalt not fear bridges,” listed in the Ten Commandments, or in any of the
holy texts from any religion.

If you look up the word, “should” in one of those huge dictionaries, you will see
that its origin traces back to the Anglo-Saxon word, “scolde.” So, essentially, you
are scolding yourself for having some flaw or shortcoming when you use the
word, “should.”

You can combat these painful types of self-criticisms in many ways, but one of the
easiest is the Semantic Method—you simply substitute gentler language, such as
“I would like to be a better teacher” (or therapist, or Dad, or whatever). Then
you can focus on the specifics of what you are doing in your teaching, for
example, that’s effective, or ineffective, and make a plan for improvement, if
needed.

But in a clinical situation, other methods will almost always be needed, especially
Paradoxical Agenda Setting techniques, along with empathy and all the rest of the

145
TEAM-CBT treatment techniques. There are numerous techniques that can be
used to combat these dysfunctional uses of “Should Statements.” For example,
you can say, “It would be great if I could get over my fear of bridges,” and then
you can use a variety of techniques to overcome your fear of bridges, if that is
your goal. But that is radically different from beating up on yourself.

Should Statements will generally double your trouble. First, you have some flaw,
and second, you are filled with self-hatred because you are telling yourself that
you “should not” have that flaw. Then you may feel ashamed and defective, or
inferior, or even hopeless.

Shoulds directed toward others cause anger, but are equally irrational. Other
directed “shoulds” are usually combined with other-directed blame, and are
sometimes difficult to combat. That’s because anger and blame usually make
people feel morally superior to others—for example, the blame may be directed at
certain religious, political, or ethnic groups, and you may enjoy feeling morally
superior to the group or the person you are angry with.

The late Albert Ellis, PhD, humorously called this “shoulding on yourself” (or
others.) He also called it the “shouldy” approach to life. He tried to show the
“shoulding” patient why these statements are irrational, using the technique
called Examine the Evidence. He often said things like, “Where is it written that
you shouldn’t have this or that problem?” Or “where is it written that your
spouse should be different from the way s/he is?” He often made these statements
with considerable force and charisma. Those who remember seeing him when he
was still alive will know exactly what I mean!

Some people could see his point, and bought it, while others simply could not
“see” it, and got turned off by Ellis. That’s why I’ve developed motivational
approaches, like Paradoxical Agenda Setting, that therapists can used before
trying to modify the patient’s negative thoughts. You can use techniques like
Paradoxical Cost-Benefit Analysis and Sitting with Open Hands, for example.

146
This protects the therapist from having to “sell” something to a reluctant
“customer,” and greatly boosts therapeutic effectiveness.

There is no conflict I have ever detected between any form of spirituality, religion,
or ethics and good, effective therapy. In my experience, individuals who have
resolved and recovered from depression, anxiety, relationship problems, or habits
and addictions frequently become more spiritual, and have a deeper
understanding of spiritual / mystical / theological / philosophical concepts at the
moment of recovery, although that probably sounds vague and maybe goofy. That
would have to be the topic of another conversation.

I wrote an article on Should Statements that I might publish on my website at

some point.

Albert Ellis was one of the first individuals who taught about the problems with
Should Statements, back in the 1950s. He pointed out the three valid uses of
shoulds that I listed above. The idea that there are valid uses of shoulds, including
Moral Shoulds, is an old and well established concept that is embedded in all of
the cognitive therapies.

The feminist psychiatrist, Karen Horney, wrote about the “Tyranny of the
Shoulds” in the 1950s as well. My mother was struggling with some depression
then, and found the books of Karen Horney to be helpful. I was just a kid at the
time. I’m still a kid, but more of an old kid now!

Good luck with your dissertation. I’m sure it will be thought provoking, and
interesting to many people! Hope you can come on a hike again one day!

David Burns

147
Dr. Burns, in his detailed answer, describes the destructive value of “should statements.”

If they are self-directed, they generate debilitating self-loathing. If they are directed at

others, they produce unconstructive anger and blame. But does the complicated

emotional response to “should statements” undermine the validity of their premises?

Burns seems to suggest that a problematic cognition cannot be effectively uprooted if a

compelling case cannot be made for its irrationality. Burns appears pushed to argue that,

indeed, the vast majority of “expectations” have no basis in empirical reality, with the

exception of three “shoulds”:

 Legal should: You should not drive at 100 miles per hour because you’ll

get a ticket.

