With independence we gained control of ourselves. We achieved freedom of choice. We are not dependent upon others, and the process of redemption can be carried to completion, if so we wish.

Redemption is not one of the 613 commandments, and the Halakhic meaning of redemption lies in political independence, in the possibility of observing those commandments which require sovereignty and territoriality in the Land of Israel. The beginning of redemption is the possibility of observing the commandments through the sovereignty granted us. Redemption itself is the actual observance of the commandments.

(Dov Rappel: Pithei She'arim, p. 213)

 

 

Is There Religious Significance to National Independence?

The religious establishment has struggled to shape the religious character of Yom Ha'atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim, and this issue continues to engage various sectors of the religious community. It cannot be resolved without coming to an understanding of the religious value of the historical events associated with those holidays. Let it be said at the outset: We are not dealing here with the significance of a "prophetic vision" or "messianic destiny" involving "the Kingdom of Israel." Rather, we must investigate the significance of the political creation of the actual State of Israel, which came into existence in 1948, and the significance of the manner and conditions of its creation, its wars and conquests. The religious attitudes towards these days can only be based upon historical understanding, and not upon study of the Halakhic tradition, which never contemplated such situations...

It is impossible to avoid a clear decision regarding Yom Ha'atzmaut. This day cannot be given a partial evaluation. One view has it that it is not a holiday, but rather a day of mourning: the day the Jewish People rebelled against the Torah. Another view holds that it is particularly apt for us to say the blessing for coming to this time and to recite the Hallel and mark Yom Ha'atzmaut as a holiday, for it is the day when the Jewish People opened the door to the possibility of fulfilling the Torah - a gate that it may enter, if the people decide to apply themselves to observance of the Torah. This view is not subverted by the fact that the majority of the present generation does not want to observe the Torah.

(Y. Leibowitz, Yahadut, Am Yehudi U'midinat Yisrael pp. 90, 91, 96, 97)

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts on zionism and post-zionism

Yehonatan Chipman

As Israel enters its 64^th year (the last square on the chess-board, for those who believe in omens; and indeed, there is good reason to feel that the coming year will be a crucial one for the state), there is a sense of crisis, of a lack of confidence in the future. While the state is a successful, going enterprise, with a flourishing economy, and in many ways a successful state, there are also far more voices than in the past that challenge its very legitimacy or its right to exist as a Jewish state. Both here and abroad, the terms "non-Zionist," "post-Zionist," and even "anti-Zionist" are bandied about. So the obvious question to be answered is: What do we mean by Zionism anyway?

On one level, we of course live in a post-Zionist age. The original aims of the Zionist movement: to establish a homeland for the Jewish people - according to most views, albeit not that of Theodor Herzl himself, in Israel's ancient homeland - to settle it, to establish a state, to ingather the exiles of Israel (particularly those Jews who were persecuted in their homelands), to revive the Hebrew language and culture, and to establish viable economic, socio–political and cultural institutions. All of these tasks have been accomplished, so that on one level one can say that the aims of Zionism, or at least its most urgent tasks, have been fulfilled, and that the challenges faced by Israel today are similar in kind, if not in degree, to those faced by most Western developed countries - with one glaring exception: the complex and painful problem of our relation with the Arab world, and particularly the Palestinian question - a vast problem, which we cannot discuss here.

On another level, many people would argue that we live in a post-Zionist age because the entire concept of nationalism and nationality is passé Particularly in Western Europe, with the growing strength of the European community within which there are almost completely open borders, national differences seem to make less and less difference.

But Israel Independence Day is traditionally a time for celebration and, like every Jewish holiday, presents an opportunity for dealing on the principled, theoretical level with inyanei de-yoma, the meaning of the day - in this case, the question as to what we mean by Zionism. Is a Zionist simply one who has chosen to live in Israel? Or is he, as in the classical definition, one who believes that every Jew ought to live in Israel? Or may Zionism simply mean political, cultural, financial, or even simply sentimental support of Israel?

At times, it is important to remind oneself of old, basic truths, simple but forgotten. Beyond the practical tasks of settlement and so forth enumerated above, Zionism was based upon a fundamental revolution in Jewish self–understanding. As I see it, the basic insight of Zionism was that the Jews are a people or a nation (for the purposes of our discussion, I will ignore the niceties of distinction between these two). Judaism is not a religion in the accepted sense of the word. True, throughout Antiquity and the Middle Ages the two concepts of nation and religion were intertwined, so that the distinction between the two didn't really matter. In the famous words of Rabbenu Saadya Gaon, "Our nation is only a nation by virtue of its Torah." But in wake of the Enlightenment, Jewish Emancipation and the secularization of society, this "package" broke up. Jews were no longer defined as a religious collectivity in the various countries in which they lived. Certainly in Western Europe and, later on, in North America and elsewhere, Jews were both seen and perceived themselves as individuals, free in theory to affiliate with whatever religion they chose. Increasingly, particularly for third- and fourth-generation American Jews, anti-Semitism was seen as a vestige of the past.

