Rabbi Kook on the dawning New Age
Rabbi Kook on the dawning New Age

The Christians have just celebrated their Easter holiday lehavdil, commemorating their belief in the resurrection. The Christians, and the Western world after them, use this date to record the years of world history, showing just how overwhelmingly this false religion has influenced human civilization, something which Rabbi Kook explains in depth in his book “Orot.”

The period of world history before the birth of this Jewish heretic is designated B.C. – Before Christ in the Christain world. The period after his birth is termed A.D. – Anno Domini, the years of our Lord, starting with the year chosen as that of his birth. Thus the year 2020 means 2020 years after the man, who, Rabbi Kooks writes, led the world away from the true, One and Only King, casting mankind into darkness, transgression, and moral and spiritual decline, “forgetters of God in their innards, and carrying His Name on their lips,” in the words of Rabbi Kook, (“Orot,” 2:8).

In a similar light, if we look at the Corona (meaning Crown) world epidemic from a Divine point-of-view, we can divide modern history into B.C. (Before Corona) and A.D. (After the Demise of Corona) may it come soon. Two questions arise – when will the new age begin, and what will the new age be like? 

Once again, from a Divine perspective, we can assume that the Creator and King of the World, the Master of the Universe, will allow a vaccine and cure for Corona to be discovered when humanity is impotently brought to its knees in economic chaos and sickness, and cries out to Hashem for salvation, finally recognizing His absolute rule (and Crown-Corona) over the world.

Alternately, Hashem could have mercy upon mankind and simply blow the Coronavirus away with a storm of worldwide winds, before humanity acknowledges His Kingship, but then we would have to endure another round of His mighty weapons of education, whether through viruses, earthquakes, global freezing, or wars, until we fall to our knees, those who survive, Heaven forbid.

Regarding the second question – what will the new (A.D. age of existence be like, After the Demise of Corona, Rabbi Kook explains in “Orot,” in his writings on war, which he penned during the cataclysmic upheaval of World War I, when the planet suffered 20 million deaths, military and civilian, with another 20 million wounded. Who can we look to for a vision of hope and compassion if not to Rabbi Kook, so known for his exalted love of humanity, who’s inner being shuddered when a companion mindlessly snapped a twig off from a bush for no reason, because Rabbi Kook’s soul felt how the seemingly harmless act damaged the inner balance and harmony of existence? We quote from his writings, taking the liberty to extrapolate his understandings to the present war against an invisible enemy which is shaking the foundations of life, as we have known them till now:    

“The evil kings of the land and the murderers who bring terror on the earth have stained the world with blood, and atonement is sure to come – the total annulment of all of today’s cultural machinations, with all of their lies and deceit, with all of their evil pollutions and venomous poisons. The entire culture which flatters itself with melodious lies must be erased from the world, and in their stead will be established the kingdom of the high holy ones, Israel. 

“The light of Israel will appear, to establish a world whose nations are possessed of a new spirit, nations who will no longer speak emptiness, and who will no longer act contemptuously against God and against His Mashiach, against the life-light of the world, and against the perfection and belief embodied in the eternal covenant of the Torah… Then it will be known and proven that only in Him, in the God of Israel, is there salvation, and the salvation of God will surely come.

“The dissipation of the power of the nations, whom are drunk with a poisonous cup, is destined to come. God has opened his arsenal and taken out the weapons of His rage.

“If the Western nations will continue to strive to preserve their same character, not following the paths of truth and righteousness, then they will not recognize God, and they will not choose to walk in His ways.

“But this state of rebellion and resistance is just an ephemeral, fleeting moment. The light of repentance shall surely appear, and every being will cast his silver and gold idols away, and all shall return to the goodness of God. 

“Then the present-day culture will be totally erased, with all of its foundations, libraries, and theaters. And all of the vain and cruel laws, and the evil and sinful customs of life, will all pass away to oblivion. And G-d alone will be exalted above all on that day.

“Thus, the entire present-day culture will most certainly be destroyed, and upon its residue there will established a new world building in truth, in the knowledge of God: ‘And it shall come to pass in the end of days, that the mountain of the Lord’s House shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all of the nations shall stream unto it’” (Orot, 2:8).

Rabbi Kook takes his vision of the New Age from the famous prophecy of Isaiah, a verse of which is inscribed on the Isaiah Wall at the United Nations, “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore,” (Isaiah, 2:4).

Conveniently, the preceding verse of the prophecy was ignored. Why? What does it say? What happens when the nations arrive in the reopened Ben Gurion Airport, planeloads after planeloads, and travel up to Jerusalem, bus after bus? The prophet explains: “And many peoples shall go and say, Come and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord, to the House of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths, for out of Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem,” (Isaiah, 2:3).

In Jerusalem. On the Temple Mount. In the rebuilt Beit HaMikdash, the Jerusalem Temple. May it be soon.