Rabbi A.Y. Kook Documentary Debuts On the Internet

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/112536 ^

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Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook (5625-5695, 1865-1935 CE), of saintly blessed memory, served as the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel and was one of the most profound thinkers of our time. He revealed the sources and roots of one of the greatest visions in our time - the revival of the Jewish people in their Land.

More than anyone else, Rabbi Kook spoke of the essence of Zionism. He was the first to coin a phrase that at then seemed to be but a far-fetched dream – "The State of Israel."

Rabbi Kook was the great soul of religious Zionism. He saw in it the process of redemption and the anticipation of the mashiach (the Messiah). Thirteen years after his death, the State of Israel was established, and it is his teachings which serve as the moral foundation of thought for the Jewish State.

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That’s good. The internet needs more Kook sites...

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http://www.orot.com/hms.html

...the author [Rav Kook] is definitely cynical when it comes to the much touted strides made by Western culture, law, education and ethics.

In his seminal work, Orot...Rav Kook reserves some especially scathing remarks for contemporary European society. The wholesale slaughter of the Great War, provoked in Rav Kook, as in many other sensitive individuals, profound disillusionment with the chimera of progress...

“The sin of the murderers—the wicked kings and all provocateurs—is indelible. The blood that was shed in the land will be atoned only by the blood of those who shed it, and the atonement must come: Total dismantling of all the foundations of contemporary civilization, with all of their falsity and deception, with all their poison and venom. The entire civilization that rings false must be effaced from the world...

“Then the present civilization will disappear with all its foundations—literature and theater, and so forth; all the laws founded on inanity and iniquity, all evil etiquette will pass away. And the Lord alone will be exalted on that day.

“The spiritual fabric that in its present state could not prevent, despite all its glorious wisdom, wholesale slaughter and such fearful world destruction, has proven itself invalid from its inception . . . all its progress is not but false counsel and evil entrapment . . .

“Therefore, the entire contemporary civilization is doomed and on its ruins will be established a world order of truth and God consciousness.”

Rav Kook put little, if any, stock in the veneer of respectability with which Europe cloaks itself. Beneath the surface there is ample latitude for immorality...