Nevertheless, the religious definition of Jewishness is in a sense a Christian one. As someone once said, a Christian is always in some sense a convert, whereas a Jew is born a Jew. Paradoxically, this is even the case of the ger tzedek, the righteous proselyte who converts to Judaism: he or she does not so much adopt a new faith as to join a new family, or even to be reborn as a Jew, almost literally. The waters of the mikveh, which serve as the Halakhic instrument of conversion, are seen as equivalent to the amniotic fluid of the mother's womb. Hence, the concept of a person being a secular, agnostic or even atheistic Jew is not a contradiction in terms, an oxymoron. Indeed, some of the greatest Jewish scientists, intellectuals and creative figures, particularly of the twentieth century, have been secular Jews, and many of us, this author included, are rightfully proud of them, notwithstanding their secularism.

In truth, there is something peculiar about Jewish peoplehood, as those who would deny the notion of a Jewish people, such as Professor Shlomo Sand (author of The Invention of the Jewish People) are quick to note. Until Zionism, Jews throughout the world had neither a common territory nor a common language. Moreover, it is difficult to claim that Jews are a race or ethnic group, by any scientific ethnographic standard. Hence, the nationhood or peoplehood of the Jewish people is in some sense sui generis. It often lies in an undefined sense of being Jewish, of belonging to that amorphous entity called the Jewish people, of participating in its continuity and its common history. Interestingly, the Dalai Lama, the leader of the Tibetan people in exile (a group which itself identifies itself simultaneously as both religious and national) sees the Jews as a phenomenon of survival under conditions of exile - and some years ago even met with a group of rabbis and Jewish leaders to learn from them the "secret of survival."

There are several different approaches or ideologies which oppose what I would describe as this central Zionist perception. One group consists of those who quite simply adopt the "Palestinian narrative." Another approach argues that in the State of Israel a new, "Israeli" nation has emerged, based upon language and territory, distinct from the historical Jewish people, and that "Israeliness" ought to be separated from "Jewishness" - a latter-day version, if you will, of the "Canaanite" movement of the early days of the State.

Recently, Israeli author Yoram Kaniuk, in an interview for Ha-Aretz, made the interesting comment that "there used to be real Jews in Israel" - by which he meant, secular Jews who were rooted in Jewishness, but that "today Judaism has become a religion." If I understand correctly, he meant by this that, on the one hand, the younger generation of secular Israelis are distant from Jewish culture in a way that their parents and grandparents were not and that, on the other hand, Judaism has been preempted by the Rabbinic establishment, who de facto have a monopoly on the definition of Jewishness. The present controversy over conversion, in which the Rabbinate defines Jewishness in a strict, narrow way, is perhaps the most striking expression of this. As an Halakhic Jew, who treasures Torah, I find this both unfortunate and misguided. There is a long list of aharonim, of Orthodox poskim of the 19^th and 20^th centuries who, understanding the secularization of much of the Jewish people, and the dangers posed by intermarriage, did everything they could to implement a liberal approach to conversion - including such respected figures as Rav David Zvi Hoffman, Rav Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel, and Rav Eliezer Waldenberg, all ztz"l.

Recently there has been another disturbing trend, which sees itself as "super-Zionist," but which seems to ignore one of the important principles of Zionism. I refer to certain rabbis and others who openly deny the legitimacy of basic democratic institutions of the State of Israel: the Knesset, the chain of command within the IDF, and especially the courts. One hears in these circles a call for the exclusive rule of the Halakhah. But they forget the saying of our Sages said: "Jephthah in his generation is like Samuel in his generation" (b. Rosh Hashana 25b) - that is to say, even if one's leaders fall short of the ideal, one must accept those whom one has at any given time.

This relates to another important principle of Zionism: the acceptance of the real Jewish people, as they are in the world today - and not only some abstract, Platonic, metaphysical ideal of "Knesset Yisrael." We are not yet living in the ideal future messianic world, under the reign of Heaven. This is one of the important implications of the Zionist conception that Jews must "reenter history" - meaning, to accept the concrete situation of the Jewish people, with all its imperfections and anomalies, as the embodiment of Jewish national existence in this world.

One final point: Menahem Elon - former Deputy Chief Justice of the Israel Supreme Court, himself a learned and pious Jew, one of the important legal thinkers of our day, and an advocate of the introduction of concepts of Jewish law within Israeli civil law - once commented to me (in private conversation; and the idea appears in various places in his writings) that he considers Israel's Knesset to be equivalent to the institution of shivah tuvei ha-ir. By that, he was referring to the institutions of secular self-government that existed in medieval Jewish communities, in Europe and elsewhere, which acted in parallel to the authority of the rabbis, who served as poskim in specifically Halakhic matters. These secular leaders had broad executive and even legislative powers in the form of edicts and decrees that were introduced to further various social ends and needs of the community for which existing Halakhah made no provision. According to Elon, the Knesset - and the other arms of Israeli government, including the judiciary - deserves at least the same standing as the exilic communal leadership!

