Israel is Real
Parashat Massei 5771 / July 30, 2011
I vaguely remember an ad campaign back in the 1980s sponsored by the Israel Ministry of Tourism with the slogan “Israel is Real.” Like most commercials for tourism to Israel, it depicted beautiful scenery and ancient landmarks, but it also featured Israelis living their lives – couples walking on the beach, farmers on their tractors, shoppers strolling by stores in Tel Aviv. The slogan was cute, but it was also a brilliantly subtle statement that worked on two levels. On one level, it was a clever response to the anti-Israel sentiment that questioned Israel’s very right to exist. But as a tourism campaign directed to American Jews, it was also a subtle dig. By that time, the modern state of Israel had been a reality for about 40 years. Did American Jews not know Israel is real?
This was long before Edgar Bronfman took everyone to Israel for free on Birthright. In the 1980s, American Jewish tourism to Israel was still relatively low and the Tourism Ministry apparently felt they had to remind American Jews that Israel is in fact a real place worth visiting – you know, like Disneyworld.
American Jews in the 1980s weren’t the first Jews that needed to be told Israel is real. We’ve had this problem for a very long time. In a little over a week we will mark the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av. It was on that day in 70 CE that the Roman’s destroyed Jerusalem. They burned our Holy Temple to the ground and murdered much of the population. We must never forget the destruction of the Temple and we must never underestimate the importance of that event in the development of what we call Judaism. For the better part of a thousand years, the Temple stood as the location where the Jewish people encountered God; and we must never forget that Judaism at that moment could very well have been lost. But a small group of leaders known as the rabbis taught that the Temple was not the only avenue to God. They taught that Torah, words of prayer, and our adherence to mitzvot could replace the Temple sacrifices. And so, Jerusalem became an idea more than a place.
The Romans exiled our people and we were dispersed across the Middle East and then Europe and beyond. And we survived, in part, because Israel ceased to be a real place and became an idea. And since then, we Jews have been saying at our seders and at the end of every Yom Kippur, “next year in Jerusalem.” At our weddings we would break a glass to remember that even in the moments of our greatest joy, we are a fractured people. We would leave a corner of our homes unfinished as a reminder that we are a homeless people. And on Tisha B’av we would sit on the floor and wept remembering a place most of us had never been to. Zion was not a real place to us – it was an idea. Israel became a symbol of our hope for redemption… and the brilliance of turning Israel from a place into an idea is that the idea of Zion is portable and flexible… we took it with us from every place we were expelled. We developed a portable religion whose symbols could never again be destroyed and it was a key to our survival.
For nearly 2000 years, we said “next year in Jerusalem” but very few of us went there. There has always been a Jewish presence in the land of Israel; but for 2000 years, it never occurred to most of us in the Diaspora that it was a place you could go to. How come it never occurred to us that we could live there? And why is it that it wasn’t until the very end of the 19th century that Jews went back to live there? And who was it that came up with the idea that you could live there? The remarkable story is that the Jew who came up with the idea that Israel is real was a secular, Jewishly illiterate, Viennese Jew named Theodor Herzl. For two thousand years, Israel stopped being a real geographical place and became an idea, a religious category, a dream. When our ancestors said “next year in Jerusalem” they were talking about a Messianic dream. And the irony of history is that it took an assimilated Jew to come up with the idea that Israel is real. Because no one ever taught him that Zion was an idea, he naively thought that Israel was a place where you could live! But in his wonderful naiveté, Herzl did a miraculous thing. He got other Jews to believe that Israel was a real place. We all know his most famous line: “Im tirzu, ein zo agaddah.” – literally, if you will it, it is not a legend; it is not folklore; it is not the stuff of midrash. Israel is not a dream: Israel… is real!
And so, modern Zionism was born. Herzl was prophetic because 50 years before the Shoah he saw the writing on the wall. He saw that Jews were in danger and he had the chutzpah to believe there was a real place we could go to in our ancestral land. He had the chutzpah to believe that Zion wasn’t just an idea – that we didn’t have to wait for our redemption to come from a messiah. Herzl taught us that we could re-enter history as a sovereign people and that Zion is a real place.
Our Torah portion this morning speaks about the settlement of the Land of Israel by the that would take place in the time of Joshua; and it speaks about the land in very real ways. Back in the book of Genesis, God presents the land to Abraham in ideal terms. God tells Abraham his descendents will inherit a land stretching from the Nile River to the Euphrates. But here, hundreds of years later, as the people stand on the banks of the Jordan river, the land is described in more realistic political terms. Interestingly, it doesn’t include much of the land in what is today southern Israel, but it includes a portion of present-day Lebanon and Syria. Even in the Torah there is the idealized Israel and the real life Israel subject to the political realities of its time. In our Parsha God says to Moses: “You shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have assigned the land to you to possess” (Num. 33:53). This verse is the basis of the commandment incumbent on every Jew to attempt to live in the Holy Land. And even if we can’t live there, it means we must be concerned for its well-being. On this verse, the Medieval Philosopher Maimonides comments, “Since this mitzvah operates timelessly, each Jew, even the one who has made the Diaspora his home, must at all times strive to make this imperative a tangible reality in his own life.”
