The Vilna Gaon: A harbinger of Zionism

CHULA VISTA, California — Most modern Jews have considerable difficulty understanding why the Satmar, Chabad, Belzer, and other Hassidic movements oppose Zionism. In this short article, I will try to explain some of the theological and exegetical background regarding the history of this problem. In the course of the article I will reintroduce many of Arie Morgenstern’s important observations from his new and exciting book, The Gaon of Vilna and His Messianic Vision, that clarify the Vilna Gaon’s perspective and why the Gaon’s opinion must be respected by today’s anti-Zionist movements such as the Neturei Karta, Chabad, and Satmar movements.

In the interest of clarity, I will flesh out some of the important points that is at the heart of this controversy and afterwards I will bring into discussion the Vilna Gaon’s perspective, which I think most of our readers will find enlightening.

Midrashic interpretation often serves as a lens for how Jews of the past generations view their present religious and political environment. Midrash often serves as a covert way of critiquing their world. The characters of Midrash often serve as pseudonyms for leaders that wielded considerable authority in their time.

After the failed Bar Kochba revolt, Rabbi Akiba was responsible for instigating a revolt against Rome that ended in the disastrous death of tens of thousands of Jewish soldiers who accepted Rabbi Akiba’s endorsement of Bar Kochba as the Messiah.

The Romans were so upset at the Jews, among the most serious things they did was to rename Judea, and that is how the name “Palestine” was born.

Scurrying like mice, the Jewish people suffered from PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) and came up with a Midrashic exposition to explain why the Bar Kochba debacle ended in disaster. According to Midrashic and Talmudic sources[1], God had adjured three oaths regarding Israel and the Gentile nations of the world:

• The Jews were not to go up from Exile to the Land of Israel en masse.
• The Jews were not to rebel against the other nations of the world and essentially accept their subservient political status as a nation.
• The Gentile nations were sworn not to subject the Jewish people excessively.

These rabbinical teachings kept the Jewish political aspirations in check and the Jewish people focused inwardly upon rebuilding their lives and communities in the wake of the failed Bar Kochba revolt.

And this is how the famous Midrashic teaching regarding “The Three Oaths” was born. Historically, Maimonides referred to this Midrashic exposition when he wished to combat a Yemenite false Messiah who created considerable trouble for the local Jewish community with the local Islamic authorities, who did not find the Messiah amusing.  Maimonides noted:

• Solomon, of blessed memory, foresaw with Divine inspiration, that the prolonged duration of the exile would incite some of our people to seek to terminate it before the proper time, and as a consequence they would perish or meet with disaster. Therefore he warned them (to desist) from it and adjured them in metaphorical language, as we read, “I adjure ye, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the hinds of the field, that ye  awaken not, nor stir up love, until it please” (Song of Songs 2:7, 8:4). Now, brethren and friends, abide by the oath, and stir not up love until it please (BT Ketubot 111a).[2]

Was Maimonides speaking only metaphorically, or was he speaking Halachically? This question is at the heart of the debate that the anti-Zionist Hassidic communities have wrangled with their pro-Zionist critics.

R. Yoel Teitlebaum–like many of the anti-Zionists of the 19^th century, which included rabbis like Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, R. Moshe Sofer of Hungary (a,k.a. the Hatam Sofer), Rabbi Shalom Dov Baer of Lubavitch and many others—opposed Zionism. R. Moshe Sofer used the Passover parable of the Four Sons to illustrate his point:

• What is the Wicked Son’s sin? It is his lack of patience! He cannot stand to wait, and therefore he asks, “What is this long service to you? Why do you have to drag it out so much? It’s already time to eat.” We reply to him, “Because of this – in the merit of our waiting for the redemption and not leaving early like the tribe of Ephraim – Hashem redeemed us from Egypt. If you, the impatient son, had been there, you would not have been redeemed.”

According to R. Sofer, the Jews must learn the art of patience. Taking their destiny into their own hands is an invitation for disaster.

The fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Shalom Dov Baer was much more blunt than most of his contemporaries.  In the interest of brevity, we will focus on only some of the salient points he makes:

• Even if the Zionists were G-d fearing Torah true Jews, and even if we had reason to believe that their goal is feasible, we are nevertheless not permitted to join them in bringing our redemption with our own strength. We are not even permitted to force a premature redemption by showering the Almighty with insistent entreaties (As Rashi comments on the Gemara Kesuvos 111a discussing G-d’s adjuring the Jewish people not to force the redemption), and certainly not by means of physical force and devices; We may not end our exile by main force: we will not thereby, achieve the spiritual redemption for which we are waiting. The Zionist notion contradicts our hope and yearning that G-d himself will bring about our Redemption. The Zionists true desire is to sever the hearts of the Jewish people from the Torah and mitzvos, G-d forbid, and to debase in their eyes whatever is regarded as holy by our nation. Therefore, anyone who belongs to Hashem’s camp shall not join the evildoers, but on the contrary, he must oppose them as much as he is able to do. Until it shall be G-d’s will to redeem us, we must accept the yoke of exile upon ourselves, since the exile expiates our sins. We must strengthen ourselves to withstand every new wave by fulfilling Torah and mitzvos, as G-d requires of us, hoping that Hashem will soon bring our redemption and send Moshiach. If he tarries let us wait for him; his arrival is dependent upon our teshuvoh (repentance), May G-d have pity upon us and speed our Redemption.

The late Lubavitcher Rebbe, R. M.M. Schnersohn prohibited the display of the Mogen David emblem or the singing of HaTikva in all Habad institutions throughout the world. These Hasisidc and Haredi leaders helped give birth to the Neturei Karta we see in the U.S. and Israel today. As a student in the Lubavitcher Yeshiva at 770, I often heard the Rebbe say at his public talks (farbrengens), “Mach do Eretz Yisrael!” (Make here “the Land of Israel”), i.e., wherever Jews live, they are “fulfilling” the mitzva to live in Israel.

According to Morgenstern’s new book on the Vilna Gaon, it is instructive to see that the Vilna Gaon did not believe that God would somehow magically redeem the Jewish people outside the natural processes of history. The Gaon argued that the “Three Oaths” only pertained to the rebuilding of the Temple, but not to the actual resettlement of the Land of Israel!! (pp. 397-400). Not only was it permitted to resettle Jews in Israel, it was a mitzvah to do so! In Kabbalistic terms, the Gaon cites a well-known Kabbalistic concept, the “arousal from below,” awakens an “arousal from above.”  The Gaon argued that Lurianic Kabbalah demanded that every divine act be precipitated by a corresponding human action. Human passivity was not the answer (p. 399).

Morgenstern writes further:

• Redemption of the Land was the highest concern of the Gaon of Vilna. He saw it as the focus of human activity during the first stage of the redemption and as the mechanism through which the Shekhina would be raised from the ashes. Settlement of Eretz Yisrael was not simply a means to promote Jewish political freedom or economic prosperity; resettling the Land was undertaken so that the Third Temple might be built and all humanity brought to acknowledge the dominion of the King of Kings. Even while the Third Temple has not yet been built, the very settling of the Land effectively raises the Shehina from the ashes. (p. 399).

Religious opponents like the Neturei Karta, Moonkutch, Satmar, Chabad and other Hassidic groups interestingly dissuaded their followers to flee Europe during the days of the Holocaust. All they had to do was pray to God just as the Jews did in Esther’s time and God would once again save the Jews. Unfortunately, these Rebbes abandoned their flocks at the first opportunity. Their passivity and prayers were not the answer. God demands human action.

The wisdom of the Zohar teaches a most poignant lesson about how God’s blessings materialize into our world:

• Blessings from above never descend into a vacuous space.[3]

It is a pity the Torah world has categorically rejected the practical wisdom of the Vilna Gaon. I believe that if the Gaon were to see how Haredi and Hassidic rabbis refuse to do their share in strengthening Israel today in the name of Torah, he would excoriate their evil behavior and hubris.

In the final article of my series, I wish to focus on Morgenstern’s fascinating chapter dealing with why the Vilna Gaon condemned the Hassidic movement. Morgenstern’s treatment of the subject is exceptionally lucid and I believe that the Hassidic  interpretation of Lurianic Kabbalah pertaining to the process of redemption fell far from the mark. Despite the Gaon’s alleged isolation from the Jewish community, he seems to have been the only Gadol (supreme Torah scholar of his time) to recognize that redemption is a distinctively human process that requires action and not magical or liturgical incantations like the Hassidim believed.