Judaism is Not a Religion Part 2

What I am about to write may be uncomfortable for some to read. It is surely very uncomfortable for me to write. However, in order for us to understand our current and future situation, I have to put this out there. I do apologize if some people are hurt from my words in any way; it is truly not my intent. To be sure, everything I am about to write is about me more than anyone else. When I engage in posts such as the one below I am more often than not referring to myself. All that being said please stay with me, regardless. I promise there is a payoff for all of us.

As I wrote previously here https://haroldkatz1.substack.com/p/judaism-in-not-a-religion-part-one the people of Israel and Torah are inseparable. There is no people without Torah and no Torah without the Jewish people. But what of the land of Israel which the nation has been praying to return to three times a day for more than two millennia?

“Moshe commanded us the Torah, a heritage/inheritance (Morasha)of the congregation of Jacob” (Deuteronomy 33:4)

And I will give it to you as a heritage/inheritance. (Morasha) (Exodus 6:8)

By virtue of the Torah using the same word in both verses, Morasha, heritage/inheritance, as it relates to Torah and the land, our sages of blessed memory, taught us that Torah and the land of Israel are equal and inseparable. Jews who want to argue you can have one without the other are simply ignorant of Torah, the people and the land. It really is that simple.

In the mid to late 19th and early 20th century Reform Judaism removed any connection between Judaism and the Land of Israel essentially arguing Judaism is a universal “religion” without any connection to a specific place. Tanach, of course, argued just the opposite, but we will visit that soon enough. Other Jews who wanted nothing to do with any organized “religion” argued that joining the “bund” or other movements such as the various Jewish labor movements for example, called for total integration with our diaspora neighbors and rejected the land of Israel and Torah outright. Soon enough, the last remnants of those movements died out either through assimilation or lack of interest. To combat the problem as it affected the reform movement, they twisted themselves into knots to make room for patralineal descent which still is clearly against Jewish law, but the leadership argued it had to be done to stem the tide of overwhelming assimilation. I have addressed this issue somewhat here https://haroldkatz1.substack.com/p/the-clock-is-ticking-part-1 and don’t want to go too far astray. It can be argued, and I think rather fairly, that the movements that worked hard to separate both Torah from “Judaism” and the land, spawned the current “as a jew, jew” crisis we are living through in our day. Like it or not, those who made that separation are now finding themselves struggling with the youths who grew up in their temples and now endorse and participate in free-palestine movements across colleges, universities and in the streets across the globe. Scores of Jews rejecting the very heart and soul of Judaism. The fact remains, regardless of the Reform movements stance, there is no Judaism without Torah and the Land of Israel. Of the 613 commandments found in the Torah, anywhere from 26 to 37 of them are land specific ranging from the resting of the land, Shmittah, to giving and leaving crops for the poor. It is indisputable that Judaism cannot be split from the land. The movements and philosophies that cheat their followers of their inheritance was a grave error and the entire Jewish world is paying for that mistake.

Rabbi Yissachar Shlomo Tachtel was a chassid of Munkatch and vehemently against the zionist movement. His town was invaded by the nazis in the late 1930’s and along with his wife and children hid in the attic of a local study hall in Czechoslovakia to escape capture. While in hiding he made a vow to write a book in honor of the land of Israel in order that every Jew would aspire to move to the land. Without any reference materials he began writing it in 1942 while hiding in that attic. Over the next twelve months he traveled from various places to avoid capture and completed the book almost a year later. The Rabbi perished on his way to the Mauthausen concentration camp in January 1945.

In his outstanding work called Eim Habonim Semeichah, the Rabbi writes something which we all need to pay attention to, because understanding this may hold the key to rectifying the schisms and fixing the unity of the collective which I wrote about in teh link provided above. “It is well known that the halachic authorities maintain that a mitzvah which involves an action does not require specific intent. The Rashba (Yevamot 103b) writes that a mitzvah whose act is irrevocable is valid even if it is accompanied by a transgression (cv). The transgression does not harm the mitzvah.” (pp 84-85).

Rabbi Tachtel then continues: “Today’s pioneers (1930’s & 1940’s before the founding of the state) have caused the settlement (the land of Israel) to grow and expand, and it is impossible to retract or negate their actions for we benefit from them. Therefore, even if transgressions were committed in the process, the mitzvah was still fulfilled in all its strength and vigor in both revealed and esoteric sense…This is true even if they act sinfully and even if they do not fulfill G-d’s will when it comes to other mitzvot in the Torah.”

It cannot be ignored just how many lives were lost because of anti-zionist religious movements and their disdain for the early non-religious builders of the land. That is exactly who the Rabbi is referring to. “The leaders should have become involved in this issue and taught the Children of Israel to go to the holy land in the spirit of Torah. Where would we be now had this movement received approval of the the tzaddikim (righteous individuals) and G-d-fearing Jews of the previous generation and of the present? How many thousands of Jewish souls would have been saved in this way?” (page 24)

I want to reiterate as I have done in the past that I was not and will never be in the shoes of the holy people who answered their followers that it would better they should stay in Europe at the cost of their lives than flee to safety in both America or Israel. I understand the challenges they were up against and do not blame them for any of the impossible decisions that were made under the circumstances they were living through. It is clear to me, with 20/20 hindsight, that they were mistaken. The expanse of Torah Study and mitzvah observance in both countries during the end latter years of the 20th and now 21st century is evidence of that. But that was then. We live in a very different world today and what has been happening is truly heartbreaking. The anti-zionist religious war against the pre-state settlers is over. To continue to beat that tired drum is exhausting and flies in the face of what Rabbi Tachtel quoted above. In fact, if the best thing you can say about your institutions is that they are fighting against their fellow Jews, then you don’t have the institution you proclaim to have.

