Book Review Title: Towards the Mystical Experience of Modernity: The Making of Rav Kook, 1865-1904 By Yehudah Mirsky Published by Academic Studies Press. 410 pages Rava said to Bar Hedya, “I saw in a dream that my mansion had fallen, and all came and took it away brick by brick.” Bar Hedya said to […]
Rav Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook The Souls of the World of Chaos Translated and Introduced by Bezalel Naor Copyright © 2021 by Bezalel Naor This classic piece, a chapter of the collection Zer‘onim (“Seeds”), first appeared in 1913 in the short-lived journal Ha-Tarbut ha-Yisraelit (The Israelite Civilization), edited by Tsevi Yehudah Kook. Since 1950, […]
A Soulful Journey Through Jewish Thought By Rabbi Reuven Boshnack – 22 Tammuz 5781 – July 2, 2021 Navigating Worlds By: Betzalel Naor Orot/Kodesh Press 2021, New York NY When opening Rabbi Betzalel Naor’s newest offering titled Navigating Worlds, one is met by a formidable tome of over 600 pages. If you aren’t familiar with […]
Bezalel Naor, Navigating Worlds: Collected Essays (Kodesh Press) Shlomo Zuckier This summer I have the pleasure of reading through the recently released Navigating Worlds: Collected Essays by Rabbi Bezalel Naor, containing essays authored over the past 15 years. In his characteristic witty and creative writing style, R. Naor weaves together incisive readings of traditional texts with a broad knowledge […]
A GUIDE TO THE PERPLEXED by Elisha Paul Reviewing “Navigating Worlds” by Bezalel Naor. Kodesh Press. 2021. English. 680 pages. Not since The Aryeh Kaplan Reader was published in 1986 has there been as powerful a collection of essays in English–on such a broad array of topics, from one author–that explains complex Jewish concepts so […]
Title: Navigating Worlds, Collected Essays (2006-2020) Author: Bezalel Naor Publisher: Kodesh Press Reviewed by Steven Rohde Gotlib As part of my rabbinic internship with Congregation Beth Abraham-Jacob, I gave a series of classes on approaches to Aggadah (Talmudic stories) within Judaism, focusing largely on the interpretations of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov and Rav Avraham Yitzchak […]
Title: Navigating Worlds, Collected Essays (2006-2020) Author: Bezalel Naor Publisher: Kodesh Press Reviewed by Zevi Slavin Reading Naor is different. Reading Naor is exciting. I often wonder what it is about his writing that still manages to excite even the jaded reader. The answer is rather simple. Naor is excited by the words he spins […]
Review of The Legends of Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah with the Commentary of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook BY JACK ABRAMOWITZ The Talmud and Midrash contain a number of outlandish tales. Neophytes may take such aggadot at face value, while detractors will point them out as untenable. More seasoned students, however, will recognize these as esoteric ideas […]