Abstract

This is the first comprehensive philosophical-theological study of the mystical thought of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935), the Chief Rabbi of Palestine prior to the establishment of the state of Israel, and the great representative of the most significant renewal of the Jewish mystical thought in modern times. Rav Kook was the spiritual and hallachic authority who laid the foundation of religious Zionism. Discontent with "Hamizrakhi" political pragmatism, he envisioned Zionism as a movement of return and all-encompassing Jewish renaissance. This book dissolves the mist enveloping Rav Kook's writings and offers an understanding of his spiritual world. It presents and analyzes the systematic elements in his teaching and reveals the spiritual interests and fundamental approaches of his religious thought.