From David Shasha this morning: "The contemporary state of Israel is thus Jewish in name and European in practice."
As I have repeatedly said in my discussions of Zionism and Talmudic Judaism, those Religious Zionists who believe in the redemptive value of the current state of Israel are in a quandary: the Jewish liturgical framework was designed to address the harsh reality of Exile and Diaspora.... The formal Jewish prayers contain numerous references to the Destruction of the Temple and loss of national sovereignty. Normative Zionism, as is clear, had no concern for the religious aspects of Judaism and paid no attention to the internal transformation that would or would not take place in religious life after its establishment.
But for Orthodox Jews who believe that the state of Israel has a definite religious function, contemporary Zionism presents the sort of challenge that we see addressed in this often excruciating article by a prominent Religious Zionist leader.
The Jewish fasts – outside Yom Kippur and the Fast of Esther – are linked to the Destruction of the Temple. The 9th of Ab marks the destruction of both the first and second Temples.
Religious Zionists are thus left in a precarious situation: How does one argue for the religious significance of Israel today and still mourn the Exile of the Jews from their land?.............
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Renee Leavy Kohn This internal contradiction in legal logic is a reflection of the internal contradiction of Zionism as a religious reality: For the first time in Jewish history the Jewish people are being led and controlled by a group of Jews who have no formal connection to the Jewish Law.
When we look back to the restoration after the destruction of the First Temple, it was led by Ezra the Scribe who was a proto-Rabbinic figure set on re-establishing the Jewish Law for the returnees. At the time of the destruction of the Second Temple there was already a firm institution of rabbinical leadership which was in the process of formulating the Jewish legal tradition in texts such as the Mishnah and Tosefta.
The rabbis’ attitude toward the Bar Kokhba revolt was ambivalent at best. Like the much later messianic movement of Sabbatai Sevi in the 17th century, the rabbis were at pains to figure out what the movement really meant in national-religious terms. In the end, after both movements failed, they did their best to erase the traces of the messianism and put into place safeguards to ensure the integrity of Jewish Law in the wake of the disastrous effects of the apocalyptic frenzy of the widespread, popular messianism.
The current state of Israel has clearly sustained in a way that the earlier messianic movements did not. But the state of Israel was formed as a Western European nation-state with no formal ties to Jewish law. In spite of the fact that Zionist leaders in the early days of the state vested power related to Jewish status issues in the hands of an officially recognized rabbinate, the religious element was suppressed and marked as alien to the formal process of government.
The contemporary state of Israel is thus Jewish in name and European in practice.
Religious Zionists must deflect the ultimate religious implications of this political reality. The agonizing choice of whether or not to continue to fast on these days is a particular problem, as is the fixed formulation of the Jewish Liturgy.
What has essentially happened in Religious Zionist thought, as this article clearly indicates, is to mark the founding of Israel in 1948 as the initial step in a larger process whose contours are not yet fully known or understood. Rather than being a political process that is self-contained, Zionism is an open-ended process that has left key questions open and incomplete.
In this sense, contemporary Religious Zionists are in a similar position to the early Christians who believed that the Redemption had come, but who were forced to face the harsh reality that there was indeed no “Peace on Earth” as prophesied in the Bible. It was then asserted that the Death and Resurrection of Jesus was not a definitive political fact, but only the first stage of the Redemption which would be completed at some uncertain future date when Jesus would return to Earth in a final Apocalyptic revelation.
To this point there is only confusion in Religious Zionism which has – as this tortuous article shows – not really worked out the details of the national Redemption. Religious Zionists are well aware that the government of Israel has no intention of adopting Jewish Law as its constitution and its adherence to Western norms has even reversed many basic Jewish principles. The country continues to move further and further from the Halakha as time passes and tension mounts in the Religious Zionist community which has become more and more extreme and partisan relative to the Israeli government.
The Ultra-Orthodox have little problem with this as they have traditionally seen the Israeli government as interlopers in the religious sense and do not accept its authority in Jewish terms. Although the situation of the Ultra-Orthodox is changing in interesting and often dangerous ways, the thinking of Religious Zionist leaders has hit a wall: Many younger members of their community have indeed sought to displace the government of Israel in order to create a Messianic state based on Jewish Law.
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Renee Leavy Kohn Zionism always contained the seeds of this anarchic energy. By opening the Pandora’s Box of Jewish messianism, Zionism rolled the dice in the belief that Judaism would die out as a religious structure. As has frequently been the case with Religious Zionist leaders, Rabbi Melamed counsels moderation and a suspension of religious ideals in the service of the state. He rules that Jews should continue fasting on the proscribed days. But what he does not address is the contradiction between Religious Zionism’s belief that the current state of Israel is indeed a religious reality and the fact that the state has basically rejected the foundations of Jewish Law.
The Talmudic tradition grew out of the tragedy of Exile and Diaspora. The Sages over many generations formulated rulings for a community living under Gentile sovereignty. The Rabbinical system has never been run in the context of a Jewish state with complete national autonomy and sovereignty. The Talmud has even counseled Jews against “Forcing the End” and trying to bring the Messiah without God’s express command.
