KINDNESS
Be Good to All
When you experience a strong desire to be good to all, realize that an illumination from the supernal world has come to you. How fortunate you will be if you prepare a proper place in your heart, in your mind, in the acts of your hands and in all your feelings to receive this exalted guest, which is greater and more exalted than the most noble of this earth. Take hold of it and do not let go.
Do not allow any delays and obstacles-whether physical or spiritual-that hinder you from taking this holy inspiration into yourself to stop you. Fight for everything. Rise in your strength. Lift your consciousness to the far reaches and imitate the qualities of God, Who is good to all and Whose compassion encompasses all His creatures.
Orot Hakodesh III, p. 316
Kindness
Rav Kook's father told the following story:
Once, when Avraham Yitzchak was not yet six years old, he was late returning from cheder, and we began to worry. As it grew later, my wife got very upset, and she asked me to go look for him. I left the house and asked a few of his friends if they had seen him. One of them told me that he had seen him go with an old man in the direction of the old part of town (Griva). I set out in that direction, my heart filled with worry. But before I had gone far, I saw him from a distance, running-which wasn't his usual custom-in the direction of our house. I hurried to meet him, and when he reached me and realized that I had gone to look for him, he hugged me and asked me to forgive him for having been late coming home.
He explained that when he had left the cheder, an old Jew had come up to him and asked him where the house of a man who was known for his charity was. He knew that the old man was a stranger to the city, and that even if he told him where the house was and how to get there, the man still wouldn't easily find it, because one had to pass through various streets and alleys. And this was an old man with a cane.
And so he decided to fulfill the mitzvah of gemilat chasadim-doing kindness and to bring the man to the house himself.
When he finished telling the story, he asked innocently, "Father, did I not do well? I am sorry if I upset you and mother, but I swear before heaven and earth that I only had the mitzvah in mind. And the man also blessed me that I should become great in Torah."
(R. Chaim Karlinski, Shanah B'shanah, 5746, p. 362), Likutei Rayah, pp. 423-24
A Story of Generosity
by Baruch Dovdavni
Rav Kook's student, Baruch Dovdavni, related the following story.
In the last weeks of Rav Kook's life, Rav Kook was lying on his sick-bed, contorted in his terrible pains. The cancer that eventually took his life had already harmed him considerably.
In the midst of that, a woman entered his room. She told Rav Kook that her daughter had gone suddenly insane and that the physicians said that the girl could not be adequately treated unless she were taken immediately to Vienna. With a great deal of effort, the woman had managed to obtain a passport. But the Italian consul was withholding the visa until the formal arrangements, which would take another few days, would be carried out.
Rav Kook immediately wrote a letter to the consul on this woman's behalf, but it did not help.
And so, despite the pleading of his doctors and the outcries of his family, Rav Kook himself went to the Italian consulate, his bandages wrapped about his midsection and suffering great pains. When the consul saw him, he was shocked. He knew that Rav Kook was terribly ill. The newspapers were printing bulletins regarding on his grave medical condition. Yet now Rav Kook himself was standing here before him.
As can be imagined, the consul agreed immediately to Rav Kook's request and presented the visa on the spot.
Malachim Kivnei Adam, p. 261
The Toddler
by Rabbi Sh. B. Shulman
There was a certain man who suffered many difficulties and who had a small daughter. He brought the little girl to Rav Kook's room, tied her to his chair, and disappeared.
At that time, Rav Kook had one granddaughter, Tziporah, whom he dearly loved. Now, when Rav Kook saw this girl, he told his family: "It is our responsibility to treat this girl like our own Tziporele, without any difference whatsoever, heaven forbid." And he did exactly as he said.
The girl stayed in Rav Kook's house, exploring and getting into everything, as toddlers do. Nights were particularly hard, because the girl would cry and wail, and Rebbetzin Kook couldn't get to sleep.
The rebbetzin complained that she was weary and no longer had the strength to take care of the child.
Rav Kook replied, "You are certainly right, and it is only fair that we hire a nurse. But since we don't have the means to do so, I am ready to help you at night. I will hold the girl on my lap and try to put her to sleep with the tune of my Gemara learning."
Malachim Kivnei Adam, p. 302
Sinners And Criminals
by Simcha Raz
When the British Mandate government asked the Chief Rabbinate to appoint a rabbi to visit prisoners every Sabbath, attend to their religious and spiritual needs and give them moral support, this was a welcome request, but one not at all easy to fulfill. It would be hard to find a rabbi to "pray with the sinners" every Sabbath. It was clear that doing so would add no pleasure to the Sabbath, would not at all be easy on the rabbi's family.
