עניני תפילה, התפלה המתמדת של הנשמה 1

התפלה המתמדת של הנשמה מתאמצת היא תמיד לצאת מן ההעלם אל הגילוי, להתפשט על כל כחות החיים של כל הרוח והנפש וכל כחות חיי הגויה כולה, והיא משתוקקת ג"כ לגלות את מהותה וכח פעולתה על כל הסביבה, על כל העולם והחיים, ולשם כך צריכים אנו לחשבונו־של־עולם שבא ע"י תורה וחכמה. ונמצא מתוך כך, שעבודת התורה כולה וכל חכמתה היא התגלותה המתמידה של תפלתה הכמוסה של הנשמה. נשמת כל חי תברך את שמך ד' אלהינו.

The constant prayer of the soul¹There are three primary aspects of soul which Rav Kook addresses in the introduction. When appropriate, neshama has been left in transliteration, ruach translated as spirit, nefesh as vital soul. Here are examples of how Rav Kook uses these terms elsewhere.
נשמה – התכונה הרוחנית העליונה של שפעת חיי המחשבה והרצון, המתעלה בעילוי האלוקי (ע"ר א טו)
The neshama is the highest spiritual aspect, the outpouring of the life of thought and will which rises up in Divine elevation (see Olat Reiyah I p.15)
רוח – הרצון (ע"ר א רנ), מכון השכל (שם קיט)
The ruach is the will (ibid p.250), the dwelling place of the intellect (ibid p.119)
נפש – היסוד התמציתי של החיים הטבעיים (ע"ר א יז), מכון הרצון (ע"ר א קיט)
The nefesh is the essential foundation of natural life (ibid p.17), and the dwelling place of the will (ibid. 119)
See this source text from Olay Reiyah
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your might
The heart is the dwelling place of the spirit (ruach), and the essence and primary foundation of choice reside in the aspect of ruach, which is the definitive level of humanity. Through the ruach the vital soul (nefesh) is elevated, drawing down upon itself more of the light of the higher soul (neshama). The place of the ruach and the nefesh is within man’s body, and they are certainly bounded by it. But the neshama can never in its entirety enter the body, rather the embodied intellect is illuminated by her sparks, because in her greatness she cannot enter into and be limited by any vessel. The vessel cannot bear the light, and this is why she is called ‘might,’ which indicates something abundant and magnified. This is the precision of meaning found in the homily of our Sages: ’and all your might (m’odecha)’ with every measure (middah) which He measures (moded) out for you.” The feeling of love in the heart could never be from the aspect of the nefesh, certainly not toward something which might cause one pain. So too, the love of a sick person for the doctor who amputates a painful limb does not flow from the nefesh, because one’s nefesh suffers from this act. Rather it comes from the ruach, the will that receives its impression only after awareness of the ultimate good which flows from this act has been fixed in one’s intellect. But the love of God must be magnified by things whose ultimate good cannot be quantified, but rather simply draw us toward the love of His great glory. This cannot be impressed on the will and is also not possible from the perspective of ruach, but rather only ‘with all your might,’ which is the neshama, can such a love come, where for every measure that He measures out for you, you can be filled with a mighty gratitude, through the exalted value of the highest intellectual feeling.
ואהבת את ד' אלהיך בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאדך.
