Modernist Mysticism and Political Religion: Rav Kook and his Legacies
December 2, 2020
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
a Zoom presentation by Yehudah Mirsky (Brandeis University)
Though he died in 1935, Rav Avraham Yitzhak Kook (Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook) still towers in contemporary Israeli politics and Jewish spirituality. Founder of the modern chief rabbinate and the seminal thinker of Religious Zionism his fusion of Rabbinic Judaism, Kabbalah and Modernist, of nationalism and universalism, tradition and revolution, profoundly shaped Israeli politics. His thought unsettles familiar categories such as “fundamentalism” “mysticism” and “modernity.” His multi-faceted legacy continues to be argued about even today, with profound political
consequences.
Yehudah Mirsky is Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University, and author of Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution (Yale University Press). He previously served in the US State Department’s human rights bureau and tweets @YehudahMirsky.
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Date posted
Nov 23, 2020
Date updated
Nov 23, 2020