It would be logical to assume that under a Jewish government that is invested in the Torah tradition a Jewish state would be forced to adapt and modify many Jewish practices – such as fasting – in order to reflect the new reality.
But in point of fact there has never been a formal acceptance of a new reality other than the commemoration of the founding of the state on its Independence Day. The larger and much thornier questions that are raised by Halakha and national sovereignty have been scrupulously avoided. And as Rabbi Melamed shows in this article, there is no real idea of how to even begin to address them.
But as Religious Zionist leaders continue to be unable to decide how the current state of Israel fits into the larger Talmudic scheme of restoration and redemption, a new generation of Israeli Religious Zionists has no such problem: The fanaticism of the so-called Hilltop Youth and their supporters in both the Settler community and the larger “Nationalist” community have determined that they will take the law into their own hands.
In this context it is worthwhile to note that the traditional belief in God’s sovereingnty as expressed by Prophets has been formally dispensed with. After many centuries of quiescence, we now have Jews who believe that it is possible to commandeer the process of Redemption on their own. God is not at all a part of the picture.
It is this situation that has led to the massive internal contradictions in Religious Zionism and exposed its faulty Halakhic logic.
DS
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Yitzchak Micha'el The ISRAELI STATE was the EUROPEAN WESTERN response to increased influence and numbers of Religious Jewish communities living in Palestine. So the establishment of BEN GURION's STATE was nothing more than a comprmise at best from the EUROPEAN's point of view. In this the Arabs are right the STATE is EUROPEAN but yet the people are not this was all the more the case with the increase the manipulation and removal of jewish communities from the Islamic countries. The secularisation or more aptly the Romanisation / Euro-fication of their children through forced secular education upon their arrival in interment camps only increased this EU values that we see in those that call themselves Secular today as they say Everybody's Grandparents are Religious only is further testimony to this process.
-
Yitzchak Micha'el The rise of Baalei Teshuvah Movement was not expected by the secular designers as they cannot fathom the Jewish Neshamah's yearning for the Creator and their proper role and way of living before him.
From David Shasha this morning: "The contemporary state of Israel is thus Jewish in name and European in practice."
As I have repeatedly said in my discussions of Zionism and Talmudic Judaism, those Religious Zionists who believe in the redemptive value of the current state of Israel are in a quandary: the Jewish liturgical framework was designed to address the harsh reality of Exile and Diaspora.... The formal Jewish prayers contain numerous references to the Destruction of the Temple and loss of national sovereignty. Normative Zionism, as is clear, had no concern for the religious aspects of Judaism and paid no attention to the internal transformation that would or would not take place in religious life after its establishment.
But for Orthodox Jews who believe that the state of Israel has a definite religious function, contemporary Zionism presents the sort of challenge that we see addressed in this often excruciating article by a prominent Religious Zionist leader.
The Jewish fasts – outside Yom Kippur and the Fast of Esther – are linked to the Destruction of the Temple. The 9th of Ab marks the destruction of both the first and second Temples.
Religious Zionists are thus left in a precarious situation: How does one argue for the religious significance of Israel today and still mourn the Exile of the Jews from their land?.............
As I have repeatedly said in my discussions of Zionism and Talmudic Judaism, those Religious Zionists who believe in the redemptive value of the current state of Israel are in a quandary: the Jewish liturgical framework was designed to address the harsh reality of Exile and Diaspora.... The formal Jewish prayers contain numerous references to the Destruction of the Temple and loss of national sovereignty. Normative Zionism, as is clear, had no concern for the religious aspects of Judaism and paid no attention to the internal transformation that would or would not take place in religious life after its establishment.
But for Orthodox Jews who believe that the state of Israel has a definite religious function, contemporary Zionism presents the sort of challenge that we see addressed in this often excruciating article by a prominent Religious Zionist leader.
The Jewish fasts – outside Yom Kippur and the Fast of Esther – are linked to the Destruction of the Temple. The 9th of Ab marks the destruction of both the first and second Temples.
Religious Zionists are thus left in a precarious situation: How does one argue for the religious significance of Israel today and still mourn the Exile of the Jews from their land?.............
- Renee Leavy Kohn This internal contradiction in legal logic is a reflection of the internal contradiction of Zionism as a religious reality: For the first time in Jewish history the Jewish people are being led and controlled by a group of Jews who have no formal connection to the Jewish Law.
When we look back to the restoration after the destruction of the First Temple, it was led by Ezra the Scribe who was a proto-Rabbinic figure set on re-establishing the Jewish Law for the returnees. At the time of the destruction of the Second Temple there was already a firm institution of rabbinical leadership which was in the process of formulating the Jewish legal tradition in texts such as the Mishnah and Tosefta.
The rabbis’ attitude toward the Bar Kokhba revolt was ambivalent at best. Like the much later messianic movement of Sabbatai Sevi in the 17th century, the rabbis were at pains to figure out what the movement really meant in national-religious terms. In the end, after both movements failed, they did their best to erase the traces of the messianism and put into place safeguards to ensure the integrity of Jewish Law in the wake of the disastrous effects of the apocalyptic frenzy of the widespread, popular messianism.
