Professor Paul Eidelberg
There are three types of Galut Jews in Israel -- and if we are humble and
understanding, we will be grateful to all three. The first type is secular.
It matters not whether this type of Jew is a leftist or rightist: His mentality
is not rooted in the Torah, of which he is basically ignorant. For him the Torah
(including the Oral Law) is neither the touchstone of his personal life nor
of his outlook on public affairs, domestic or foreign. For the secular Jew the
Torah is irrelevant in the domain of Statecraft.
Yet it was secular Jews who founded the modern State of Israel. It was secular
Jews who facilitated the ingathering of some two million of their oppressed
brothers and sisters. It was secular Jews who hastened Israel’s scientific-technological
infrastructure, which has enabled Jews, including religious Jews, to flourish
in the land of their forefathers.
Notice, however, that the founders of modern Israel were Marxists as well as
Zionists, which means they harbored contradictory doctrines. For whereas Marxism
is a form of anti-Jewish internationalism -- Marx hated Judaism -- Zionism means
Jewish nationalism! The founders of the State of Israel thus had a split mentality,
which they could never overcome. To the contrary: Their Zionism has metamorphosed
into anti-Zionism with unJewish overtones. Witness the pronouncements (and policies)
of politicians like Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin. While Peres denies the concept
of Eretz Yisrael, Beilin baldly admits he has no objection to his children marrying
non-Jews.
The second type of Galut Jews is religious, of which two varieties may be distinguished.
Whereas one may be called “politically correct,” the other may be
termed “politically incorrect.” Both are deserving of gratitude.
Politically correct religious Jews have shown that Jews can be observant and
yet "modern." They established yeshivot and even universities. Hence
they have contributed to the preservation of Judaism. And yet the uncritical
attitude of these Jews toward contemporary democracy -- the secular religion
of our times -- hardly differs from that of secular Jews. They ignore the obvious
contradictions between the indiscriminate egalitarianism and libertarianism
of contemporary democracy on the one hand, and the moral and intellectual standards
of the Torah or Jewish law (Halakha) on the other.
Hence the mentality of these religious Jews is also split: Their religiosity
is compartmentalized -- operative on the personal level but without significantly
affecting their politics or political ideology. Lacking is the unity of thought
and action distinctive of Torah Judaism. They too have failed to develop Torah
Statesmanship.
As for our politically incorrect religious Jews: to them we owe perhaps the
deepest gratitude. They do not mislead Jews by exalting contemporary democracy;
and more than other religionists, they have uncompromisingly preserved the Oral
Law. The trouble is they represent the “dried fruit” of the Oral
Law (without which, of course, the Jews would have become as extinct as the
Mesopotamians). In other words, their religiosity is rooted in the Galut, in
the “desert of the nations.” They simply transplanted the “dried
fruit” of the Oral Law to the Land of Israel without unsealing the Oral
Law’s original freshness, its emotional richness, its profound wisdom.
(We can understand this withdrawal from the mundane world; but the time has
come for the Oral Law to burst forth and bloom as in the time of King David.
The illustrious Rav Abraham Kook has written: “All of our sacred treasures,
the concepts and insights of the entire Torah must be couched in modern style
so as to attract our contemporaries ... the colossal wealth of sacred art they
harbor must be drawn upon daily and propagated in the current literary idiom.”
The halakhic “principle of action” and the Agaddic “principle
of heart and mind” must impregnate each other.
Required are openness to veridical secular knowledge and a positive and creative
attitude toward Jewish national affairs. This is perfectly consistent with the
Oral Law. After all, the Sages of the Talmud were men of the world. They studied
gentile knowledge; they debated with Roman emperors; they were statesmen! Theirs
was a living Torah, a Torah that confronted the knowledge and challenged the
pretensions of the secular world. Their religiosity was not disembodied.
The Torah is more than a religion. It is the infinite wellspring of the highest
civilization -- Hebraic civilization. Hebraic civilization transcends all the
dichotomies of mankind: individual versus society, freedom versus authority,
morality versus law, reason versus revelation, science versus religion, theory
versus practice. Think of King David: poet, philosopher, prophet, and, above
all, Jewish statesman. Rashi clinches our point: Jacob sent Judah (and not Yisachar)
to Goshen to establish centers for Torah learning. Why? Because Judah symbolizes
Kingship (malchut)!
Plato dreamed of the philosopher-king, who unites wisdom and power. Israel alone
has had many philosopher-kings. Indeed, Theophrastus, Aristotle’s successor
at the Lyceum, regarded Israel as “a nation of philosophers” --
a view shared by other Gentile thinkers.
The era of the Galut Jew is now drawing to a close. Jewish philosophy, rooted
in the Torah, is reappearing in Israel. To be authentic, Jewish philosophy must
not only be consistent with the Oral Law, it must reveal the beauty and wisdom
of the entire Torah. In Jewish law will be found the most comprehensive understanding
of human nature, hence the profoundest psychology, now waiting to be articulated.
That psychology will reveal Judaic Man as the pinnacle of mankind.
It seems, however, that those most likely to facilitate a renaissance of Jewish
philosophy will be secular Jews who have returned to the Torah, but who have
knowledge of the rigorous sciences. An increasing number of such Jews live in
Israel. Some are revealing, by means of statistical science, hidden codes in
the Torah, codes which signify the Torah’s divine origin.
While we must be grateful to Galut Jews who, regardless of their restricted
views, have contributed to the preservation of Judaism -- G-d works in mysterious
ways -- still, Israel needs the fresh fruit of the undivided Torah, the Torah
of Hebraic civilization. Indeed, Israel urgently needs a Torah statesman, one
who can translate the Torah into a national strategy of world-historical significance.