Rav Kook: How to Attain Righteousness | Rabbi Aaron Goldsheider | May 20 2026

Welcome. Welcome to our learning. Great to see everybody here as we're just a couple of days away from the holiday of Shavuot. So, I very much appreciate. I know it's a hectic time. So, that that so many people are here this morning is very beautiful. Um let me just begin with the sponsor, our regular sponsor for this year. It's le-iluy nishmat Miriam bas Avraham ahavat shalom u'v'shem tov ben zichrono livracha. So, we continue now with our study of one of the beautiful works of Rav Kook. The name of the book is Midot haRa'aya. Rav Kook goes through 18 different character traits. We're actually up to, as you see the top of the page, the 14th. We're coming coming towards the end of the book. Our timing is good as we're coming towards the end of the Shavuot, moving towards the summer. So, the topic is really a a beautiful topic. And Rav Kook has an interesting I would say very interesting angle. And one which I would not have necessarily thought of um as the definition of this middah. So, what is the middah that Rav Kook is speaking of? Tzidkut. Tzidkut. Tzidkus. What What is tzidkus or tzidkut, depending on where you come from? Righteousness. To be a tzaddik. To be a tzaddiket. What does it mean to be a tzaddik? What does it mean to be a tzaddiket? How do you define being a tzaddik? We We use that term. And it's actually very beautiful. Here in Israel, I hear people that just call out to another, "Tzaddik, tzaddik, can you help me?" You know, "Can you help me with my bags?" But they're calling another person a tzaddik. They assume you're a tzaddik. So, what does it mean to What does it mean to be a tzaddik? So, if I were to ask you that question, what does it mean to be a tzaddik? I think some of you Well, what do you say? Throw out an answer. What does it mean to be a tzaddik? What does it mean to be a tzaddiket? Whatever you think of first. Righteousness. Do the right thing. Beautiful. Try to do the right thing. Or maybe it means actually doing the right thing. But trying to do the Trying to do the right thing. What else? What's a tzaddik? Going beyond. Good. Nice. Going beyond. I would I would Yeah, that that comes to mind. A tzaddik is not just the abba and you're not just an average Jew that you go above and beyond. Somebody that davens well. Somebody that learns seriously. Somebody that comes consistently to OU classes every week. Right? That person is is definitely a tzaddik. A tzaddik is So, um Rav Kook has a different definition. When I first read it, I uh kind of took a step back, but I think there's there's a lot of a lot of beauty and a lot of meaning in it. So, let's now read the words of Rav Kook. The way that Rav Kook thinks about tziddikut. And again, the way that he presents it in this work Midot HaRa'aya. Hot tziddikut ha'yesodit. When we talk about righteousness in the most basic yesod, the most basic um definition of being righteous, shel tzaddik yesod olam, of a righteous person who is the foundation of the world, a person who has a a pull [clears throat] or a longing for God. Hot tzivyah Elokit hat tziddikah she berucho, within your spirit, leot kashur, that you want to be bound, be chol cheftzo, in all of your will, sichlo, and all of your thought, ritzono, and all of your uh also will or desire, be hard gashato, and all of your emotion, likono, you want to be at one, you want to bond with your kono, the one who What's the koneh? The one who What? The one who owns you. Right? The one who has created you, litzur kol olamim, the rock of the entire world. chayei kol ha'chaim, You want to connect with What does it mean to be a tzaddik? Says Rav Kook, his definition, and we'll talk about this definition, we'll try to understand, elucidate on it. What it means to be a tzaddik is a person who wants to feel bound to Hashem, who wants to be connected to Hashem. Who feels It sounds like that tiviyah, almost like a natural pull towards God. That's the way that a person lives their life. They live their life with a Maybe I would call it a God consciousness. Another one is conscious of God and that one is connected to God on a tiviyah, on an ongoing basis. That is That says Rav Kook is a definition of of a tzaddik. You know, I was just thinking about that word, very interesting word that he uses, tiviyah, which means a tove'a, one who has a claim on God or one is pulled to God. So, there was a You're probably not familiar with this. This goes back to my college days. There was an album that came out, a Jewish album, by a group which is called Shlock Rock. Has anybody ever heard of Anybody remember Shlock Rock? Oh, we have some Shlock Rock fans here. So, So, I'm I'm friends I'm friends with with Lenny Solomon, who is He's called the king of Shlock Rock. That was his That's his title. So, he came up with this idea, really an amazing idea, of taking songs that were popular popular on the radio and that kids were listening to and give it he give it not Hebrew words, but give it religious It was in English, but give it meaningful, you know, religious uh religious content. Under the chuppah, good. That's an example, right? Not under the boardwalk, under the chuppah. So, um So, yes, so he had all these songs, he wrote literally hundreds of songs. It was actually part of a very beautiful movement which really came out of Yeshiva University, in which they were going into public schools at the time, and they came up with this idea. In the public schools, they had like a what was called