Rabbi Jonathan Chipman is a professional translator who specializes in Jewish studies. He writes a commentary in English on the Portion of the Week, which he calls The Arrows of Jonathan. Those who wish to receive a sample or to subscribe may write to yonarand@internet-zahav.net

 

 

Our Is A Torah Of Life

Ancient and modern paganism likes very much to associate religion and religious matters with death and thoughts of death. For them where Man ends, the Kingdom of God begins. For them death and dying are the real manifestations of the godhead, who to them is a god of death and not of life. A god who kills and does not animate, and sends death and its forerunners, illness and wretchedness, so that men should fear him and recognize his power and their impotence. The places they dedicate to temples are therefore around about graves, the foremost place of their priests is near the dead...

Not so is the Jewish priest, for not so is the Jewish teaching of God, the Jewish religion. God, Whose Name assigns the Jewish priest to his office, is a God of life. His most sublime manifestation is the elevating power of Life, freeing, animating, raising Man to free will and to eternal life, not the crushing power of death - not how one is to die, but how one is to live, how, living, one must victoriously conquer death, death in life, how one will overcome thralldom, enslaved by one's physical urges, moral weakness...

When Death summons the people to come to busy themselves with acts of love, with the body, empty of nefesh, the soul that God called home, the Kohanim must remain apart, and by standing apart, hold aloft the Standard of Life next to the corpse. By thoughts of what life really is, they prevent thoughts of death from overpowering the truths that the real Man himself is morally free and not subject to forces that kill his power over his own moral free will... they shall strengthen in their hearts the idea of Life, lest they be conquered by the idea of Death.

(Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Lev. 21:5)

 

And God seeks the pursued"

"And God seeks the pursued" (Kohellet 3:15) - Rav Huna said in the name of Rav Yosef: "Forever 'God seeks the pursued'. The wicked pursues the righteous, "And God seeks the pursued"; the wicked pursues the wicked, "And God seeks the pursued"; and even when the righteous pursues the wicked, "And God seeks the pursued". In every case, "And God seeks the pursued".

Said Rabbi Yehudah ben Rabbi Simon in the name of Rabbi Yehudah ben Rabbi Nehorai: "God always demands the blood of the pursued from the pursuers. Know that this is so, for Hevel was pursued by Cain, and The Holy One, Blessed Be He, chose Hevel, as is written "God had regard for Hevel and his gifts". Noah was pursued by his generation, and The Holy One, Blessed Be He, chose Noah, as is written: "For you I have seen as righteous before me in this generation." Avraham was pursued by Nimrod, and The Holy One, Blessed Be He, chose Avraham, as is written, "You are the Lord God who chose Avraham". Yitzhak was pursued by the Philistines, and The Holy One, Blessed Be He, chose Yitzhak, as is written, "For I have observed that God is with you." Yaakov was pursued by Esav, and The Holy One, Blessed Be He, chose Yaakov, as is written, "For God chose Yaakov for himself." Yosef was pursued by his brothers, and God chose Yosef, as is written, "He imposed it as a decree upon Yosef." Moshe was pursued by Pharaoh, and The Holy One, Blessed Be He, chose Moshe, as is written"… had not Moshe, his chosen one." David was pursued by Shaul, and The Holy One, Blessed Be He, chose David, as is written "And he chose David, his servant."Shaul was pursued by Philistines, and The Holy One, Blessed Be He, chose Shaul, as is written, "Have you seen him whom God has chosen."Israel is pursued by the nations, and The Holy One, Blessed Be He, chose Israel, as is written, "For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, your God has chosen to be for him a specially-treasured people."

Rabbi Eliezer ben Rabbi Yossi ben Zimra said: "It is so also with offerings. Said The Holy One, Blessed Be He: 'The ox is pursued by the lion, the goat is pursued by the leopard, the sheep by the wolf; do not bring me offerings from the pursuers, but from the pursued, as is written: "An ox or a sheep or a goat, when it is born."

(Vayikra Rabba, Chap. 27)

 

Hassidim relate:

The story is told of Rebbi David of Lalov, who came on Rosh Hashanah to pay respect to his rabbi, the "Seer" of Lublin. Before the [shofar] blasts, his fellow Hassidim noticed that Rebbi David was not present. They went to his inn to seek him out. Upon arrival, they discovered Rebbi David standing in the stable, feeding hay to the horses. The stablekeeper, engaged in prayer and the shofar sounding, had lingered at the synagogue, and had forgotten to give the horses fodder and drink. Rebbi David arose and claimed the mitzva for himself.

(Ibid., p.454)

 

 

 

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