Zionism: Making History
Sermon for Yom Kippur 5783
By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman
Oct. 5, 2022
In a rare outing from his cluttered office, Albert Einstein and his wife once went to the mountains for a week of camping. On the first night, after pitching their tent, they ate a sumptuous dinner and drank a good bottle of wine. Then they wished each other good night and went to sleep. After a few hours, Mrs. Einstein wakes up and elbows her husband to wakefulness. “My dear husband,” she says, “look up to the sky and tell me what you see.” “Millions of stars,” answers the professor. “And what does that tell you?” his wife asks.” Einstein thinks for a moment. Then, in an effort to impress his wife, he says, “From an astronomer’s point of view it means that there are millions of galaxies, and potentially billions of planets. Chronologically speaking, I would estimate that it is nearly 3 am. Theologically, I understand that God is all-mighty and we humans are puny and insignificant. And from a meteorological perspective I would predict that tomorrow will be a fine, sunny day. But—” continues the esteemed physicist, “what do you see, my dear wife?” Mrs. Einstein waits a moment and then responds: “My dear husband, from one day to the next you are becoming more and more of an idiot. Our tent was stolen!”
Sometimes, caught up in the details of life, we neglect to see the obvious. Caught up with the life of our diverse communities, dispersed all over the world, we Jews sometimes forget that our homeland, Israel, was stolen from us.
Destroyed by the Romans and then run over by one occupying empire after another, for centuries the Land of our Ancestors was left bereft, overgrazed by nomadic tribes, forsaken and abandoned to the ravages of time. The Moslem hordes that overran the land in the 6th century killed or held for ransom most of those Jews who remained, forcing others to convert to Islam. Riding under the banner of the Cross, the Crusaders “washed the streets of Jerusalem with rivers of blood.” Under the Ottoman Turks, Israel became a cultural and economic backwater, traversed by dusty trade caravans, its holy sites visited only by pilgrims, while corrupt, absentee landlords leased any part of the Land that they could to impoverished villagers and goat herders.
For two thousand years, the Land of Israel was left in ruins, a lesson as it were, for the people who—as our enemies clamored—abandoned and rejected God.
Only after the British became trustees of the Land, at the end of World War One, did the Land of Israel begin its modern transformation.
Various dynamics colluded to bring about this change: Empires that had existed for hundreds of years were falling apart, replaced by nationalism—a political and cultural philosophy that inspired, among others, the Jewish People to reclaim their legacy and heritage. Deadly pogroms in eastern Europe and, simultaneously, the rise of anti-Semitism in western Europe, awakened many to the need for self-defense. Some came to Israel, purchasing from the Turkish landowners malaria-infested swamps and non-arable land for exorbitant prices, hoping to reclaim the land by the sweat of their brow.
At the same time, an assimilated Jewish reporter for a Viennese newspaper, Theodor Herzl, was sent to Paris, France, to report on the infamous Dreyfus Affair. Herzl was transformed by the anti-Semitic riots he witnessed there. He realized that assimilation, a process that he himself was part of, would not lead to greater acceptance of the Jews, and so from journalism Herzl turned to political activism. Herzl began to advocate a mass exodus of Jews from Europe, and, three years later, in 1897, succeeded in convening the First Zionist Congress. Two hundred participants came from seventeen countries, and political Zionism was launched on its historical course.
This version of Zionism, however, was not the first. The term Zion means “landmark,” and for thousands of years a hilltop named Zion in the Judean mountains was designated as a fortress and lookout point, overseeing the lucrative southern trade route between Asia and Africa. For one thousand years, re-named Jerusalem, it became the capital, seat of government and ritual, of the Kingdom of Judah and the Jewish People.
After the destruction of Judea by the Romans, Zionism became less of a political idea, and more of a spiritual one. Over the centuries, Jewish pilgrims would visit the ruins of the Holy Land. Some chose to stay, establishing communities in what became known as the Four Holy Cities: Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias and Safed—where, in the 1500’s Rabbi Isaac Luria, the ARI— “the Lion,” founder of the teaching known as Kabbalah—settled along with hundreds of the followers
Throughout this time, periods of peaceful co-existence alternated with pogroms, anti-Semitic riots and forced expulsion. By the time Herzl began working for the reestablishment of a Jewish state in Israel, the Jewish communities in the Holy Land were impoverished and living in constant peril for their lives.
