Rav Kook's Ein Ayah: Holy Things That Bring Long Life

(based on Berachot 1:91)

Gemara: They told Rebbi Yochanan: there are old men in Bavel. He was surprised and said: “The pasuk says, ‘… so that your days and the days of your children shall be long in the Land,’ implying that in chutz la’aretz (the Diaspora) there is not long life.” Once they told him that they came early and stayed late in batei k’nesset (synagogues), he said: “That is what did it for them.”

Ein Ayah: The lengthening of lives comes from two factors: 1. from the arrangement of ethical life with good middot (personal qualities) and 

2. refraining from getting pulled in after desires and luxuries. This can be attained only by the good influence of ethics and fear of G-d. Additionally, when the powers of the spirit increase they lengthen the days of one’s life.

For this reason, Rebbi Yochanan wondered about long life in the Diaspora. Long life for Jews is suitable only in Eretz Yisrael, where the Land’s sanctity and great ethical elements for the Nation of Israel that are inherent to it uplift the spirit and strengthen the spiritual powers. It also leads people in the straight path of an ethical life and good middot. However, in the Diaspora the land causes “torn-up wisdom” and a confusion of the middot. How can the spiritual powers be strengthened and the middot straightened there to arrange good ethical lives that lengthen days?

However, when people told Rebbi Yochanan that people came early and stayed late in batei k’nesset, he said that this is what did it for them. This is because the elevating of the spirit, the influence of good middot, and arriving at abundant, pleasant ethical life come to the heart by one being in the house of Hashem daily, joining in to the communal ethical life. This helps by the beit k’nesset serving as a mini-sanctuary in the lands of dispersion. The gemara brings a proof that wisdom can cause more complete middot and the justice of life, which increase the length of life from the following pasuk: “Fortunate is the person who listens to Me to frequent My doorways daily, to guard the doorposts of My openings” (Mishlei 8:34). This means that when entering the places where wisdom and completeness find a place, the spirit must be uplifted and the middotmust be straightened. The pasuk continues to speak of one “who finds Me,” in the manner of chancing upon something without giving the matter thought, but by frequenting good holy places where people sanctify His Blessed Name. This naturally causes the sanctification of one’s spirit and completeness until he “finds life and extracts good will from Hashem.” This occurs by going on a straight path and keeping statutes and proper justice to be good to Hashem and with people.