Rabbi Shlomo Avineris Head of Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim.
Question:
What is the difference in worldview between the Haredim and the Religious Zionists that results in their differing halakhic rulings regarding the mitzvot of settling the Land today and having a Medinah before Mashiach comes?
Answer:
The Torah forbids us to eat from the new grain before the waving of the Omer on Pesach (Vayikra 23:15). As the Talmud states in Kiddushin 38b: “Chadash [new grain from the new crop] is prohibited by the Torah." The Chatam Sofer used this dictum as a metaphor to express his opposition to changes and to modernism within traditional Judaism (“Shut Chatam Sofer" 1:28,148, 181, etc.). Amongst the Haredim, “Chadash is prohibited by the Torah" has become the defining principle of their approach.
For example, what was “innovative" about HaGaon HaRav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv was that he never innovated anything: not in approaches to Torah learning and not in his halachic rulings. He had absolute loyalty to tradition. He received the word of Hashem, “Moshe received the Torah from Sinai" (Avot 1:1), and he passed it on to the next generation in the same format, “handing it down to Yeshoshua" (ibid.), and so forth.
Due to present and past attacks against traditional Judaism from all directions, the Haredi world is by nature conservative, in order to avoid gradual spiritual erosion, as it says “Strip her to her very foundations!" (Tehillim 137:7). That is why they opposed collaborating with the Zionists regarding the establishment of the State and regarding army service. “Chadash is prohibited by the Torah."
The Yeshiva World focuses on one thing: Torah learning. Following the terrible destruction of European Torah world, today’s Haredim are making a monumental effort to build the world of Torah anew. To whatever extent they do collaborate with the State of Israel, it is for the purpose of advancing that goal.
Thanks to this outlook, the Haredi Torah world is flourishing more successfully than it had throughout the Exile.
HaRav Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook likewise explains that we relate with suspicion to anything new. To make what is new permissible, the way the Pesach Omer makes new grain permissible outside the Temple, and the way the Shavuot wheat offering makes it permissible in the Temple, we need to base the new on the content of the old. The foundation which makes the new permissible is the old foundation, the light “in which G-d enveloped Himself, causing His majestic luster to shine from one end of the world to the other" (Bereshit Rabbah 3:4). This ancient light, stored away in the soul of Israel, will cause a new light to shine for us, a light that will illuminate Zion (Ma’amarei Ha-Re’eiyah, p. 182). In other words, there are some things that were forgotten over the course of the Exile, and “having once been forgotten, they are now being institutionalized once more" (Shabbat 104a and elsewhere). When we are forced to innovate, we do so using old content, as Rashi says, quoting our Sages on Devarim 11:13: “If you heed the old teachings, you will likewise heed the new teachings." In order for the new to be viable, it must be attached to the old, and this is accomplished through in depth study (see “Ikvei Ha-Tzon" by Rabbi Kook, p. 107).
For example: HaGaon HaRav Shlomo Goren, who established the laws of the Israel Defense Forces, delved into the old teachings in order to create the IDF in keeping with Torah laws that had been temporarily eclipsed because of their lack of application in the Diaspora. Those foundations were hidden away and Rav Goren reestablished them. Rabbi Kook likewise said, “The old shall be renewed and the new shall be sanctified" (Igrot Ha-Re’eiyah Vol. 1, p. 214).
At the Giving of the Torah, the Jews said, “Everything G-d has spoken we shall do and obey" (Shemot 24:7). We shall do everything now and we shall do everything in future times as well. The Torah contains several laws pertaining to the Israelite army (see the Torah portion K’Taze, “When you set off to war…). Obviously, when we live as a minority in a foreign land we cannot have a Jewish army of our own. But when we renew Jewish Sovereignty over Eretz Yisrael the laws pertaining to our army and government and justice system and unique agricultural laws, etc., return as well. The foundations of the State of Israel are written in the Torah. Thus the conquest of Eretz Yisrael and the mitzvah to place it under the rule of a Jewish government are not innovations invented by the modern-day Zionists, but rather foundations of the Torah that have returned to life with the Revival of the Israelite Nation in Israel. Thus, the old renders the new permissible.
Thanks to this outlook, the National Religious Torah world is burgeoning, returning to its roots from before the Exile.
The controversy between the Haredi approach and the Religious Zionists is about the means, not the goal. There is no essential difference regarding the goal. Everyone wants the entire Jewish People to settle in Eretz Yisrael. Everyone wants there to be a Jewish State and a Jewish army. Everyone wants the State to be holy, and everyone wants the Nation that dwells in Zion to act in a holy fashion. There is no argument over these points. The difference is only over the pathway that will take us there, the means to achieving the ends. Should we first move to Israel or should we first repent in the Diaspora and only then move to Israel? Should we collaborate with the re-establishment of the Jewish State or not? Should we presently serve in the army, or not?
The argument is an internal argument, within the family, like the arguments between Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon and between Rashi and Tosafot. There is an argument between the two camps, but we share the same goal. The Haredim bring proofs from the Torah to back up their approach and we argue that those proofs are incorrect, and vice versa. The two worlds are headed in the same direction guided by the “Shulchan Aruch," the code of Jewish law. There are not two codes of Jewish law, one for the Haredim and one for the National Religious. HaRav Tzvi Yehudah Kook put it this way: “This argument is within the general camp. The spiritual camp consists of the G-d fearing, as it says, ‘I am a companion to all who fear You’ (Tehillim 119:63)."
It should be noted that the Haredi halachic authorities in Israel are now likewise engaged in dealing with the laws affecting settling the Land, building a state and an army, for they, too, consciously or not, are part of the Nation’s Rebirth in its Land.
With G-d’s help, the two worlds will ultimately become one.
(From the book, “Torat Eretz Yisrael Anthology." Translation by Rabbi Modechai Tzion.)