 Laws of universe should: If I drop this pen, it should fall to the floor due

to the law of gravity.

 Moral/ethical should: “Thou shalt not kill,” which is straight from the Ten

Commandments.

For the present discussion, the final “acceptable should” is of most interest, “the

moral/ethical should.” Is “thou shall not kill” an example of an acceptable moral/ethical

should or the exclusive case? Is “thou shall not steal” an acceptable should? What makes

some “moral/ethical shoulds” more compelling than others?

Elsewhere, Burns seems to weaken the conviction behind the exception of moral/ethical

shoulds:

148
 Social moral systems, such as the Ten Commandments, are essentially sets of

rules that groups decide to abide by. One basis for such systems is the enlightened

self -interest of each member of the group. If you fail to act in a manner that takes

into account the feelings and interests of others you are likely to end up less

happy because sooner or later they will retaliate when they notice you are taking

advantage of them…

When a rule is nearly universally accepted, it becomes part of a general moral

code and may become a part of the body of law. The prohibition against murder is

an example. Nevertheless, no amount of general acceptance can make such

systems “absolute” or “ultimately valid” for everyone under all circumstances

[emphasis added]. 132

It is abundantly clear that Burns rejects the notion of an absolute morality or ethics,

rooted in a transcendent divine source. Burns claims that morality and ethics are dictated

by collective self-interest, coupled with widespread societal acceptance.

Albert Ellis, in an infamous remark, plays out this notion to its ultimate implications, “As

a result of my philosophy, I wasn't even upset about Hitler. I was willing to go to war to

knock him off, but I didn't hate him. I hated what he was doing.”133 Not surprisingly,

Ellis considered religion, with its claim to moral truths, a major threat to mental health,

and, again, with regards to Hitler, Ellis wrote:

132
Ibid. 161.
133
"Albert Ellis Quotes," BrainyQuote, accessed January 12, 2017,
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/albertelli318452.html.

149
 The main point is that there are no humans who are vermin, werewolves, or

devils. There are just humans who are human; and who, being human, often do

the damnedest deeds. To accept this fact is to be scientific, humane, and

irreligious. To refuse to accept it is to be unscientific, inhumane and religious

[emphasis added].134

To be fair, Burns wrote to me, “There is no conflict I have ever detected between any

form of spirituality, religion, or ethics and good, effective therapy.” Burns explicitly

rejects the approach of Dr. Wayne Dwyer, a popular exponent of Ellis’ approach, who

utterly rejected any notion of “justice,” even accusing Dwyer of engaging in the cognitive

distortion of “all of nothing thinking.”135 Yet, it is not hard to see the views of Ellis and

Dwyer as a natural extension of the relativistic approach of cognitive therapy.

It is obvious that Rabbi Kook, or for that matter, any adherent of a religious tradition

ultimately rooted in revelation, could not countenance this relativistic worldview.

Burns’ assertion that there is no conflict between any form of religion and good therapy

needs further consideration. Though Burns does briefly address this essentially

philosophical issue, it is a rare exception to his approach towards therapy. His writing

and teaching is almost exclusively focused on practical methods to relieve the suffering

from mood issues, relationship difficulties, and harmful habits and addictions. To be sure,

he articulates the basic assumptions of cognitive therapy, but only to the extent necessary

134
Albert Ellis, Is objectivism a religion? (New York: L. Stuart, 1968), 308.
135
Feeling Good, 163.

150
to practice its various techniques. By way of analogy, one does not require a PhD in

computer science to become a very competent user of its technology.

In an interview in Psychology Today Burns remarked:

A second mistake is to join a school of therapy, such as psychodynamic therapy,

or cognitive therapy, or EMDR, or ACT, or TFT, or whatever happens to be in

vogue. I'm all for TOOLS, not SCHOOLS, of therapy [caps in original]. To me,

the schools of therapy compete much like religions, or even cults, all claiming to

know the cause and to have the best method for treating people. And new schools

of therapy seem to get created almost every week, always with a guru and always

with enthusiastic followers who are sure they've found "the answer.”136

Consistently, Burns named his textbook written to train therapists in TEAM techniques

(privately published as an e-book), “Tools, Not Schools, of Therapy.” Burns is interested

in tools, not ideology. For this reason Burns does not limit TEAM to cognitive techniques

and employs “tools” from a wide variety of therapeutic modalities.

