Why Zionism is integral to Judaism
Fascinating piece from Daphne Anson today looking at Judaism, Israel and Zionism.
As a comment on my previous post reminds me, one of the many ways in which Israel’s enemies attempt to undermine the Jewish State is by denying a connection between Judaism and Zionism. So, in order to prick that particular anti-Zionist bubble, I’ve decided to post this survey of the Zionist idea in Jewish thought. It’s based on something I once prepared for a class of students.
In the Bible, the Promised Land is frequently called Canaan, the territory west of the River Jordan which was promised by God to Abraham, the ancestor of the Jewish people (he is depicted here by the great Jewish artist and Zionist E. M. Lilien, who lived from 1874 to 1925). The land given to Abraham as part of the Covenant he made with God is described in Genesis (15:18) as “from the river of Egypt unto … the river Euphrates”, but other biblical passages draw less extensive boundaries, as in Numbers (34:1-15), where God describes the land of Canaan to Moses, and Judges 20:1, where the land stretched from “Dan even to Beersheba”.
The land possessed by the ancestors of the Jewish people was at one time divided into the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah). The size of the land varied in biblical times, being at its largest during the reigns of King David and King Solomon. The holiness of the land (ha-Aretz; whence Eretz Israel=”Land of Israel”) is an integral part of Jewish tradition, which holds that the land was first sanctified by Joshua’s conquest. However, when the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar invaded the land and drove its inhabitants into exile (often referred to as the Babylonian Captivity), the land lost its holiness and was resanctified following the Israelites’ return from captivity. This second sanctification is generally considered by the rabbis to have endured through the centuries.
During the Babylonian Captivity the exiles pined for the Promised Land. Their anguish found eternal expression in Psalm 137:1-6, evoked by dispossessed Jews throughout the ages: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion ….”
The term Zion (“landmark” or “sign”) was first used of Mount Zion, one of the hills of Jerusalem, upon which in very ancient times a tower stood making it visible from a vast distance. Eventually the term was widened to be applied also to the Temple in Jerusalem (the Jews’ principal place of worship, first built by King Solomon and reconstructed by King Herod), to Jerusalem itself, and to the whole of Eretz Israel. Zion became synonymous with the spiritual centre of Judaism. “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3). Zion is regarded as the dwelling place of the Shekinah (“divine presence”), and traditional (Orthodox) Judaism teaches that with the coming of the Messiah Zion will be illuminated by God’s glory, and from there divine gifts will issue forth.
Tags: Israel, Religion Society