Theodor Herzl’s vision of the massive return of the Jews to their homeland was not going to be easy to achieve, Herzl knew that. He envisioned a land where Jews and Arabs toiled together to make the land prosper; where they would live together in peace, in the knowledge that only through their combined effort would the effort be successful.
But Herzl realized that there would be political challenges—including the fact that the Ottoman Turkish Empire was still in control of the Land. There would also be theological problems, and so Herzl turned to Pope Pius X. But after their meeting, the Pope issued his final say: “The Jews have not recognized our Lord; we therefore cannot recognize the Jewish people.”
Then too, the British were stirring up Arab nationalists, hoping to gain their loyalty in the war against Turkey. It was important for Zionism, too, to gain British recognition, and Britain was only too happy to play both parties off against each other.
The modern conflict between Jews and Arabs became inevitable. Periodic local violence turned to skirmishes and then a series of all-out wars. Yet throughout the entire process of establishing a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, most notably in 1922 and1947, at Camp David in 1978 and Oslo in 1993, the Jews offered to share the land between the two peoples—offers that Arab leaders rejected over and over again. It became clear that the fight was never about borders, territories, or settlements. It was all about the Jews’ right to settle in Israel, and Israel’s right to exist.
The wars that Israel fought guaranteed the State’s survival, and the government turned its attention to the main purpose of political Zionism: to gather the exiles. Israel became a shelter for Jews from all over the world. They came from Europe, refugees of the Shoah. They came from every place where Jews lived in fear of persecution: Russia, Latin America, and countries under Moslem and Arab control.
With each new wave of immigrants, the reborn State of Israel came alive again, and as it took giant steps forward, it instilled new-found pride among Jews around the world. The ‘60’s and ‘70’s in America were a haven for young American Jews finding their identity and liberty.
Since the Six Day War, and particularly after the Yom Kippur War, as the Arabs realized that wars against a Jewish state in Israel couldn’t be won, they turned to terrorism. And when that didn’t work either, they turned to public opinion, through politically motivated news coverage, the BDS campaign, and of course the Internet.
As the Arab narrative took hold, it found support among new-old adherents. Anti-Zionists joined up with more traditional anti-Semites. The rise we’ve seen in anti-Semitic acts over the past few years is fed both by traditional hatred and by Islamic fervor. The two have become inseparable. Anti-Zionism IS anti-Semitism. Both profess the same philosophy of hate, denial and refusal: hate for the Jews; refusal to recognize the validity of our religion; and the denial of our inalienable right and responsibility—rights given to every other nation and group in the world—to determine the course of our history.
Today, Zionism isn’t only about Israel. It is about Israel’s legitimate place among the nations, yes; but it’s also about the right of the entire Jewish People—wherever they are, in Israel or the Diaspora—to self-determination and self-defense.
For more than 3000 years, Zion and Jerusalem have stood at the heart of our existence as a people. Today, Zion is no longer just a barren mountain overlooking a dusty trade route. Zionism is more than a dream. It’s a plan of action, meant to ensure the continuity of Jewish life through the ages. Today, perhaps more than at any time since the Romans destroyed Jerusalem 2000 years ago, it is our duty and responsibility, for our own sake as well as for all future generations, to protect the historical and cultural landmark that it is. Our ongoing existence depends not only on our determination to continue practicing our faith, traditions and way of life; but also on our commitment to defend and protect the State of Israel from all its enemies, all those whose sworn covenant calls for Israel’s destruction by war or public opinion.
May 5783 be a year of security and peace for Israel and all Jews, and may we be counted among those who make this prayer come true.
G’mar chatimah tova—may we all be sealed in the Book of Life for a joyous, healthy and sweet New Year. Amen.
© 2022 by Boaz D. Heilman
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