Secularism, ‘A Light to the Nations,’ and Messiah son of Joseph: Rav Manitou’s Commentary to Rav Kook’s Eulogy for Herzl
Shabbat, April 11 | Noon (after services) | Bring a Dairy/Pareve dish to share | Also on Zoom
In 1904, A few months after arriving in Ottoman Palestine, a young Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook delivered a long eulogy for Theordore Herzl who died that July. It was likely his first public teaching in the land of Israel. Many decades later, the French immigrant to Israel known as “Rav Manitou” (Leon Ashkenazi, 1922-1996) published a commentary on Kook’s eulogy entitled Misped Ha-Moshiah? (A Eulogy for the Messiah?). We will explore a variety of themes in this work including Messiah son of Joseph, the Ten Lost Tribes, and the role of the secular in the messianic process.
Shaul Magid is Professor of Modern Judaism in Residence at Harvard Divinity School, co-editor of HTR, and rabbi emeritus of the Fire Island Synagogue.