Accordingly, Burns does not “delegitimize” all anger as being a neurotic response to an

irrational “should statement,” as does Ellis. For Burns, the criteria to scrutinize anger is

whether it is “useful and self-enhancing” or “useless and self-destructive.”137

136
"Seven Questions for David D. Burns," Psychology Today, , accessed January 12,
2017, https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-therapy/200901/seven-questions-david-
d-burns.
137
Feeling Good, 164.

151
In this approach truth is less important than whether or not any particular cognition is

“useful and self-enhancing” or “useless and self-destructive.” This practical and

utilitarian approach allows a cognitive approach to co-exist with a religious world-view

and for the use of these assumptions and techniques within a pastoral counseling context.

At the same time, Burns would argue that the process of substituting an unhelpful

cognition with one that is helpful would require that the new cognition be compelling.

For this practical consideration, cognitive approaches work primarily with thoughts and

beliefs that can be empirically falsified or verified.

Rabbi Kook’s profound teachings offer, in Burns’ phrase, “useful and self-enhancing”

constructs to assist in the healing process- for those receptive to a spiritual paradigm,

rooted in sacred literature.

The Limitations of the Teachings of Rabbi Kook

Rabbi Kook’s outlook is deeply rooted in the premises and practices of traditional

Orthodox Judaism. The vast majority of contemporary Jewry does not live within such a

framework.138 The challenge is exemplified by the last two selections, which treat

sexuality and death.

138
According to data from the 2013 Pew Research Center Survey of U.S. Jews, Orthodox
Jews (those most sharing the worldview and way of life of Rabbi Kook) make up about
10% of the estimated 5.3 million Jewish adults (ages 18 and older) in the United States.
See Benjamin Wormald, "A Portrait of American Orthodox Jews," Pew Research
Center's Religion & Public Life Project, August 26, 2015, , accessed February 02, 2017,

152
As nuanced as Rabbi Kook’s notion of sexuality may be, it ultimately is predicated upon

the sexual mores of traditional Judaism. When Rabbi Kook states, “the pure soul steers

this [sexual] drive towards its purpose within the boundary of the Torah, wisdom,

integrity, and modesty- the sources of righteousness,”139 he is calling for harmonizing

sexual behavior with the “holiness code” in Leviticus 19 and as further developed by

Jewish tradition. Most American Jews, whose views tend to be fairly liberal, would not

come for counseling armed with a commitment, or even sympathy for, at least some of

the biblical prescription of sexuality. 140

Rabbi Kook’s sweeping analysis of death, declaring it to be an “illusion,” is only

comprehensible within his broader understanding of the most fundamental issues of the

meaning of life. The notion of body and soul, the divine intent in creation, the nature and

impact of the “original sin,” the purpose of death, and finally, the doctrine of the

resurrection of the dead, are all essential components of a broad and integrated

theological view, in which death takes on its constructive meaning. Though the famous

and widely accepted “Thirteen Principles of Faith,” as formulated by Rambam,141

http://www.pewforum.org/2015/08/26/a-portrait-of-american-orthodox-jews/#fn-23679-
1.
139
See Selection Eight above.
140
For a fascinating analysis of Rabbi Kook’s view of homosexuality see Bezalel Naor,
"Rav Kook on Homosexuality," Orot, accessed February 02, 2017, http://orot.com/rav-
kook-on-homosexuality/.
141
See Moses Maimonides, "Maimonides' Introduction to "Helek" (Abelson),"
Wikisource, the free online library, accessed February 02, 2017,
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Maimonides'_Introduction_to_%22Helek%22_(Abelson).

153
concludes with the resurrection of the dead as a cardinal belief, it is highly unlikely that

most contemporary Jews subscribe to this notion.

Given the gap between the world of this deeply traditional pietist and the reality of most

contemporary Jews, can his “cognitive schema” be compelling?

