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Author : Benjamin Ish-Shalom Publisher : State University of New York Press Page : 374 pages File Size : 41,5 Mb Release : 2012-02-01 Category : History ISBN : 9781438407630
Rav Avraham Itzhak Hacohen Kook by Benjamin Ish-Shalom Pdf
This is the first comprehensive philosophical-theological study of the mystical thought of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935), the Chief Rabbi of Palestine prior to the establishment of the state of Israel, and the great representative of the most significant renewal of the Jewish mystical thought in modern times. Rav Kook was the spiritual and hallachic authority who laid the foundation of religious Zionism. Discontent with "Hamizrakhi" political pragmatism, he envisioned Zionism as a movement of return and all-encompassing Jewish renaissance. This book dissolves the mist enveloping Rav Kook's writings and offers an understanding of his spiritual world. It presents and analyzes the systematic elements in his teaching and reveals the spiritual interests and fundamental approaches of his religious thought.
"Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook zt"l had brilliance and depth of knowledge that were simply otherworldly; his devotion to God was supernal; and his character traits were heavenly. At the same time, however - and perhaps more important - he was an exemplary human being. Although he strove for personal, spiritual perfection, he was more concerned with helping others come closer to God. He was constantly involved in the affairs of his people, doing everything in his power to ease their pain, raise their pride, and pave the way for their ultimate redemption in their ancestral Land."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Teshuvah means "return." It is the return to God, The return to health, The return to our soul, The return to the universe, The return to a mended planet, The return to happiness, The return to home. Lights of Teshuvah is the quintessential work of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935), first Chief Rabbi of the holy land, who was a Talmudic genius, a communal leader, a saintly personality, an impassioned visionary, a fighter for social justice, a poet and-most of all-a mystic. He was also a deeply original thinker, the breadth, inclusive spirit and transcendent ecstasy of whose teachings embrace the entirety of creation. Rabbi Kook was a poet of the soul and a spokesperson for a complete human spirit that embraces contradiction, that reconciles the poles of this-worldly and other-worldly experience. His writings celebrate the union of legalism and poetry, particularism and universalism, faith hidden in atheism and atheism hidden in faith, the spirit revealed from the flesh, and beauty revealed through ugliness. Rabbi Kook sang of universal creativity, of an unceasing fecundity that is the natural song of all being. He championed the poetic and creative spirit within each individual. "Every time our heart beats with a true expression of spirituality," he wrote, "every time a new and exalted thought is born, we hear the likeness of a Godly angel's voice at the doors of our soul asking that we allow him entry so that he may appear to us in the totality of his beauty." Ultimately, Rabbi Kook's robust message is one of life and growth, hope and optimism. "Death is a false phenomenon," he taught, and "to the degree that the quantity of movement toward wholeness grows, evil decreases and goodness is revealed." ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR Yaacov David Shulman is the author, translator and editor of fifty books of Jewish spiritual and literary meaning. His translations of Rav Kook are available at ravkook.net, and his latest work is available at dotletterword.com. For a full listing of his work, visit his Amazon author's page or shulman-writer.com. You may reach him at yacovdavid@ gmail.com.
"In truth, all darkness is merely diminished light" (Orot Hakodesh II, p. 455).This profoundly optimistic statement can serve as the summation of the teachings of a remarkable thinker of the twentieth century, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook.Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook (1865-1935), first Chief Rabbi of the holy land, was a Talmudic genius, a communal leader, a saintly personality, an impassioned visionary, a fighter for social justice, a poet and-most of all-a mystic. He was also a deeply original thinker, the breadth, inclusive spirit and transcendent ecstasy of whose teachings embrace the entirety of creation. Rav Kook's teachings are exalted, piercing and universal. "From the well of kindness," he proclaims, "your love for humanity must burst forth-not as an arbitrary obligation, for then it would lose the most clear aspect of its brilliance, but as a powerful movement of the spirit within you."Rav Kook was a poet of the soul and a spokesperson for a complete human spirit that embraces contradiction, that reconciles the poles of this-worldly and other-worldly experience. His writings celebrate the union of legalism and poetry, particularism and universalism, faith hidden in atheism and atheism hidden in faith, the spirit revealed from the flesh, and beauty revealed through ugliness.Rav Kook's writings are the gifts of a universal teacher. Although he is principally known to the English-speaking world for his teachings on repentance and Zionism, he was a polymath who addressed every possible topic, and always brilliantly: poetry and war, divine immanence and evolution, social justice and aesthetics. All of these caught his attention and were refracted through his ever-searching mind and soaring soul.Rav Kook sang of universal creativity, of an unceasing fecundity that is the natural song of all being.He championed the poetic and creative spirit within each individual. "Every time our heart beats with a true expression of spirituality," he wrote, "every time a new and exalted thought is born, we hear the likeness of a Godly angel's voice at the doors of our soul asking that we allow him entry so that he may appear to us in the totality of his beauty."Ultimately, Rav Kook's robust message is one of life and growth, hope and optimism. "Death is a false phenomenon," he taught, and "to the degree that the quantity of movement toward wholeness grows, evil decreases and goodness is revealed."In an era searching for guideposts, access to Rav Kook's formulations can provide a valuable resource. Note: There is an overlap of material with "Eight Journals: A Sampler."