a club hour where students could go for an hour and have different clubs. And they said, "Well, why don't we come into the schools and have a Jewish club hour? And we'll bring people and they'll do some studying and relax stuff with the kids about, you know, just Jewish pride. They bring some pizza in and get the Jewish kids together in a public school setting and in that way to begin to connect with them. And he actually a lot of these songs were written for, you know, for for those students and I guess for this movement it was called the Gypsy Gypsy Youth Movement. Okay. So, he has a he has an album called Jewish Pride. And on that album there is a story. There's like a 1-minute story that's it was I think one of the first albums that that he wrote. And the story is the following of a young boy that he gets some money from his parents and he goes to the store and he wants to buy something. He wants to buy a toy. And he buys a kite which today I don't know if our kids go to the store and buy a kite, but going back to the '70s and '80s the kids were still playing with a kite. So, he went and he bought a kite and he went to the park. And and he starts to fly his kite. And the kite is very very high in the sky. It goes so high in the sky that he no longer can even see the kite. That's how high the kite is. There is somebody that comes up next to this young boy and says, "What are you doing?" He says, "Well, you see that I'm that I'm flying a kite." And the man says, "Well, I don't really see, you know, I don't see the the kite." And the child says, "I don't see the kite either, but I feel the tug. But I feel the tug. I know that that that I'm attached to this kite and the kite is attached to me." So, that's the story that this little short story that's told on this album called Jewish Pride. And it's about it's the the title of the story is the the tug. I think the tug. So, this is when I think about this word tivia, this tug that we feel, this connection, this bond that we feel with Hashem, that's the tsaddik. A tsaddik, a righteous person, is a person who feels that tug. The person who feels that bond with Hashem, the presence of Hashem, consciousness of Hashem in a person's life. And let us just read on now in the in the second part of this piece of Rav Kook. It's one He has this as one one teaching on tsikut. That's all he has in the sefer midot haraya, this one teaching. He says, kol hadvarim, I'm now in the second paragraph, kol hadvarim hamistaafin. All the different like the word seif, all the different variations, all the offshoots, all the expressions of this love, the maasim, in the actions that we do, the haskalot, the way that we think, betoranuyot, maybe in the Torah that we study, einam kiim seifim, they're all expressions, shalpaim, that appear every so often, that we are engaged in, mitgaleh al yadam haor hakadosh hatsidkut haelyona. Through them appears the light of this righteousness, of this elevated righteousness. What he means by this line, the way that I understand it is, when we study Torah, when we daven, when we do chesed, those are all actions in which we bring to life, in which we actualize this love that we have for Hashem. Why else are we sitting here right now? We're here because we love Hashem, we love Hashem's Torah. We have a relationship with Hashem, we want to do that which is right. We want to grow closer to Hashem through the study of Torah. So, at its core, the tsaddik, the righteous person, is a person who develops this love relationship with Hashem. Aval atsmuta enu kiima to haziv hakavua, but at the very essence, at the very core, the atsmuta, enaki imato haziv hakavua, that there's a glow, that there's a light that is embedded that's found within the soul that's at the very essence of a person she make a that this is the source of life. This is the essence she make a that the goal is a that we all want and what it means to be a the person who develops develops a what's a an ongoing bond with a sham. And it continues to grow in with this light of godliness. So very interesting definition and again when I first read it I had to take a step back and think about this idea. The cook says that the essence of what it means to be a is to be a person who has a bond with a sham a loving relationship with a sham a consciousness of God in their life and everything that we do all the different acts are really just extensions of that love that we have with a sham. I was thinking about trying to just think about an example of this. How many people here have seen Fiddler on the Roof? Everybody here. When I was in fourth grade I was Tevye. That's my claim to fame. That was the end of that was it that was the end of my my acting career after that they said I think you can you know find something else in life. But I was happy for some reason I guess they thought I could act a little bit and sing. So one of the great scenes in Fiddler on the Roof and I actually just watched it just to remind myself of the scene it's a beautiful scene. So Tevye turns to his wife Golda do you love me right? Do you love me? So what does she say? What do you what do you >> [laughter] >> do you love me? And what did she say? Do I love you? Okay. So, then she goes on to say after 25 years, right? We're married 25 years. I've washed your clothes. I cook your meals. What else? I don't remember all the lines. I milked your cow. That's right. I milked your cow. What do you mean, do I love you? What do you mean, do we have a loving relationship? But there's actually