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From: "Michael Ozair" <m_adin@hotmail.com>

To: reb-shlomo@shamash.org

Subject: Shlomo Teaching on Rav Kook

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Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1998 14:40:17 PDT

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Reb Shlomo on Rav Kook, Mashiach, & Current Status of Jewry           

Teaching was on Oct. 26,1971 (House of Love & Prayer?)

Transcript is unedited.



Before the great day, before the Messiah is coming, suddenly all the 

gates of heaven are open, all the gates of heaven are open.  And all the 

gates of learning, of the secrets of the world.  



There is such a thing as loving Gd and there is such a thing as fearing 

Gd. Naturally, to fear Gd doesn't mean to be afraid, like afraid someone 

will shoot me.  Gd is not like that.  



Loving Gd is not simple, but everybody understands it. When it comes to 

fearing Gd we have a little trouble knowing what it means.  So the Baal 

Shem Tov  says, fearing Gd means, I'm afraid I will lose his light.  

Because I'm afraid I'll do something wrong so I'll be

far away from him.  But this is just one way. A different way is, fear 

naturally doesn't mean afraid.   "yirah" is the same letters as "riah", 

seeing.  That means, there's a thing like you can love Gd with closed 

eyes or you can love Gd and see Him, so to speak.  When

you "see" Him, you just tremble.  That's also a way of loving Gd, in a 

trembling way, because you mamish see what it is.  



There is another thing.  What if I were to ask you, what do I know about 

Gd... I really know very little right?  Let's put it this

way, the way we know each other, for instance we know our names, we know 

where we are born, where we are coming from, a little bit.  But what so 

we really know about each other, very little, right? Very, very little.  

How much do we know about God? The truth is we know very little.  We 

know He created the world, spoke to us on Mt. Sinai,

we know a lot of good things, but what if someone were really to ask you 

what do you really know about Gd, we know very little.  For loving, we 

don't have to know so much. But for fearing, and again, I don't have any 

other words for it, I don't really mean fear. It

means, mamish, being aware of Gd, awe, but even that isn't enough.  I 

mean that I mamish know He is there. 



 Listen to this, I can love a girl who is in Australia. That's

ahava.  I can love Gd even if He's far away, right?  But yirah means to 

know He is right here.  That's a completely different kind of thing. I 

know mamish, that He is right here. 

That's called yirah. 



And the truth is, before Moshiach is coming, so to speak, all the walls 

are broken down between man and man, between man and Gd, so the world is 

becoming more and more aware that Gd is really here.  What is happening 

when Mashiach is coming, really, we'll

know Gd is mamish here the whole time.  So all the gates of learning, 

the gates of the mystery of the world and the gates of fearing Gd, are 

broken down. 



The truth is that great light is shining in the world, but there are 

always new lights and deeper lights, deeper lights. 

So the truth is, before Moshiach is coming, such great lights are coming 

into the world, in the most unbelievable way. But the sad question is, 

where are the lights?



The answer is like this, and this is one of the top things of Rav Kook 

which goes through his whole philosophy.  He was the first Chief Rabbi 

of Israel  He was, if there is such a thing, he was one of the great 

prophets, really.  So he says, what's happening? Where

are the great lights, where are they?  The answer is, because we were in 

exile so long, you know what happened to us?  Not only physically we 

were in exile, but spiritually we were in exile.  We don't believe 

anymore, deep down we don't really believe in the Messiah, with all our 

believing in everything in the world.  You pin down a little Yiddeleh 

and ask him, do you mamish believe that great lights are happening to 

the world and he says, who am I, right?  He is really in exile. You ask 

a Yiddelah, and he might be running a little laundromat, you'll ask him, 

while you're washing your laundry, do you think you can have, like 

prophetic visions?  Crazy, why not? Why not?  Because he doesn't believe 

in it.  He has trouble believing that the gates of heaven are open and 

he can mamish see the deepest secrets of the world.  



They don't believe anymore in themselves.  He says, and this is the 

saddest thing in the world, they prefer to live in darkness than to see 

the great light.  They mamish prefer to live in darkness than to see the 

great light.  So therefore he says, this is mamish the strangest thing 

yet it's the truest thing in the world.  It is therefore those people 

who do not know anything about lights, those people don't maybe know 

there is one Gd, nobody taught them.  Because those people who were 

taught there is one Gd were taught of Gd in such

a way...



I'll tell you something very deep. Imagine there's a letter somewhere 

and nobody knows to whom it is written.  Imagine, the police, the 

lost-and-found have this letter and they know it's an important letter 

but they don't know whose it is.  They will ask people, this

letter has a signature, they will cover up the letter and say do you 

recognize the signature? 

