Rav Kook books

"What Happens to Us After We Die?"

"What Really Happens After We Die?" Heaven, Hell, Reincarnation & Revival of Dead Many people are curious but are scared to ask, what does Judaism say happens to us after we die? This class deals with the mainstream of Jewish thought as to what happens in heaven? In hell? Do we believe in reincarnation? Who gets into heaven & who's left out? Who is woken in the Revival of the Dead, and who not? What is the order of things after death? What happens in Y'mot HaMashiach (the Messianic era)? This concentrated class cites the sources to clarify many of these puzzling question. Also, why aren't heaven & hell mentioned more in the Tanach?

How Free is Free-Will

Ayn Aya Masechet Shabbat v, 38

Rav Kook describes the strenth of free will and why death was decreed after the sin in Gan Eden.

You Don't Live in a Vacuum!"

Ayn Aya Shabbat v, 37

One of the disadvantages of western culture's obsession with ourselves, is that often we see people who make their daily life decisions, both small and large, as if they live in a vacuum, forgetting their surroundings, families, communities, Am Yisrael and previous, as well as future, generations. The fact that we don't live alone can sometimes be problematic, that it limits our "free-will" and we suffer from others' decisions & actions, but Rav Kook explains that it's also the solution, and we end up gaining a lot more than we lose by being part of something larger.

Death and the Transition Between Worlds

Rav Kook, Ayn Aya Shabbat v, 39

Death should not be scary but rather like a loving Father transferring his child to his bed. The world to come is full of "freedom and exemptions", but only after we gradually rise, through the challenges and mitzvot of this world.

How to be a Living Torah

Ayn Aya Shabbat 34

R. Kook corresponds here with R. Samson Raphael Hirsch regarding their difference of opinion in understanding the benefit of the mitzvot just through logic or also through the entire "Broad Torah", including Pardes, Hassidut, Kabbala, Philosophy and Mussar, and through "Knowing G-d"- analyzing & emulating His attributes.

"Not Without My Son (or My Father)!"

Why could Christianity think that they can replace Am Yisrael after Israel was sent to exile? Why the national redemption of Israel is necessary for the redemption of mankind, and the higher expression of "Shema Yisrael". Why is the World to Come almost not mentioned at all in the Tanach? What is Tikun Chatzot about? Rav Kook suggests very beautiful & innovative answers explaining why the son (Israel) & the Father (Hashem) need to both play important & active roles.

Mankind is Ready and Searching

The crises of war bring a longing of mankind for a "New World Order" and hope for a better way of running the world, especially in the war against Hamas, where the good fights the evil. Real Jewish nationalism (recently strongly rejuvenated by the war in Israel), through the common denominator of the Tanach is the ideal answer, revered by secular Zionists, Christians and the world in general.

"Rav Kook on Modern Warfare, Technology & Culture"

Orot HaMilchama part x, ch. 8

Rav Kook's holistic & complex thought praises modern technology and culture in many places, but he warns here in Orot HaMilchama, that modern warfare shows that without a strong base in Torah & the Godly Morality and a Jewish State of Israel as a modern Light for the Nations, mankind can and will misuse these Godly gifts in a destructive way that the world will greatly regret. The class relates to the spiritual "upgrade" referred to in Rav Kook and as seen in Israel following the 6 Day War, the Yom Kippur War, and presently the war after the Hamas Simchat Torah attack, where the religious-Zionists are beginning to lead the way back to nationalism, Tanach and the original & appealing Torat Eretz Yisrael, the effective way to keep the unity & consensus in Israel even after the war.