One option is to concede to the premise of the question. Perhaps this type of material is

best used when counseling an Orthodox client. Indeed, Eugene W. Kelly, Jr., PhD, a

prominent researcher of the role of spirituality in counseling, offers a typology of eight

categories of religious and spiritual orientations of clients 142:

1. Religiously committed clients

2. Religiously loyal clients

3. Spiritually committed clients

4. Spiritually/religiously open clients

5. Externally religious client

6. Spiritually/religiously tolerant or indifferent clients

7. Nonspiritual/nonreligious clients

8. Clients hostile to religion

Kelly concludes that spiritual counseling is effective, and ethical, only for the first four

categories. For obvious reasons, the extent to which the client is alienated from religion

142
Eugene W. Kelly, Spirituality and religion in counseling and psychotherapy: diversity
in theory and practice (Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association, 1995), as
cited in Kenneth H. Downing, Cognitive therapy and spirituality: the battleground and the
blend, Thesis, (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2005.

154
and/or not receptive to spirituality will render spiritual reflection ineffective. One might

argue that the use of Rabbi Kook’s schema would be helpful only for traditionally

minded Jews, already committed to an Orthodox worldview and practice.

A closer look is more encouraging. Though Kelly defines the fourth category as clients

that do not give evidence of spiritual or religious commitments, yet the absence of

commitment does not contradict the inclusion of “relevant spiritual and /or religious

components in the client's overall search for new and altered perspectives to guide

personal development and problem resolution.” 143 An openness and receptivity to a fresh

outlook is all that may be needed for spiritual schemata to be helpful. Indeed, as noted in

the introduction, Rabbi Kook directed much of his writing to the Zionist pioneers who

did not identify with Orthodoxy.

The past few decades have witnessed a plethora of books published on Kaballah, and

Chassidism, and the rise of formal and informal movements, known by various terms

such as the Jewish Renewal Movement, Neo-Chassidism, New Age Judaism, Kabbalah

Center, etc., all evincing a strong interest in Jewish mystical texts. These texts are

products of Orthodox thinkers, firmly rooted in traditional assumptions and practice.

Jewish seekers do not seem to be overly troubled by the lack of consistency in their

“picking and choosing” of ideas. This is particularly true with regards to the rigors of

traditional practice, as envisioned by Orthodoxy.

143
Ibid.

155
On an anecdotal level, I am a tutor for a non-traditional cantor who is a member of a

cohort of a clergy leadership program of the “Institute for Jewish Spirituality.” 144 The

program explains one of its core practices:

Torah is the foundation of Jewish life, and the study of Torah has been the

energizing force of Jewish spirituality. Whatever else we might teach our

participants to help them wake up and experience the presence of God in their

lives, the core of our teachings is Torah. Our approach to text study is to address

the needs of seekers for teachings that connect text to experience, that offer the

esoteric in an accessible and meaningful manner. That is why we access Torah

through those texts that emerged from the Jewish mystical tradition. The Institute

continues a spirit of neo-Hasidism which began to grow in Europe at the turn of

the twentieth century and which now has substantial roots in America. In our

study, we explore, renew and apply the riches of Jewish spiritual traditions,

especially emphasizing the teachings of mysticism and classic Hasidic thought

that relate to personal transformation and the ability to remain engaged in

repairing the world.145

The participants in the cohort represent a spectrum of belief and observance, united by a

sense of nourishment and inspiration from texts grounded in assumptions quite distant

from their own.

144
See http://www.jewishspirituality.org
145
Ibid.

156
From a therapeutic point of view, the rejection of “all or nothing thinking,” a basic

category of cognitive distortion, is to be celebrated! At the same time, as Kelly suggests,

there will be those on his gradient of typologies for whom the constructs of a sacred

religious tradition will be unhelpful, including the schema of Rabbi Kook.

Looking Ahead

The intense investment of time, energy, and focus in creating this dissertation/proposal

has been both challenging and rewarding.

Before embarking on this effort, I had sufficient familiarity with the teachings of Rabbi

Kook to justify a more in-depth and comprehensive examination of his oeuvre for

relevant alternative schema of use in a counselling context. I was able to come to

understand Rabbi Kook’s worldview on a much deeper level, particularly with regards to

appreciating the integrated and consistent conceptual structure of his thinking. My

research has convinced me that there is a wealth of topics in his writings that offer fresh

and compelling perspectives on the timely and timeless struggles of being human.

