Just Published: Zionism - A Brief Overview

My short ebook, Zionism - A Brief Overview, is now available as a free download. As a preview, I am including below the table of contents and the preface from the book.

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Table of Contents

Preface

Roots and Precursors

The Roots of Zionism
Precursors
Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer
Moses Hess
The Chovevei Tzion Movement
Supporters of Colonization

Political Zionism

Notable Figures in the Early Zionist Movement

The Zionist Organization

Zionism in Action

Chaim Weizmann & the Balfour Declaration
The British Mandate
Ben-Gurion & Independence

The Government of the State of Israel

The Political Parties

Jewish Opposition to Zionism

Religious Zionism

Non-Messianic Religious Zionism 

Messianic Religious Zionism

Zionism Today

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Preface

This booklet grew out of materials that I prepared for a class on Zionism given in a Modern Orthodox Jewish day school. The material was designed to be covered in five sessions, each covering one of the major sections, “Roots and Precursors”, “Political Zionism”, “Zionism in Action”, “The Israeli Government”, and “Religious Zionism.”

A number of important changes have been made in the material in preparation for publication. Among these was an attempt to raise the level of the material to one more appropriate for adult readers. Nevertheless, it must be confessed that the material still has much of the didactic tone of classroom curriculum materials. I hope that readers will not find this off-putting.

One of the difficulties I faced while compiling this material is that I am not myself a Zionist (in the political sense). In principle, of course, this should not be a problem. Facts are facts! Human nature being what it is, however, I had to be very careful not to let my personal ideological position improperly color my presentation of the subject.

In preparing this material for publication, I felt that it was necessary to include a section on traditional Jewish opposition to Zionism. Not only is this important and relevant information in its own right, it also provides essential context to the positions taken by religious Zionism.

I have ended my discussion of the history of the Zionist movement with the founding of the State of Israel. Although, of course, Zionism continues to exist to this day, the nature of the movement fundamentally changed with the founding of the state. It is critically important to understand that the meaning of the term “Zionism” has evolved, and today is often used to mean simply that one is concerned about the continued well-being and security of the State of Israel. In this booklet I use the term in its original sense, to refer to the movement to establish a secular Jewish homeland in the land of Israel.

It is my hope that this small booklet will provide, in an easily accessible manner, some of the essential context and background information that is often missing in many discussions of this topic in the press.

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Moshiach ben Yosef

The concept of Moshiach ben Yosef (literally, "the anointed son of Joseph"), while not a major concept, is well-established in Judaism, being mentioned in many sources, including the Talmud. At the same time, like many of the more esoteric ideas surrounding the coming of the messiah, it is a very obscure concept and open to a wide range of interpretations. Unlike the belief in Moshiach ben David, which is a core principle of Judaism and has a clear legal definition, the concept of Moshiach ben Yosef is agadic, i.e. non-legal, and it can be understood to be entirely allegorical or as only one of several possible courses of events in the coming of the messiah.

Virtually all sources see Moshiach ben Yosef as a (possible) precursor to Moshiach ben David. Thus, for example, Rav Saadia Gaon (Emunos v'Deos 8) presents Moshiach ben Yosef as a necessary precursor to Moshiach ben David only if the Jewish people have not yet repented.

Many sources appear to view Moshiach ben Yosef as referring primarily to an early stage of the redemption in which events will take place in a non-miraculous manner, to be replaced ultimately by the coming of Moshiach ben David, when the redemption will be completed through miraculous events. (This appears to be the view of the Vilna Gaon presented in the work, Kol HaTor.) Many of the sources that discuss Moshiach ben Yosef in detail (like Kol HaTor) are heavily kabbalistic, so interpretation by a layman like myself is difficult. One of the areas that is often unclear in many of these sources is whether the concept of Moshiach ben Yosef needs to be associated with an identifiable human being, or if it can be understood simply as a symbolic term for the earlier stages in the redemption, or possibly some middle ground, such as the righteous in each generation who teach and guide the people, preparing them for the ultimate redemption.

Rav Kook

Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook (d.1935) famously (and controversially) identified the secular Zionist movement with Moshiach ben Yosef, who is to lay the groundwork for the true redemption and then die and be replaced by Moshiach ben David. It is difficult to say how Rav Kook would have viewed the secular State of Israel , but he might well have extended this identification to the State as well.

In short, there is no single, straightforward interpretation of the Moshiach ben Yosef concept; rather there is a range of ideas, all of which are tentative. This is true of many of the details of the process of the coming of the redemption, we will not know what these prophecies and teachings really mean until after the event.

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Originally written in response to a question on an on-line forum.

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