Zionism and the Jewish polemic – The Jerusalem Post
Posted By admin on September 4, 2021
When we think of the Zionist pantheon, philosopher Jacob Klatzkin does not come to mind: Klatzkins vision was brilliant but limited. Arthur Hertzberg, in his landmark study The Zionist Idea, describes Klatzkin as the most devastating anti-traditionalist of all the rebels within Zionism. Klatzkin was a firm believer that the Jewish state would in no way be David Ben-Gurions light unto the nations, but simply a third-rate entity based on language and land. The Diaspora would disappear. Klatzkins vision does not resonate with Jews. Zionism is very much a Jewish movement in that its luminaries could not imagine the revival of the Jewish nation to be nothing less than brilliant and superior.How do we explain Jewish survival in our history and the failing of American Jewry in the Diaspora today?
The Jewish encounter with modernity has been an experience of psychological inferiority and a feeling that the majority culture is superior to a primitive, tribal and outmoded superstition. Heinrich Heine, the great German poet of the 19th century, explained his reasons for conversion from Judaism to the Lutheran faith as the entrance ticket to Western civilization. Jewish identity, Jewish national ties and Judaism were the stumbling block for the Diaspora Jew in the modern period. Jewish self-hatred reflected the disadvantage of an identity that for thousands of years had been based on a sense of Divine destiny, being chosen by God as a holy nation. The rise of Zionism decades after emancipation heralded a return to the notion of being a unique and great nation, something that the initial Jewish encounter with modernity had destroyed.
cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); });
Zionism inherited a long tradition of Jewish polemic. The year was 1263 and the setting was the Christian royal court of Aragon. Rabbi Moses ben Nahman Nahmanides was coerced into a disputation with Friar Paul, a Jew who converted to Catholicism and made the claim that the Hebrew Bible and Talmud predicted the coming of Jesus Christ as a savior messiah. Nahmanides debated in front of the royal court and Christian clergy. Nahmanides spoke to the gentiles without restraint. Afterward he published an account, one of triumph and unabashed superiority over Christianity and Friar Pauls attempts to interpret Jewish texts from a Christological point of view. While Nahmanides penned his bold account originally in Hebrew, he actually translated it into either Latin or Catalan for the bishop of Girona. The Aragonese royal court expelled him from the kingdom. He migrated to the Land of Israel, settled in Acre, and produced his legendary commentary on the Hebrew Bible.
Another example of the Jewish polemic is the Nizzahon Vetus, the Old Book of Polemic. In the words of the polemics translator, historian David Berger, the anonymous authors approach to Christianity ranges from somber to sarcastic. The collection of anti-Christian arguments current in thirteenth century Ashkenaz, the Nizzahon Vetus according to scholar Berger is a striking example of Jewish disputation in its most aggressive mode. One forceful statement by the polemicist: We ask you heretics how you can talk about fear of God and exalt yourselves by referring to Scripture when you dont believe properly. The Jew shall raise his voice and say: It is our duty to observe the Torah; it is we who have this obligation, as it is written, In Judah God is known, his name is great in Israel [Psalms 76:2] The image of the medieval Jew hiding in the shadow of Christian majorities is dispelled by Nahmanidess account and the Franco-German polemic of Nizzahon Vetus.
The reality of the medieval epoch was that, despite the threat of persecution, Jews were not apologetic. Jews believed in their cultural and religious superiority to the pagan, Christian and Islamic majorities that surrounded them. Jews reveled in their identity as a treasured people. Until the century-long campaign of forced conversion in Spain that began in 1391, the Jewish apostate was the exception to the rule.
The Jewish sense of superiority was almost universal in Zionist circles, even among thinkers like Micha Josef Berdyczewski, a strident foe of tradition. As Berdyczewski wrote in 1899, a holy people must surely be a living people. Berdyczewski yearned for the emergence of the New Hebrew, a superior man who would erase the shame of Exile. That seminal religious-Zionist thinker Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and Berdyczewski, a fierce foe of tradition, could agree on Jewish exceptionalism and superiority is remarkable. Zionism recaptured a Jewish sense of superiority that has a long pedigree in thousands of years of Jewish history.