Of these, I chose nine selections to translate. Rabbi Kook’s style and conceptualization

needed much unpacking, as presented in the “discussion” section following each

selection. I am convinced that the very act of contemplating the meaning of his lyrical

style has a therapeutic effect.

This project has provided the opportunity to contextualize Rabbi Kook’s writings, both

historically and within the current zeitgeist, as well as within the conceptual categories of

cognitive therapy, especially those of the TEAM approach. I have been privileged to

157
dialogue on this matter with Dr. David Burns, the founder of TEAM therapy and a major

personality in the current development of cognitive therapy. At the gentle prodding of Dr.

Sullender, I have been able to clarify some of the limits of CT for pastoral counselling,

the limits of Rabbi Kook’s writings, and the relationship between the two.

At the outset of this dissertation I discussed the evolution of the role of the rabbi from

interpreter of texts to counselor. This was not simply an abstract observation, but a lived

reality in my rabbinic career spanning the past three decades. With regards to my

personal trajectory, this transformation was not just a response to the articulated needs of

my congregants and students. My own personal encounter with the fragility,

vulnerability, and uncertainty associated with the accumulation of life experience, with

its attendant vicissitudes, has been a powerful impetus to focus on the internal life of

those to whom I minister.

In retrospect, my choice of dissertation/project topic, with its focus on texts and their

interpretation and application, reveals much about myself and, perhaps, about the nature

of Jewish pastoral counseling. It seems that it would be inaccurate to refer to a

transformation from interpreter of texts to counselor. The grounding in texts and their

interpretation remains. The change is in the choice of texts and their real-life application

to the daily trials we face as we navigate life’s challenges.

My own metamorphosis is reflected in both my pulpit work and pastoral functioning. I

have saved my sermons from the earliest days as a congregational rabbi. I occasionally

158
cringe when reading how much I focused on current world events, including encouraging

my congregants how to vote! As I examine my sermons over the past four yours,

concurrent with my formal training in pastoral counselling and work on this

dissertation/project at the San Francisco Theological Seminary, I am struck at the

dramatic change in focus. The text interpretation remains, yet politics has made way for

an empathic quest for the wisdom of tradition to guide our personal and internal

struggles.

As I put the finishing touches on the dissertation/project and have completed the Level

One training in TEAM-CBT, I have begun to offer professional counseling services. I am

currently working with “B,” an Orthodox Jewish young man, married, with two children.

He has asked for help in overcoming anxiety, depression, and many years of addiction to

pornography and masturbation.

It is not surprising that “B” has experienced ups and downs in his struggle to maintain

“sobriety.” In a typical “all or nothing” cognitive distortion, “B” has experienced his

lapses as a total negation of any progress. This impasse afforded me the opportunity to

contemplatively study with “B” the second selection presented in this dissertation/project,

“Failure as Success.” “B” reported that he found this reframing to be a great source of

relief and comfort. His scores on the “Burns Depression Checklist”146 reflect this

improvement. Despite the limited and unempirical nature of this tentative experience, I

am encouraged.

146
See David D. Burns, When panic attacks: the new, drug-free anxiety therapy that can
change your life (New York: Morgan Road Books, 2006), 31-39.

159
I am encouraged by the results of this labor and exploration. It is my fervent hope that the

substantial work invested in this dissertation/project will now serve as the foundation for

a published work of much larger scale. The expanded text will include substantially more

selections from Rabbi Kook’s writings, followed by explanatory discussion. The

prefatory material, as well as the concluding reflections and evaluation, will need to be

considerably adapted, for a more general audience.

A further future project might involve a systematic attempt to evaluate the clinical

effectiveness of the use of this material in the pastoral counseling context. The “T” in the

TEAM acronym stands for “testing.” The TEAM approach insists on ongoing assessment

of the efficacy of each therapeutic session. For this purpose, Burns developed a “Brief

Mood Survey,” to be administered before and after each meeting.147 A fascinating study

could measure the impact of “bibliotherapy” counseling sessions, using readings of Rabbi

Kook’s teachings, together with discussion, utilizing the Burns Brief Mood Survey, to be

administered before and after each session.

