Ideals and Deeds

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

                Sometimes, life stumbles in its course and lacks the strength to proceed with spiritual images. Then the spirit is too weary to bring them into deeds.
                Then confusion is born and viewpoints divide.
                Those who have a hardy spirit say: life is liable to illness, but it is also liable to return to complete health, and whatever is joined to life is secure.
                Therefore, we will not abandon the banner: the precious ideals that are hidden in the hiding place of deeds. They will necessarily come to light, precisely as a result of having been crystallized into actions. But they are not yet completed. [These] actions have not yet attained their goal, when we will be able to say that they have completed their work.
                They must illuminate the entire darkness of life. But [that] darkness is still great and extremely vast.
                Therefore, we will not abandon the banner. We will carry and bear [it]. With actual deeds, we will give form to the great thought of the spirit of Israel, just as the nation has begun doing since the time that it began to see its collective life.
                And if the burden is heavier now than it was in previous days, it is worthwhile bearing the yoke for the sake of the goal.
                We have left behind the circle of nations, children with capricious minds, who grow tired of serious actions that do not bring immediate gratification. We are blessed with knowledge and a fullness of personal feeling, so that we know how to live and how to carry with a calm heart and mighty will the yoke of life for the sake of a worthy goal. Although it is still hidden, in the end it will be revealed.
Shemonah Kevatzim I 5