Sovereignty, Sanctity, and Salvation: The Theology of Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah ha-Kohen Kook and the Actions of Gush Emunim

90 SHOFAR Fall 1994 Vol. 13, No. 1 SOVEREIGNlY, SANCTIlY, AND SALVATION: THE THEOLOGY OF RABBI TZVI YEHUDAH HA-KOHEN KOOK AND THE ACTIONS OF GUSH EMUNIM by Richard L. Hoch Richard L. Hoch received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1994. He is currently a Finkelstein Fellow and Instructor in Philosophy at the University ofJudaism and is revising his dissertation, "The Politics of Redemption: Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah ha-Kohen Kook and the Origins of Gush Emunim " for publication. Much has been written on the relationship between Zionism and jewish messianism. Many secular Zionists understood themselves to be rejecting jewish tradition by acting rather than waiting for God to send the Messiah. (Despite their rejection of tradition, many of these Zionists may be said to have been engaged in their own type of messianism or redemptionist ideology as they connected the return of the jews to their homeland with transformations in the jewish people, if not the cosmos.) This reluctance to identify Zionism with Jewish messianism was not confined to secular Zionists alone. Rabbi Isaac jacob Reines, the first leader of Mizrahi, the forerunner of the National Religious Party, argued that Zionism was a practical matter, separate from any question of the Messiah's coming. This "pragmatic" approach, however, was rejected by Rabbi Abraham Isaac ha-Kohen Kook (1865-1935)1 who understood Zionism, even its most secular form, to be God's vehicle for redeeming the jewish people. 'Hereafter referred to as Rahhi Kook, following Israeli usage. Theology of Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah ha-Kohen Kook 91 According to Rabbi Kook, secular Zionists were doing God's will even though this was unclear to them. While he believed thateventualIy such non-believing and non-observant Jews would eventualIy return to the fold, he understood their "heresy" to be proof of the Mishnaic teaching that insolence will increase just before the Messianic era.2 While the generation 's heresy was painful, it could be corrected through education. In the meantime, he argued that the Jewish polity was to "build secularly and sanctify afterwards" (Me'ilah 14a), meaning that religious Jews should support the actions of all Jews, including the non-observant, who were building up the land, a teaching that went further than that of his teacher, Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Berlin, who agreed that observant Jews could work with the non-observant in support of Jewish settlements but insisted that the settlers be observant.3 Even Rabbi Berlin, with his qualified support of settlers, was in the minority among Orthodox Ashkenazi rabbis, many of whom opposed Zionism both on the grounds that it usurped God's power by establishing a state before He brought the Messiah and because of the irreligiosity of many of the settlers. Rabbi Kook was unique among his contemporaries, even those Orthodox supporters of Hovevei Zion or Zionism, in that he saw the movement as inherently good and as a definite part of redemption. Despite the fact that a large circle of people, religious and nonreligious alike, today see Rabbi Kook as the "father of religious Zionism," his views were not adopted by the majority of religious Jews, Zionist or not, of his time. The practical value of his ideas was further reduced by the fact that when he died in 1935, there was no Jewish state, and religious Zionists had little political influence in the Yishuv. It was only after many years that his ideas as interpreted by his son, Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah ha-Kohen Kook (1891-1982): began to have significant impact on Israeli life, primarily through the Gush Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful) movement, led by many of Habbi Tzvi Yehudah's students. Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah understood the State of Israel to be the contemporary manifestation of the Davidic Kingdom which would be eventualIy established by the Messiah. Using his reading of his father's teachings and Maimonides' discussion of the Messianic Era in the last two chapters of 2Sotah 9: 15. 3Ehud Luz. Parallels Meet: Religion and Nationalism in the Early Zionist Movement, 1892-1904. trans. Lenn J. Schramm (Philadelphia: The Jewish Puhlication Society, 1988), p. n. . 'Hereafter referred to as I{ahbi TZ\'j...