Rabbi Yitzchok Yaakov Reines

Rabbi Yitzchok Yaakov Reines (1839-1915) was a leader of Chovevei Tzion and the founder of the Mizrachi movement. In 1902 he published a book called Ohr Chadash Al Tzion calling for settlement in Eretz Yisroel, but cautioning (p. 240) that it must not violate the oaths:

What is the point of Chanukah? Seemingly, there is no lesson for us to learn from it for our generations, for then all the miracles took place only after they arose on their own and fought the war of Hashem, but if we try to imitate the actions of our forefathers of that time, coming out with a battle cry and defeating out enemies, these actions would obviously be forbidden to us, since the Holy One, blessed is He, severely foreswore us not to push for the end of exile by force. But we can learn from the story to work to better the situation of the Jewish people and raise its dignity, for this is its honor and the honor of its Torah. And this can take place even now, through buying land from governments, since today land purchase replaces conquest.

In his Sefer Haarachim (pp. 298-299), Rabbi Reines explains that the Ramban in Sefer Hamitzvos advocates “conquering” Eretz Yisroel only in a peaceful way:

We must ask on the Ramban: How is it possible to say that there is a mitzvah on us to expel the Ishmaelite kingdom? Are we not foresworn not to go up as a wall (Kesubos 111a)? Yet the Ramban holds that the mitzvah of conquest applies even during exile, when the land is not under Jewish rule. The answer is that the Ramban means conquest by purchase, that it is a mitzvah to buy land in Eretz Yisroel and to settle there, for conquest does not have to mean through war.

The above two quotes appeared in the English and Hebrew editions of the book. Let’s go into a bit more detail about Rabbi Reines’s approach.

Earlier in the sefer Ohr Chodosh (Shaar 8, Chapter 1), he addresses the objection voiced by many that Zionism was a movement founded by secular Jews, while religious Jews for the most part distanced themselves from it. If this was really such a great mitzvah, people asked, then why were the religious Jews not the ones most inspired to take it on?

He answers that the secular Jews were spurred to start the Zionist movement after the pogroms in Russia shocked them into the realization that they could never assimilate and live in equality with the gentiles. The religious Jews, on the other hand, never had an illusion that they could assimilate to begin with, so they were not surprised by the pogroms.

Rabbi Reines compares the Jewish people in exile to a patient with a serious illness. An expert doctor is called in, who promises that one day he will recover and then he can be transported to a faraway country where the weather is more conducive to his health. As the doctor departs, he says to the relatives of the patient: “I would like to warn you about two important things. Firstly, I see that you are very concerned about your dear relative, and you would do anything in your power to look for ways and solutions to bring him a complete healing. And it’s very likely that after I leave, you will call in other doctors to ask their opinions, and perhaps among them there will be some who are dishonest and will tell you that they understand this illness better than I do, and they have medicines that can cure it very quickly. And you may be convinced by them, but I’m warning you: don’t listen to them. I know that there really is no medicine to treat this sickness. Even if you see that these quack doctors appear to succeed temporarily and the illness subsides a bit, don’t be fooled. It will not succeed! The patient’s improvement is illusory, and it could be that in a short time the illness will return full force, and even worse than before.

“Therefore, my friends, listen to my advice. Don’t ask any other doctors what to do because the patient may suffer more. Always keep before your eyes my promise that no matter how bad the sickness is and how stubborn it is, the patient will not die. He will return to health and have a long life, but only when the time comes. And when the time comes, you may transport him to that distant, healthy country.

“My second warning is that due to your love for the patient, you might try to transport him to that country in advance in order to improve his health. Therefore, I am warning you and making you swear! Don’t try, because not only will it not help; it will actually put him in greater danger. And you will bring tragedy upon yourselves and the patient.

“But to alleviate your pain, I will tell you that I foresee that in the end, at the right time, there will be people who will have mercy upon the patient, and they will pick him up on their shoulders and carry him to that faraway place. And then he will go back to normal again. But you, my friends, please do not force the end! Wait with a patient heart and encourage the sick man, and infuse him with a spirit of strength to tolerate his pain and his sickness.” And with that, the doctor departed.

Rabbi Reines adds that there is one thing that the doctor left unexplained: what if the possibility arises to bring the patient to the faraway land without any danger, even before the doctor’s promise materializes? There is no doubt that by omitting this, the doctor implied that it was permitted. He only warned them against traveling in a dangerous manner, but if they found a safe way to do it, then there would be no problem in doing so in order to save the patient from pain, even if it improved his condition only a little.