This is the only English translation of the esteemed Rav Kook's book on repentance and self-improvement Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook's seminal work on repentance, Oros HaTeshuvah, is recognized as a classic of Jewish thought but has, because of its difficult language and its theological depth, remained inaccessible to many. This book presents readers with the original Hebrew text of Oros HaTeshuvah with a new translation into English, as well as expert commentary in English from Rabbi Moshe Weinberger. Weinberger draws on his extensive knowledge of Jewish philosophical and inspirational literature to provide profound, moving, and fresh insights into the text, richly explicating the ideas in Oros HaTeshuvah in an accessible and clear but not superficial manner. Readers will come away with a firm grasp on the profound truth at the heart of Kook's classic work: that teshuvah--repentance--is not a somber process of self-deprivation but a joyful journey back to God and to the core of each individual. This volume covers chapters 14 through 17 of Oros HaTeshuvah and is the final volume in this series.
Negative Theology as Jewish Modernity by Michael Fagenblat Pdf
Negative theology is the attempt to describe God by speaking in terms of what God is not. Historical affinities between Jewish modernity and negative theology indicate new directions for thematizing the modern Jewish experience. Questions such as, What are the limits of Jewish modernity in terms of negativity? Has this creative tradition exhausted itself? and How might Jewish thought go forward? anchor these original essays. Taken together they explore the roots and legacies of negative theology in Jewish thought, examine the viability and limits of theorizing the modern Jewish experience as negative theology, and offer a fresh perspective from which to approach Jewish intellectual history.
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and Jewish Spirituality by Lawrence J. Kaplan,David Shatz Pdf
This book offers a range of analyses and interpretations covering the major areas of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook's thought. Among the issues discussed are: his relationship to the Jewish mystical, philosophical, and halakhic traditions; poetry and spirituality; harmonism and pluralism; tolerance and its limits; and Zionism, messianism, and politics.
Animal Theologians by Andrew Linzey,Clair Linzey Pdf
Many people who have thought about God have not thought about animals, or about the relationship between the two. But among those who have are some of the most celebrated religious thinkers, including Michel de Montaigne, Thomas Tryon, John Wesley, John Ruskin, Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer, and Paul Tillich. This volume comprises 24 scholarly studies that detail challenges to the dominant anthropocentrism of most religious traditions. The editors have brought together Jewish, Unitarian, Christian, transcendentalist, Muslim, Hindu, Dissenting, deist, and Quaker voices, each offering a unique theological perspective that counters the neglect of the nonhuman. Animal Theologians is divided into three parts starting with the pioneers who first saw a relationship between animals and divinity, those who contributed to the expansion of social sensibility to animals, and ending with the work of contemporary theologians. The essays in this volume use contextual and historical background to describe what led animal theologians to their beliefs, and then pave way for further developments in this expanding field. This volume is an act of reclaiming different religious traditions for animals by recovering lost voices.
Jewish mysticism is quite popular by way of books, lectures, and classes to teach this esoteric subject. The student suddenly confronts a world with a unique language and great masters who use obscure language so that the concepts are confusing amidst the different schools of Kabalistic thought and traditions. Prior to 1700, all such teaching was done from master to student, with intentional obscurities so that the student today faces many challenges in comprehending this discipline. This review, quoting from original sources, is designed to provide a basic and foundational structure from which the student can appreciate both the 'why' of Kabbalism and the 'how' they got there. The premise is that God created our physical universe for a reason, and the revelations on Mount Sinai was deliberate. The Kabbalist understood the hidden from the apparent so that open texts was suddenly imbued with meaning never apparent from the text itself. The book review the major contributors to Kabbalah while reviewing the mystic concepts they contributed. Different schools of thought emerged over time so that different modalities of Kabbalah are present today. These reviews are based on Theoretical Kabbalah, so that intention (Kavanah) during prayer and even during mundane acts throughout the day are imbued with Kabbalistic intention. The book does not review Practical Kabbalah, where incantations, amulets, and similar acts are done to enhance positive energy. I do include the vignette of Rabbi Abraham Abulafia, a major proponent of this form of Kabbalah. In 1760, following the leadership and death of the Baal Shem Tov, the teaching of Kabbalah was opened to the lay public, setting aside the hidden curtain existing previously. Why the sudden change after thousands of years when this discipline was clandestine and not revealed openly? The answer lies with a mystic experience the Baal Shem Tov had with the Messiah who charged him with such open teaching before he would arrive. That charge is the central pivot upon which these teachings turn. The book's sections are divided into separate reviews to enable the student to review them more easily. The first section is on concepts; the second on personalities and the challenges they faced in their lives. It is common for great leaders not to dwell on their challenges in life, so it is especially important for posterity to be aware that their lives were often beset by great difficulties. Two vignettes review persons who were killed because of their beliefs. One was Rabbi Shlomo Molcho, a man who challenged both the reigning pope and secular emperor to accept their proper roles in life. In doing so, he was arrested and burned to death for his beliefs. When offered clemency if he reverted to the Christian faith, he refused, dying a martyr’s death. The other person who died in this horrific manner was a child of twelve years. Ines Esteban, whose family became conversos in Spain’s remote Extremadura. Hailed as a prophetess by the region’s conversos, she was arrested by the Inquisition, tortured and was burned at the stake in August 1500. The story of her leadership in the face of relentless religious persecution and her resolute refusal to become a Christian penitent is remarkable given her youth, her leadership and her individual role – she had no other to support her in this terrible time. She stood alone, without mentor or fellow mystic, though her father and stepmother fully supported her. I find it fitting and proper to dedicate this book to this remarkable young woman. Other Kabbalists through the ages also experienced great personal trials in life. Their collective leadership provides much detail to ponder their roles and teachings. It is hoped the student will have much opportunity to reflect on when studying this subject.
