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.

The chief Rabbi of Palestine prior to the establishment of the state of Israel, Kook (1865-1935) represents the renewal of the Jewish mystical tradition in modern times.

DIV The life and thought of a forceful figure in Israel’s religious and political life /div

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.

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hacohen Kook was the first Chief Rabbi of Palestine, and the 20th century's most important Orthodox Jewish mystic.

Each essay in this anthology is an analysis or evaluation of one or several aspects of the thought and philosophy of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel.

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook was one of the outstanding rabbinic figures of the twentieth century. Chief Rabbi of Palestine until his death in 1935, he served as a reconciling force between many battling factions and separated ideologies in the early days of the Zionist movement. Rabbi Kook had a unique ability, through his warmth, compassion, and deep sense of humanness, to make harmony out of seemingly irreconcilable differences. One of the many remarkable things about Rabbi Kook was his close friendship with non-Orthodox communities, including young secular Zionist pioneers and struggling, idealistic kibbutz founders. His sense of Klal Yisrael (the fellowship of Jews) transcended ideological boundaries. The sainted teacher’s poetry and prayers are recited today in synagogues of all shades of opinion throughout America. A mystic, philosopher, and deeply religious spirit of the modern age, Rabbi Kook’s best known saying is “We must renew the old and sanctify the new.” This, in essence, sums up his approach to the creative melding of past, present, and future. Young and old alike will delight in this enthralling life of one who was scholarly and pious in unusual proportions, yet constantly active in the daily personal, social, and political problems of the first half of the twentieth century.