Language:
Hebrew
Year of publication:
2018
Titel der Quelle:
מכלול; סדרת כנס פרדס
Angaben zur Quelle:
ב (תשעח) 25-36
Keywords:
Kook, Ẓevi Judah ben Abraham Isaac,
;
Holiness Judaism
;
Religious Zionism Philosophy
Abstract:
In this article I wish to examine the concept of holiness as it appears in the teachings of Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaCohen Kook. As opposed to Western philosophers (e.g., William James, Rudolf Otto and Mircea Eliade), who consider the divine as separate from reality, Jewish philosophers and thinkers bring it to bear on reality — what Max Kadushin terms as “normal mysticism”. Some thinkers perceive holiness as an instrument that does not necessarily involve a sequence of deeds by human beings commanded to imitate God, while others view holiness as an ontological concept that deals with reality. Both Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook and his son are of the latter group.Rabbi Kook spoke of the demand of the sacred to purify reality and raise its level, though he warned against blurring the boundaries between the holy and the non-holy. Rabbi Zvi Yehuda, on the other hand, considered himself among the exceptional individuals qualified to view the non-holy from the perspective of the holy; he identified reality with the holy. Blurring the boundaries, he defined the holy as a truer and more complete reality. This viewpoint enabled him to apply the term ‘holy’ to seemingly non-holy institutions, such as the State of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces; he placed them on levels designated for the ‘beginning of redemption’.
URL:
אתר את הפרסום בקטלוג המאוחד של ספריות ישראל
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