Though much of Rabbi Kook’s prose writing is lyrically evocative, some was

consciously intended as poetry. The topic of teshuvah, the overarching momentum of all

existence to actualize its godly potential, is the central theme of his poetic pen. Let us

conclude this exploration with one such poem, in Hebrew and in translation:

To the Poet of Teshuvah ‫למשורר התשובה‬

O’ Poet of Teshuvah, are you yet born? ?‫ הנולדת כבר‬,‫משורר התשובה‬
And if yet in heavens is bound there your ‫ואם בשחקים עודנה צרורה שמה נשמתך‬

147
See https://feelinggood.com/tag/brief-mood-survey/

160
 soul in the bond of life ,‫בצרור החיים‬
Quickly descend and arouse your violin .‫מהרה רדה ועורר כינורך‬
All of depressed heart shall hear ,‫ישמעו כל דכאי לב‬
All of uncircumcised spirit shall listen ,‫ להמיית נבליך‬,‫יאזינו כל ערלי רוח‬
To the sound of your harps .‫ושבו וחיו‬
And they shall return and live!148

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook is a poet of teshuvah. It is my prayer that I help others hear

the sound of his harps.

148
Shlomo Aviner, Orot HaTeshuvah-Peirush Shlomo Aviner (Hebrew) (Jerusalem:
HavaBooks, 2013), 6.

161
 Bibliographical Note on the Nine Selections

The nine selections chosen for this work were culled from five different collections of the

writings of Rabbi Kook. Though the corpus of his writing addressees the entire gamut of

Jewish concerns, these specific pieces were chosen for their appropriateness for pastoral

counseling. They provide helpful ways of navigating through some of the basic and

common challenges to emotional and spiritual well-being. The five works are:

1) Orot Hateshuvah (The Lights of Return)- Rabbi Kook intended to write a full

exploration of the topic of teshuvah but succeeded in writing only an introduction and

three chapters. The work in its current form was created by Rabbi Kook’s son, Rabbi

Tzvi Yehudah Kook, who gathered relevant material from his father’s unpublished

spiritual diaries. The book was first published in 1925, with the approval of the senior

Rabbi Kook. It has been translated into English, in full, in three editions:

Metzger, Alter Ben Zion. The lights of repentance: a translation with an

introductory essay regarding its implications for a philosophy of guidance.

Yeshiva University Press, 1964.

Kook, Abraham Isaac, and Ben Zion Bokser. Abraham Isaac Kook: the lights of

penitence, the moral principles, Lights of holiness, essays, letters, and poems.

New York: Paulist Press, 1978.

Weinberger, Rav Moshe. Song of teshuvah: a commentary on rav avraham

yitzchak hakohen kook's oros hateshuvah.: Urim Pubns, 2015.

162
2) Orot (Lights)- Orot is a collection of short essays culled from Rabbi Kook’s spiritual

diaries, by his son. The focus of the essays is on the meaning and significance of the

return to Zion, redemption, and the nature of the Jewish nation and its relationship to the

other nations. It was first published in 1920. One English translation has appeared in

print:

Kook, Abraham Isaac. Orot. Translated by Betsalʼel Naʼor. New Milford, CT:

Maggid Books, 2015.

3) Orot Hakodesh (The Lights of Holiness)- Orot Hakodesh is an anthology of the

writings of Rabbi Kook, compiled by one of his chief disciples, Rabbi David Cohen.

Rabbi Cohen attempted to create a full and systematic presentation of the entire gamut of

Rabbi Kook’s theology, culled from his master’s spiritual diaries. This work was initially

published in 1950 and in an expanded five-volume edition in 1973, after the death of

Rabbi Cohen. There is no English translation.

4) Shemonah Kevatzim (Eight Collections)- As mentioned above, much of Rabbi Kook’s

writings were in the form of spiritual diaries and many of the works published in his

name are, in fact, edited excerpts from these diaries. Shemonah Kevatzim represents the

first publication of Rabbi Kook’s spiritual diaries in a full and unedited form, initially

published in 1999. These diaries date from the period of 1904 to 1919. There is no

English translation.

5) Kevatzim Mektav Kodsho (Collections from His Sacred Writing)- This work, as well,

is the publication of full and unedited versions of five more spiritual diaries of Rabbi

163
Kook. It was published in 2008. These diaries date from the period of 1894 to 1913.

There is no English translation.

