A Tale of Two Zionisms

Since the advent of "modern Zionism" the political-social "ism" has been the subject of a very deep internal tension.  With the creation of the State of Israel, the military victories and acquisition of territory, the tension deepened.  The current "threat of peace," has created a crisis of dissonance that cannot be ignored.  At its root it is an identity crisis:  What is Zionism?  What is its purpose, its reason d'êtres?

This is why so many, speaking in the name of "Zionism," voice such disparate and contrary positions.  Even many individuals are found to sometimes speak in "two voices," as many individuals, particularly those involved in politics have affinities for aspects of both models.

On the one hand, according to the Herzelian model of Zionism, it has already fulfilled its purpose and has therefore become irrelevant.  This is the phenomena of the so-called "Post-Zionism."  Herzelian Zionism came into existence to answer the eternal and troubling "Jewish Question."  This wasn't only a question for Jews, as the world had for centuries struggled with the same question: What to do with the Jews?  While many of the "solutions" proffered to this question were quite horrendous, Herzl, in his monumental effort, did not radically stray from the basic parameters and constraints of the "problem."  The Jews, as a social religious national group, stood apart from the rest of civilization, unable or refusing to integrate with the rest of the world.  As a result, according to the model, Jews were subject to persecution.  The establishment of a modern "normal" state for the Jews was intended to facilitate the Jewish nation's integration into the family of nations, while at the same time provide a haven, and refuge from persecution.

Yet, there is another voice, an older, deeper voice of Zionism that resonates, and has always resonated in the hearts of even the most cynical and pragmatic Jew.  This is the voice of Redemptive Zionism.  Within this paradigm of Zionism, the State of Israel is but a step in the continually unfolding process of redemption, a redemption that is defined through the unification of the people of Israel with the God of Israel in the Land of Israel.  It is a process of Zionism that culminates in the fulfillment of Israel's role as a light, a teacher and example, a leader to the rest of the world, and is symbolized through the building of the Temple on Mount Moriah. 

When there are voices decrying that Jews cannot live under "foreign rule" (because it's not safe), or that they should refuse the Spanish citizenship (because we "can't trust the goyim), these are echoes of the Herzelian Zionism.  A Redemptive Zionist would not ask how Jews could live under foreign rule, but rather, how could the Land of Israel be under foreign rule?  And further, how can the Jewish State be run by foreign rules? 

Redemptive Zionists are not threatened by a government trying to make amends for its past.  They are not "afraid of the goyim," but rather recognize their mission to redeem the other nations from their spiritual and moral slumber.

For Redemptive Zionists, the State of Israel is not "compensation," for the crimes of humanity have perpetrated against the nation of Israel.  It doesn't see Israel as victims.  Rather, it sees the ingathering of the nation of Israel to the Land of Israel as the fulfillment of an eternal promise by Gd.  Redemption Zionists see it as incumbent to remain loyal to that promise and to help enable its complete fulfillment. 

Herzelian Zionism, particularly in the early years, siphoned the strong natural inclination of Redemptive Zionism that is implanted in every Jewish soul.  But the goals of Herzelian Zionism are a false destiny, and are therefore doomed to fail.  The miracle of Israel can not be truncated by the pragmatism.  Any attempt to do so will only set back the entire enterprise. 

It is time for the Redemptive Zionists to stop listening to the echoes of Herzl.  There is no Jewish problem to solve, only a Jewish promise to fulfill.

Excerpts from "The First Tithe"  Israel Eldad

"Thirteen years have passed since the appearance of the first edition of the First Tithe.  The name and content of that book imply a second tithe; but there is none, not yet, at least not in any coherent way.  Most of my spiritual energy has been invested in twelve volumes of Sulam L'Malkhuth Yisrael (The Ladder towards a Sovereign Israel); which was established together with my friends, carriers of the soul of Lehi, carriers of the idea of complete Israeli liberation, of buttressing the concept of Jerusalem in the face of opposing concepts, in the face of empty concepts.

Unlike the years of the first tithe, these years have been without actual combat and without an official organization.  And while this is not a positive development, still, we do not wish to be numbered among those who believe that what we do is important rather than what we say.   We are descendants of a people who have at the beginning of their Bible and in the depths of their soul the declaration," And God said, let there be light and there was light," and we believe man was created in the image of God and we believe – we know – from the experience of man and Israel and this generation, the great strength of words spoken truthfully and their power to induce deeds; for only light itself was created by God out of nothing, while since then man carries the light and flame, the light of clear thought that clarifies; and the flame of a burning soul that ignites, the eternal flame.  The flame of necessity of bodies who want redemption will come even if it is delayed, even if it has fallen with us into the coastal plain and the valley.

