Prof. Ben Shlomo Z"L

(Israelnationalnews.com) Prof. Yosef ben-Shlomo, who died over the weekend, was one of the most interesting intellectuals in Israel. 

In a country where being a professor is almost synonymous with being a leftist pinhead, Ben-Shlomo was one of the most interesting and most entertaining of the counter-exceptions. Born in Krakow, he had been a professor of philosophy at Tel Aviv University, and after he retired virtually the entire philosophy department at TAU was taken over by far-leftist anti-Zionists, becoming politically one of the worst academic departments in all of Israel.

Ben-Shlomo, while not religious himself as an adult, was a student of Gershom Sholem, wrote about Sholem, and also wrote extensively about Rabbi Kook (the intellectual godfather of religious Zionism).  While Ben-Shlomo had been a leftist before the Six Day War, thereafter he found himself in the position of arguably the leading anti-Left intellectual in Israel.  He often appeared on television and in the rest of the media.  Haaretz dubbed him the "Yishayahu Leibowitz of the Right", referring to the far-Left but extremely religious anti-Zionist professor of philosophy and chemistry at the Hebrew University, who died several years ago.  While Leibowitz was a total moonbat politically, denouncing Zionists as "Judeo-Nazis", his writings about rabbinic sources and the Torah portions are insightful and deep, and frankly they are part of my regular study tools.  Ben-Shlomo, who was something of a prophet of secularism and was an admirer of Spinoza, was completely on the mark politically when it came to national issues.  He also was a sharp critic of the emerging emptiness of secularist culture in Israel.  At the same time, he endorsed the mainly-religious Gush Emunim movement that built settlements.  After Oslo, he emerged as one of the most militant opponents of the "peace process".  He should have won the Israel Prize many times over, but the prize is usually reserved for far-leftists (like Shulamit Aloni and Yigal Tomarkin).