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).
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.
Bezalel Naor, “Rav Kook and Emmanuel Levinas on the “Non-Existence” of God, ” Richard Sugarman, “Questioning Levinas,” Asher Don Rabinowitz, “The Medical Aspects of Zara’at,” R. Shelomo Zalman of Kopyst, “The Curtains of the Tabernacle,” Eliyahu Zini, “A Rift in the Unity? / The Relation of Torah to the Sciences,” Shlomo Katz, “Rahav and Yehosua / Imagination and Intellect,” Shabtai Teicher, “On the Two Stages of Redemption,” Joshua Hoffman, “Rav Kook’s Mission to America,” Bezalel Naor, “Rav Kook’s Role in the Rebirth of Aggadah,” Rav A.Y. HaKohen Kook, “The Lion in the Cage” (Poem), Rivkah Hannah Beila Einhorn (Roberta Chester), “Isaac Luria” (Poem). 120 pp.
“Inyanah shel ha-Hasidut” (“The Matter of Hasidism”)
by Rabbi Bezalel Naor
In this groundbreaking essay, the author presents Beshtian or East European Hasidism as an attempt to reintroduce the charismatic or prophetic dimension to Jewish life. The optic is very much that of Rav Kook, although the author’s perspective is also influenced by the historiography of Rav Kook’s fellow kabbalist, Rabbi Pinhas Hakohen Lintop of Birzh, Lithuania. The reader will also note some common ground shared with Rabbi Kalonymos Kalmish Shapira of Piaseczna (known as the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto). The departure point for the entire discussion is a pithy remark by Rabbi Shelomo Zalman Schneerson, Rebbe of Kopyst, at the Simhat Beit ha-Sho’evah, Sukkot of 1890. (Rav Kook’s maternal grandfather was a Kopyster Hasid.)
The endnotes contain fascinating discussions:
Did Hasidism intend prophecy for the masses?
How the Vilna Gaon democratized ru’ah ha-kodesh (divine inspiration).
What was the mystical practice of the Ba‘al Shem Tov?
The clairvoyance of the Mezritcher Maggid.
Hasidism, Romanticism and the Enlightenment.
Rabbi Isaac Hutner’s allusion to the Letters of Rav Kook.
Clarification of Maimonides’ position on Prophecy and Halakhah.
The relation of the Kotzker Rebbe to the Vilna Gaon.