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The Next Seventy-Five Years

Rabbi Doron Perez

This month, Gefen Publishing House and Mizrachi Press will release The Jewish State – From
Opposition to Opportunity, by Rabbi Doron Perez, Executive Chairman of the Mizrachi World
Movement. World Mizrachi is grateful to partner with Gefen Publishing House in publishing this
timely and important work. The following essay is adapted from the book’s afterword.

etanel Ellinson, head of a pre- investment. Apathy sets in, then discord, of humanity to find space for one another.
army academy in Israel and a and finally tragic divisiveness. This has Rav Kook has highlighted that this unity
gifted educator, makes the fol- happened not once but twice in the history is possible through the rubric of authentic
Nlowing sobering observation. of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. inclusive Torah values.
In both prior Jewish commonwealths, a As we celebrate Israel’s seventy-fifth anni- Fascinatingly, Herzl’s utopian novel Altneu-
crisis ensued as the nation neared its sev- versary, we find ourselves at this very land ends on this very note. The different
enty-fifth year of independence.
same juncture. The fate of the State is in characters in Herzl’s imagined future state
Quite remarkably, seventy-three years our hands. Israel is grappling with the roil- express what each one feels is the driving
after David’s coronation as king over all ing and divisive issue of judicial reform, force of the new Jewish state – be it suffer-
the tribes of Israel, the people of Israel revealing deep fault lines and fissures in ing, technology, knowledge, or willpower,
tragically split into two separate king- Israeli and Jewish society. How the State among other suggestions. After each has
doms: Yehudah and Yisrael. of Israel handles this and other divisive given their opinion, the book ends with
The same is true of the Hasmonean issues will define its long-term internal words of the final protagonist, Rabbi
kingdom in Second Temple times. The resilience and mutual trust. The currency Shmuel: “But the venerable Rabbi Shmuel
Hasmonean kingdom was established of a functional society is the level of trust arose and proclaimed: ‘G-d!’” 1
by Shimon HaChashmonai, followed by each person and group places in the other. Indeed, Israel’s relationship with G-d is an
Yochanan, and then King Alexander We must find a recipe for Jewish unity inextricable part of the story. When we
Yannai and Shlomtzion HaMalkah. In the and legitimate space for the different ideo- find space for others, we find space for
seventy-third year, once again, a deep logical perceptions of Jewish identity and the G-dliness in each other and in turn
division ensued between the two princes destiny. Reclaiming the covenant at the for Hashem’s shechinah – His presence –
Aristobulus and Hyrcanus. This became heart of Jewish society and drawing on the to be felt in the rebuilt Beit HaMikdash in
a family feud and a deep political divide, dynamics of Davidian politics is crucial for Jerusalem and throughout the world, may
with one brother enlisting the support of the future of Israel. it be speedily in our days.
the rising Roman Empire, giving Rome a As great as the external threats are to
foothold in Judea and eventually leading Israel – and indeed they are – in many
to the decimation of the Hasmonean king- ways the internal issues are no less and 1. Theodor Herzl, Altneuland, 1916. The “Rabbi
dom and the destruction of the Temple. perhaps even more threatening. There is Shmuel” referred to here is either Rabbi Shmuel
Mohilever, founder of the Mizrachi branch of
In both cases, Ellinson notices a troubling a significant spiritual correlation between Chibbat Tzion, or Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, one
trend within the first three generations of the geopolitical reality facing the Jewish of the founders and leaders of the Mizrachi of
the establishment of statehood. The first people in general and Israel in particular Rabbi Reines.
generation is that of the founders, who and its metaphysical state. It is impossible
rally all their resources to found the state to separate the external historico-political
and ensure its viability at the outset. The circumstances of the Jewish people from
second generation is that of the builders, their internal moral and spiritual state.
who build on the success of the founders Israel is, in the words of historian Paul
to expand and enhance the national infra- Johnson, “a pilot-project for the entire
structure and build sustainability for the human race,” and, in the words of Rav Rabbi Doron Perez
generations to come. Kook, a microcosm of all the salient moral is the Executive Chairman
He poignantly terms the third generation dilemmas and challenges facing human of World Mizrachi.
as “the generation of the destroyers.” society. If Jewish society in Israel, which
This generation by and large do not know reflects an intense gamut of views, can Join me at the
firsthand the challenges of the founders find space one for the other, we may pro- World Orthodox Israel Congress Est. 1902
orthodoxisraelcongress.org
but reap the benefit of their sacrifice and vide both the example and impetus for all 120 YEARS OF RELIGIOUS ZIONISM

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