Nevertheless, the patient’s relatives didn’t search for a safe way to transport him, because they felt that since the doctor had promised them that he would get better, and since they saw with their own eyes that his condition fluctuated often, they figured that they would just leave him alone and let things take their course.

Then along came a young friend who wished to help the sick man, and he said to the relatives, “Why aren’t you doing anything about it?” When they explained to him what the doctor had said, the young friend replied, “The doctor only meant not to bring him to that faraway land in a dangerous manner, but I can bring him there in a safe way.”

Now, asks Rabbi Reines, why was this young friend the only one who took the initiative to transport the patient to the faraway country? Why didn’t the old relatives want to do the same thing? The answer is because they were more experienced. They were familiar with the illness, and they knew that it got periodically better and worse. But this friend was young and inexperienced, and he thought that he could improve things by moving the patient.

Rabbi Reines argues that the young friend was more correct. And the older friends and relatives, who didn’t want to listen to him even after he had assured them that he was going to do the job safely, were guilty of not helping and not having mercy on the sick man.

Here too, in real life, Hakadosh Baruch Hu promised us that the Jewish people will live forever, and that the other nations won’t be able to wipe them out. Secondly, He promised that when the time arrives, He will gather us from all over the world and bring them to Zion.

He also gave us two warnings. Firstly, He warned us not to look for political methods to end the suffering of exile by attaining equality with the gentiles. We must not listen to the false prophets of the Haskalah movement, who claim that they can improve our status through assimilation, because all this is futility. Even if it sometimes happens that things get better, and the nations do give the Jews a little bit of rest, those times don’t last long. The Jews are eventually persecuted again.

The second warning is that we should not try on our own to go to Zion as long as it’s dangerous to do so. Rather, we should wait till the end of exile when Hashem gives forth his voice from Mount Zion like the like the sound of the shofar, and all the redeemed Jews return there and come to Zion with song.

We see that Rav Reines’s advocacy for religious Zionism was only because he thought that moving to Eretz Yisroel was a safe way to alleviate the suffering of the Jewish people in exile, and would not entail any wars.

He passed away in 1915. I am sure that had he known the future: that from the riots of 1929 and 1936, to the war of independence in 1948, to every successive war and intifada, and continuing to this day, the Zionist project would be one long chain of war and violence – he would not have advocated for it. He would have opposed it both due to the danger, and because it would violate Hashem’s warning not to force the end of exile in a dangerous manner.

It’s interesting that although Rabbi Reines truly believed in what he preached, the one behind the founding of the Mizrachi Movement was none other than Herzl himself. Rabbi Dovid Meisels, in his biography of the Satmar Rebbe, writes as follows: “In 1902, the Mizrachi movement was founded as a religious branch of the Zionist movement by Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov Reines of Lida. Drawing on ample funding he received from the general Zionist movement, Rabbi Reines and his colleagues traveled around Europe giving speeches and attracting more and more Jews to join their movement.”

The source cited by Meisels is the book “Moshian Shel Yisroel.” But there is a more primary source: Yehuda Leib Maimon, as reported in Haaretz, Nov 29 1955:

It was Binyamin Ze’ev Herzl who initiated the establishment of the Mizrachi as a political-religious organization within the Zionist movement. This fact was revealed by Rabbi Y. L. Maimon at a party held the day before yesterday in his honor of his 80^th birthday. Speaking to the assembly, Rabbi Maimon said that he had kept the matter a secret, as Rabbi Reines had ordered him to do, but now, after a long time had passed, he was allowing himself to reveal the secret publicly.

The story was as follows: Herzl felt the need to establish a political body within the Zionist movement as a counterweight to the Russian “Chovevei Zion” who expressed opposition to Herzl’s political Zionist stance. The leader thought that he would find support for his position among religious Judaism, and so he turned to Rabbi Maimon asking him to work on establishing a Zionist organization within religious Jewry. Rabbi Maimon handed over the matter to Rabbi Reines, and six months later the founding convention of the Mizrachi was called.

However, to hold the conference, Rabbi Reines needed a budget of 800 marks. Herzl gave him the amount from his own pocket, assuming that he would be reimbursed by the treasury of the Zionist Organization. However, due to the influence of the Russian Zionist Committee, a decision was made not to reimburse Herzl. Rabbi Maimon added that if they searched through the Zionist archives, they would find the document with the decision not to return the 800 marks to Herzl.