There is a person who sings the song of his soul.
He finds everything, his complete spiritual satisfaction,
within his soul.
There is a person who sings the song of the nation.
He steps forward from his private soul,
which he finds narrow and uncivilized.
He yearns for the heights.
He clings with a sensitive love to the entirety of the Jewish nation
and sings its song.
He shares in its pains, is joyful in its hopes,
speaks with exalted and pure thoughts
regarding its past and its future,
investigates its inner spiritual nature with love and a wise heart.
There is a person whose soul is so broad
that it expands beyond the border of Israel.
It sings the song of humanity.
This soul constantly grows broader
with the exalted totality of humanity and its glorious image.
He yearns for humanity’s general enlightenment.
He looks forward to its supernal perfection.
From this source of life, he draws
all of his thoughts and insights, his ideals and visions.
And there is a person who rises even higher
until he unites with all existence,
with all creatures, and with all worlds.
And with all of them, he sings.
This is the person who,
engaged in the Chapter of Song every day,
is assured that he is a child of the World-to-Come.
And there is a person who rises
with all these songs together in one ensemble
so that they all give forth their voices,
they all sing their songs sweetly,
each supplies its fellow with fullness and life:
the voice of happiness and joy,
the voice of rejoicing and tunefulness,
the voice of merriment and the voice of holiness.
The song of the soul, the song of the nation,
the song of humanity, the song of the world
they all mix together with this person
at every moment and at all times.
And this simplicity in its fullness
rises to become a song of holiness,
the song of God, the song that is
simple, doubled, tripled, quadrupled,
the Song of Songs of Solomon (Shlomo)—of the king
who is characterized by
completeness (shleimut) and peace (shalom).
|| Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook ||
