Your book is outdated; today we have to see Zionism as a Jew’s inner yearning to reconnect with his Jewish self

Dear Rav Yirmiyahu,

I saw a copy of your book/ Sefer in shul which grabbed my attention and spent some time reading sections of it. This topic is one that I have given a great deal of thought to out of my own interest and having taught Modern Jewish History for over 20 years.

At age 71 I have lived long enough to have seen the passage of a significant piece of Jewish History myself and what has transpired from 1953 until today in Eretz Israel is astounding. From a country of a little over a million when I was born it is now the home of the largest Jewish community in the World with over seven million Jews. Add the minorities and we have a population of over nine million.

More importantly the Jewish world that existed at the founding of Israel is so radically different than today. As a child I remember the Socialist parties thoroughly dominating the government. Parties that were the last vestiges of the sad honeymoon” of Jewish youth in the 20th Century with the Soviet Union and the Marxist / Leninist ideal. Today there is no Labor Party in Israel. That stupid militant ideology that had the likes of Golda Meir calling herself a Socialist Zionist because she couldn’t get the word Jew out of her mouth….. it is nearly gone. We can no longer judge our relationship with the State of Israel based upon the analysis of Gedolim that lived at an entirely different time. The debate over the Three Oaths which was so important when Britain and then the United Nations were deciding the fate of a mere 600,000 Jews in Palestine is simply a moot point now. Whatever the point of view then…it has no bearing now on the reality of three quarters of a century of Jewish life b’eretz hakodesh. For all of its many faults and problems, the Israeli Government supports hundreds of thousands of yeshiva students and Bais Yaakov student to the tune of millions of dollars a year. Chareidi neighborhoods are built and many many accommodations exist to support a community whose leaders, frankly, have not come to terms with ” The Medina”. And I emphasize leaders because amongst the lay population there is far more recognition and support.

Although the point of view of R’ Elchonon Wasserman in Ikvesa Demeshicha is touted as the official line of Chareidi Jewry in the first half of the twentieth century, I know from R’ Zelig Epstein that many many Rabbanim In Poland and Lithuania were supporters of the Zionist Movement. The Marcheshes, Rabbi Chanoch Henich Eiges, was one of many. Perhaps the stand of the Brisker Rav and Chazon Ish was necessary to preserve Orthodox rights and identity with the Socialist government of that time and to rebuild what the Nazis yimach shmam destroyed. But today to rail against the “Zionists” is simply an anachronism. I remember davening in the shtiebelakh of Zichron Moshe and seeing pamphlets on the tables railing against speaking Ivrit. Really? Now?

The Twentieth century was a time of great confusion for Jewry. Look at the various ” isms” that captured the hearts of so many of our young people. It is easy to simply dismiss that as “the counsel of the evil inclination” but that is naive and simplistic. Read the opening of Hirsch’s Nineteen Letters. It is an honest inquiry into the relevance of Judaism in the modern era by a sincere young man. Hirsch did not dismiss it because it was the burning issue of his day and for many it remains so! Much of Torah Jewry turned inward for strength but shunned addressing that young man’s questions. So by default the isms” captured the minds of the youth.
We are a nation by virtue of the Torah was Rav Saadyah Gaon’s formulation. But there is a national impulse, a love of homeland that is basic to all mankind and was understandably rejected by many Gedolim when it became the sole form of Jewish identity by the founders of the Zionist movement. Let it be noted that it was also rejected by the assimilated Jews of Europe and America and the Reform Movement. But it is remains and prevails never the less and it is heartwarming to see and hear soldiers in our present war speak of their protecting home and hearth and family and…… all of Klal Yisrael.

Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook was thought of as a naïve, the much maligned and misunderstood giant who saw Zionism through rose colored glasses. I think he was a visionary who saw the rebellious nature of the Jewish youth of his times as an inner yearning to reconnect with their Jewish selves in a manner that connected to the realities of life, as did Hirsch’s Benjamin. Please take these comments into consideration. I would be glad to discuss further.

