On Being a Vessel for G-d’s Light

House of Love and Prayer, San Francisco 5732
A Rav Kuk Teaching by Reb Shlomo Carlebach
Transcription by Donna Anderson Maimes

  Before the great day, before the Messiah is coming ...
suddenly all the gates of heaven are open. and all the gates of
learning and of the secrets of the world. You know there is such
a thing as loving G-d, and there is such a thing as fearing G-d.
Naturally, to fear G-d doesn’t mean to be afraid—G-d is not like
that. There is a strong saying that says I’m not afraid of G-d,
but I’m afraid of someone who is not afraid of G-d. Loving G-d
is not simple, but everybody understands it. When it comes to
fearing G-d we have a little trouble. What does it mean to fear
G-d? The Baal Shem Tov says that fearing G-d means that I’m afraid
that I will lose His light, I’m afraid that I will do something wrong
and I’ll be far away from Him. This is one meaning. Another
meaning is, fear naturally doesn’t mean afraid. The Hebrew word
for fear is “yirah”. In Chassidus we learn that “yirah” has the
same letters as “reah” (resh, yod, aleph, hay) and reah means
seeing. That means you can love G-d with closed eyes or you
can love G-d and see Him. When you see Him, you know you
mamash see G-d, you just tremble. That’s also a way of loving
G-d, but in a trembling way.

    How much do we really know about G-d? The truth is, we
know very little. We know He created the world, spoke to us on Mt.
Sinai… but really, we know very little. For loving you don’t have to
know so much. The word fear is a poor translation of yirah. Yirah means
really being aware of G-d—awe. I really know that He is there. I can
love a girl who is in Australia, that’s “ahava” (love). But yirah means
I can love G-d even if He is far away because I know that He is right
here. To really know that He is right here, that is yirah.
   
    The truth is, before the Messiah is coming, so to speak, all the
walls are broken down between man and man, between man and G-d ... so
the world is becoming more and more aware that G-d is really here.
What is happening when the Messiah is coming? We’ll know G-d is really
here the whole time. So all the gates of learning, the gates of the
mysteries of the world the gates of fearing G-d. or yirah, of knowing
that He is really there, are all broken down.

  G-d does not shine the same light twice. The truth is that great
light is shining in the world, but there are always new lights and
even deeper lights. So, before the Messiah is coming, such great
lights are coming into the world in the most unbelievable way.

    Now the sad question is, where are the lights right now? Rav Kook,
the late Chief Rabbi of Israel, says, because we were in exile so long
(not only physically were we in exile, but spiritually as well) what
happened to us is that we don’t believe anymore ... deep down we
don’t really believe. With all our so called believing in the Messiah
and everything else in the world…really we don’t believe. You pin
down a little Yiddeleh and ask him, do you really believe that great
lights are happening to the whole world…and he says, who am I,
right? He is really in exile. If you ask him, do you think that you
could have prophetic visions… he’d say “Crazy!” Why not? Because
he doesn’t believe in it, he doesn’t believe in himself.

    The saddest thing is that most people prefer to live in darkness
rather then see the great light. It is therefore those people who do
not know anything about lights ... those people might not even know
that there is one G-d, maybe nobody taught them. The people who were
taught that there is one G-d were taught in such a way that they really
know it. I’ll tell you something very deep. When those great lights are
coming down to the world, they are ready to grab someone to make them
ready for this great light. The thing is you have to really know that
there is one G-d and that He is as near to you as you will let Him be.
The great lights are here right now… you just have to believe it.
If we can’t believe, we are still in exile.

Rav Kook says 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 that we have no idea how heartbroken G-d
is that He cannot reveal Himself to the people that He wants to talk to.
They don’t want to hear it. Like someone is knocking at your door. he says
“G-d is knocking at your door”—you’re crazy, it must be a dog barking.
It’s heartbreaking.

Great things are happening in the world, great lights are coming down
to the world. and nobody seems to notice. The people who know there is
one G-d, they don’t want to hear it. And strangely enough. those people
who do not know anything, or were taught anything (they were not taught
the exile teaching about G-d), they are wide open and they receive the
great lights. So, Rav Kook says, if you have a little bit of 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.

You really have to know there is one G-d. How did Abraham become so
great? He really knew that there is one G-d. Abraham really knew
what idol worship was. Idol worship doesn’t mean that I take a little
statue and bow down to it, this is kid’s stuff. Idol worship is
serving G-d with worship that is strange (avodah zerah), strange
worship doesn’t fit in. If I don’t really know that there is one G-d.
then whatever I do is idol worshipping.

  What is the whole thing when the Messiah is coming? The prophet
Isaiah says the whole world will be filled with knowing G-d, as the
water is covering the ocean. What will happen when the Messiah
comes? We will really know that there is one G-d. So, the more you
know that there is one G-d, the closer you are to the coming of the
Messiah, the great day. Rav Kook says, if you know there is one G-d,
then you are not in exile, and nobody has power over you, nothing can
knock you off…

  Remember I told you that the Baal Shem Tov says that the greatest
slavedriver in the world is my own yesterdays, my own wrong doings.
I’m slave to what I did yesterday… I’m a servant to my own yesterdays.
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… this
is exile. This is not real freedom. Are you a servant of your own
yesterdays, or are you a servant of G-d? Rav Kook says, before the
Messiah comes all the gates of heaven are open. The only way of
getting the light, the only thing you have to do is know there is really
one G-d. Don’t be a pagan. It is possible to do everything in the world
and still be a pagan making G-d into an idol. What are we doing,
refining ourselves, being less pagan. It is possible to go to shul and
pray and be idol worshiping. Some people think G-d is an idol “so big”
and I think that G-d is the biggest idol in the world—but it is still
an idol and not G-d. What do we know about G-d? Before the Messiah
is coming, the gates of heaven are open and G-d lets you know who He
really is. The more you know who He really is, the less pagan you are.
And again we have to know one thing that our father Abraham
really knew that there is one G-d and he taught it to us and we forgot.