There is a talmudic idea which teaches, “what starts without intention will come to be with intention. Rav said: A person should always engage in Torah study and performance of mitzvot, even if he does so not for their own sake, as through the performance of mitzvot not for their own sake, one gains understanding and comes to perform them for their own sake.” (Pesachim 50B) Since when has it been a righteous ideal to ignore this talmudic dictum? Since when has it become courageous to disparage those who came before you and built the land into its current miraculous state with obvious help from Hashem? What may have started without intention has surely grown into intention. How are we missing this? More than that, how can a Jew who loves G-d and values His Torah talk disparagingly about the land and the people in it? Conversely, how can a Jew who professes to have and care about Jewish values, show outright disgust for Torah study? I’m not going to address the army issue or any other current political crises, real or imagined. There are plenty of others who will do that. I am talking about finding the essence of our core values and what it is we exactly believe in. Do we really believe what we say we believe? And if we do, how do we live those values, or do we? Do our daily actions endorse our beliefs or do they contradict them? No matter how you slice it, the number one underlying priority in all of Torah and Tanach is the unity of the Jewish people. Love for your fellow Jew and love for G-d and His land. Hashem makes no qualms about it. He has a favorite and He made sure everyone knew who and what that was.

When I was coaching in America I was privileged to meet some really great people from all walks of life. One of them was a man named Tony Rice, who was the starting quarterback at Notre Dame under the great football coach Lou Holtz. Tony told me no matter the outcome, his coach used to ask “Now what?” He explained to me the idea behind the question. So we won a game, now what are we going to do? Rest on that or build on it? So we lost a game. Now what? Are we going to correct our mistakes and fix it or are we going to wallow in our self-pity and ignore it? Now what? I, of course, stole that and would use that often when addressing my own teams. I think the time has come to apply it to our people.

Now what?

Are we going to continue to sew divisions amongst our brothers? Are we going to continue to follow those who want nothing more than the expansion of their own power at the expense of the collective?

Now what?

Are we going to continue to call each other names and denigrate our fellow Jews? Are we going to hunker down in the safety of our self constructed bubbles to generate applause and affirmation to everything we say to the detriment of our people?

Now what?

Or are we finally going to look around and realize we truly are a nation that dwells alone and that fighting against each other is as counterproductive as anything else we could ever do?

Will we finally come to terms because of our situation in the world all we really have are each other and Our Father in Heaven? Will we finally understand our salvation has not yet come precisely because we have not been able to figure out how to get along?

I understand this is a theme I keep coming back to, but it has to end. When will we say enough is enough? When will we stop giving credibility to those who have proven time and again they don’t deserve any? When will we grow up? Take a good look around. How has it been working for us? Some might say we have done pretty well for ourselves. The truth is we have indeed overcome odds that are incalculable through our survival and including building a state which has turned into a modern day economic and military power. We must thank Hashem for not only keeping His promises and not forsaking us, but for granting us the kindness and mercy for all of these things to happen under His watchful “eye.” For we have been given “a land which the L-RD your G-d cares for; the eyes of the L-RD your G-d are always upon it, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year. (Deuteronomy 11:12) And yet even with all those things, we are still here. Half the Jews in the world are still living in an ever growing dangerous diaspora and we continue to bicker and moan like five year olds. It is not a race or a contest. When it comes to the Jewish people, we either all win or we all lose. Of course, we can do what we always have done; point fingers and blame someone else. I had a teacher once tell me when you point one at another, you still have four pointing back at yourself.

Now What?

The message of the Torah is indisputable. The people, the Torah and the land are Judaism and cannot be separated from each other. Full disclosure, I have not always believed this. I grew up in a yeshiva system which barely spoke about the land at all except when learning a verse from Torah or a subject matter in the Talmud. Other than that, the land of Israel was something “others” cared about. It took me many decades to overcome the messages I received in my youth. Thank G-d I have been blessed with the ability to think for myself and while I took a long time to get here, I am the sum of my experiences. I don’t apologize for where I am in my life nor do I hold any blame to those who are in a different place than I. I know the difficulties and all the complexities; I truly have been there and done that. Maybe it was because I was denied it in my formative years, that my feelings of love for the land of Israel and the Jewish people are as passionate as they are. I don’t really know. However, what I am sure of is Judaism is not a religion. Judaism is a people, a land and its Torah. Judaism is a living breathing testament to the G-d of Israel who has watched over all three with meticulous care. Judaism is the original all others copied from. Judaism was the foundation of the most benevolent and just societies in world history and remains so today. Most of all, Judaism has kept a small people tied together by its levant DNA who have been scattered across continents by force and yet somehow retained the very same veracity for all three of the things that define the very essence of the word.

More than anything else, I could not be any prouder to be a part of it.