Newly Discovered Work From Influential Jewish Thinker

Rav Kook, a late nineteenth and early twentieth century Jewish thinker, is one of the few recent Jewish thinkers to have a significant influence on Jewish religious perspectives from right to left. Although he is a well-known name only in the Orthodox Jewish world — or in Israel where his son is an icon of the settlement movement — many progressive Jewish leaders have found great inspiration in his work. Perry Dane drew my attention to this recent article describing a newly discovered book from the early twentieth century where Rav Kook offers a sympathetic critique of modern secularism, argues for universal ethics, and expresses fear that nationalism without universal ethics will collapse into chauvinism.