This series is sponsored by Unpacking Israeli History.

This week, we are sponsored by the Inaugural Global Jewish Fertility Support Summit, organized by the nonprofit I Was Supposed To Have A Baby. Taking place on Sunday, May 7th, via Zoom, this summit will include some of the most prominent voices from 15 major fertility organizations worldwide. Whether you're on a fertility journey, a professional, clergy, or lay leader in the space, or if you want to know how to be more sensitive to your friends and family, this summit is for you! Learn more and register for FREE at iwassupposedtohaveababy.org.

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