Abraham Isaac Kook Analysis

Throughout time, the concept of what describes the people of Jewish descent is as “one nation”. This emphasizes that they are different, and implies the controversial issue that for some people, being Jewish relates to your background, and for some, it is set to religious values and practices. Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook “was a prominent rabbinical authority and active public leader, but at the same time a deeply religious mystic. He was both Talmudic scholar and poet, original thinker and saintly tzaddik.” (Rav Kook Torah) Kook concluded that it is the Jewish soul that is what makes a Jewish person. Through his works, Kook explores the identity of the Jewish people and what makes them who they are, he “reiterated over and over again that each
The newcomers of the first and second aliyah were called “Halutzim” and were secular socialists. The intent was to create the “new” Jew and even in those days many of them were anti-religious, whereas these pioneers actively distance themselves from traditional Judaism. The Zionist ideology was concerned with the self-determination of the Jewish people as a nation in order to protect jews from antisemitism. Zionism was not a religious movement, in fact, most Jews and especially religious Jews rejected Zionism. It was Rav Abraham Kook that bridged religion and the establishment of a state of Israel emanating from secular
He became a recognized leader of the Yishuv and he found himself in the position of advocating for the Jewish population and the British mandate. As the chief kosher kashrut authority, he became close to the agricultural settlements and to the plurality of the secular Jews in Palestine. His role as an orthodox rabbi was to create the bridge between orthodoxy and Zionism. However, this marriage ultimately resulted in the lack of separation between state and church and the unhealthy evolvement of religion in government and vice versa. This was defiantly a recipe for many conflicts. Rav Kook was a ultra orthodox religious man who was open to new ideas, “this drew many religious and non­-religious people to him, but also led to widespread misunderstanding of his ideas. He wrote prolifically on both Halakha and Jewish Thought, and his books and personality continued to influence many even after his death in Jerusalem in 1935, whereas, his influence is still predominant today (Jewish Virtual