something very deep that's going on in that scene. I know you're doing all of these things. I know this is what we do for one another. But is there the love? Is the relationship there? Is there a deep love? Have we forgotten that love that we have for one another? And it seems to me this is the idea here as well. Rav Kook says, yes, there are mitzvot and there's davening and there's chesed and there's learning, but do you love me? Right? Does Hashem Is relationship a relationship of love? I know you're doing it all. I know you're washing the clothes. I know you're milking the cow. I know you're getting up and davening and learning, but is the love there? Do you love me? So, Rav Kook says that the at the core of a tzaddik's life of righteousness, and by the way, this is not not easy, and Rav Kook says, this is the tzaddik yesod olam. You have to be on a This is like a high level. To be on a high level that you walk around with that real sense of of God consciousness and of of love for Hashem. So, where do we see this idea of love? It kind of sounds like, you know, this is like a relatively like new thing. Like Rav Kook is breaking ground here that love has to be sort of the center of religious life. But where do we have it? That's the most obvious place in the world. We say the Shema every single day. And the very first words of the Shema after we declare our belief in Hashem is ve'ahavta. We are to love Hashem. And by the way, we don't just say ve'ahavta. We don't just say we should love Hashem. What do we say? And we are to love Hashem the whole nafsha with all of our soul. Right? The whole me'odecha. I missed the first one. The whole levavcha, with all of your heart. Now, look at what the Torah is saying. It could have just said love, that would have been enough. The whole levav would have been enough. The whole would have been enough. Right? And then the whole me'odecha. What does the word me'odecha mean? By the way, many interpretations. Good. Many right. I think Rashi says another says it means resources that you put all your money. One [clears throat] of the simplest interpretations is that it means me'od. What does me'od mean? With everything that you have. With all of your being. With >> [clears throat] >> a lot. Right? With all that you have within you to love God. That's me'odecha. Me'od is as much as you can to develop that loving relationship with Hashem. Now, here I just want to just to point out the paragraph of the words that we say right before the uh the Shema, which I think are very significant, often overlooked. And that is the love We Here we're talking about the love that we are to have for Hashem. But how about the other side of the equation? How about the love that Hashem has for us? So, as we enter the Shema, what do we talk about? The love that Hashem has for us. Ahava rabba, there is a great love ahavtanu that you love us, Hashem Elokeinu. Hashem, you love us. We want to reciprocate that love. The love that you have for us. Chemla gedola v'teira ahavtanu. You're so [clears throat] compassionate. You are so good to us. And how can we not love you back? And then as we come to the end of that paragraph, again, this is what introduces the Shema. U'vanu vacharta mikol ha'amim, Hashem. You've chose Where Where do we see that love? And by the way, very appropriate for Shavuot just a day away. Because you've chosen us. You gave us the Torah. You established this relationship with us from all the nations of the world. U'vanu v'chartanu mikol am v'lashon. Look at the love that you expressed to us. The keravtanu l'shimcha hagadol, you bring us close to your name b'emet, and l'hodot l'cha u'l'yachedcha b'ahavah, we want to thank you, and we want to speak of your oneness with love. And how do how does the paragraph end? Right before we enter the Sh'ma, baruch atah Hashem ha'bocher b'amo Yisrael b'ahavah. Who are we referring to? Where is the love coming from? The one who chose good, Hashem. So, paragraph that enters the Sh'ma is God's love for us. And now we express our love back to Hashem. A very beautiful way of thinking about the Sh'ma. Okay, we can turn now to page two. And here I just want to point out, again, we see that love. When I first read these words of Rav Kook, again, it sounded like where exactly is is Rav Kook coming from, that love is is so essential that that's the very definition of of righteousness. So, we see that in the Torah, Sh'ma v'ahavta, and all of the greats talk about the love that we are to have to for Hashem, and how it's really at the very core of uh of Jewish life. So, I'm I I want to bring three examples of that. The Rambam, the Ramban, and the Ramchal, [clears throat] three of the three giants of our of our tradition. So, and going back to the Rambam is always uh important to see uh the way that he codifies. This is a law, this isn't just like a philosophical idea, but a law of loving God. It's found in Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah, the way that the Rambam begins all of his laws in Judaism begins with the foundations of the Torah, of Jewish life. And the second chapter, perek sheini, halacha bet, he writes the following. And again, for the sake of time and for clarity, just want to read it in the English that's on the left side, which is going to read the first four or five lines. And the Rambam says the following about loving. What is the way to attain the love and fear of God? So, the Rambam asks a very basic question. How do we do it? How do we get to that place of love of God? And he includes