Rav Kook suggested R. Aryeh Levin should be asked to take on this responsibility. R. Aryeh Levin agreed to do so, and took on this unpleasant task without monetary reward.
Rav Kook was asked what had led him to suggest R. Aryeh and to place this heavy burden upon him, since most of the prisoners were rough men and criminals. Rav Kook replied, "That is exactly the point. In order to deal softly and patiently with sinners and criminals, one needs a very broad heart, a great deal of patience and loving-kindness, and this fits R. Aryeh, for he does great works of kindness. That is the root of his soul and the reason for his being in the world."
Malachim Kivnei Adam
Not One Word
by Simchah Raz
Once a great Torah leader from outside the land of Israel asked Rav Kook why he so much valued R. Aryeh Levin, and what was so special about him.
Rav Kook replied, "It is twenty years that R. Aryeh has been coming to my house-and in all those years, I never heard him speak one word in praise of myself nor one word disparaging anyone else."
Malachim Kivnei Adam
Prepared For The Feast
The greatness of righteousness, along with its inner delight, comes from its ability to gaze toward the good of the future. No [other] eras form a barrier before it. Everything that passes is like foam upon the water. All evil and ugliness that constrict our mind-all this passes by.
The entire universe is assured of eternalness. Even now, total goodness fills the world, and it is prepared to manifest itself openly on a variety of levels in the future.
When evolution-which is on every tongue-broadens its scope, it will be the source of all righteousness, honesty and holiness, and it will cause the divine sweetness to rest upon every soul.
The reason behind this is simple. Since everything is evolving toward goodness, everything is rising. And so everything is prepared "for the feast" and for complete goodness. Contentment with reality manifests, and supernal kindness is increasingly poured forth throughout all the fullness of the soul.
That is the goal of righteous people's trait of goodness. It fills them with love of God and with love of the world and all creatures.
When the trait of goodness and kindness gains strength in the heart of the righteous person (the foundation of the world), it arrives, with its light, to the profundity of the most distant future, the most elevated world of rectification, where all that is bitter will be sweetened, and all evil will be transformed to good and all darkness to light. This [righteous person] transcends all the deeds and constructs of the present world.
[In this world,] the trait of judgment prevents and blocks goodness from expanding in all its fullness. But the good righteous person always overcomes everything. He clings to his trait of goodness, which is the trait of the supernal good that is constantly being revealed to him from that light which has been hidden away for the tzaddikim in future days.
This is because, due to the depth of his goodness, he does not hold himself back from pouring forth upon [the deeds and constructs of the present world] a very broad outflow that is good for them.
This accords with the good desire of his inner being to be good and of aid both to those who are evil and those who are good. [Translator's note: Elsewhere Rav Kook states that the greatest favor we can do evil is to destroy it.]
When the supernal trait of goodness gains strength within the heart, and a person is filled with kindness and forgiveness, no alien idea constricting that goodness and kindness may halt this holy process. From these moments of illumination, divine inspiration spreads throughout the world.
And from the absolute good that shines into one soul in great measure, all souls (small and great, distant and near) are tempered.
Orot Hakodesh II, pp. 501-02
Three Jews
by Simchah Raz
Once, when Rav Kook was told about some extraordinary act of kindness that R. Aryeh Levin had performed, he stood up and said, "If there were three Jews like R. Aryeh in our generation, the messiah would come."
Malachim Kivnei Adam
Patience
When patience with a variety of viewpoints comes from a heart that is pure and cleansed of all evil, it is not liable to cool off the flame of feelings of holiness within which lies simple faith, the source of the happiness of all life. Rather, it broadens and enlarges the foundation of a fervor that is dedicated to heaven.
Patience is armed with a very great faith, so that it realizes that the soul can never be entirely emptied of the light of holiness, since the life force of the living God fills all life. And so even where activities are destructive and where the denial of faith is widespread, it must be that within the heart and within the depth of the soul exists a light of life of a hidden holiness, which expresses itself in the good aspects that we find in many facets even among Jews who are shattered, who are plagued by atheism and consumed with doubt.
And out of this great and holy knowledge and faith comes the patience to embrace everything with lovingkindness.
"I will surely gather in the entirety of the people of Jacob" (Micah 12).
Midot Harayah, p. 84 (Orot Hatorah, omnibus edition)