The writer is rabbi of Congregation Anshei Sholom, in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Read more here:
Zionism and the Jewish polemic - The Jerusalem Post
- The Evening Shema: The Perfect Place to Begin - Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters - Lubavitch.com - August 13th, 2022
- 'You don't want to take my money, do you?': Mandarin-speaking rabbi fights antisemitism on Chinas TikTok - Yahoo News - August 13th, 2022
- Tisha B'Av: The Arch of Titus an alternative view - The Times of Israel - August 13th, 2022
- At Oakland's 'Base,' rabbinic couple wants you to make connections J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - August 13th, 2022
- Chazanut and music: tradition and today - Australian Jewish News - August 13th, 2022
- VA'ETCHANAN: In this week's Torah portion, a command to love J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - August 13th, 2022
- Don't Believe in Other Gods Versus God is One - aish.com Ancient Wisdom & Modern Psychology - Aish.com - August 10th, 2022
- Discerning Between Darkness and Light - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - August 10th, 2022
- Activist-writer Elana Dykewomon dies, just as her first play debuts J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - August 10th, 2022
- Reading the Book of Psalms in the Twenty-First Century - Jewish Journal - August 10th, 2022
- Tuesdays primaries offered a glint of hope for Democrats this fall - The Guardian - August 10th, 2022
- Talmud - Jewish Virtual Library - August 1st, 2022
- STAND UP AND SPEAK OUT! - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - July 31st, 2022
- War News And Gefilte Fish - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - July 31st, 2022
- Blinded by Hate | Michael Laitman | The Blogs - The Times of Israel - July 31st, 2022
- Making sense of the sedra: Matot-Masei - Jewish News - July 31st, 2022
- At least 9 cities in the Twin Cities metro targeted with antisemitic, racist flyers - Bring Me The News - July 28th, 2022
- The God Squad: From the mailbag | Opinion | pressrepublican.com - Plattsburgh Press Republican - July 28th, 2022
- Free Online Bible Library | Talmud - BiblicalTraining.org - July 27th, 2022
- Rebuilding Together - Jewish Journal - July 27th, 2022
- Twenty years after Ben and Marla and the Hebrew University bombing - The Times of Israel - July 27th, 2022
- Woven together: Lessons from bringing Israeli rabbis to the U.S. - eJewish Philanthropy - July 27th, 2022
- The God Squad: From the mailbag | Opinion Columns | union-bulletin.com - Walla Walla Union-Bulletin - July 27th, 2022
- Respect Yourself - Respect Others - aish.com The Color of Heaven - Aish.com - July 27th, 2022
- Abortion is a Jewish right and a rabbi says hers was a blessing - Business Insider - July 27th, 2022
- The Flood and Canaan: God's Patience Revealed - Patheos - July 27th, 2022
- Pinchas and the broken vav | The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle - thejewishchronicle.net - July 27th, 2022
- PJ Library Focuses on Widening its Reach - Publishers Weekly - July 27th, 2022
- The Three Weeks And A Message Of Peace - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - July 27th, 2022
- Jewish people have a different set of priorities - The Jewish Star - July 14th, 2022
- With Biden in Israel, we must spread the blanket of peace far and wide - JNS.org - July 14th, 2022
- Shaming women who have abortions is not a Jewish ethic - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - July 14th, 2022
- Rabbi, get thy head out of their tents - The Times of Israel - July 14th, 2022
- Advocating for respect and unity - The Jewish Standard - July 14th, 2022
- Politics and the Parah Adumah - Jewish Journal - July 10th, 2022
- Mass prep 3 points/30 seconds: What was the Samaritans mercy? Understanding the Greek - Aleteia - July 10th, 2022
- Don't Use Judaism as a Weapon in the Abortion Debate - Jewish Exponent - July 10th, 2022
- Why Being Firstborn is a Blessing and a Curse - aish.com Spiritual Odysseys, Featured, Spirituality - Aish.com - July 10th, 2022
- David Halivni's Great Light | David Novak - First Things - July 8th, 2022
- What Happened to the Truth? - aish.com Personal Growth, Featured, Spirituality - Aish.com - July 8th, 2022