In other words: Israel is real. Even if you don’t live there, part of being a Jew – and part of what I would argue it means to be a Zionist today – is to always remember that Israel is a real place inhabited by real people striving to live in peace and prosperity. For us Jews, Israel will never cease to be a religious category. We still mourn on Tisha b’Av, we still break a glass at a wedding. Zion will always have a spiritual meaning greater than a piece of real estate and will always be the vessel for our dreams. Nevertheless, as modern Jews and Zionists, Israel is real. Many of us have spent long periods of time there. Most of us have relatives and friends in Israel. We care about Israel because it is our homeland and our refuge. It is a hub of Jewish culture and the source of Jewish renewal. As Zionists, our love of Israel is motivated by a desire to see its people thrive and live at peace. With all its complexity and messiness, we love Israel because to us Israel is a real place.
But, I would argue, if you’re primary orientation to Israel is as an idea, you probably aren’t a Zionist. That’s why many of the ultra-orthodox are anti-Zionists; because to them Israel is still primarily a religious category, not a place. Ironically, many of them live in Israel while at the same time denying the validity of the very state that supports and protects them, because the earthly Israel is not as important to them as the idea of Zion.
This week an extremist in Norway blew up a government building and shot up a camp for teenagers because he wanted to send a message against European acceptance of Muslims. Anders Breivik sees himself as a Christian crusader and in his “manifesto” claims to be a Zionist. Reading about this horrible event and its perpetrator brings to my mind a question: “if someone professes to be a Zionist, should it matter to us (as Jews) what motivates them?” I think it should matter. Most Jews would agree that Zionism is the belief in the right of the Jewish people to establish and maintain a homeland on our ancestral soil. What motivates us is the desire for Jews to live in peace, prosperity, and security. As we sing in the Israeli national anthem: “lihiot am hofshi be artzeinu” – to be a free people in our land. However, for others, Israel is not a homeland for real live Jewish people. To them, Israel is an idea. For Breivik and the xenophobes who were his inspiration, Israel represents the front lines in a clash of civilizations. For others, Israel is a battlefield in a looming cosmic war (“the End Times”) in which the Israel we know and love (a real place with real people) must be destroyed in the battle of Armageddon (which they’ve recast as a war between the West and Islam). Their primary concern is not for real-world Israel, with all its complexity. Israel for them is a religious and ideological category that can be easily manipulated and is ultimately dispensable.
Those whose ideology inspired Breivik want to dismiss him as merely crazy; others with anti-Israel agendas have tried to exploit him by lumping him with all Zionists. Both are mistaken and leave unexamined his ideology. Rather, we need to take him seriously because he represents a way of thinking that is gaining currency in some corners. In recent years, we have enthusiastically embraced many non-Jews who profess allegiance with our cause and we’ve dismissed or ignored their motives. We say “it doesn’t matter why they support Israel as long as they support Israel.”
I think it does matter, and we do ourselves a disservice when we fail to examine their motives not only because it puts us in bed with some very strange fellows, but because it actually undermines our goal of a free and secure Israel. Many non-Jews are willing to join us in supporting the real Israel and we should embrace them; but for many others, their support for Israel is part of a political agenda very different from our own. I’m not suggesting we reject Christian allies nor am I trying to lump Breivik with other Zionists who are Christian… what I am urging is that we take their motives and beliefs seriously and examine them carefully. And the first question we should ask is, “Is this ideology concerned with real-world Israel or with Israel as an idea?”
From my standpoint, Breivik is not a real Zionist because to him Israel is an idea and not a place. Israel to him is part of a constellation of abstract concepts that energize his politics and behavior. Israel to him (and others of similar mindset) is part of a self-serving ideology. By contrast, we are Zionists because we care about the Jewish people and care about Israel, with all its complexity. We are Zionists because we know and love the land of our ancestors. We are Zionists because Israel is home to us. We are Zionists because we want Israel and its people thrive and live at peace, in this world. We are Zionists because, to us, Israel is real.
Shabbat Shalom.
Postscript:
In recent years, the European far-right is taking an interest in Israel and forming alliances with far-right elements in Israel. For more information and context, I suggest the following articles:
Uriel Heilman. “Norway Attacks Spotlight Far-Right Outreach to Jews, Israel,” JTA Online. July 26, 2011
Raphael Mimoun. “These are not our Friends.” YNetNews.com. July 28, 2011.
Stefan Theil. “Europe’s Extreme Righteous: Far-right European politicians find love—and common cause—in Israel.” Newsweek.com. February 27, 2011.
Michelle Goldberg “The Norway Shooter’s Zionist Streak” The Daily Beast. July 25, 2011.
In case you think I’m out on a limb… these are from Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League
Norwegian Terrorist Motivated By Growing Extremist Ideology In Europe And The U.S.
Norwegian Attacks Stem From A New Ideological Hate
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