fear of God as well. That combination of love and fear again, there are different ways of interpreting that, maybe more of awe of God as opposed to not fear of punishment. But, how do we develop that love and awe of God? When a man contemplates his great wondrous deeds and creations. So, the Rambam says one way of doing it, and the way that he recommends, is to think about the miracles of this world, the wonders of this world. And maybe the Rambam is also talking about science here as well. Those that study science, those that study the complexities of this world will begin to to discover the awesomeness of God. And he sees in them his unequaled and infinite wisdom. And he sees and discovers God's greatness, he immediately loves and praises and exalts him, and he's overcome by a great desire to know the great name. As David as David Hamelech said, "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." Okay, so the Rambam, interesting, there's a lot to talk about here, a lot of commentary. This is the Rambam's approach. Actually, it sounds like the Rambam is saying it's not necessarily through study of Torah or through mitzvot. He says, what what How would you say the Rambam um recommends that we that we discover love for God? Just go outside. Go outside, that's right. The Rambam says go outside, be in touch with nature. Um be in touch with the beauties of creation. I think the study of that as well, the study of of those areas. Maybe doctors have an advantage in this area or other scientists. Doesn't always work out that way, but this is the Rambam. The Rambam believes that this is a path to loving God. The Rambam has a different explanation. This is one of the most quoted, I would say one of the most famous of the Rambans that we have on the Torah. Very often it's quoted, and the Ramban asked the following question. I'll read to you a line or two for the Ramban. We'll see it together. The Ramban says, "Why is the God needed to bring so many miracles in Egypt? He could have done it in one fell swoop. He could have done it with one great miracle. He didn't even didn't even need a miracle. He could have just kind of like forced the doors open, and the Jewish people would have left." And he also asked the question, "Why do we so often, so many mitzvot, we come back to the idea of zecher yetzias Mitzrayim?" Where we talk about that Shabbos, we talk about that. We say it in kiddush and tfillin. So many mitzvot it says in order to remember the exodus from Egypt. Why is that so central? And the Ramban says the following, and well I'll read it we'll read the words and I'll just share it with you. The Ramban says, "From the great miracles, from the awesome miracles, and God wanted to provide awesome miracles, wondrous deeds, from the great things, what will we learn? To see all the little things as well as miraculous." Let's read to the words of the Ramban. Ramban, "U'min hanisim hagdolim." There's a famous Ramban. "U'min hanisim hagdolim." From the great miracles of Mitzrayim, "vehamifursamim." And the ones that were famous, very similar word. "Adam modeh banisim hanistarim." A person will then come to recognize all of the hidden miracles. "Sheheim yesod haTorah kulah." This is the foundation of the Torah. And that's why God did it, and that's why God comes back to this idea again and again. A Jew should recognize and to learn to recognize all the miracles that they live with on a regular basis. That we can see, that we can breathe, that we can stand, that we can walk. All of the miracles, all the little things that we don't that necessarily take note of. So this is the Ramban's approach. How is it that we develop a love for Hashem to become more conscious, become more aware of the miracles that are around us. And one last classic source, and this is the Mesillat Yesharim, the Ramchal, in one of the most beloved works of Musar. And this is the very first chapter in the Ramchal's work, Mesillat Yesharim, and he writes the following. And let me just read it in the again, we have the Hebrew on the right side, we'll read it in the English for the sake of time. He says, "The foundation of saintliness." Interesting. He's also talking about what does it mean to be a tzaddik? He uses the word here a chassid, yesod ha-chassidut. What does it mean to be righteous? The same question that we opened with this morning. What does it mean to become a righteous person? How do we develop our righteousness? Mesillat Yesharim opens with that very question. The foundation of saintliness and the root of perfection is the service in the service of God lies in a man's coming to see clearly and to recognize as a truth the nature of his duty in this world. He says, "We first need to discover that we all have a mission in this world." And to think about life in that way. And the end um sorry, his duty in the world and the end towards which he should direct his vision and his aspiration and all of his labors all the days of his life. So this this is an interesting definition. We're on at the beginning of his definition. A tzaddik is somebody who looks at every day of his or her life and says, "What is my purpose here in this world? What is my mission? What am I here to do?" It's an interesting definition. That's a tzaddik. A tzaddik is somebody that lives with purpose, that lives with mission. Okay. And then he goes on, this is the this is the paragraph with the few lines that I want to see. "Our sages of blessed memory have taught us that man was created for the sole purpose of rejoicing in in