If you know the signature, it's to you, it's yours.  When those great 

lights are coming down to the world, you know, the lights are ready to 

grab someone to make themselves a vessel for this great light.  But the 

one thing you have to know, Gd's signature.  And

Gd's signature is you have to know there really is one Gd.   You know it 

comes to such a point that there is nobody to pick up those

great lights, right? And the mailman, so to speak, Gd, is just looking 

for someone to be a customer.  



Rav Kook said this, and you have to realize he passed away in 1935. Can 

you imagine, he says that all those people who do not know anything, 

they are the ones who are ready to believe that great lights are opening 

up for them, unbelievable lights.  He says, but you

have no idea, this is really heartbreaking, you have no idea how Gd is 

heartbroken, that He cannot reveal himself to the people whom he wants 

to talk to.  They don't want to hear it.  Like some one is knocking at 

the door, and I'm telling him Gd is knocking at your door, he say's 

"You're crazy, must be a dog barking."  It's heartbreaking.  Great

things are happening in the world,, great lights coming down, and nobody 

wants it, and the people who know there is one Gd, they don't want to 

hear it.  And strangely enough, those people who do not know anything or 

were not taught anything, because they were

not taught the exile teaching about Gd, but they are wide open.  And 

they receive this great light.  



So therefore he says, if you have a little bit sense, just a little bit, 

make yourself a little vessel to receive this great light, and suddenly 

you will find yourself, you will grow, in one day like others didn't 

grow in years.  



How did Abraham become so great?  Because Abraham mamish knew there is 

one Gd.  There were a lot of people before Abraham who also believed in  

Gd, but not like Abraham. Mamish, Abraham knew there really is one Gd.  

Because he says, what is pagan, what is idol worship?  It doesn't mean 

that I take a little statue and I bow down to it, this is kid

stuff, you know.  Idol worship is that I am serving Gd, you know in 

Hebrew "avodah zara", is very strong, it means worship that is strange.  

Strange worship means that it doesn't fit in.  I can serve Gd also in 

idol worship. I can mamish take Gd, but if I don't

really know there is one Gd, if I don't really know, I can keep Shabbos 

and it's idol worship.  If it's strange, it's not there.  Has to be 

completely real.  



Therefore a person has to be mamish, this is hard work, a lot of things, 

you mamish have to believe there is one

Gd.  And the thing is like this, this is very, very deep.  What is the 

whole thing when Mashiach is coming?  The prophet says the whole world

will be filled with knowing Gd like the ocean fills, like the water is 

covering the ocean.

What will happen when Mashiach is coming?  Mamish they will know Gd.  So 

the more you know there is One Gd, the closer you are to the coming of 

the Moshiach, the great day.  If you know there is one Gd, then you are 

not in exile and nobody has power over you, nothing, nothing can knock 

you off, nothing in the world.  There is no wind in the world... 

You have to know something else. Remember I told you the Baal

Shem Tov says, what is the greatest slavedriver ?  My own yesterdays, my 

own wrongdoing.  I'm a slave to what I did yersterday.  This is the 

greatest pagan worship. On a certain level, as much as this is holy, 

that I am sitting there and crying over my sins, but this is still 

exile.  This is not really freedom.  You'll ask a Yiddeleh, how come 

you're not a prophet?  Me, a prophet, do you know what I did yesterday?  

So what do you care? Are you a servant of your yesterday or are you a 

servant of Gd?  So he says, before Mashiach is coming, it's just good to 

know.  Before Moshiach is coming mamish all the

gates of heaven are open.  And the only way of getting the light, the 

one thing you have to know there really is one Gd.  



Don't don't be a pagan.  And it is possible to do everything in the 

world of Torah right and still be a pagan.  Making Gd into an idol.  

And, you see, this takes refinement, refinement, and refinement. Meaning 

to say, for the last two thousand years, someone asks you what was the 

world doing?  We are refining ourselves, being less

pagan.  It's possible to go to shul and pray and it is still real idol 

worship.  Because the way I think of Gd is like an idol, right?  But 

some people think that God is an idol, just that He is

the biggest idol in the world, the greatest in heaven and in earth.  But 

it's still an idol, it's not Gd.  



Before Mashiach is coming, the gates of Heaven are open and Gd lets us 

know who He really is.  And the more you know who He really is, the less 

pagan you are.. Our father Abraham really knew there is one Gd and he 

taught it to us, and we forgot. 

But nowadays, we are beginning to remember.  It's coming back.







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