What Are We?

Rav Kook on Exodus 16: 7

The greater you are, the more you need to search for your self.  Your deep soul
hides itself from consciousness.  So you need to increase aloneness, elevation of
thinking, penetration of thought, liberation of mind – until finally your soul reveals
itself to you, spangling a few sparkles of her lights.

Then you find bliss, transcending all humiliations or anything that happens, by
attaining equanimity, by becoming one with everything that happens, by reducing
yourself so extremely that you nullify your individual, imaginary form, that you
nullify existence in the depth of your self.  “What are we?’  Then you know every
spark of truth, every bolt of integrity flashing anywhere.

Then you gather everything, without hatred, jealously, or rivalry.  The light of peace
and a fierce boldness manifest in you.  The splendor of compassion and the glory of
love shine through you.  The desire to act and work, the passion to create and to
restore yourself, the yearning for silence and for the inner shout of joy – these all
band together in your spirit, and you become holy.