Rav Kook speaks of transcending death in a number of places. Several of his teachings are gathered in Orot Hakodesh (pp. 381-384), vol. 2. One piece in particular, also published in Shmoneh Kevatzim (1:486), is an extended treatment, which focuses on freeing oneself from the fear of death. It's an exhiliarating piece, laying out the course of the transition to a point where the scholarly question, "Did Rav Kook believe that death will be defeated, or was he saying that it won't concern us" is left far behind.
Toward the end of this piece, he discusses how humanity will reach that point. He says the necessary preparation cannot be achieved by an individual, but only by a holy people, chosen long ago for this priestly role, so devoted to the transcendent G-d in the entirety of their beings that they are commanded to leave no trace of death on their lived lives, and to remove its terror and psychic impact entirely, opening the path for the founding of a culture which ratifies and rejoices all of life.
He closes with his usually triumphant lift, so I'll translate: "We are called to this, for this do we battle, and all the fallings/fallings-short which we have fallen will not detach our feet from this supernal goal, uplifted in our souls, to which we will surely come to, through all the steps and all the tangled paths, yet we will surely come to this freedom for the sake of which, behold, we are alive"
There's an allusion here which might be missed, but which is incredibly powerful. What is intimated by the use of the image "not detach our feet"? In Yehoshua, chapters 3 and 4, the people cross the Jordan. How do they get across? Yehoshua splits the Jordan. But not by a "heavenly" miracle, as Moshe split the Red Sea. Rather, by a "human" miracle. As per Hashem's command, Yehoshua has the priests carry the Holy Ark to the river. When their feet touch the river edge, its full, seasonal waters recede up and down the river course. The people cross, stones are taken and placed from and in the river to serve as testament, and when all is done, we read (Yehoshua 4:18): "As soon as the priests who bore the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant came up out of the Jordan, and the feet of the priests detached (from the riverbed) onto the dry ground, the waters of the Jordan resumed their course, flowing over its entire bed as before.".
Crossing the river is a symbol in many cultures of the transition from life to death. The passage is unsafe, you need someone to take you across to the promised land which lies beyond, different, better, eternal. But the raging waters and the terrors they evoke are ultimately illusory, since beneath them is the same land, firm if well-washed, we walk now. Being cares not for what we term life or death, nor does consciousness, emergent from body and soul but ultimately of a different dimension. The awareness, the deep awareness of this, the living of a life infused with this joyous truth, and devoted beyond self, is priestly service in its fullest, constantly in contact with the bedrock below and yet never attributing to it the ultimacy which the yearning for transencence itself manifests. As long as this priestly people keeps its feet on the ground yet bears aloft the Ark of Bonding Presence, no river of death separates life from life. Let all peoples flow forward, for together we are all that true, everflowing river, while we remain standing firm, nullifyiing by our devotion to the truth of oneness that ultimate idolatry, the torrential fear of death. And when at last we step out of the river bed, all will be that well-watered prommised land of being, joy and love.
Toward the end of this piece, he discusses how humanity will reach that point. He says the necessary preparation cannot be achieved by an individual, but only by a holy people, chosen long ago for this priestly role, so devoted to the transcendent G-d in the entirety of their beings that they are commanded to leave no trace of death on their lived lives, and to remove its terror and psychic impact entirely, opening the path for the founding of a culture which ratifies and rejoices all of life.
He closes with his usually triumphant lift, so I'll translate: "We are called to this, for this do we battle, and all the fallings/fallings-short which we have fallen will not detach our feet from this supernal goal, uplifted in our souls, to which we will surely come to, through all the steps and all the tangled paths, yet we will surely come to this freedom for the sake of which, behold, we are alive"
There's an allusion here which might be missed, but which is incredibly powerful. What is intimated by the use of the image "not detach our feet"? In Yehoshua, chapters 3 and 4, the people cross the Jordan. How do they get across? Yehoshua splits the Jordan. But not by a "heavenly" miracle, as Moshe split the Red Sea. Rather, by a "human" miracle. As per Hashem's command, Yehoshua has the priests carry the Holy Ark to the river. When their feet touch the river edge, its full, seasonal waters recede up and down the river course. The people cross, stones are taken and placed from and in the river to serve as testament, and when all is done, we read (Yehoshua 4:18): "As soon as the priests who bore the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant came up out of the Jordan, and the feet of the priests detached (from the riverbed) onto the dry ground, the waters of the Jordan resumed their course, flowing over its entire bed as before.".
Crossing the river is a symbol in many cultures of the transition from life to death. The passage is unsafe, you need someone to take you across to the promised land which lies beyond, different, better, eternal. But the raging waters and the terrors they evoke are ultimately illusory, since beneath them is the same land, firm if well-washed, we walk now. Being cares not for what we term life or death, nor does consciousness, emergent from body and soul but ultimately of a different dimension. The awareness, the deep awareness of this, the living of a life infused with this joyous truth, and devoted beyond self, is priestly service in its fullest, constantly in contact with the bedrock below and yet never attributing to it the ultimacy which the yearning for transencence itself manifests. As long as this priestly people keeps its feet on the ground yet bears aloft the Ark of Bonding Presence, no river of death separates life from life. Let all peoples flow forward, for together we are all that true, everflowing river, while we remain standing firm, nullifyiing by our devotion to the truth of oneness that ultimate idolatry, the torrential fear of death. And when at last we step out of the river bed, all will be that well-watered prommised land of being, joy and love.
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