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Messianic Zionism

Zionism aimed at the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine under the protection of the powers of Europe. The Messianic hope promised the establishment, by the Jews, of a world-power in Palestine to which all the nations of the earth would pay homage. Zionism, even in its political aspect, would fulfil only one phase of the Jewish Messianic hope. The Messianic hope was wider than the emancipation of the Jews, it is more comprehensive than the establishment of a Jewish, politically independent State.

The Messianic idea is characteristically Jewish. The nations of antiquity, despairing of the present and heedless of the future, gloried in their past, in which they saw the perfection of all happiness, social and national. This attitude is illustrated by Hesiod's and Ovid's description of the five successive ages and races of men, beginning with the golden age, when men lived happily and painlessly on the fruits of the untilled soil, passing away in dreamless sleep to become the guardian angels of the world, until the iron age, the most degenerate age of all, in which the authors themselves lived.

Wounded feelings, broken hearts, shattered ideals, that gave birth to the wonderful phenomenon, the Zionist movement, which was the latest phase of the Messianic idea in Jewish history. Out of this rassenkampf arose the movement headed by Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), known as Zionism. Against the dangers of a forced assimilation in the West and annihilation in the East, he pointed a remedy in a Jewish State, safeguarded by international guaranties, and with Palestine as the geographical basis. The orthodox Jews in Germany were so terrorized by the anti-Semitic movement then (1892) in progress, that they defeated Herslt's attempt to hold a first Zionist congress in Germany, and the meeting was held in Switzerland. The Congress of Jews in America at once rejected overtures for their support of the movement with the cry, "America Is Our Zion."

The doctrines of the Rabbis about a Jewish mission and Israel's election as a nation of priests bearing the flag of a universal religion, although exalted and inspiring, were too abstract to afford real strength and encouragement to the people in times of trouble and persecution. Einhorn proclaimed his famous theory that the dispersion among the nations was not a punishment for Israel, but the greatest good that could have been conferred upon it.

The Philadelphia Conference, held in 1869, adopted the following statement: "We look upon the destruction of the Second Jewish commonwealth not as a punishment for the sinfulness of Israel, but as a result of the Divine purpose revealed to Abraham, which, as has become ever clearer in the course of the world's history, consists in the dispersion of the Jews to all parts of the earth, for the realization of their high-priestly mission, to lead the nations to the true knowledge and worship of God."

As early as 1836, Hirsch Kalischer, then Rabbi in Thorn, Germany, explained his position with regard to the Messiah, in a letter addressed to Anselm Mayer Rothschild. "Let no one imagine that the Messiah will appear suddenly, and, amid miracles and wonders, lead the Israelites to their ancient inheritance. The beginning of the redemption will be in a natural way, by the desire of the Jews to settle in Palestine and the willingness of the nations to help them in this work. After many Jews have settled in Palestine, and Jerusalem has been rebuilt, the Temple re-established, and the " sacrifices are for a sweet savor to the Lord," then will God show them all the miracles in accordance with the description given by the prophets and sages. First a man will appear endowed with great natural abilities, who will bring about, in a natural way, the settlement of Palestine by the Jews, then God will send His prophet and His anointed king."

The oppressed Jews of Eastern Europe naturally longed and prayed for a speedy redemption. Legends of the Messiah and the wonders and glories of his coming were told by young and old. With them it was not so much a desire for national identity and political sovereignty, as for a complete return to the old State, with the idealized Messiah, the anointed of God, in the foreground. The burdens of exile narrowed their horizon. They could see no other way of redemption from their abject position than by supernatural events.

The theory that the Messianic era must be preceded by a settlement of the Jews in Palestine on the basis of colonization, gained ground even among the most orthodox Rabbis. Many Rabbis vigorously protested against such an undertaking, holding it to be in direct opposition to Jewish tradition and Jewish law. The Rabbis were confronted with the problem of reconciling this sudden re-awaking of Jewish national feeling with the Messianic hope. The more conservative among them vehemently opposed the new movement, believing it to be in opposition to Jewish tradition, especially as they saw that the most enthusiastic of the new Zionists were Jews who had for a long time been estranged from Judaism and Jewish observances. They feared that the new movement would lead to a breaking away from the old accepted religion of Israel.

Others argued that the promise of a miraculous redemption would be fulfilled only when the Jews were found worthy. After they shall have established themselves upon the soil of Palestine, where alone they will be enabled to practice their religion in all its details, and thus become worthy of a higher manifestation of God's kindness^ the miracles and the wonders will come, Elijah and the son of David and the Messianic era. Others, again, entirely dissociated the new movement from the Messianic hope.

However, the belief in a personal Messiah, whose advent is to be accompanied by many miracles and wonders, is still potent, and keeps many of the orthodox Jews out of the Zionist camp. After the first Basle Congress (1897), when Zionism assumed its present, political aspect, Dr. Max Nordau, the Vice-President of the Congress, found it necessary to address an article to the Hebrew-reading public," in which he disclaimed all pretensions of Messiahship for himself or for his colleague, Dr. Theodor Herzl. Yet Zionism has been making wonderful progress, in spite of the opposition of the ultra-orthodox, who are waiting for a Messiah, and will do nothing before God's anointed has made his appearance, and in spite of the reformers, who regard Zionism as a menace to the complete emancipation of the Jews and a grave error in its very inception, opposed to the mission laid upon the Jew by Providence and by history.

The spearheads of cooperation on the Orthodox side were the so-called religious Zionists, who were able to reconcile their nationalism with their piety. Following Rabbi A.I. Kook (1865-1935), the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Palestine, many believed that Zionism and Zionists, however secular, were nonetheless instruments of God who were engaged in divinely inspired work. On a more pragmatic level, under leadership such as that of Rabbi I.J. Reines (1839-1915), the religious, like the secularists, organized in political parties, such as the Mizrahi Party. They were joined in the political arena by the non-Zionist Orthodox, organized as the Agudat Israel Party. Although Agudat Israel was originally opposed to the idea of a Jewish state, it came to accept the rationale for it in a hostile gentile world (especially after the Central and East European centers of Orthodoxy were destroyed in the Holocaust). Because Orthodox Jews, like secularists, were organized in political parties, from an early date they participated--the religious Zionists more directly than the religious non-Zionists-- in the central institutions of the Yishuv and, later, the State of Israel. Indeed, since 1977 and the coming to power of Menachem Begin's Likud, Orthodox Jews have been increasingly vocal in their desire not just to participate in but also to shape--reshape, if need be--the central institutions of Israeli society.

The Lubavitchers hold a controversial position on Israel. The Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, remarked in a private meeting on Av 5, 5727 (August 12, 1967), shortly after the Six-Day War, "Three times in our generation, G-d has granted us an opportunity for the beginning of the Redemption. But these opportunities were missed, and it is the Jewish leadership which is to blame... Perhaps I speak too sharply, but the Jewish leadership is bankrupt. They avoid me because they know that I will demand of them to speak the truth." The Rebbe took an emphatic and uncompromising stance against giving up territories from the Land of Israel. He pointed out the security risks in giving up the territories. He was especially opposed, following the Camp David summits, to giving up the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. The Rebbe was very careful about taking a stance on issues that were controversial within the Jewish community, such as the settlement of Chabad Chassidim in the Old City of Jerusalem, in Hebron, and in Judea and Samaria, though many of his followers did settle in those areas.