What are the considerations that move Halakhic decision makers? Which questions must they ask themselves in the process of producing a worthy ruling? How does the Halakhah contribute to the shaping of a person's character? How can the Halakhic decision maker play a conscious rule in this process of education? These are some of the questions raised in this book. The book "Halakhah as an Agent of Change" intends to move forward the discourse about the Philosophy of Halakhah by making a fundamental claim that the existent literature ignores. This claim is that in addition to the Halakhah being a juridical system – and for the religious Jewish person a religious imperative – the Halakhah is primarily an educational instrument and existential event. Therefore, the Halakhah is designed to effect cultural, valuative and educational changes in its devotees. Hence, in order to understand the Halakhah from a philosophical perspective we must make use of philosophical tools that are to be found in Philosophy of Education. In light of this basic insight – which has not received the attention of researchers – this book illuminates both the Halakhic field of studies and the process of Halakhic ruling itself but, also helps us to re-think Halakhic-philosophical studies in the past and intends to contribute to the development of Halakhic philosophy in the future. Furthermore, the book opens a new path for the discourse of the philosophy of Education.

In Ha-halakhah ha-nevu’it , the author traces the halakhic philosophy of Rabbi Abraham Isaac ha-Kohen Kook, one of the preeminent Jewish thinkers of modern times. Rabbi Kook was called upon to offer his opinions on the raging issues of the day within the Jewish world—enlightenment, secularization, and the Zionist movement—and his influence on Israeli public life was and remains enormous. His complex, poetically formulated pronouncements resonated with the community and gave rise to varied, sometimes contradictory interpretations. Although regarded as philosophically daring and a source of intellectual ferment, he is also recalled as a stringent halakhist. Not surprisingly, most of the literature on Rabbi Kook thus far has concentrated on his thought and has tended to disregard his halakhic rulings. This book is the first to examine the full extent of Rabbi Kook’s philosophical and halakhic writings, taking account of all the contradictions and tensions they embody. At the same time, it illustrates the linkage among halakhah, aggadah, and prophecy. The study shows that there can be no halakhah without aggadah; that every ruling is illuminated by an underlying philosophy. To elucidate Rabbi Kook’s halakhic writings, the book introduces the reader to the areas of his thinking and philosophy that encompass human thought in general as well as the hidden recesses of Jewish literature in all its forms: aggadah and halakhah; poetry and legal decisions; esoteric and exoteric teachings. Against that comprehensive background, the meta-halakhic principles that underlie his halakhic rulings clearly emerge. Rabbi Kook’s jurisprudence touches on the realm of prophecy, and his journals—extensively cited in this book—convey his prophetic sensibility. The sense of prophecy is tied to the experience of the return to the Land of Israel, and it plays a central role in understanding his halakhic writings. The book examines the problematic interplay between prophecy and halakhah in general and Rabbi Kook’s prophetic-halakhic world in particular, along with its wealth of implications.