Page 36 - HaMizrachi #29 Yom HaAtzmaut 2021 USA

HOLIDAY READING

Rabbi Alex Israel

Body and Spirit

heodore Herzl was the man who they read about in Tanach: sovereignty there as an eternal inheritance that
transformed centuries of Zionist and government, a Land, a national cul- comes from a covenant, oath and trust.”
Tyearning into a practical plan. In ture, an army. Reflecting this, as Ivrit On Yom HaAtzmaut we celebrate the
creating the Zionist Congress, he put developed as a modern language, Bibli- survival of Medinat Yisrael; the miracle
a Jewish dream into action, activating cal Hebrew was preferred to Mishnaic of the wars of 1948, ’67 and ’73; the mir-
a series of events which turned vision Hebrew. Our Zionist dreamers and acle of the ingathering of the Exiles; the
1
into reality. It was the Dreyfus Affair pioneers adopted the imagery of the miracle of Israel thriving economically
that triggered Herzl’s Zionism. If Jews Tanach. Achad Ha’am was saying that
could not be accepted by other nations Judaism was in crisis. and culturally. This, says Rav Kook, is a
spiritual process. But there is more to
without hatred and demonization, they
would have to establish their own nation This would seem like a secular repu- do. We need to address the second chal-
state. diation of millenia of halachic life in lenge, the spiritual. How can the spirit of
the Diaspora. But Rav Kook agreed. In G-d and the values of Judaism become
For others, the catalyst was not antisem- Galut, the nation was sick; Judaism had more pronounced in the public sphere?
itism at all. It was a sense that Judaism in become distorted. Nationalism, though Our prophets dreamed of a country that
the Diaspora was somehow a pale repre- many of the original pioneers rejected would champion a sense of G-dliness
sentation of a greater Jewish vision. As traditional Torah uMitzvot, was an out- which would manifest itself in justice
Achad Ha’am wrote in 1897: growth of holy yearnings. A return to and compassion. We have yet to real-
“The Western Jew, having left the ghetto nationhood was a return to health: ize Rav Kook’s fusion, to articulate an
and having sought acceptance by the “We dealt much in soulfulness; we forgot agenda of a Judaism that can be fully
gentile majority, is unhappy because his the holiness of the body. We neglected lived in a modern state, a Judaism that
hope of an open-armed welcome has physical health and strength; we forgot will appeal to the entire gamut of the
been disappointed. …The heart of the we have holy flesh, no less than holy Jewish people.
Eastern Jews was sensitive to another spirit” (Orot HaTechiya #33). When we say Hallel on Yom HaAtzmaut,
tragedy as well – a spiritual one. we will say בוט יכ ’הל ודוה for the survival
“Sanctity in nature is the sanctity of Eretz
In the West it is the problem of the Jews; Yisrael. The Shechina that descended to and physical flourishing of our beautiful
in the East, the problem of Judaism. Galut embodied the power of sanctity country, and we will pray: העישוה ’ה אנא
The first weighs on the individual; the in opposition to nature. But holiness אנ החילצה ’ה אנא ,אנ as we commit our-
second, on the nation. The one is felt by which fights the natural is not a holistic selves to building a just and holy society
Jews who have had a European educa- sanctity” (ibid #28). which will embrace all Israel.
tion; the other, by Jews whose education
has been Jewish… It is not only the Jews Thus Rav Kook embraced the building of
who have come out of the ghetto; Juda- the Land – from agriculture to the arts, 1 For example: Tanach – ץע; Mishnah – ןליא.
Tanach – חרי ,שמש; Mishna – הנבל ,המח.
ism has come out too. …The spirit of from politics to academics – as a sense
our people desires further development.” of Judaism returning to its true full-bod-
ied expression, the nation revived. For
The “Eastern Jews” to which Achad Rav Kook, the physical was not merely
Ha’am referred saw their shtetl, their secular. Material and spiritual were
halachic Judaism, as limited to a private inseparable, intertwined:
or communal existence, preoccupied Rabbi Alex Israel is an author, Tanach
with minutiae – whether one put on “The Land of Israel has an intrinsic teacher and international lecturer.
one’s right shoe or left, the kashrut of a meaning. It is connected to the Jewish
drop of milk which falls into meat. They people with the knot of life… The Land A member of the Mizrachi Speakers Bureau
yearned for the breadth of the Judaism of G-d prepares the nation who lives mizrachi.org/speakers

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