and deriving pleasure from the splendor of his presence for this is true joy and the greatest pleasure that can be found. So here he and I bring this now as a third example of great, you know, the towering figures in Jewish life. He says life is about feeling the joy of relationship with God. As Rav Kook said, that bond that we have with Hashem. The ahava that we are to have with Hashem. Beautiful. So those are three three examples of of great some of the great authorities on the importance of the developing love with Hashem and and through miracles, through discovering the intricacies of this world and through finding our mission in this world. Let's turn now to the third page which is our final page. And here I want to share with you You have it? Okay. Here I want to share with you a very interesting Gemara. And again the topic today this morning is the topic of loving Hashem and closeness with Hashem. So I was thinking about, okay, I understand that in davening, in prayer, I understand that when it comes to Talmud Torah as well, in other words, we're sitting and we're studying Torah and this is a way, not only is it knowledge, but a way of connect connecting with Hashem, an expression of our love of Hashem. How is this true in the area of interpersonal relationships as well? In terms of being Adam lechavero. How does the idea of loving Hashem, ahava Hashem, avat Hashem, how does that play out in our relationship with others? So here I want to share the following teaching from Rav Kook. The Gemara says the following. This is something that we can I don't know think about and maybe how to apply in our daily life. Amar Rav, Rav has the following this is a Gemara in this is daf yud daled in Brachot and Rav says, "Kol hanoten shalom l'chavero kodem shepaleil if you greet another person with shalom, with hello, before you have davened in the morning k'ilu asu bamah. It is if you have built a bamah. Now, a bamah is like a it is it is not the right thing. It It's It's It's the wrong kind of service [clears throat] to Hashem. Even though there is an element of it being a service to Hashem, but it's It's the wrong thing to do. So, by the way, just an interesting idea. The Gemara says, and we kind of have to grapple with this for a moment or think about this, we are not to greet other people, we don't say shalom aleichem or to go out of our way to greet others before we daven in the morning. That [clears throat] the Now, what what's the What's the logic or what's the rationale behind that? What would you say? What? The whole davening before Before you have davened you are not to greet others. Okay, good. That you're very you're you're a practical person. So, you're going to be late to shul, you're going to start schmoozing, and you're going to miss, you know, laining, you're going to you're going to walk in for kiddush by the time you finish speaking with this person. Okay? That's good. Yes, what else? Okay, good. You have to speak Nice. So, I That's what I I was thinking along those lines as well. Notice, when you get up in the morning who's the first person you should be speaking to? Speak to Hashem first. And if I'm going to start a conversation or greet this other person before God, isn't there kind of like a disrespect going on? Right? My first greeting of the day, my first conversation of the day should ideally be with Hashem, not with not with somebody else. Stila, yeah? Is that modani? Okay, good. So, now we're So, now we're kind of moving into some of the halachic complexity. Maybe you've already greeted Hashem. Okay, good. What about your wife? What about your wife? All right, good. So, the yes, the Halakhic gets into What about your wife? What about your wife? Right. Yeah, I would advise say hi to your wife in the morning and before But yeah, so the Halakhic gets into the complexities of this and exactly how this is done. Some say that Davka the word shalom should not be used. That's what the Gemara means because shalom is a name for Hashem and you shouldn't be using that name. Others say no, that you Some Some say it means that you go out of your way to say hello to somebody else, not that somebody, you know, happens to be there. You're greeting somebody, your wife or somebody on the street. So, again, the Halakhic part will we we we can leave for another time or study another time. But Rav Kook wants to give the philosophical idea, the spiritual idea behind it. And he says the following, and I think this is a a very very beautiful idea. So, he writes the following. You know, let's just go to the top of the section. I just want to read one line. I always try to try to share just a few of the words of Rav Kook and then we'll we'll develop it outside. At the very top of the second paragraph, where he says the tachlis or let tachlis ha shalom v'ha achdut bein bnei Adam. So, what does it mean when we talk about peace and creating community and loving others? Like what is How do we define that? Mei achar she kulanu achim anachnu l'avinu sheba shamayim When we recognize that we all are brothers, that we all are children of one God, uv'achdut v'shalom bnei Adam yochlu latzeit l'or ha chamudot [clears throat] ha gedolot With this understanding that we're all connected to one another, that we all are children of Hashem, that we're all brothers and sisters because we all have a neshama, we all come from God. That is the ultimate in creating a society and community that cares for one another. The shall Hashem the Hashem. Okay. So, let me explain. Let me share with with