הלב הוא משכן הרוח ,ועקר הבחירה וראשית יסודה הוא בבחינת הרוח,שהוא מדרגת האדם, וע"י הרוח מתרוממת הנפש, וממשיך עליו יותר אור הנשמה. והנה הנפש והרוח מקומם בגוף האדם ומוגבלים בו בודאי, אבל הנשמה אי אפשר כלל שתכנס בשלמותה בגוף, רק מאיר ממנה אור בניצוץ השכל המורגש בגוף, כי לפי גדולתה אי אפשר לה להכנס בכלי ולהגבל בו ולא יוכל הכלי לסבול את האור, ולכן היא נקראת בשם מאד שהוא מורה על הרבוי וההפלגה. ולפיכך מכוונת היא דרשת רז"ל בכל מאדך בכל מדה ומדה שהוא מודד לך. כי הרגש האהבה שבלב אי אפשר כלל שיהיה מצד הנפש למה שהוא מרגיש ממנו דבר מכאיב, כמו שאהבת החולה לרופא החותך אבר המכאיב אינה מצד הנפש, שהרי נפשו מצטערת במעשה זה, רק מצד הרוח שהוא הרצון המתרשם אחרי שכבר נקבעה בהכרת השכל תכלית הטוב היוצא מזה. אבל אהבה להשי"ת צריכה להתגבר מצד דברים שלא ישער כלל תכלית טובם, רק ימשך לאהבת כבודו הגדול לבדו, וזה לא יתרשם בחלק הרצון ולא יתכן גם מצד הרוח, רק בכל מאדך, שהיא הנשמה, תוכל לבוא אהבה זו, אשר על כל מדה ומדה שהוא מודד לך תהא מודה לו במאד מאד, ברוממות ערך ההרגשה השכלית העליונה.
The constant²The vision of prayer as one’s natural state of being is rooted in the second story of creation, particularly as read through the midrashic lens provided by Rashi (see Bereshit 2:4-8 with Rashi). Rashi (on 2:5), in the words of the midrash, makes it clear all of creation is in a state of potential, in a state of ‘not yet.’ Even the rains themselves await the prayer of man. Rashi then outlines a process in which prayer is man’s tool for moving creation from potential to actual. He says that man was needed to begin working the ground, to see the goodness that rain could bring, to feel its lack in the world and then turn to G–d in prayer. There is a practical approach to prayer which can be explored in this structure, but the question here is – how was Adam to know that rain was good if it had never yet fallen? The answer comes in lines 6 and 7. When G–d forms Adam from the dust of the earth, Rashi notes that the mist which rose from the ground allowed G–d to knead the raw substance of Adam into his form. This means that the water which the world required, which the prayer of man was meant to evoke, was the very stuff of Adam’s being. “The very waters that man is going to pray for, become the stuff of which he is made. Do you realize how deep that is? And I believe the deep understanding of that, is that man is made of that which he prays for in his most initial prayer, because the world, so to speak, produces man, so that man will pray for it.” R. Daniel Kohn prayer of the neshama strives continually to move from hidden to revealed, to spread over all the forces of life of the spirit and of the vital soul, and all the powers of embodied life. She yearns as well to reveal her essence and the power of her actions over all her surroundings, over all the world and life, and toward this end we require the accounting of the world (See Baba Batra 78b) which comes through Torah and wisdom. And so we find that the whole work of the Torah and all its wisdom is the constant revelation of the hidden prayer of the neshama³Notice that this is a revolution in the traditional understanding of the relationship between Torah learning and prayer. Here the purpose of learning appears to be to give us an orderly conception of the world which will then allow the soul’s prayer to reveal itself to the fullest. Compare to the Maharal at the very end of Netiv haTemimot “Torah comes from the highest source, where as tefillah is the inner source itself, which reaches to the source of highest blessing…”. “Let the breath of all life (nishmat kol chay) bless Your name, oh Lord our G–d…”⁴The poem Nishmat kol chay is said at the transition in Shabbat morning prayer between psukei d’zimra (songs of preparatory praise) and the acceptance of Divine kingship that comes through saying Shema Yisrael and its blessings. See translation at the end of this comment for more on this transition.
The oldest reference to the poem is found on gem. Pesachim 118a, where R. Yochanan says it is the “blessing of the song” named by the Mishna as the concluding blessing to Hallel of seder night, which it remains in the present Haggadah. The standard translation is “let the breath of all living things bless Your name…” In light of the role that the soul’s prayer plays in giving voice to all creation (see paragraphs 6 & 7 in this section) R’ Kook is pointing a reading as – “let the breath of all Life bless Your Name… (through the soul which reveals herself in prayer as an engagement of the wholeness of creation.)
See Olat Reiyah, Pesukei dezimra 122 .