In every generation, great personalities make their contributions to the legacy of Torah learning and interpretation. And while it is understood that Torah greatness requires a basic mastery of the Torah’s breadth and depth, there is ample room for specialization. A gadol’s particular talents, his self-understanding, and the reception of his legacy by klal Yisrael, all of these shape how a figure will be remembered.

However, there are rare individuals whose accomplishments defy categorization. The range and scope of their knowledge astonishes. They are sensitive to the tensions of the religious life and the unique resonance of each of the Torah’s different disciplines. Their teachings reveal passageways between different rooms in the palace of Torah, rooms that were previously assumed to be isolated or cordoned off. These individuals do not merely perpetuate or teach Torah, but reveal therein a glimpse of Creation’s hidden light.

One such individual was Rav Avraham Yitzchak haKohen (1865-1935). Rav Kook was a posek of the first order, a kabbalist, a poet, and a philosopher. His writings are suffused with new ways of understanding Torah, the mitzvot and the Jewish people’s role in the world, all of which poured forth from his soul in complete faithfulness to the rabbinic tradition. And unlike the majority of his rabbinic contemporaries, who idealized quietism, isolation and rejection of the world outside the beit midrash, Rav Kook saw that the time had come for the Jewish people to return to life and history. In place of fear of science, literature and modern thought, he taught that every thought and every impulse contains sparks of holiness to be extracted for their contribution to G-d’s glory.

Rav Kook is also one of the most important religious Zionist thinkers, and he is a household name in modern Israel. In Israel, his collected writings are known as ‘the White Shas,’ and new works are published every year explaining and analyzing his thought. Outside of Israel, however, Rav Kook remains a little known figure, whose works are largely inaccessible. Even those who are fluent in Hebrew struggle with his poetic writing style, full of flowery sentences that “in the image of light that they constantly conjure up – move through curved space, trailing in the distance only to reappear when least expected.” [1] And while a small number of his works have been translated or adapted into English, the English-speaking Torah world has been largely deprived of exposure to Rav Kook oeuvre.

This website is my humble attemptat redressing that by bringing Rav Kook’s light to a broader audience.Each week, I will share a translation of one of Rav Kook’s insights on the weekly Torah portion, accompanied with

• explanatory notes;
• a PDF of the original Hebrew;
• background about the work from which the excerpt is taken; and
• questions to facilitate further discussion and help us bring Rav Kook’s lofty insights ‘down to earth’/translate them into practice in our own lives.

I do not claim to be an expert on Rav Kook, whose legacy spans more than I could ever hope to understand, let alone convey to others. I seek only to share sparks from his great fire of love for Torah, the land of Israel and the Jewish people, sparks that I have collected and which others can hopefully use to kindle their own flame.

[1] Orot, translation of Bezalel Naor, Translator’s Preface