References

Aviner, Shlomo. Orot HaTeshuvah-Peirush Shlomo Aviner (Hebrew). Jerusalem:

HavaBooks, 2013.

Beck, Aaron T. "The past and future of cognitive therapy." Journal of Psychotherapy and
Reserach 6 (1997): 276-84.

Blackman, Philip, and Isaac Waller. = Tractate Avoth = Ethics of the Fathers (being the
ninth tractate of the fourth order, Nezikin): text, introduction, translation, notes.
Gateshead: Judaica Press, 1985.

Burns, David D. Feeling good: the new mood therapy. New York: New American
Library, 1981.

Burns, David D. When panic attacks: the new, drug-free anxiety therapy that can change
your life. New York: Morgan Road Books, 2006.

Burns, David D. Feeling good together: the secret of making troubled relationships work.
New York: Broadway Books, 2008.

Davis, Avrohom. Pirkei avot: a new translation with classical commentaries. New York:
Metsudah Publications, 1979.

Dessler, Rabbi Eliyahu E. Michtav MeEliyahu (Hebrew). Vol. 4. Jerusalem: Feldheim

Publishers, 1985.

164
Downing, Kenneth H. Cognitive therapy and spirituality: the battleground and the blend.
Master's thesis, Thesis, PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2005.

Eisent, Robert. "The Revival of Jewish Mysticism: Causes and Concerns." My Jewish
Learning. Accessed January 01, 2017. http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-
revival-of-jewish-mysticism-causes-and-concerns/.

Ellis, Albert. Is objectivism a religion? New York: L. Stuart, 1968.

Epstein, Isidore. The Babylonian Talmud. London: Soncino Press, 1978.

Freedman, Harry, Maurice Simon, and Judah J. Slotki. Midrash Rabbah. London:
Soncino Press, 1939.

Friedman, Dayle A. Jewish pastoral care: a practical handbook from traditional and
contemporary sources. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2000.

Friedman, Michelle, and Rachel Yehuda. The art of Jewish pastoral counseling. A guide
for all faiths. Basingstoke: Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2016.

Greenberg, Moshe. "Ezekiel." Encyclopaedia Judaica.

Hollon, Steven D., and Kathryn Ponniah. "A review of empirically supported
psychological therapies for mood disorders in adults." Depression and Anxiety 27, no. 10
(2010): 891-932. doi:10.1002/da.20741.

Horowitz, Yehoshua. "Malbim. Meir Loeb Ben Jehiel Michael." Encyclopaedia Judaica.

Kaplan, Zvi. Encyclopedia Judaica. "Elijah Dessler". Jerusalem: Encyclopedia Judaica,

1971.

165
Kelly, Eugene W. Spirituality and religion in counseling and psychotherapy: diversity in
theory and practice. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association, 1995.

Kook, Abraham Isaac, and Ben Zion Bokser. Abraham Isaac Kook: the lights of
penitence, the moral principles, Lights of holiness, essays, letters, and poems. New York:
Paulist Press, 1978.

Kook, Abraham Isaac. Ma'amarei HaRaya (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Golda Katz Fund, 1984.

Kook, Abraham Isaac. Orot Hakodesh (Hebrew). Vol. 2-3. Jerusalem: Mossad Harav
Kook, 1985.

Kook, Abraham Isaac. Orot Hateshuvah (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook,
1985.

Kook, Abraham Isaac, and Betsalʼel Naʼor. Orot. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1993.

Kook, Abraham Isaac. Ein Aya (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook Institute,
1994.

Kook, Abraham Isaac. Shemonah Kevatzim (Hebrew). Jerusalem, 2004.

Kook, Abraham Isaac. Kevatzim Mi'Ktav Kodsho (Hebrew). Vol. 1. Jerusalem:

HaMachon Le'Hotza'ah Ginzei HaRaya, 2005.

Leibowitz, Nehama, and Aryeh Newman. Studies in Devarim (Deuteronomy). Jerusalem:

World Zionist Organization, Dept. for Torah Education and Culture in the Diaspora,
1980.

Levine, Baruch A. JPS Torah Commentary: Leviticus. Philadelphia: JPS, 1989.

