Separation from Others and Connection with Others

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

            Sometimes a person’s ideal visions cannot blossom and expand as they should because of a spiritual link between his will and his general guidance of the populace.
            Therefore, an inner need to separate himself completely from the entire popular avenue is born in him.
            But his distancing himself from the popular avenues and their spiritual nature causes him a natural weakness. This is common among people working in the spiritual field. And so they must augment their spiritual strength with the influence that they receive from the uncomplicated simplicity of the general populace, which follows its nature.
            Despite all of those people’s coarseness and darkened awareness, they possess many holy, sturdy inclinations, which can serve as great foundations for the spiritual stance of those whose minds are noble.
 
            Out of these two opposing judgments, the noble person must stand in the midst of two tendencies: to separate himself and to draw close. With this, he attains conceptual purity, on the one hand, and the natural strength that exists in simplicity and natural freshness, on the other.
            Orot Hakodesh, Volume 3, p. 272
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