The Universalism of Rav Kook
The Universalism of Rav Kook by Bezalel Naor Copyright © 2018 Bezalel Naor Stereotypes are difficult to overcome. Until recently, the stereotype of Rav Avraham Yitzhak Hakohen Kook (1865-1935) was of a nationalist (perhaps even ultranationalist) who lent his rabbinic aegis to the Zionist enterprise in the first third of the twentieth century. In his seminal work Orot [Lights] (Jerusalem, 1920), the very first section of the book is entitled “Erets Yisrael.” The punchline of the first chapter reads: The…