you what we're cooking is getting at. Says, what is at the core of relationships that we have with others? Now, one way of having relationship with others is just being a nice person. I'm going to greet another person. Right? There's somebody that lives on my floor, somebody on my block, and it's the right thing to do. It's etiquette. It's a nice way of creating, you know, nice bonds of community with one another. We want to have a caring community. Says, that's one way of having relationships. But, he says that's not the ultimate [clears throat] way of having relationship. The ultimate relationship is when you see the godliness in another person. When you see the ashama in another person. When you recognize I'm really connected to you. You are my sister. You are my brother. We are connected. We are a soul that's connected from Hashem. We're all pieces of one great soul, all connected. We're all in ashama that's connected. We're a nitzuts. Nitzuts, we are a spark of Hashem's oneness, of Hashem's divinity. Now, if that's the way we treat one another, then that's the ultimate in relationships. And then we really care for one You know what? You can have friends in a neighborhood and somebody doesn't act properly, or somebody didn't show up, or somebody is, you know, blasting their music. And what happens? I'm not talking to this guy anymore. Right? I'm not greeting this person any longer. Look at the way that that he acts. But, if you see the other person as an ashama, that we're brothers and sisters, that we're connected, so even where, you know, one might offend the other, you still see the beauty in the other person. Says Rav Kook, when we get when we start our day, you know where we have to start? We have to start with Hashem. Because if we start with Hashem, then we'll see Hashem, we'll see the godliness in every individual. And in that way we'll create the most beautiful bonds between us. So it's not that you were, you know, disrespecting the other, you're not giving attention to the other, just the opposite. Start with Hashem. In other words, again, maybe spirit again, halakhically how it works, we could talk about the, you know, the details of that. But in the philosophical, the spiritual idea, don't say hello to anyone in the morning until you've said hello to Hashem first. Why? To recognize that it all begins with Hashem. And your relationships, the bonds that you have with every individual, is a bond of godliness. It's a bond of seeing the divine, seeing the neshama in every single person. And if you treat others like that, if the first thing I remember Carlebach, I I quote this often, he would always say, "If only we would see the neshama in the other person." Said, "Could we ever scream at somebody or raise our voice or get angry with another person if we would see their neshama?" The problem is we don't we don't do that. So that's what Rav Kook says. Rav Kook says, "Start your day before saying hello to anyone, start your day with with the God consciousness." Greet Hashem first, daven first. And by the way, halakhically there are there are ramifications. Yes, you really should start davening before you get on the phone and call all of your all of your friends in the morning. Yes, you should really daven first. I think that that's an appropriate suck halakha based on this this gemara. So there's that idea that daven but the deeper idea is that when we start with Hashem, where Hashem is at the foundation, then our relationships are then enhanced. Then our relationships are deeper. Then we see the beauty in one another. That is uh that's Rav Kook's take. That's his his idea that he shares on this Gemara. Okay, we spoke earlier about the love that Hashem the love that we are to have for Hashem and the love that Hashem has for us. And I think that I think that piece is also something that we haven't talked enough about, that we haven't heard about. And I've spoken about this in the past. I don't remember ever in my, you know, in my yeshiva, my day school years, hearing from the rabbis how much God loves you. God Right, never. Right, never. [laughter] Right, never. Now, by the way, we just a few minutes ago, the paragraph that enters the Shema is ahava. I'm just translating the words. Right, the love, the great love that Hashem has for you. Habocher b'Yisrael b'ahava. How much Hashem loves you, loves every individual. God loves you. That sounds doesn't sound Jewish, right? God loves you. Is that a Jewish idea? Yeah, well, I don't know. Maybe it's Chabad, maybe another religion that I God loves you. No, God We believe that God loves Am Yisrael, that God loves every individual. An endless love, ahava rabba, endless love that God has for each of us. Yes, Harry. And it's not conditional. Unconditional love. Beautiful. Unconditional love. So, here I will Yeah, please. Can I say something? When you're growing up as a child, you know, even you know, in elementary school, it's really an important thing to hear. It sure is. It sure is. >> I heard it from, it was I would say 15 to 20 years ago. Uh-huh. I had somebody that was Jewish who was in my old time class, and we we went into a conversation or something, and she just kind of said, "Well, don't you know that God loves you?" Yeah. And I'm going, "Well, I don't." >> [laughter] >> Right, we know we right, we grew up that God punishes us. In other words, that's what we are taught. God punishes, right? God, if you don't do this, there's punishment, there are ramifications. That's kind of the message. No, we there's a God