Rav Kook’s Universalism

A virtual event presentation by Rabbi Bezalel Naor

The event was co-hosted by Beth El

About the Event:

Rav Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935) was a highly complex individual: legalist and philosopher, mystic and poet. In his role as Chief Rabbi of Eretz Israel (1921-1935), he emerged as a leader of world Jewry. Since his passing, Rav Kook’s literary legacy has exercised generations of scholars and thinkers (such as Rabbis J.B Soloveitchik, Isaac Hutner, and Jonathan Sacks, to name a few). That legacy, which contains elements of nationalism and universalism, continues to baffle his admirers and detractors. In this class, we will glimpse Rav Kook’s spiritual renaissance and his vision of humanity’s evolving consciousness.

About the Speaker:

Bezalel Naor is the author of many works of Jewish thought in English and Hebrew – philosophy, Kabbalah, and Hasidism – with a major concentration on the writings of the great Seer of Israel, Rav Kook. He is also the translator of Orot, Rav Kook’s seminal work.

Naor’s published books include: Navigating Worlds: Collected Essays Vols. 1 & 2 (2021), The Legends of Rabbah bar Bar Hannah (2019), The Koren Rav Kook Siddur (2017), When God Becomes History: Historical Essays of Rav Kook (2016), Mahol la-Tzaddikim; The Controversy between Rabbi Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto and Rabbi Eizik Epstein of Homel Concerning the Divine Design in Creation (2015), Kana’uteh de Pinhas (2013), an analysis of the critique of Leshem Shevo ve-Ahlamah, The Kabbalah of Relation (2012), and The Limit of Intellectual Freedom: Letters of Rav Kook (2011).