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The following is from RSRH's essay Sivan V. You may read the entire essay at <br>
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<font face="arial,arial,helvetica"><font size="4"><b><span lang="en-us"></span><a href="https://web.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/sivan_v.pdf">Sivan V</a> (Collected Writings I)</b></font></font></div>
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It is the light of our manhood. It illuminates our eyes and, from the totality of truth, lets us glimpse what we need to know to function on this earth, Not to comfort us for the darkness of this world with a dim preview of the light of the next world does
this light come. On the contrary, it is precisely the life of this world that is illuminated by this light and is the object of its teachings and ordinances, And not just a narrow corner of life, but life in its broadest conception and greatest perfection.<br>
This light-the Law-conducts us step by step through all of the relationships of individual, family, and civic life, the life of the spirit and the mind, of the body and the instincts, of word and deed. It guides the life of the household, the community, the
individual nation, all nations, humanity-whose past it illuminates and whose future it charts. And as for the present, it lets us see its significance as the</div>
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product of the past and the progenitor of the future.</div>
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The Law is a light which becomes brighter the purer we keep it, the more fully we devote ourselves to its radiance. Its radiance enables the Jewish man to walk through life with his eyes open, knowing what he is, what he should be, and what is the meaning for
him of the individual and community life going on around him.
<div>The Law gives us a standard by which to distinguish the true from the false, the pure from the tainted, right from wrong, what is beneficial from what is unsuitable-all according to the undeceivable judgment of Godly Truth. It gives us a standard by which
resolutely and firmly to travel His Road without audacity and without recklessness, without contempt for man and without worship of man, without conceit and without self-abasement, but rather with the Godly lamp in hand. Thus equipped, we can travel our road
witnout fear, calmly and earnestly, prepared for all eventualities .</div>
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It was the light of the manhood of our nation. It was the brightly glowing flame of inspiration in the breast of the prophets; and the purifying, and life-giving fire upon the household hearths which spawned such prophets.</div>
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<div>Y,et, it was also the torch of destruction for all that developed on Jewish soil for the sake of heathen glimmer, sensuality and lust; and all that developed on Jewish soil in opposition to the Law's own spirit and earnestness, in opposition to its Truth
and inspiration.And</div>
<div>afterwards, when as a result of this neglect and opposition, this Law was expelled along with the Jewish people, it became the Light of wisdom in the breast of the earnest core of men and women who claimed it for themselves and kept it alive. In exile,
this Law could develop in even greater richness and purity, as Jewish life shed the husk of political independence. The less a nationhood offered fulfillment and luster, the more the Divine Law itself became the source of all triumph and achievement in the
Jewish sphere. And this remained true even when, Tor a brief period, home soil was once again permitted to the dispersed people. OUf people waged its wars, and won its victories, not on the battlefield but in the fertile hearts and minds of the nations with
whom they came in contact.</div>
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Yitzchok Levine<br>
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