Messianism - Religious Zionism

Religious Zionism

Religious Zionists are the Jewish religious minority of the basically secular Zionist movement who justified, on the basis of Judaism, secular Zionist efforts to build a Jewish state in the land of Israel. In their belief, the Jewish state is "the commencement of the growth of our redemption" (Hebrew: ראשית צמיחת גאולתנו‎ reshit tzmichat ge'ulateinu), and that state may be brought about by human action, without waiting for the Messiah to gather the Jews back into the Land of Israel. This view ran contrary to the view of Haredi Judaism which rejected any secular, human effort to preempt the ingathering of the exiles by God and his chosen one, the Messiah. Religious Zionists explained in terms acceptable to the Halakha, the secular, mainly socialist, existentialist Zionist vision where material needs of the people are addressed through practical and realistic solutions, reflected by secular philosophers such as Ahad Ha'am.

In 1862, German Orthodox Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer published his tractate Derishat Zion, positing that the salvation of the Jews, promised by the Prophets, can come about only by self-help.

The main ideologue of modern religious Zionism was Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, who justified Zionism according Jewish law and urged young religious Jews to support efforts to settle the land, and the mainsteam, majority, secular and socialist Labour Zionists to give more consideration to Judaism.

Rav Kook saw Zionism as a part of a divine scheme which would result in the resettlement of the Jewish people in its homeland. This would bring salvation (Geula) to Jews, and then to the entire world. After world harmony is achieved by the refoundation of the Jewish homeland, the Messiah will come.

The apparent contradiction arising from the fact that political and practical Zionism were overwhelmingly secular, socialist and even atheist schools of thought, was resolved by the concept of "the Messiah's donkey" (Hebrew: חמורו של משיח‎ khamoro shel mashiakh) whereby majority secular Zionism was seen as a temporary divine measure for the achievement of Jewish salvation.

Since the Six Day War, Religious Zionism, speared by mass-movements such as Gush Emunim, has been the leading force behind Jewish settlement in the non-consensual areas of Judea and Samaria, bringing about the main schism dividing Israeli politics for the past 40 years.