In this shiur, The Subconscious Sickness, we explored Rav Kook’s actual diagnosis of the core problem of our generation. A good diagnosis is half the cure — and Rav Kook offers one of the most penetrating psychological–spiritual readings of modern Jewish life.

He explains that a deep subconscious sickness has taken root within the generation, creating a breakdown in language, communication, and a person’s inner map of meaning. This fracture inside the self leads to loneliness, isolation, anxiety, and a sense that “no one understands me — not even myself.”

Rav Kook traces this crisis to two forces:

External influences — popular ideas, cultural trends, and “sifrus” that people give enormous emotional weight to, even though these ideas lack real content, truth, or spiritual grounding. They distort the inner compass.

Internal questioning — a person begins to examine their Jewish and religious upbringing and quietly wonders: What is it all worth? What does it mean for me? Why doesn’t it answer my deepest questions anymore?

The result is a generational disorientation — a subconscious ache that affects identity, belonging, and purpose.

We connected this with Chanukah, the ultimate “in-between generation”: a battle over worldview, culture, and the mind. Just as the Greeks fought to reshape consciousness, Rav Kook shows that our struggle today is also a war over meaning — and the healing lies in revealing deeper light.