On this side of the mountains, of the Mountain, in the middle of the journey, it has fallen into the material.  It may have fallen because of shortness of breath, or damned up soul, or weariness, or bounty - the body's satisfaction with its bounty, or the soul's satisfaction with what has been achieved so far – or perhaps because of the natural limitations of the achiever.  It has fallen under various and sundry kinds of inaction and non-fulfillment, of dropping of the initiative, and even of an honestly felt and easily adopted attitude towards the State of Israel.

This state is an achievement only if it is viewed as a stage, meaning as a bridgehead toward Malkhuth Yisrael, the Sovereign Kingdom of Israel, with all this entails in terms of strengthening its political position, especially in light of the hatred surrounding it and the dark treason and plotting within, even among former Fighters for the Freedom of Israel, and with all this implies for the importance of maintaining the spiritual tension that desires the great things which are to come, things necessary and beautiful, which means raising high the idea of Malkhuth.

We have come to the threshold of this Malkhuth for which we are destined.  That this is true can be seen in everything that surrounds us, from the confusion and continued desert and ruins in the geopolitical region waiting for Hebrew mastery, to our continuing social and spiritual oppression and servitude to both external and internal slavery – including the spiritual confusion within Israel on questions of Judah vs. Israel, Judaism vs. Israeli-ness, all of which are a sign that the process has come to a halt at its very beginning, a sign that the revolution is in its twilight and awaits renewal.  The Almighty is signaling – with lights and with shadows, with all the colors and in all the directions of the historical and political and ideal traffic lights – what must come next in the process of redemption, and without which what has already been attained will not last, and will become a modern version of Betar instead of a modern version of Modi'in.  And the fault lies not in the length of our arms, nor any inability, but in the fat that surrounds our heart and the fog in our brain. 

For today, our arms are not short, and great is the physical power in the hands of the Jewish people in Israel and in the Exile.  This was not the case in those days that are the subject of this book.  This is not the case of the Jewish people who were for the most part in cages and crematoria, slaughtered and shocked and shoveled  and burned, and only a few took their expansive souls in their little hands and set out to act, to begin the redeeming act.  And though the deed was great and holy, this book will tell of the constant gap between the idea and the song of the great Kingdom with their powerful desires and readiness, and the arms' inability to carry through, such that breath came up short and the soul turned asthmatic and the cannon, when it was forged, was given to those of little faith.

And so we have come this far, to the physical power of two million in this little parcel of land, who are equal in ability and science and organization to all the surrounding states, whoa are equal in meaning and purpose to ten million Jews in Exile.  In the land, we have the tremendous potential to manage our national and physical and spiritual powers in a wide expanse, yet we also see so many brains and hearts reduced to a lack of vision, or even an openly professed and exhibited anti-Vision of the type now expressed in what is called literature and art; a culture of content of which is abandon and which, in boredom and plenitude, mimics the wild and disturbed West which is actualizing the anthem of the East:  No god, no king, no heroes.

Therefore let this second edition of The First Tithe come not only to meet the need of a first edition that long ago sold out, but also to fill the need to return to the great days of desire and action and action –which-flows-from-desire.

The Lehi movement published more material than other movements in the 1940s, and its publications have even been collected in two large volumes.  This book does not purport to be the history of Lehi.  It is a personal memoir.  And if a baker may praise his own wares, let it be said that it speaks well of a book of this sort that after thirteen years, its author has nothing to change in its text,  excepting minor consequential corrections.  And though the words originally came close upon the organizational demise of Lehi, and though they came from the heart, a heat which is often burning and shaken, the author can sign off today on all the judgments and evaluations inside, which he judged the events, the movements and the people then and which – not this or that detail – are the stuff of this book.

From the perspective of thirteen years, from the permanency now attached to and the calm, for better or worse, attained regarding the past events, nothing stands out that obligates the author to say:  I erred in assessing it.  And the author is only able to take this view because he looks out from the Sulam, the Ladder.  As he is neither prophet nor son of a prophet, and is able to ascertain the end of things from the beginning, still he is able to see the beginning and what followed upon that beginning, the beginning of the ladder, the ladder towards which events moved, on which they climbed, even if they did not mount it; but all their value, and the means of judging them, is on this ladder, at the top of this ladder.  From this ladder the relative importance of what happened – and what may yet happen is judged, and this is done so that it may happen again on the coming rungs, and this is my wish for those who continue to climb the ladder."

-         Israel Eldad, 5723 (1963), Introduction to the Second Edition, The First Tithe.