166
Levitz, Yisrael N., and Abraham J. Twerski. A practical guide to rabbinic counseling.
Jerusalem: Feldheim, 2005.

Lipshutz, Chaim. Shivchei HaRaya (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Harry Fischel Institute, 1979.

Luzzatto, Moshe Ḥayyim. Derech haShem = The way of God: and, An essay on
fundamentals = Maʼamar haIkkarim. Translated by Aryeh Kaplan. Jerusalem: Feldheim
Publishers, 1977.

Maimonides. Hakdamot Le'Peirush HaMishnah (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Mossad Harav

Kook, 1976.

Maimonides, Moses. "Maimonides' Introduction to "Helek" (Abelson)." Maimonides'

Introduction to "Helek" (Abelson) - Wikisource, the free online library. Accessed
February 02, 2017.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Maimonides'_Introduction_to_%22Helek%22_(Abelson).

Maimonides, Moses, and Eliyahu Touger. Mishneh Torah: a new translation with
commentaries and notes. Yerushalayim: Moznayim, 1988.

Malbim. Malbim Commentary on Torah (Hebrew). Bnai Brak, 1989.

Marmorstein, Arthur. Studies in Jewish theology; the Arthur Marmorstein memorial

volume. London: Oxford University Press, 1950.

McMinn, Mark R. Cognitive therapy techniques in Christian counseling. Dallas: Word

Pub., 1991.

Mirsky, Yehudah. Rav Kook: mystic in a time of revolution. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2014.

167
Morrison, Chanan. "Rav Kook Torah." Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook on the Weekly Torah
Portion, Jewish Holidays and Psalms (Tehillim). Accessed January 26, 2017.
http://ravkooktorah.org/.

Nachman of Breslov. Likutei Moharan (Hebrew).

Noy, Dov. "Evil Eye." Encyclopedia Judaica. Jerusalem: Encyclopedia Judaica, 1971.

Paḳuda, Baḥya Ben Joseph ibn, Moses Hyamson, Torat Ḥovot Ha-levavot, Sefer Torat
Ḥovot Ha-levavot, and Yehudah Ibn Tibon. Duties of the heart. Jerusalem: Feldheim
Publishers, 1970.

"Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project." Pew Research Centers Religion
Public Life Project RSS. 2016. Accessed December 29, 2016. http://www.pewforum.org/.

Rabbinowitz, Louis Isaac. "Maimonides, Moses ." Encyclopaedia Judaica.

Rachmani, Hillel. "Introduction to the Thought of Rav Kook." Admin. Accessed January
31, 2017. http://etzion.org.il/en/rav-kooks-approach-death-part-2.

"REBT Network." The Three Majors Musts - REBT Network: Albert Ellis | Rational
Emotive Behavior Therapy. Accessed January 15, 2017.
http://rebtnetwork.org/library/musts.html.

Scholem, Gershom. "Commentary of Ramban on Sefer Yetzirah." Kiryat Yovel

(Hebrew) 6 (1930).

Scholem, Gershom. Major trends in Jewish mysticism. New York: Schocken Books,
1961.

168
"Seven Questions for David D. Burns." Psychology Today. Accessed January 12, 2017.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-therapy/200901/seven-questions-david-d-
burns.

Shulman, Yaacov David. "Ravkook.net." Ravkook.net. Accessed January 23, 2017.

http://www.ravkook.net/.

Tanakh = The Holy Scriptures: the new JPS translation according to the traditional
Hebrew text. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1988.

"The Physics Classroom." Accessed December 29, 2016.

www.physicsclassroom.com%2f&p=DevEx,5085.1.

"The Rebbetzin's Husband." The Rebbetzin's Husband. Accessed December 29, 2016.
http://rechovot.blogspot.co.il/.

The Zohar. London: Soncino Press, 1973.

Weiss, Joseph G. "Nahman of Bratslav." Encyclopaedia Judaica.

Wormald, Benjamin. "A Portrait of American Orthodox Jews." Pew Research Center's
Religion & Public Life Project. August 26, 2015. Accessed February 02, 2017.
Yaron, Tsevi. The philosophy of Rabbi Kook. Jerusalem: Eliner Library, 1991.

Zalman, Shneur. Likutei amarim (Tanya). Brooklyn: "Kehot" Publication Society, 1962.

169