Orot, Inc. together with Ramhal Institute, Jerusalem, just released this new work by Bezalel Naor, Shod Melakhim, a collection of studies in Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah. 176 pages. Hebrew. Contains tribute to Rabbi Joshua Hoffman zt”l.
Available from Orot, Inc. (USA) or Ramhal Institute (Israel).
Orot, Inc. together with Ramhal Institute, Jerusalem, just released this new work by Bezalel Naor, Shod Melakhim, a collection of studies in Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah. 176 pages. Hebrew. Contains tribute to Rabbi Joshua Hoffman zt”l.
Available from Orot, Inc. (USA) or Ramhal Institute (Israel).
Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook served as the first Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Erets Israel from 1921 until his death in 1935. Born in Grieva, Latvia in 1865, he studied in the famed Volozhin Yeshivah, dubbed “the mother of yeshivot.” Beside the intellectual tradition of Volozhin, reaching back to the Vilna Gaon, Rav Kook was exposed in early childhood through his mother’s family to the mystical legacy of Habad Hasidism.
Exploring the Lost Art of Jewish Dream Interpretation
Joseph
Daniel
Rabbi Hayyim of Volozhin
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook
Rabbi Hayyim Beliach
Rabbi Elijah Eliezer Dessler
What do all these men have in common? Each participated in an ongoing dialogue concerning the validity of dreams. This book offers the reader rare sources such as Rabbi Hayyim Beliach’s essay Petiha le-Mar’ot ha-Nevu’ah (Introduction to Prophetic Visions). It also makes available for the first time in English translation Rav Kook’s commentary to Perek ha-Ro’eh (The Chapter of the Seer). Finally, familiar Bible stories are given a fresh appraisal. All in all, a valuable contribution to the perennial wisdom of dream analysis.
Between the two world wars, there roamed the streets of Jerusalem a man who made a nuisance of himself, pestering the populace that he was the Messiah.
Finally the “Messiah” was brought to the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem. Rav Kook asked to meet with the deranged man alone. After a few moments with Rav Kook, the “Messiah” never again boasted his claim.
Sometime later Rav Kook revealed what produced such a wondrous effect. “I told him: ‘The truth is, there is a spark of Messiah in every Jew. You obviously have received an especially large endowment. But the quality of the spark is such that it works only as long as one does not speak of it to others.’”
Unlike many Orthodox thinkers, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook did not shy away from the subject of Sabbatianism. His published works reveal a more than fleeting interest in the entire Sabbatian phenomenon, from the initial impetus of Messianic activity surrounding the person of Shabbetai Zevi, to the Hayyon and Emden-Eybeschütz controversies, to that Polish offshoot of Sabbatianism, Frankism. This interest extends to both the external, historical, as well as internal, philosophical and psychological aspects. Rav Kook is even willing to rebut the author of ‘Or la-Yesharim ‘s comparison of Herzlian political Zionism to Sabbatianism.