- Q & A: Offering Tefillin To Passersby (Part VII) - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - July 8th, 2022
- The 8 Genders of the Talmud - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - July 4th, 2022
- Is It Proper To Go On Vacation To A Place With No Minyan? - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - July 4th, 2022
- Inheriting America, then choosing America | Jon Spira-Savett | The Blogs - The Times of Israel - July 4th, 2022
- The time I studied Talmud with Uri Zohar - The Times of Israel - June 26th, 2022
- What Is Required To Fulfill 'You Shall Teach Your Son Torah?' - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - June 26th, 2022
- The Torah supports me in an argument with my wife that I will never win - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - June 26th, 2022
- Ties That Bind - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - June 26th, 2022
- Holding The High Line: Rapids Draw NYCFC - Last Word On Sports - June 26th, 2022
- Why We Need Boundaries - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - June 13th, 2022
- State, city ordered to finish investigation of NYC yeshiva - New York Post - June 13th, 2022
- Letters to the Editor: June 8, 2022 - St. Louis Jewish Light - June 13th, 2022
- From Gnosticism to Marxism: The Spirit of Antichrist in Movement - OnePeterFive - June 13th, 2022
- Holding The High Line: Rapids 2 in focus, Auston Trusty leaving - Last Word On Sports - June 13th, 2022
- The Rules of Conversion - Tablet Magazine - June 4th, 2022
- Why this video about seltzer and Torah study went viral in the Orthodox Jewish community - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - June 4th, 2022
- For Jews, the Torah Is Sustenance | Jewish & Israel News Algemeiner.com - Algemeiner - June 4th, 2022
- These Jews were among baseball's all-time greats but do they count as Jewish baseball players? - Forward - June 4th, 2022
- Onward And Upward Through Learning Torah - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - June 4th, 2022
- Putting Sinaitic Revelation to work for mankind - The Jewish Star - June 2nd, 2022
- Letter: History shows us where theocracies lead | Opinion | yakimaherald.com - Yakima Herald-Republic - June 2nd, 2022
- France has 500,000 Jews but only 5 women rabbis. A growing movement is pushing to change that. - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - June 2nd, 2022
- Anti-Black Racism and The Great Replacement | OP / ED | thesuburban.com - The Suburban Newspaper - June 2nd, 2022
- Take The NYS Dept. Of Ed Fight To The Streets - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - June 2nd, 2022
- He Who Must Not Be Named: Responding to Mass Murders - aish.com - Aish - June 2nd, 2022
- Inscription in Beit Shearim Burial Cave Reveals the Deceased: Yaakov the Convert Who Warned Grave Robbers - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - June 2nd, 2022
- Opinion: Uvalde reminds us to teach our children to make the right choices - El Paso Matters - June 2nd, 2022
- The Many Different Reasons We Read The Book Of Ruth On Shavuot - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - June 2nd, 2022
- When Stocks And Bonds Won't Do - Seeking Alpha - June 2nd, 2022
- Misfortune may not be a product of our faults - The Jewish Star - June 2nd, 2022
- The Supremacy Of Torah - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - May 22nd, 2022
- Thanking G-d For Who You Are And Who You Are Not - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - May 22nd, 2022
- Shabbat Behar: Valuing the Land J-Wire - J-Wire Jewish Australian News Service - May 22nd, 2022
- Celebrate with our community at the Jewish Federation Annual Meeting - Jewish Community Voice - May 18th, 2022
- Here comes Alice Walker and the Jews, again - The Jewish Star - May 18th, 2022
- Torah prioritizes the mother's life and health | The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle - thejewishchronicle.net - May 18th, 2022
- Baseless Hatred is Destroying Our Nation - The Stream - May 18th, 2022
- The Year Of Slipping Away (Part I) - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - May 18th, 2022
- Seeking help both for ourselves and fellow Jews - The Jewish Star - May 18th, 2022
- Baddiel: Jews Don't Count TV documentary will have 'surprising' differences to book - Jewish News - May 18th, 2022
Comments