An Ethical Zionist: Jesus in A. A. Kabak's Bemish'ol hatsar

After experiencing a spiritual epiphany, the Hebrew writer A. A. Kabak wrote a novel that went on to become canonical in Israel, Bemish'ol hatsar (The Narrow Path; 1937). Its unlikely protagonist was a fictionalized Jesus, whom Kabak imbued with certain characteristics typical of the writer's Zionist contemporaries. Examining Kabak's Jesus carefully, however, reveals a character on the margins of his society who represents a new variety of Jewish nationalism, which I call "ethical Zionism." This unique vision of Jewish national identity is exceptional for its emphasis on God, individual spirituality, and personal redemption as a mode of national revival. Through Jesus, the novel suggests that the ethical aspects of religious Judaism that were neglected or cast aside by mainstream Jewish nationalist movements after the Haskalah are actually essential to Jewish identity and to the Zionist project. Additionally, the novel suggests that by returning this ethical component to Zionism, Jewish nationalism could be a moral model for the modern world.