Abraham Isaac Kook

Apply for a Blog

Jul 10, 2025, 6:55 AM

“Rise Like a Lion”: Will Israel Finally Stand Tall and Finish the Fight?

How much longer can we watch parents, siblings, and a nation cry? How much longer can we endure the loss of our soldiers? Not to mention the financial and economic toll on individuals and the country as a whole. The...

Peter Himmelman

Jul 6, 2025, 11:54 PM

Moving forward: Reflections from an American Jew

(courtesy)

Before 10/7, I'd been writing more softly—songs and prose. Quiet hopes. Phrases meant to express something about love, about longing, about the mystery of being alive. About beauty itself. But in the aftermath, what I wrote took on a different...

May 28, 2025, 9:35 AM

Holding the Centre Together

This week’s parsha, Bamidbar, is one many people skim over. It starts with another census—tribes, numbers, flags, and positions in the camp. It’s easy to see it as technical, even dull. However, the truth is that this parsha strikes at the...

Jonathan Rosenoer

May 15, 2025, 7:24 PM

Why Did Black Saturday Induce Moral Stuttering In US Jews?

"I do not hesitate to say that our national defect is that we are not tribal enough... Until we are all free, we are none of us free." - Emma Lazarus (1883) Black Saturday (10/7) was horrific and shocking not only in...

May 15, 2025, 2:39 PM

Book review – Milhemet Mitzvah: Volume 1

In the 1993 movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray's character becomes trapped in a time loop and is forced to relive the same day repeatedly. The notion of the conscription of yeshiva students into the Israeli army is similarly a...

May 14, 2025, 8:00 AM

Mourning, Memory, and the Courage to Rebuild

Someone recently told me my blogs are too depressing. It made me pause. Maybe they are. I tend to project either the mood of the situation or comments in the media, and these blogs are a form of therapy. For...

Apr 24, 2025, 1:28 PM

Aesthetic Containment of Bezalel Smotrich

I’m lying on the reformer, mid-Pilates session, in a new workout set already soaked through. My thighs are shaking, breath shallow, but I’m still talking—urgent, fast. “This is the year of the short kings,” I say, pushing through another...

Apr 14, 2025, 10:03 PM

Kaplan Street and Rabbi Kook

People who identity with the political right in Israel see the “Kaplan Street“ protesters as a divisive force in the Nation. While they may be small in number, their voice is immensely magnified by the leftist media. Their angry...

Apr 2, 2025, 12:16 PM

Slavery and Freedom

Courtesy Tzvi Fishman

Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel, teaches that there is a true freedom and a counterfeit freedom. For many the journey to true freedom seems impossible. Many people find bondage to be pleasant, like...

Itzchak Evan-Shayish

Mar 21, 2025, 12:23 AM

Rav Kook on Vayakhel: Cultivating the Genius of Generosity and Kindness

RAV KOOK ON VAYAKHEL: CULTIVATING THE GENIUS OF GENEROSITY AND KINDNESS וַיֹּ֣אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֔ה אֶל־כׇּל־עֲדַ֥ת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל לֵאמֹ֑ר זֶ֣ה הַדָּבָ֔ר אֲשֶׁר־צִוָּ֥ה יְהֹוָ֖ה לֵאמֹֽר׃ ...

Load more