The Establishment of the State of Israel as a Spiritual Revolution
BY RABBI ZALMAN MELAMED
Rabbi Zalman Melamed is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Beit El. His annual Sichot for Yom HaAtzmaut were translated and published with the support of World Mizrachi in 2019. He was one of the leading students of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav that had been founded by his father, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook. In this excerpt, Rabbi Melamed explains some of the teachings of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook around the significance of the establishment of the Jewish state.
HaRav Zvi Yehuda Kook explains three reasons why we must support the establishment of the State of Israel. He says it is because of three matters of sanctity: the People of Israel, the Torah of Israel, and Eretz Yisrael. HaRav Zvi Yehuda explains each of these reasons on two levels: one, a straightforward manner meant for the general public, and the other a more profound explanation meant for Torah scholars.
The first reason: the Nation of Israel
This reason refers, first and foremost, to the physical safety of Jews. It is a very clear Torah commandment of pikuach nefesh, the saving of a life. The State of Israel can absorb all of the refugee Jews and all those in lands where there is danger, and is the only place that can guarantee that they will be welcomed, absorbed, and saved. HaRav Zvi Yehuda does not only speak of physical danger, however, but also of spiritual danger. Spiritually speaking, the Jewish dispersion and assimilation in the Diaspora are wreaking havoc on the Jews there, but when they come here, assimilation ends.
Ketzaleh once brought a Chareidi Jew from England to visit, and I told him, “You should know that the State of Israel saved three million Jews from assimilation, because if they had not been here, many of them would have intermarried.” And he said to me, “But here as well there is assimilation!” So I told him: “Here in Eretz Yisrael the assimilation rate is not 70 percent!” – meaning that the State has already made a practical difference in helping to preserve Judaism.
This is on a basic level, but when HaRav Zvi Yehuda said that the State is “for the People of Israel,” he also meant something much deeper. After all, the essence of Israel is not defined by the saving of individual Jewish lives, but by the very reality of the Nation of Israel, by its existence as a nation. Of course, even if the State of Israel rescued just one Jew, this would be justification enough for its establishment, and, as we know, it did not save one or two Jews, but thousands and tens of thousands, physically and otherwise. However, this is still on an individual level, while in reality there is another level, another way of looking at the all-encompassing reality of the Israelite nation as a klal: G-d has promised that this entity will continue to exist, and even though this is guaranteed by Him, we need to participate with G-d and work with Him and His promise to establish and uplift the nation in its totality. And that is what HaRav Zvi Yehuda meant in saying that we must support the State for the reason that has to do with the Nation of Israel.
The second reason: Torah
Without a doubt, Eretz Yisrael helps increase Torah study. Our Sages taught: “You have no greater nullification of Torah than when the people of Israel were exiled” (Chagigah 5b). It follows, then, that there is no greater fulfillment of Torah than Israel’s return to its land. This is true even in terms of the country’s public policy, which enables the fulfillment of Torah and its commandments better than in any place on the globe. As such, simply in terms of the observance of individual Torah mitzvot, the simple fact that more Torah is studied and more mitzvot are fulfilled here makes it patently clear that we must support the establishment of the State. We must ensure our national presence in the Land so that every part of the Torah is fulfilled, and especially the mitzvot that can be fulfilled only here and nowhere else.
However, the measurable, quantitative aspects of Torah observance did not suffice for HaRav Zvi Yehuda. He spoke of Torah in its all-encompassing meaning, in its inclusive essence – namely, that it is the source of all reality. It is the source of the People of Israel; the entire world is able to exist only via the fulfillment of Torah in its universality, something that can occur only in Eretz Yisrael. And now that things are advancing, it means that now is the time to act for the establishment and perpetuation of the State.
These concepts are very clear to us, but I am repeating them because two days ago, some students turned to me for an explanation of the essence of this day of Yom HaAtzmaut; they had heard that there are those who cast doubts upon these ideas and are not sure that the explanation given by HaRav Zvi Yehuda is relevant nowadays, given our current spiritual state. I would like to therefore relate that when we decided to come to Bet El, our neighbors in Yerushalayim were quite skeptical: “What are you going out there for? It will never work, it’s a waste of effort and resources. You put up those caravans – they’re there today but tomorrow they’ll be somewhere else.” People aren’t saying that anymore; Eretz Yisrael is thriving and being built up, it is enduring and permanent, and it is growing. The most eternal thing is the advancement of the geulah; nothing is more permanent than that.
When the State was first established, there were those who said that it could never endure. Of course, without Torah it cannot continue to exist, but with Torah, the State can well exist, and in fact Torah is becoming more of an integral part of the State of Israel; its essence is rooted in Torah. True, we don’t see this openly, but the nation’s entire aspiration for Eretz Yisrael and for national revival – all of that is Torah; it can have no significance otherwise. The world cannot exist without Torah, and certainly the Nation of Israel cannot exist without Torah, and the State of Israel, too, cannot exist without Torah. The State of Israel is forged from within the Torah, and its very existence proves its deep connection to the Torah; since we see that the Torah is becoming stronger here, this means that it is precisely the power of Torah that leads the way, strengthening and building the country, with the State growing and becoming more established. And this is, in fact, the case.
The third reason: Eretz Yisrael
This reason, too, can first be explained on a simple level: There is a Torah commandment to settle Eretz Yisrael, as written by the Rambam1 and the Ramban.2 True, there are those who note the opposing opinion of the Megillat Esther, but since when does the entire public seek out leniencies on matters in dispute? In any event, even if there are those3 who do not count “living in the Land” as a Biblical commandment, all agree that it is a Rabbinic commandment. There are also those who say that there is no mitzvah to move to the Land, although someone who lives here fulfills a mitzvah – like that of tzitzit, which the Torah commands us to wear only in the event that we are wearing a four-cornered garment. Not everyone agrees with this comparison, but even if we believe it is correct – does this imply that we should not make an effort to wear tzitzit simply because we are not absolutely obligated to? Why should we have to fashion an artificial garment of four corners? Let’s just wear ordinary clothes! But the fact is that we do make the effort, everyone knows that we do not walk around without a four-cornered garment with fringes on it – and we should similarly not live outside the Land.
In actuality, the story is much deeper than that. It is not only in order to fulfill the mitzvah of settling the Land, or the commandments that are land-dependent, that we have a State. The profound essence of Eretz Yisrael is that the true destiny and mission of the Jewish people and the Torah are only to be found here, and that the entire world is influenced from here. The world was founded upon the Foundation Stone on the Temple Mount in Eretz Yisrael (Yoma 54b), and it is the basis of all existence. It is in Eretz Yisrael that the Nation of Israel dwells, engages in Torah, and lives the way it should. And it is upon this that the entire existence of the world is based, is uplifted, and moves forward. When we speak in this way, employing concepts of Klal Yisrael’s function in Eretz Yisrael on behalf of the entire world, we are not always understood – but we have no choice. The time for the revival has come, and we must rise and look at reality from this all-encompassing perspective.
• Republished with permission from “This is the Day: Lazman Hazeh”.
1 Laws of Kings 5:6–12, and more.
2 Additions to the Sefer of Mitzvot, Positive Commandment 4.
3 See Rav Moshe Feinstein, Igrot Moshe, Even HaEzer I, 102.