. Pinchas Polonsky, a mathematician and sociologist, is one of the founders of Machanaim, a Russian-Jewish educational network in Israel that promotes religious Zionism. He was actively involved in the Refusenik Movement and underground Jewish educational network in the former Soviet Union. A prolific writer, Dr. Polonsky has authored 15 books, numerous articles, and internet and audio courses on Judaism. This article is an excerpt from the book Rav Kook: The Man and His Teaching by Pinchas Polonsky, published in 2006 by Machanaim. This article is translated from Russian by Lise Brody.)
Abraham-Yitzhak ha-Cohen Kook is, without doubt, one of the most celebrated rabbis of the twentieth century. He is known to most people, however, only as the creator of the philosophy of religious Zionism, and we frequently overlook the fact that the foundations of his teachings reflect a deep modernization of Jewish faith itself and of its approach to an array of contemporary problems.
Rabbi Kook was a poet by nature, not a university professor. Thus, he believed that mysteries are explained only by other mysteries. This approach makes a systematic study of Rabbi Kook's philosophy difficult. In the following article, I will attempt to outline Kook's philosophy in more concrete terms.
A Step in the Development of Judaism