Thank you for your insightful letter. I agree with many of your points, and indeed that is why I didn’t write a book about Zionist secularism or Socialism. There are some books out there taking that approach, but I agree that it is a largely outdated one.

When I use the term Zionism, I am really referring to what I believe is a mistaken shitah among religious Jew who otherwise keep all of the Torah. They claim that it is allowed according to Jewish law to maintain a Jewish state during golus, and that the state is physically beneficial to the Jewish people. In the book, I try to disprove both of those claims.

I object to your claim that “we can no longer judge our relationship with the State of Israel based upon the analysis of Gedolim that lived at an entirely different time.” As I noted on page 302, I didn’t quote from those Gedolim “who spoke against the state’s irreligious nature, because that is not an argument against the state itself, just against its current policy. The policies of a democratic country are only a reflection of its people’s views. The state’s majority has always been irreligious, but that could soon change. The reasons of the gedolim I will list now are unchangeable and would apply to any Jewish state.”

I went on to list those who opposed the movement and subsequent state based on the שלש שבועות, those who opposed it because it goes against the hope for the redemption and the coming of moshiach, and those who opposed the creation of a Jewish state due to the danger it would bring (a fear which, in retrospect, was very on the mark).

You point out that the state today has 7 million Jews and many well-established yeshivos supported by the government. These facts make the problem even more dangerous and more difficult to undo.

You mention that there were many rabbanim who supported Zionism. I do have a large section in which I list many supportive rabbanim: Those who said positive things about Zionism and a state, but did not address the oaths; those who addressed the oaths and said they would not apply to a peaceful immigration (Rav Kook, by the way, is in this category – see p. 250); and those who supported even a state founded with warfare and addressed the question of the oaths. I made the point that the last category was very small, and that most names that people typically associate with religious Zionism actually did not go that far. They encouraged the movement and emigration to Eretz Yisroel in the pre-state era, but would not have permitted what was done in 1948.

On your final point about Jews connecting with their Jewish selves by being proud of a homeland and defending their people, I have indeed thought for many years about this, because I am quite familiar with the recent trend of kids going off the derech, and the heartbreak and difficulties this causes for the parents and families. Often parents just wish that kids like this would connect with Judaism and their heritage somehow, even by keeping a single mitzvah, by identifying as Jews culturally, or by supporting Israel. In Israel itself, kids like these might find their place in the army and show their love and dedication to Klal Yisroel that way. To outsiders, kannaim, it is easy to decry such people as kofrim and not real Jews, but for those who are related to these youths and love them, it would be doubly hard if, in addition to not keeping mitzvos, they wanted no part in Klal Yisroel, but preferred to intermarry and assimilate. How much better if they want to be Jewish somehow, marry Jewish and (hopefully) someday return completely.  

Given the above, I try to avoid the “us and them” mentality that characterizes a lot of anti-Zionist literature. To me, we are all in the same boat here, and we have to find the right way out of it. I try to show people, even if they are not observant (such that even a clear mitzvah in the Torah means little to them, much less a disputed one) that the state has proved to be a mistake and the Torah’s advice/command for Jews in golus has proved to be the safest route. We are not “anti” a country with 7 million Jews; we just want to change that country so that it complies with halacha (see p. 324 of my book).

There is another point here: in the past, it was largely true that the secular Jewish world supported Israel and that is why pro-Israel activism, symbols, trips etc. historically formed an important part of kiruv. Today, the balance is shifting. From my own experience, I’ve seen so many young Jews today who are open to Judaism but opposed to Zionism. To them, Judaism means compassion and morality, and Zionism means having a discriminatory state whose bombings are always in the news. These people could come back to the fold if they were shown that it’s possible to be Jewish and fit into a Jewish community without being Zionist.

Wishing you a kesivah vachasimah tovah.