The True Definition of Zionism

          Our Sages taught that Jerusalem has seventy names; the second most frequently found name for Jerusalem in the Bible is “Zion,” appearing 154 times.

          In the strict sense, Zion is synonymous with the original Jerusalem, David's City, as we find in First Kings 8:1:

Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chiefs and the fathers of the Children of Israel to King Solomon in Jerusalem, in order to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord out of the City of David, which is Zion.

          However, the name Zion was expanded by the Bible to include all of Jerusalem, and, at times all of Israel.

          The "daughter of Zion" (30 times) and the "Sons of Zion" symbolize the People of Israel.

          The expanded sense of the name Zion, to include the Land of Israel, begat the term for the movement to re-establish a Jewish state in Israel: Zionism.

          Benny Mazuz, a student of my alma mater, Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavne was taken prisoner by the Syrians on the second day of the Yom Kippur War, and spent more than half-a-year as a "guest" of the Syrians. Benny described his last interrogation thus: the Syrian officer kept attacking Benny for being a Zionist; Benny responded: “You too are a Zionist”; the Syrian officer was quite taken aback and angrily demanded an explanation of Benny's comment; Benny responded: "Zion is simply another name for Jerusalem, you sir, as a Moslem consider Jerusalem to be holy, hence by definition you are a Zionist.” At that point, Benny was escorted out and never again invited for questioning by his Syrian captors.

          Indeed, Rabbi Kook writes:

The source of Zionism is the ultimate sacred source, the Bible, which endows Zionism with the depth and majesty of our traditions and endows this worldwide movement with vitality. Zionism is not merely an echo of the nation despised by the world seeking refuge from its oppressors, but a holy nation, the treasure of all nations, [Exodus 19:5] the lion cub of Judah [Genesis 49:9], awakened from its prolonged slumber to return to its inheritance.

          Zionism, as defined by Benny Mazuz, a love for the Holy Land and the Holy City, has always been a part of Judaism. Without minimizing appreciation of his accomplishments, Theodore Herzl did not create Zionism, rather political Zionism: that is, channeling our traditional love of Zion into practical avenues and working towards the recreation of an independent Jewish state within the Jewish homeland.