Yom HaAtzmanut
Six Religious Approaches to the State of Israel
Aryeh Bernstein, 5764
Yom Ha‘Atzmaut, Israeli Independence Day, begins at sunset this evening and continues through tomorrow. On this, Israel's 56th birthday, Jews the world over find ourselves concerned for our state's survival-for its physical, moral, and economic viability-as it tries to extract itself from the latest grotesque chapter of struggle with its neighbors. These matters are confusing. Of course, as religious Jews, we look to the Torah to find help navigating life's labyrinths, but figuring out the Torah's view on very complicated, modern problems is itself no simple matter. We have to figure out what kind of lens we are using to examine Israel's problems. When significant things happen, we seek out their religious meaning and the creation of the State of Israel is one of the most significant things in the Jewish people's entire history. So, we should ask: What is the religious significance of the State of Israel itself? For 1800 years of exile, we prayed for return to the land, rebuilding of the Temple, and restoring the Davidic kingship. Now, we are approaching half of the Jewish people living in its land, maintaining a secular and largely democratic state. Religiously speaking, what is that?
I will here present to you in crude simplicity, six basic positions regarding the religious significance of the State of Israel.
The first represents the attitude of much of the secular establishment. There are many nuances, but essentially, it can be said that according to this position, the establishment of the modern, Hebrew state supplants and replaces earlier religious aspirations. To whatever extent that "Messianic redemption" is a relevant category, the state of Israel has achieved it. Obviously, this position is not so tenable for those of us still committed to Torah and mitzvot in their fullness.
The second position is that of certain ultra-Orthodox groups, especially the Satmar Chasidim. According to this view, establishing the state was a sinful and blasphemous rejection of God's will that we remain in exile until the mashiah comes. Then and only then can we build a state in Eretz Yisrael and, of course, that state must be an absolute theocracy with the rebuilt Temple. Maintaining the secular state keeps messianic redemption even more distant. The Satmar Rebbe (Rav Yoel Teitelbaum, 1887-1979) even went so far as to say that the Shoah was a punishment for European Jews' embrace of Zionism. This position is not tenable for us who relate in one way or another to Israeli society and Yom Ha‘Atzmaut, sing modern Hebrew songs, and have certain Zionist prayers in our liturgy (e.g. in birkat hamazon, "הרחמן הוא יברך את מדינת ישראל, ראשית צמיחת גאולתנו"/"May the All-Merciful bless the State of Israel, the seed of our redemption").
Third is the position of the late Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903-94). For Leibowitz, political aspirations and messianic ones are unrelated and the current state has nothing whatsoever to do with messianic redemption. There is religious value in being in the land of Israel, as there are mitzvot we can perform here that we cannot in the Diaspora, and our history is bound up with this land. However, there is no holiness to the land per se, and the coming of the mashiah is an unrelated issue. He opposed any state religious establishment, such as the Chief Rabbinate, and endorsed personal halakhic life, just like anywhere else in the world, alongside active civic involvement in a democratic state.
Fourth, and most famous, is the position of the first Chief Rabbi of the Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel, Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook (1865-1935), especially as filtered through his son, the late Rav Tzvi Yehudah Kook (1891-1984). According to them, the State of Israel is definitely the dawn of the redemption. That is, messianic redemption is definitely on the way. Rav Kook even eulogized Theodor Herzl by equating him with the "Mashiah ben Yoseph", the political/military leader whom the gemara (Sukkah 52a) identifies as being a precursor to the rising of the Mashiah ben David, who heralds the ultimate redemption. According to Rav Kook, the government of Israel, despite being secular, has the halakhic status of "melekh"/"king" and we can assume that though secular now, the citizens of the state will come to embrace Torah fully in due time and the Temple will then be rebuilt. If, God forbid, the state were to fall, this would not only be a political and human tragedy, but it would cause an absolute theological crisis, since the state is identified with the return to the land promised by the prophets, a return which they promised would be eternal. We say Hallel on Yom Ha‘Atzmaut because this is a day of miracles, the day God granted the Halutzim to herald the ingathering of the exiles and the coming of the mashiah.
Fifth is the position of the late Rav Joseph Baer Soloveitchik (1903-93), the illustrious Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva University and one of the Diaspora's most articulate religious Zionists. His position is more cautious than Rav Kook's. The establishing of the state might be the dawn of our redemption, but Rav Kook's theological certainty is unwarranted. We should seize the unique messianic opportunity of Zionism to return to the Land of Israel and to build a just, Torah society, but it is premature to declare the mashiah to be on the way. It is appropriate, therefore, to sing songs from Hallel on Yom Ha‘Atzmaut, but not to say full Hallel with a berakhah, because the conditions for a full yom tov are incomplete.
Finally, I will present the position of my Rosh Yeshivah, Rav David Bigman. Rav Bigman, who made aliyah from Detroit in the early 1970s, agrees with Rav Soloveitchik that the state might be the birth pangs of the messianic redemption, but insists that this is not the most important point. While we should seek out religious meaning in the events of our world, we should resist the tendency to try to fit them into our pre-existing paradigms. Determining whether there is significance to the state does not depend on whether or not it is the dawn of the redemption. The formation of the state is religiously significant on its own terms, even though we don't find those exact terms scripted in the Tanakh. When the Jewish people was at its lowest point of destruction, Hashem helped us to pick up the pieces and organize ourselves to make a better life. The state has lots of problems and warts, but the state affords us the opportunity and challenge of taking responsibility for ourselves and our surroundings; to do good ourselves, rather than merely hope that other people will do good. We sing Hallel and express great religious joy on Yom Ha‘Atzmaut because this is the day that the people of Israel focused its energies to a new day of opportunity and responsibility. If this leads into the coming of the mashiah, that will be great, but regardless, we have a wonderful cause for gratitude to God.
I personally relate most strongly to my teacher's position, but each approach has its merits and I leave it to you to think about all them all, research more about them, and figure out how you make religious meaning of the State of Israel. I wish everyone a joyous, meaningful, and peaceful Yom Ha‘Atzmaut.