Earlier we presented a summary of Professor Eliezer
Berkovits' eloquent elucidation of the connection between Jewish messianism and
the Nation of Israel's return to its Land (based upon the final chapter of his
book Faith After the Holocaust).
We now present parallel comments of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (taken from the article Jewish Sovereignty and the Redemption of the Shekhina, Tradition Magazine, 53:1).
Given that Torah expresses a unitary truth, it is not
surprising that the philosopher and the Talmudist present the same thoughts.
Rabbi Soloveitchik writes that Torah can reach its complete
fulfillment only within the Jewish homeland:
Piety in countries where one is a minority means being pious
only in his private personal life – Shabbat, family purity, kashrut, etc. –
surrounded by the curtains of one's home-sanctuary. It is completely impossible
to represent such a life as an embodiment of a full and complete Torah. My
social-economic existence is linked to the general political-economic
structure, which is based upon other principles. As such, it does not embody my
social, political, or legal relationships with society. … The entire complex of
my external interactions with society is divorced from Judaism.
Thus, it is clear that Torah Judaism can be fully realized exclusively
within the Land of Israel and in accordance with the mitzvot.
Further, Torah requires
the Land because it "is not a literary trove of documents and books. Torah
means learning and realizing an organic Torah society – concrete Torah
actualization. Only when the vision is total – not only of laws of kosher meat
and prayer-book, but also of the Hilchot Melakhim (Laws of Kings), Sanhedrin
(Supreme Religious Court), financial law concerning corporations and the
employment of workers, the individual and public Torah, at home, the street,
and the factory – does the whole Torah reveal itself."
The challenge of the State of Israel is to be not merely a
state of Jews but a Jewish state in the full sense:
The social-political economic life of Israel needs to be
expressed via the seal of Judaism, of Jewish law and morality. The various
phases of state life must be permeated with the Jewish spirit, understood and
interpreted by Torah and spiritual giants. Our treasure of halakha
regarding laws between man and his fellow man, from the laws of damages to the
laws of kings, must be built and transformed into action and facts. ... I am
convinced that when the Israeli social-political institutions embody the
Torah's ideal civil code, we will be the most advanced state in regard to
social justice and truth.
The sweet singer of
Israel composed a song of ascents in which Israel sings "When the Lord
brought back the captivity of Zion, we were as dreamers." [Psalms 126:1]
The dream of the return to Zion must be "a dream about Torah life, about
'And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments
as are in all this law which I set before you this day?' [Deuteronomy
4:8]."
Realization of Torah
within the Land can be achieved only as the result of Israel's actions within
her:
The Torah will find its realization in Israel … only through
participating in building the Land, by hewing stones and draining swamps,
defending cities and colonies, by working devotedly.
For the state to fulfill
herself, the collective Israel must differentiate between means and goal:
As vital and historically important as the state may be …
(it) is important not as a goal, but as a means. The goal transcends statehood,
time, and history. The objective is to create a Torah nation.
Rabbi Soloveitchik's
article is taken from an address he delivered at the Mizrachi of America
convention, the month after the State of Israel came into existence. Rabbi
Soloveitchik masterfully articulated the challenge which still stands before
the State of Israel, seventy-four years later.
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