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Ideas For An Age of Confusion: Studies in the Thought of Abraham Y. Kook and Mordecai M. Kaplan
by Jack J. Cohen, Fordham University Press, New York, 1999, 386 pp.

Abraham Yitzhak Kook (1865-1935) and Mordecai Menahem Kaplan (1881-1983) were two of the leading Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century. Kook was the Chief Rabbi of Palestine from 1921 to 1935 and Kaplan the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism in the United States. In this fascinating and groundbreaking study. Jack J. Cohen, Kaplan's leading disciple claims that "by studying the works of Kook and Kaplan, one can clearly see the two main alternatives for preparing the Jewish world for the next two generations." The two thinkers represent the two poles of what Cohen calls "the reasonable spectrum of Judaism" in our day. Both thinkers were responsive to the intellectual and spiritual currents of the modern world. Kook, however, while endorsing the Darwinian theory of evolution, denied the need to alter any of the fundamentals of the theory or practice of Judaism. Kaplan, on the other hand, felt that Jews needed to rely more on reason and on their ability to think than on their confidence in the inherent rightness of their heritage. Kook thus represented a Judaism the prevailing mood of which is love and respect for the tradition, and Kaplan a Judaism based on reason and experience that seeks liberation and enlightenment. As Cohen writes, Kaplan wanted Jews to do more than pass Judaism on. He also wanted them to pass on it-to evaluate it and change it wherever necessary in order to make it more relevant and dynamic.

Cohen evinces respect, admiration and affection for Kook as well as for Kaplan so that his book serves as a major study of each of the thinkers as well as a comoarison of their views on such issues as rationalism and mysticism, the search for God, Jewish identity and character, Eretz Yisrael and the Diaspora, Jewish education, democracy, prayer and repentance, the role of Halakhah and the role of women in Judaism.

In the course of their careers, K.ook and Kaplan were both excommunicated by ultraorthodox elements in Jerusalem or New York. Nevertheless, they have come to be regarded as the outstanding twentieth century representatives of the traditional Halakhic approach to Judaism and the radical modernist approach respectively. They are forever linked by a profound mystical love for God, Israel, Eretz Yisrael and Torah as well as by a profound rationalism that takes feeling, imagination and intuition into account. They shared many traditional Jewish values including the emphasis on justice, love and holiness despite the fact that each interpreted such values in his own unique way. Kook's view of holiness, for example, stressed the authority of the Torah while Kaplan could accept only those aspects of tradition which accord with universal standards of morality and intellect.

kook saw the mitzvot or religious commandments as the categorical laws of an Absolute Deity while for Kaplan they were norms distilled from Jewish experience that can still inspire modern Jews. God, for Kaplan, was essentially the Cosmic Source of trust in life and in the potential for peace between individuals and nations.

The most profound difference between the two thinkers concerns their views of democracy. Despite his remarkable open-mindedness and tolerance, Kook's notion of freedom of thought was confined to what the Halakhah permits. Kaplan, on the other hand, insisted that democracy had to be incorporated into Judaism's roster of sacred values. He was a philosopher of democracy as well as a philosopher of Judaism. Democracy and faith in a God who makes for human improvement and fulfillment were for him complementary elements of the greater Judaism of the future.

This is a major, thought-provoking analysis of issues confronting humanity in general and the Jewish people in particular at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It needs to be read, studied and discussed by individuals and communities everywhere.