The Return to the Soaring Idea

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

                To find a remedy for this terrible situation [of damaged deeds], for such a disease, which consumes the two extremities of life, so that at the core it is parched, we must strive as much as possible to guard [our] deeds, to love them and reinforce them to the extent that we can—but not to be satisfied with that.
                We will not gain anything in our effort if we do not commingle with the elevation of [our] deeds the return to the soaring idea that is stored and hidden in them.
                When actions remain “commandment of men learned by rote” (Isaiah 29:13), not only are they unhelpful, but they will diminish the idea even more.
                And in the end, the diminishment of the idea will conclude in [the person] annulling [his] deeds with disgust.
Shemonah Kevatzim I 8