{"title":"Rabbi Bezalel Naor","description":"\u003cp\u003eRabbi Bezalel Naor is a scholar of Jewish philosophy and Kabbalah, known for his translations and explanations of classic texts and teachings.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-project-of-hasidism","title":"The Project of Hasidism","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Project of Hasidism\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eby Rabbi Bezalel Naor is a profound and original exploration of the spiritual, mystical, and philosophical dimensions of Hasidism, from its eighteenth-century origins to its contemporary expressions. This landmark volume engages with some of the deepest questions in Jewish thought, offering readers a guided journey through the heart of Hasidic spirituality, prophetic yearning, and Torah imagination.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt the center of this collection is Naor’s bold interpretation of Hasidism as a prophetic project. Drawing on the teachings of Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov (the Besht), the Ari (Rabbi Isaac Luria), Maimonides, and Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, Naor argues that Beshtian Hasidism aspired not merely to piety or emotion, but to the revival of prophecy within the Jewish soul. The lead essay, translated from the Hebrew \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003e‘Inyanah shel ha-Hasidut\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, proposes that Hasidism sought to reclaim the imaginative faculty as a conduit for divine inspiration—an idea that radically departs from conventional views of Jewish law and exegesis.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rabbi Bezalel Naor","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47778459943150,"sku":null,"price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1580\/2606\/files\/The-Project-of-Hasidism-Front-Cover.jpg?v=1774899728"},{"product_id":"the-souls-of-the-world-of-chaos","title":"The Souls of the World of Chaos","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"The Souls of the World of Chaos\" is a most famous essay of Rav Kook, a modern mystic. First published in 1913, it continues to intrigue and inspire spiritual seekers in our day. Not content with inspirational reading, Bezalel Naor has undertaken the formidable task of unpacking the Kabbalistic structures that inform the essay. Cognoscenti will appreciate the copious endnotes. In the Introduction, we are provided with the historical backdrop to the essay and insight into the Kulturkampf that rocks Israeli society to this day.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rabbi Bezalel Naor","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47778460664046,"sku":null,"price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1580\/2606\/files\/Neshamot-COVER.jpg?v=1774899709"},{"product_id":"the-legends-of-rabbah-bar-bar-hannah","title":"The Legends of Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah with the Commentary of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRabbah bar Bar Hannah has been referred to as the Jewish Sinbad the Sailor. His tall tales, fifteen in all, are recorded in the Babylonian Talmud in Tractate Bava Batra (73a-74a). The particular chapter in which they are situated is named \"The Seller of the Ship\" (\"HaMokher et ha-Sefinah\"). Appropriately, these tales of seafarers (ne{utei yama) were inserted in that legal discussion, as is the wont of the Talmud to mix Aggadah with Halakhah, thus tempering law with lore and legend.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRav Kook's commentary to the Legends first appeared in print in Jerusalem in 1984 in the second volume of his collected essays, Ma'amrei ha-Rayah. In this early work (written at age twenty-five), Rav Kook yet cites sources. Later, when his style of writing switched to \"stream of consciousness,\" sources were eliminated. For this very reason, the commentary to the Rabbah bar Bar }annah legends is of extreme importance. Here, Rav Kook divulges the many and varied Kabbalistic sources that informed his view. We see him equally at home in the world of the Vilna Gaon and of his rival Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi. A great influence upon Rav Kook's thought was the earlier Italian mystic, Rabbi Moses Hayyim Luzzatto In Ma'amrei ha-Rayah, Rav Kook's commentary was provided by Rabbi Shlomo Aviner with brief summaries as well as an index. These are certainly helpful to the reader. The present edition is the first time in any language that the commentary of Rav Kook is presented complete with much needed explanatory notes.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rabbi Bezalel Naor","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47778462105838,"sku":null,"price":26.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1580\/2606\/files\/RBBH-cover.jpg?v=1774899677"},{"product_id":"when-god-becomes-history","title":"When God Becomes History (Historical Essays of Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAbraham Isaac Hakohen Kook (1865-1935) served as the Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Erets Israel during the period of the British mandate. Rav Kook was a polymath, equally talented as a Talmudic legalist and rationalist philosopher, on the one hand, and as a mystic and poet, on the other. Today, we would say that he was both “left and right hemisphere.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe present collection brings together in English translation Rav Kook’s contributions to the field of Jewish history, though perhaps “historiosophy” would be the better word. Rav Kook joins the ranks of those great Jewish thinkers who preceded him in interpretation of history: Maharal of Prague, Moses Hayyim Luzzatto and Zadok Hakohen of Lublin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIf Rav Kook’s philosophy were to be summed up in a single word, it would be: Kelaliyut or universality. Whereas most of us are held captive by individual events, Rav Kook has a great gift for the overview of history. He brings this gift to bear in his ability to provide perspective on the modern rebirth of Israel against the backdrop of mankind’s ongoing spiritual evolution. In the latter regard, his vision has sometimes been compared to that of Teilhard de Chardin and Sri Aurobido, or more recently Ken Wilber.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eContained in this collection are Rav Kook’s eulogy for Herzl and Rav Kook’s remarks at the opening of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The essays are placed in historic context and provided with copious scholarly endnotes.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rabbi Bezalel Naor","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47778462138606,"sku":null,"price":21.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1580\/2606\/files\/Naor-front-cover-FINAL.jpg?v=1774899676"},{"product_id":"navigating-worlds","title":"Navigating Worlds: Collected Essays (2006-2020)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eTsimtsum\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e(contraction) and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003ehitpashtut\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (expansion).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThese two kabbalistic terms aptly describe the thought of Bezalel Naor. Though diametrically opposed, they come together in this unique moment. The author is at once a \"hedgehog\" and a \"fox,\" in the usage of Isaiah Berlin. Naor brings to the table both the intense focus, the razor-sharp analysis of Rav Soloveitchik of Boston, and the synthetic, unitive perception of reality, of Rav Kook (whose \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003ebon mot\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e was \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003e\"kelaliyut,\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \"universality\").\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis dialectic thought, constantly \"zooming\" in and out, forever shifting gears from \"micro\" to \"macro,\" is unleashed on the entire process of Judaism: Torah, Talmud, the challenge of Christianity and Islam, Maimonides, Kabbalah, Hasidism, Messianism, and the specialty of the house-Rav Kook.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe final section of Book Reviews includes a wide array: Kozhnitser Maggid, Kafka, Paul Celan, Leonard Cohen, Yehudah Don Yahya, Meshulam Rath, and Rabbi Nahman of Breslov.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe reader is invited to embark on this enchanted intellectual and spiritual journey, as the author attempts \"navigating worlds.\" (One of the chapters of the book is entitled \"Rav Kook's Space Odyssey.\")\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rabbi Bezalel Naor","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47778462597358,"sku":null,"price":37.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1580\/2606\/files\/Navigating-Worlds.jpg?v=1774899667"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1580\/2606\/collections\/Bezalel-Naor-medium_8e089192-8d9f-4220-9f1d-432e03c4e51b.jpg?v=1773868144","url":"https:\/\/kodeshpress.com\/collections\/rabbi-bezalel-naor.oembed","provider":"Kodesh Press","version":"1.0","type":"link"}