Why I am a Zionist, or how I learned to stop worrying and joined the World Wide Conspiracy.

I was raised in a very Zionist household. The prospect of Aliyah was very real for my family, and we even lived in Israel for year when I was in fifth grade. In the end we didn’t stay, but my parents still discuss the possibility of making Aliyah when my youngest sister graduates high school. I never questioned the legitimacy of the Zionist idea until I went to study in yeshiva for a year after high school. I had been developing a less nationalist and more religious conception of Judaism for a few years prior to this, but for a variety of reasons I wasn’t comfortable taking these ideas to their logical conclusions until I entered university two years ago. At that point I came to the conclusion that I am not any kind of a religious Zionist, as my parents are, and that I have a lot of problems with the intellectual foundations of Zionism.
In high school I was very influenced by my readings of two Jewish thinkers, Yeshaya Leibowitz and Rabbi Joseph Ber Solovaichik. Professor Leibowitz (1903-1994), the brother of the famous Bible teacher Nechama Leibowitz, taught bio-chemistry at the Hebrew of Jerusalem. On the side, he wrote, spoke and taught about Jewish thought, and developed his own thought. (It is an irony of the Israeli system that, though the Hebrew University had classes in his thought, he was not permitted to teach them, being tenured in Chemistry and not philosophy.) He was a famously acerbic public intellectual in Israel until his death in 1994. Rabbi Solovaichik, known respectfully as the Rav, was the scion of a prestigious rabbinic dynasty. He studied philosophy at the University of Berlin in his youth. Eventually, he was appointed as the Chanceller and Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva university, where he stayed until his death. His philosophical writings are considered some of the most important of Modern Orthodoxy, but he had such authority as a student of Torah that his legacy is claimed by many camps in Orthodoxy.
In his book Halachic Man, the Rav describes a model of what he sees as the ideal Jew. This man takes the abstract constructs of Jewish legal theory and applies them to the world. He sees reality through the prism of Halacha, and his only relation to the world is through Halacha. However, the Halachic man is not an automaton. He is motivated by a love of God, and a desire to do God’s will. This is not a person who simply goes through the motions, but one who is involved with a real give and take with God, though His revealed texts.
Leibowitz sees Judaism as “Accepting the Yoke of Torah and Mitzvot,” as revealed through the Halachic process over the course of Jewish history. He saw all the Heterodox movements as complete heresy, in as much as the rejected Halacha, and saw many Orthodox movements as bordering on heresy, in as much as they assigned inherent holiness to physical objects, particularly the Jewish People and the Land of Israel. Holiness is never inherent, but only achieved through the fulfillment of Mitzvot.
(Before I go on, a brief disclaimer. Both of these thinkers were passionate Zionists. Rabbi Solovaichik was a religious Zionist, and Leibowitz was “sick of being ruled by the Goyim.” Leibowitz served in the pre-state Hagana, and served in War of Independence. In the next few paragraphs I’m going to sketch how the ideas that I just described influenced me. I am not saying that either of the two would agree with me.)
Obviously, these are simple thumbnail sketches of much more complicated ideas, but the basic point should already be clear. If Judaism is defined by ones obedience to the commandments, and relationship to the world through the Halachic system, then it is difficult to see how the State of Israel fits into that rubric. It is a secular state, set up by people who had no interest in Halacha. Ben Gurion promoted study of the Bible over study of the Talmud in order to strengthen Jewish Nationalism while avoiding the legalism of Rabbinic literature, the literature which is the basis for the Halacha. The idea of a Jewish people exists in Halacha, in that every child born of a Jewish mother is bound by Halacha, and are obligated to each other by it. The Land of Israel also has special Halahic status. However, none of this tells us that there is some magical connection between Jews and Israel. It only tells the Jews how to relate to each other and the land. Halachically, the State of Israel is a secular state, run mostly by non-religious Jews who are at the very best considered to have the status of “Tinokim sh’neshbu,” that is, Jews who were taken captive as children, and therefore cannot be held responsible for their violation of Law, and at worst total heretics, “Porkei Ol,” those who have removed the yoke. I want to stress that this has no bearing on their status as good people and good politicians. These are technical evaluations which tell us where they fit into the Halachic system. But it makes the status of the state they run suspect as a “Jewish State.” It makes me wonder why I should care at all about the State of Israel, except as a place where there are many important Torah institutions.
In summery, the Jewish People is the collective of those who should be Torah observant, as defined by the Halacha. There is no idea of a Jewish nation outside of that. Thus, the idea of a Jewish State is somewhat absurd.
Given all of this, why am I a Zionist? I confess, until a few days ago, I wasn’t sure. I chalked it up to an inability to reject my upbringing. However, I just read an essay by Jacob Katz which, I think, explains why I am a Zionist and why I can’t help it (outside of the obvious psychological reasons). The essay, “Idea and Reality in Jewish Nationalism,” describes the early years of the Zionist idea. In it, he distinguishes between “old Nationalism” and “New nationalism.” The old Nationalism was a nationalism which was subordinate to religion, but a part of it. This is the national idea of classical Judaism. In the new Nationalism, Judaism is the religion of the Jewish nation, but does not define the Jewish nation. This new Nationalism views it as possible to be committed to the Jewish nation without being Halachically observant. It is a response to the real crisis in Judaism at the time. It was a way for Jews who are leaving Judaism to maintain a connection to the rest of the Jewish people. This Nationalism developed into, among other things, Zionism.
Given this understanding of what Zionism is, I remain a Zionist because it is one of the few things tying Jews together. It permits people who are Halachically Jewish to self identify as Jews, even if they are uncomfortable with their obligations. This creates the possibility that they, or their children, might reconnect. I am a pragmatic Zionist, no more and no less.