Today, the 10th of Iyar, is the day on which Theodor Herzl was born. To a large measure, Herzl was the one who raised the banner of Israel’s national awakening, the return to Zion, and the settlement of the Land. Herzl represented national Zionism - the vision to establish a State. Baron Rothschild, on the other hand, embodied practical Zionism, helping the pioneers by financing and overseeing the establishment of new and existing settlements. He told Herzl: “What you’re doing is a waste of time, just empty talk.” Herzl replied to Baron Rothschild: “What you’re doing is a waste of time; settling here and there when we need a fully developed State.”
Both approaches are the living words of God.
There are many false claims made about Herzl. A well-researched book, Herzl: A New Revival by Dr. Yitzhak Weiss, reveals many little-known truths about him. Often the Haredi community looks askance upon Religious Zionism for its appreciation of Herzl’s dedication to the Nation and his bold Zionist endeavors. Therefore some clarification is in order.
Falsehood #1
Herzl devised a plan to convert the entire Jewish people to Christianity. Nonsense. Where is this plan? When did he try to convert anyone? When did he tell anyone such a thing? On the contrary, as a young man, he once wrote in his diary: “Master of the Universe, why don’t You redeem the Jewish people? And if You don’t redeem them, then we’ll convert.” Is that called a plan? Three words, that’s all! Without his diary, we wouldn’t even know this.
It is interesting to note that when he met with the Pope he refused to kiss his hand. The Pope told him that he would do everything to obstruct the establishment of the Jewish State.
Falsehood #2
This is not a severe lie, but it is still incorrect. The classic explanation of Herzl’s Zionist awakening is that he was inspired by the Dreyfus Affair, a disgusting case of French antisemitism which attracted widespread media attention. It’s not true. Check his diary and the dates, and you’ll see that his interest in Zionism had started much earlier. It’s likely that the Dreyfus Affair helped to formalize his thoughts. And even if the Dreyfus Affair sparked his motivation to act, that’s also acceptable. The main point is that Herzl knew that a place called Eretz Yisrael existed before Dreyfus was brought to trial.
Falsehood #3
Herzl was a heretic. Not true - he wasn’t a heretic; he was a believer. He wasn’t religious, but he was a man of faith. You can see it in his diary. He wrote: “Our nation is only a nation through its faith,” a phrase that comes from Rabbi Saadia Gaon. These are not the words of a heretic. He also wrote: “The return to Judaism precedes the return to the Land of Israel.”
Rabbi Kook, of blessed memory, spoke at length about Herzl at a eulogy ceremony in Jerusalem, although in a round-about fashion in order not to anger the Haredi community. Did Rabbi Kook say that Herzl was the Mashiach son of Joseph? No - he implied he was a spark, a bechina (aspect) of Mashiach son of Joseph. Mashiach ben Yosef represents the national, practical side of Mashiach while Mashiach the son of David (Mashiach ben David) is the sanctified, spiritual side.
According to Maimonides (Rambam), there aren’t two messiahs - they’re one and the same. Does the Rambam disagree with the Talmud which says there are two? No, he explains the matter like countless other Talmudic discussions which don’t strictly divide them. Even according to Rabbi Kook, it’s not clear there are two different people, but one messiah with two aspects. We need both nationalism and spirituality to complete the Israelite Nation.
Herzl died young and ill. He was attacked from both directions, the haredim because he wasn’t religious; and the secular liberals because he wanted to establish an independent Jewish State while they wanted to assimilate in the gentile countries where they lived. With his appreciation for humor he said: “What a wonderful thing. I succeeded in uniting the haredi and the secular - against me.”
Even today, the haredim claim he wasn’t a believer and wasn’t one of theirs, and the secular say that he was a believer and thus not one of theirs.
Having read his writings and literature about him, I conclude that Herzl was a believer.
Many outstanding Rabbis appreciated his contribution to Am Yisrael. When Herzl visited Vilna, Rabbi Shlomo HaCohen received him warmly. Rabbi Kalfon Moshe HaCohen, the Rabbi of Djerba, admired Herzl, as recorded in the book Atchalta Hi. Rabbi Reines expressed words of praise about him. Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook even had Herzl’s picture in his study, next to the Chafetz Chaim’s.
Many other important Rabbis struggled with Herzl because they expected that Israel’s Redemption would come about all at once in a completely holy fashion. The Netziv, Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, the Rosh Yeshiva of Volozhin, explains this, both in his book’s Achrit MiReshit and in Ha’amek Davar in regard to Moshe Rabbeinu:
Moshe maintained that the Jews in Mitzrayim would not believe that Hashem had sent him to redeem them. Why wouldn’t they believe he was the redeemer? After all, that’s what they were hoping for! The answer is that while they believed a redeemer would come, Moshe was not the figure they expected. In Egypt, Moshe grew up in the palace of the Pharaoh. Throughout his youth he didn’t mingle among the people. He dressed like an Egyptian and spoke fluent Egyptian. Even the daughters of Yitro said, “An Egyptian saved us.” Moshe didn’t seem like one of their own. He wasn’t “yeshivish.” That’s why Moses said, “They won’t believe me.” And Hashem responded, “Go - they will believe you.”
