Bezalel Naor: Rav Kook’s Mystical Vision of Zionism [Zionism: Bonus Episode!]

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In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Bezalel Naor—author, translator, and expert on Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook—about Rav Kook’s relationship to the Land of Israel.

Rabbi Naor helps us see the bigger picture of the Zionist project by exploring the spiritual dimensions of Zionism as demonstrated in Rav Kook’s thought. In this episode we discuss:

• How did Rav Kook’s love for the Land of Israel begin?
• Where should one begin when learning the works of Rav Kook?
• What is the relationship between the nefesh, ruach, and neshama?

Tune in to hear a conversation about how the Land of Israel went from an abstract concept in the Jewish imagination to a concrete part of our lived reality.

Interview begins at 11:04.

Bezalel Naor is a teacher, translator, and author of many books on Rav Kook and Jewish mysticism. His works include Orot (Maggid, 2015); When God Becomes History: Historical Essays of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook (Kodesh, 2016); The Koren Rav Kook Siddur (2017); and Navigating Worlds: Collected Essays (Kodesh, 2021), among other books.

References:

Navigating Worlds: Collected Essays (2006-2020) by Bezalel Naor
Orot by Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook, translated by Bezalel Naor
Towards the Mystical Experience of Modernity: The Making of Rav Kook, 1865-1904 by Yehudah Mirsky
Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution by Yehudah Mirsky
Rosh Milin: Kabbalistic Insights into the Hebrew Alphabet by Rav Kook
Jerusalem Talmud
Igorot HaRaiyah, The Collected Letters of Rav Kook Volume Three by Rav Kook
Guide for the Perplexed by Maimonides
When God Becomes History: Historical Essays of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook edited by Bezalel Naor
The Legends of Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah with the Commentary of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook translated by by Bezalel Naor
Nine and a Half Mystics: The Kabbala Today by Herbert Weiner
The Souls of the World of Chaos by Rav Kook, translated by Bezalel Naor
Shemonah Kevatzim by Rav Kook

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