“Therefore, the pure righteous do not complain of the dark, but increase the light; they do not complain of evil, but increase justice; they do not complain of heresy, but increase faith; they do not complain of ignorance, but increase wisdom.”

-Rav Kook

A friend of mine teaches a life metaphor about lemonade. If the lemonade is too sweet, he says, we don’t try to take some of the sugar out; we add more lemon. If it’s too sour, we don’t try to draw out some of the lemon, we add more sugar. We bring what is needed for improvement to the mix, rather than fighting with what’s already present.

This is Rav Kook’s lesson; rather than resisting or bemoaning some ill, we work to increase something healthy to contract it. As the saying goes, what you resist, persists. By focusing on evil, darkness, heresy, ignorance, we only give them power. Hitting the nail drives it deeper into the wood.

So rather than resisting what we don’t want, we and the world are better served by assisting what we do want, and bringing more of that into life’s “lemonade.”

What’s needed that can you bring more of into the world today?

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Abraham Isaac Kook (1865–1935) was the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandatory Palestine, the founder of Yeshiva Mercaz HaRav Kook (The Central Universal Yeshiva), Jewish thinker, Halakhist, Kabbalist and a renowned Torah scholar. He is known in Hebrew as HaRav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, or simply as “HaRav.” He was one of the most celebrated and influential rabbis of the 20th century.^[1]

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive, consultant, and a lowly rabbinic student. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@godsdog.net.