The current state of Israel has clearly sustained in a way that the earlier messianic movements did not. But the state of Israel was formed as a Western European nation-state with no formal ties to Jewish law. In spite of the fact that Zionist leaders in the early days of the state vested power related to Jewish status issues in the hands of an officially recognized rabbinate, the religious element was suppressed and marked as alien to the formal process of government.
The contemporary state of Israel is thus Jewish in name and European in practice.
Religious Zionists must deflect the ultimate religious implications of this political reality. The agonizing choice of whether or not to continue to fast on these days is a particular problem, as is the fixed formulation of the Jewish Liturgy.
What has essentially happened in Religious Zionist thought, as this article clearly indicates, is to mark the founding of Israel in 1948 as the initial step in a larger process whose contours are not yet fully known or understood. Rather than being a political process that is self-contained, Zionism is an open-ended process that has left key questions open and incomplete.
In this sense, contemporary Religious Zionists are in a similar position to the early Christians who believed that the Redemption had come, but who were forced to face the harsh reality that there was indeed no “Peace on Earth” as prophesied in the Bible. It was then asserted that the Death and Resurrection of Jesus was not a definitive political fact, but only the first stage of the Redemption which would be completed at some uncertain future date when Jesus would return to Earth in a final Apocalyptic revelation.
To this point there is only confusion in Religious Zionism which has – as this tortuous article shows – not really worked out the details of the national Redemption. Religious Zionists are well aware that the government of Israel has no intention of adopting Jewish Law as its constitution and its adherence to Western norms has even reversed many basic Jewish principles. The country continues to move further and further from the Halakha as time passes and tension mounts in the Religious Zionist community which has become more and more extreme and partisan relative to the Israeli government.
The Ultra-Orthodox have little problem with this as they have traditionally seen the Israeli government as interlopers in the religious sense and do not accept its authority in Jewish terms. Although the situation of the Ultra-Orthodox is changing in interesting and often dangerous ways, the thinking of Religious Zionist leaders has hit a wall: Many younger members of their community have indeed sought to displace the government of Israel in order to create a Messianic state based on Jewish Law. - Renee Leavy Kohn Zionism always contained the seeds of this anarchic energy. By opening the Pandora’s Box of Jewish messianism, Zionism rolled the dice in the belief that Judaism would die out as a religious structure. As has frequently been the case with Religious Zionist leaders, Rabbi Melamed counsels moderation and a suspension of religious ideals in the service of the state. He rules that Jews should continue fasting on the proscribed days. But what he does not address is the contradiction between Religious Zionism’s belief that the current state of Israel is indeed a religious reality and the fact that the state has basically rejected the foundations of Jewish Law.
The Talmudic tradition grew out of the tragedy of Exile and Diaspora. The Sages over many generations formulated rulings for a community living under Gentile sovereignty. The Rabbinical system has never been run in the context of a Jewish state with complete national autonomy and sovereignty. The Talmud has even counseled Jews against “Forcing the End” and trying to bring the Messiah without God’s express command.
It would be logical to assume that under a Jewish government that is invested in the Torah tradition a Jewish state would be forced to adapt and modify many Jewish practices – such as fasting – in order to reflect the new reality.
But in point of fact there has never been a formal acceptance of a new reality other than the commemoration of the founding of the state on its Independence Day. The larger and much thornier questions that are raised by Halakha and national sovereignty have been scrupulously avoided. And as Rabbi Melamed shows in this article, there is no real idea of how to even begin to address them.
But as Religious Zionist leaders continue to be unable to decide how the current state of Israel fits into the larger Talmudic scheme of restoration and redemption, a new generation of Israeli Religious Zionists has no such problem: The fanaticism of the so-called Hilltop Youth and their supporters in both the Settler community and the larger “Nationalist” community have determined that they will take the law into their own hands.
In this context it is worthwhile to note that the traditional belief in God’s sovereingnty as expressed by Prophets has been formally dispensed with. After many centuries of quiescence, we now have Jews who believe that it is possible to commandeer the process of Redemption on their own. God is not at all a part of the picture.
It is this situation that has led to the massive internal contradictions in Religious Zionism and exposed its faulty Halakhic logic.
DS - Yitzchak Micha'el The ISRAELI STATE was the EUROPEAN WESTERN response to increased influence and numbers of Religious Jewish communities living in Palestine. So the establishment of BEN GURION's STATE was nothing more than a comprmise at best from the EUROPEAN's point of view. In this the Arabs are right the STATE is EUROPEAN but yet the people are not this was all the more the case with the increase the manipulation and removal of jewish communities from the Islamic countries. The secularisation or more aptly the Romanisation / Euro-fication of their children through forced secular education upon their arrival in interment camps only increased this EU values that we see in those that call themselves Secular today as they say Everybody's Grandparents are Religious only is further testimony to this process.
- Yitzchak Micha'el The rise of Baalei Teshuvah Movement was not expected by the secular designers as they cannot fathom the Jewish Neshamah's yearning for the Creator and their proper role and way of living before him.