that loves us. So, here I want to share with you um a a vort, an idea, which is really one of my favorite vorts, divrei Torah on the on the Torah itself. And um and here you have Rashi. You may have heard this before. I've shared this in the past. It's worth sharing again. Rashi, so Rashi's [clears throat] the great commentary, of course, on the uh on the Torah. If you look at the very first Rashi of every book of the Torah, Rashi is sharing one theme again and again and again and again. Did I say that five times? Again and again, again again one more and again. So, five times. Every time that Rashi begins the book of the Torah, he says that God loves Am Yisrael, that God loves you. Now, it seems to me that this is not by chance. This is not coincidence. Again, Rashi has all of Hazal, everything that he could that he could have written, that he could have commented on to begin the book of the every book of the Torah. And how he even did this is quite astonishing because you have a pasuk and he has to deal with that pasuk. He has to deal with the pasuk at the beginning of the of the Torah. And I'll go through I'll go through it with you right now, but I just want to before I even go through with you, I just want you to see that three times of the five times, the word chibah, the love that God has, the word chibah, appears in three. And the other mikne mikne vodan, because of the covered of Am Yisrael. That's four, okay? We'll Okay, let's go through it right now very quickly. And by the way, this is a de parte Torah you can put in your back pocket and you can use five times a year. Whenever we begin a new book of the Torah, you have this for a Torah. We just started the book of Amidbar. The very first Rashi asked a question, why do we begin with the story of creation? What is Rashi's answer? Because God created the world and he wanted to give the Jewish people the land of Israel. The love that God had for the has for the Jewish people that he has given us Eretz Israel. That's the very first Rashi. Why does the Torah begin with creation? Because Hashem created the world and God can choose wherever any nation is going to reside. And he wants, because of his love of the Jewish people, he gave us the land of Israel. That's the first Rashi. Second Rashi of the second book of the Torah is why does God begin with counting the Jewish people or again count the second time? Says Rashi and I have the words just highlighted on the left side. Lehodia chibatam because God wants to share how much he loves the Jewish people. That he loves counting the Jewish people. The third book of the Torah third book of the Torah What's Rashi's question? Why does it say Vayikra? Why does Why doesn't it just say what it always says, Vayidaber Hashem? Why does it say "God called out"? So Rashi says, it's a lashon chiba. Because God loves God loves Moshe Rabbeinu. God loves the Jewish people. And the word Vayikra means that he first called him with love. And Rashi says, that was true of every mitzvah. Before God gave the mitzvah, he first called in a loving way. The love that God has for a Jew. The fourth book of the Torah, Rashi begins with a question. Why? And we just read this last week, the very first Rashi. Why does it begin with counting the Jewish people again when we already know the count of the Jewish people at the beginning of Amidbar? Says Rashi, mitoch chibatam because God loves the Jewish people. He loves just counting the Jewish people again and again. God is just in love and infatuated with the Jewish people. He just loves counting them. So, that's four. And then the very last of the five books [clears throat] of the Torah and the question is Rashi asks, why do we list all these different places that we're already aware of? And Rashi says, God did not want to embarrass the Jewish people because of their cover, because of the honor and the love that he has for the Jewish people. He just named the places without the actual tocha, without the actual musser. He kind of did it in a in a hidden way. He didn't want to outright say negative things about the Jewish people. Isn't this amazing that Rashi and Rashi, this isn't my chance. Rashi Rashi knows what he's doing that he chose this and he wants the Jew when he when the Jew opens every book of the Torah, what does Rashi want us to think about as we're entering a new book of the Torah? What to look for. What are we to look for as we're about to study a new book of the Torah? The love that Hashem has for us. The chiva that Hashem has for us. Hashem, I'm sorry, Rashi, the very first idea that he opens every book is see, I want you to see in this book the love that Hashem has for you. Okay, I'll end with two things. Rabbi Soloveitchik said the following. Rabbi Soloveitchik said that Judaism is a religion, I don't have this on the page, of the hand, of the head, and of the heart. Three H's. Of the hand, of the head, and of the heart. What's the hand? The hand is all the mitzvot that we are engaged in. The head is the intellect, is the study of Torah, and the heart. The heart is the love, the love that we have for Hashem, for mitzvot. And here Rabbi Soloveitchik adds, he says we've done a very good job with the hand and with the head. But we haven't done enough with the heart. Rabbi Soloveitchik said we have not done enough with our hearts. We're good at learning, we're good at davening, we're good at chesed, but to develop that love, that closeness with Hashem, that's something that we that we that we that we need to continue to work on. Says