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Rav Kook


Religion and State in Israel Religion and State in Israel
Wednesday, July 3, 2013 by Moshe Koppel | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

I want to make an argument for limiting the role of the Israeli state in maintaining Jewish institutions. I do so, however, as one who wishes to see an expansion of the influence of traditional Judaism in the Israeli public square. Read in full on Mosaic.
The Decline of the Rabbi-Intellectual The Decline of the Rabbi-Intellectual
Tuesday, April 30, 2013 by Zach Mann | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

The congregation-based scholars of yesteryear labored to make Judaism intellectually stimulating as well as emotionally stirring and politically applicable.  
Rejoice When Your Enemy Falters? Rejoice When Your Enemy Falters?
Friday, March 22, 2013 by Shlomo M. Brody | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Proverbs says, "When your enemy falters do not rejoice and when he stumbles do not feel glee."  Does that apply even if your enemy is really, really evil? 
Who’s Sadat?  Or, Defining Israel Literacy Upward Who’s Sadat? Or, Defining Israel Literacy Upward
Monday, March 4, 2013 by David B. Starr | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

American Jewry is becoming less and less well informed about Zionism and Israel.  Can anything be done to reverse this decline?
Leibowitz at 110 Leibowitz at 110
Monday, February 11, 2013 by Jeffrey Saks | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

A scientist, a philosopher, and a sharp-tongued public intellectual, Yeshayahu Leibowitz was an oracle for some, a crank to others.  Two decades since his death, his ideas remain influential on Israeli society.
If I Forget Thee? If I Forget Thee?
Tuesday, January 15, 2013 by Allan Arkush | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

As a recent seminar at New York's Mechon Hadar testified, throughout Jewish tradition, everyone—even the anti-Zionists—recognizes that the Land of Israel has more sanctity than any other place.  But what follows from that?
A Pillar with a Past A Pillar with a Past
Tuesday, January 8, 2013 by Lawrence Grossman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Gil S. Perl’s The Pillar of Volozhin sheds light on the Netziv, one of Lithuanian Jewry's greatest leaders, whose own intellectual development is reflected throughout the yeshiva world today.
Yeshiva Revolution Yeshiva Revolution
Friday, September 7, 2012 by Yoel Finkelman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Shaul Stampfer, one of Israel's foremost experts on Eastern European Jewry, is the most unlikely of iconoclasts.  A thin, quiet, unassuming man, he gives the impression that he would have been happy as a simple melamed (elementary school teacher) in the shtetls he describes.
The Month of Return The Month of Return
Tuesday, August 14, 2012 by Tevi Troy and Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

The Jewish month of Av will soon become Ellul, and mourning for the destruction of the Temples will give way to repentance for our sins.  It is time for introspection; and, as we contemplate our relationships with others and with the Divine, questions about penitence, forgiveness, change, and mortality itself inevitably arise.
Rav Elyashiv’s Mixed Legacy Rav Elyashiv’s Mixed Legacy
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 by Yoel Finkelman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Last Wednesday night, in the middle of a blazing heat wave, a quarter of a million people flocked to the funeral of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv.  At the request of the deceased, no eulogies were delivered, but for the rest of the week, the Haredi press spoke of little other than the man.
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Editors' Picks
When the Sun Stood Still Natan Slifkin, Rationalist Judaism. Copernicus' heliocentrism, though embraced by many Jews, threatened Judaism—not by displacing man from the center of the universe but by elevating him to the heavens.
Two Faces of the Law Marc Angel, Institute for Jewish Ideas . How two halakhic authorities, Rabbis Avraham Yitzhak Kook and Bentzion Meir Hai Uziel, examine the same texts—and reach opposite conclusions.