And indeed, he went and they believed. The Netziv teaches: when the Redemption comes, don’t say it’s not Redemption just because it doesn’t look like Redemption. The Rambam writes that no one knows how the events concerning the Mashiach’s coming will unfold until they unfold, and it doesn’t even matter how they unfold. It doesn’t matter if he has a white donkey, or one with a hundred shades which are not exactly white - it’s a metaphor.
What’s certain is that he’ll wear khaki, because he’ll fight wars, and you can’t go to war in white clothes. And when he’s dressed in khaki, it will bother some people, in the same disbelieving fashion that many people look upon the beginnings of our Redemption today.
Rabbi Sha’ar Yishuv HaCohen was married in military uniform. Many Torah scholars were surprised. HaRav Tzvi Yehuda said: “What do you prefer - that he wear a shtreimel, which is Russian garb, or a uniform which is Israeli?
In short: don’t decide in advance how things will be, because they might be different. If you decide in advance how it should be, when it actually happens, you might miss it. HaRav Tzvi Yehuda Kook wrote: “Herzl is the great child who returned to us from among the nations, full of strength and precious longing… a national figure expressing our aspirations… he himself felt that ‘the return to Judaism precedes the return to the Jewish State.’ He was a special Divine messenger for national revival. Hashem chooses whom He wants to choose.”
Do we need to fear Herzl because he wanted to create something not aligned with Torah? No need for fear. Also, we don’t claim that everything he said is holy and that we’ll follow him. No one is saying to follow him. We take the positive and don’t allow the negative to prejudice our thinking completely.
Even though Bar Kochva was not a yeshiva student, Rabbi Akiva saw him to be a Divine messenger for raising the national banner and he followed him until things didn’t work out. Cyrus is another example. He too was a messenger of God, as it says: “Thus said the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus” (Isaiah 45). He had a messianic spark. Now, are we going to follow Cyrus, who was a pagan king? He was a thousand times worse than Herzl! But no one said to follow him - only that he was God’s messenger. The difference is that Herzl knew he was God’s messenger while Cyrus didn’t.
Concerning the doings of Cyrus, it is clear that God orchestrated everything. “Besides Me, there is no God… I am the Lord and there is no other…” In effect, Hashem lets us know that He made Cyrus do what he did. All the salvation Cyrus brought - it was really Hashem incognito. But some people didn’t like that. And God says to them: “Shall the clay say to the potter, What are you doing?” You’re going to tell Me what to do? You’re telling Me that My work has no hands or feet? “Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What will you beget?’ or to a woman, ‘What will you bear?’” You’re demanding signs from Me? For your information, “I made the earth…” Were you here to guide Me when I founded the earth and the heavens? And therefore, “He shall build My city,” says the Lord of Hosts. The great wonder is that this was written before Cyrus lived, not after — hundreds of years before. (That’s why skeptics at the university claim there were two Isaiahs - one from the time of Cyrus and one from the time of Jotham and Ahaz.)
Additionally, sometimes Isaiah speaks about peace - that’s the “Peace Now” Isaiah - and sometimes he speaks about war - that’s the “Kahane” Isaiah. And there’s an Isaiah of Shabbat observance and an Isaiah of social justice. And so critics who don’t like how some things come to pass in the Bible come up with eleven Isaiahs. As for Isaiah’s opinion, surely he would say: “Would that all the Lord’s people were Isaiahs.” But how did he speak about something two centuries ahead of its happening? Because he was a prophet. And the professors at the university say: “If we acknowledge prophecy, then where will we be?”
In the end, in the time of Isaiah most Jews didn’t ascend to the Land. Isaiah announced in advance that it was God’s will, and still they didn’t come. They wanted Cyrus to be a bearded man, etc.
Did Herzl say that people with beards and side locks would be second-class citizens? Yes. It is not hard to understand why. We know that people with beards and side locks can make life difficult. Herzl was afraid of these people who obstructed every initiative. They didn’t let him build. They vilified him then and they still do today.
But so what if there are people who reject Herzl and curse at the sound of his name. Does that mean that we have to bury our heads in the sand and pretend not to see the great advances he made towards the ingathering and the rebuilding of our Nation in our eternal Homeland – things we have prayed for generations on end? Are we Herzl’s devotees? No. Are we fans of his every word? No. We only said that he was a believer. Not that he believed in every letter of the Torah - but a believer nonetheless. That’s all we said: he believed.
Herzl wasn’t an evil Christian apostate, nor should he be appointed Chief Rabbi of Israel. There’s a middle ground.
We need to tell the truth about who Herzl was. And even without calling him a believer, there’s no requirement for him to have been a believer in order to be God’s messenger. Cyrus didn’t believe at all and was a messenger. But we need to tell the truth about him. And the truth is: he was a believer and that motivated his actions. At the conclusion of his novel Altneuland, Herzl has a character declare that the one who established the State is “Elokim.” That’s how he ends the book.