Rabbi Soloveitchik, and that comes from from a missnagid, that comes from a Litvish a Litvish uh rav. Okay, let me conclude with this. So the this idea of ahavah, what it means to be a tzaddik, and again just I think it's an idea for all of us, again just to think about and how to develop a like the Ramban says more of awareness of God, consciousness, a love, a connection with Hashem. So I'll just end with the following story. So this is a this is a very nice book by the way, nice little book called Stories from the Land of Israel, Chanan Morrison. And he's done a lot of work. He was really one of the first to begin to uh to translate and to teach Rav Kook, and he has a number of books, and he put together book of it's just stories for the most part of Rav Kook's life and his son Rav Tzvi Yehuda and other stories that are here, Stories from the Land of Israel. And uh he has the following story about Rav Kook. And one that we've mentioned in the past, but uh always good to to share again, and for those that may not recall or may not have heard it. So the title of the story is Planting a Tree in Magdiel, and I'll read to you the story. At every possible occasion, wrote Rabbi Zev Gold. So Zev Gold is about to tell the story. Does anybody know who Zev Gold is? Anybody hear of Machon Gold? You've heard of Machon Gold? It was like one of the first women institution, seminaries uh in Israel. I remember it from the old days. It was named after this Rabbi Zev Gold, who is a great Zionist Zionist leader. He is He signed the uh the what's it called? The Declaration of Inde- or the Israeli uh you know, state of Israel, the document of the state of Israel. Does it have a name? Yes. What's it called? Declaration of Independence. Decl- Yeah, I I When I don't know When I say that, I think of the American one, but I guess yeah, Declaration of Independence. Uh "At every possible occasion," wrote Rabbi Zev Gold, "I tell the story of the remarkable lesson I was privileged to learn from our great master, the Gaon and holy Rav Kook, may the memory of the righteous be a blessing." Rabbi Gold, by the way, passes away in 1956. A leader of the religious Zionist Mizrahi movement once accompanied the chief rabbi, Rav Kook, to the community of Magdiel in the Sharon area. The rabbis were invited to plant saplings in an official ceremony to inaugurate a new forest. By the way, a new book just came out of Rav Kook of just pictures of Rav Kook. Just came out in the last amazing pictures, and you forget like what this country looked like in 1904 when he came. You know, just the barren the barren land and the deserts and what it meant to plant a tree, you know, in Israel and a forest. As Rav Kook was handed a sapling to plant, Rabbi Gold was amazed to see the rabbi's reaction. His face shone like a burning torch, and his entire body quivered with excitement. >> [clears throat] >> He did not use the shovel he had been provided with, but knelt down to the soil and dug a hole in the earth with his bare hands. Hand shaking, he reverently placed the sapling in the ground while murmuring his gratitude to God for the privilege of planting a tree in in Land. On the trip back to Jerusalem, Rabbi Gold turned to the chief rabbi. He said, "Why did you exhibit such deep emotion when you planted a tree in the ground? Nowadays, thank God, hundreds of trees are being planted in Israel every day." Rav Kook said the following, "As I held that young sapling in my hands, I remembered how the sages elucidated the verse of the halakha, bidrakhav, that you are to follow, you are to cling to Hashem." And this is what they wrote, "This is what the Midrash says. Is it possible for flesh and blood to ascend to the heavens and cling to the Shekhinah? Rather, you should understand the verse the following way. At the beginning of creation, the Holy One, blessed be He, engaged in planting." It says that God planted a garden in Gan Eden, that God, so to speak, was planting trees in Gan Eden. Similarly, when you enter the land of Israel, which is our Gan Eden, we should first engage in planting trees. And says Rav Kook, so that's that's the Midrash actually. And then Rav Kook says, "When I grasped that tender sapling in my hands and prepared to plant it in the holy earth," Rav Kook said, "I contemplated these words of the sages. I felt as if at that very moment I was clinging to the Shekhinah." I felt a bond, I felt one with the Shekhinah at that moment, and I was overwhelmed with feelings of awe and reverence. So, when I read that, that idea of of clinging, of that love for Hashem, of feeling one with Hashem, as Hashem planted in Gan Eden and thou and Rav Kook, as he was planting his tree in Eretz Yisrael, he felt that this is the Gan Eden of the Jewish people. And doing that which Hashem does, and to walk in the ways of Hashem. So, this I think is a very very very beautiful idea, very beautiful way of thinking about what it means to be a tzaddik, what it means to be a tzadekes. That we Reb Cook says that it's burning within us, that it's something that's so natural that there's that tug that we that we mentioned earlier, that connection that we have with Hashem. To feel a a closeness with Hashem, God's consciousness, to be to be thankful, to have gratitude for Hashem, for as Ramban says, to notice all the little all the little things as as the great miracles as as the yad of Hashem. So, I want to wish everyone a chag sameach, a good yom tov, a Shabbat shalom. And have a wonderful yom tov. Look forward to seeing you next week.