Yehudah Mirsky is Full Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. A former US State Department official, he has written widely on religion, politics, and culture for the New York Times, the Economist, the Washington Post, and many other publications. He won the Jewish Book Council's Sami Rohr Choice Award for his earlier work, Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution.
"Mirsky teaches us how to read afresh a much-discussed writer
and how to navigate a vast and at times bewildering corpus. This
sterling intellectual biography will become the definitive work on
the making of one of the greatest modern mystics, introducing and
translating a wealth of lesser known or newly printed sources.
Mirsky's exquisitely rich reading exposes the full range and
complexity of the manifold contexts (medieval, Lithuanian, Zionist,
theosophical, legal, and ethical) from which his hero emerged,
without in any way obscuring his brilliant originality, as he
invites us to viewings of Kook as an aspiring prophet, yet also as
a master of exegesis and mourning poet. To not only hold all of
these tensions, but also render them lucid to readers of all
backgrounds, is nothing less than a feat of dedicated reflection
and high-powered analysis. This is historical writing in its most
eloquent, passionate and engaged form."-Jonathan Garb, author of
A History of Kabbalah from the Early Modern Period to the
Present Day
"Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook plays a central role in twentieth-century
Jewish life and thought, and his influence in so many areas is
profound. More works of scholarship have been devoted to him than
any other modern rabbi, and these studies have concentrated on R.
Kook's mature works, written when he was in the Land of Israel.
Yehudah Mirsky's most recent book stands out as he focuses on the
early writings of R. Kook, the ones completed before he left
Europe. Anyone who wishes to understand how R. Kook became who he
was, and the trajectory of his religious thought, must grapple with
these early works, including the tensions that arise between his
early thought and what he later expressed. There is no better guide
in this matter than Mirsky, whose ear is attuned not only to what
R. Kook says, but to how he says it and sometimes even more
importantly, what he does not say. Mirsky also shows himself to be
an expert translator of R. Kook, able to preserve the nuances of
very difficult, and often poetic, formulations. The present work is
a worthy successor to Mirsky's earlier book, the critically
acclaimed Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution."
- Marc B. Shapiro, Weinberg Chair of Judaic Studies, University of
Scranton
"Yehudah Mirsky's command of every relevant strand in contemporary
Jewish thought is astonishing. A beautifully wrought,
intellectually sophisticated, and moving portrait of the wrestlings
of one of Judaism's most indispensable thinkers."
- Steven J. Zipperstein, Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish
Culture and History, Stanford University
"Despite the astounding proliferation of studies relating to the
life and works of R. A. I. Kook, the present volume is one which no
student of his thought can afford to ignore. In this tour de force,
Mirsky provides a detailed intellectual biography of the hitherto
relatively ignored years preceding R. Kook's move to Palestine, an
updated bibliography of unpublished writings now being released
alongside original versions of previously censored works, and the
wealth of secondary literature that these have evoked. Such factors
are game-changers, inducing the replacing of misguided attempts to
provide a coherent and systematic view of R. Kook's thought with
appreciation of the role of chronological development in the
evolution of his inner life and spiritual horizons. Mirsky's
masterly style, the wealth and sophistication of his intriguing
commentaries, and his policy of relegating specialized or
tangential information to copious footnotes make this book a joy
for professional scholars and interested laymen alike."
- Tamar Ross, Professor Emerita, Department of Jewish Thought, Bar
Ilan University
"The significance of Avraham Yitzhak Ha-Cohen Kook in modern Jewish
thought is generally recognized. However, he has been more lauded
than understood or read. His writing is enigmatic and the limited
knowledge about his early years has been a stumbling block for
readers and students alike. The apparent impossibility of tracking
down necessary sources and the difficulties of penetrating Rav
Kook's prose dismayed even the most dedicated of them. A magic wand
was needed. This book is that wand and Yehuda Mirsky is the
magician who uncovered remarkable sources on Rav Kook's life and
was able to transform opaqueness into clarity and the obscure into
comprehensible. His book will be a standard starting point for
anyone setting out to understand Rav Kook and his world. Readers of
Towards the Mystical Experience of Modernity will find it
hard to remember how they even tried to understand Rav Kook's
writing before they read this book."
- Shaul Stampfer, Professor Emeritus, Hebrew University
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