Recent events have brought renewed interest in the modern State of Israel’s origins and legitimacy. Israel is the only country in the world which will suffer a terrorist attack only to be asked what right the country has to exist at all. No one asks if the United States has a right to exist or New Zealand, but Israel is the immediate victim of such rhetoric. When this discussion is raised in the public discourse, it is not uncommon for non-Jews to look with confusion on the Jewish community and our goals. It is a common trope that “a religion does not need a state,” for example.
The State of Israel is thus an enigma to many onlookers who are confused as to why members of a religious community would seek a piece of land to hold sovereignty over. Sadly, most Jews living in the West do not know enough about Judaism to explain to the curious why our community behaves more like a nation than a religion. Even Jews who are knowledgable about religion struggle to grasp and communicate the nature of the Jewish People to outsiders, if they are willing to discuss the matter in the first place.
As Herman Wouk put it, Judaism is both a religion and a nation and the two are inseparable. Baruch Spinoza noted, as had Ibn Ezra before him, that the Torah promises as the ultimate reward for obedience to Hashem (G-d) and the observance of His laws, a piece of land to hold sovereignty over (independence for the Israelites/Jews). If an independent state is the ultimate reward for spiritual dutifulness this explains why Judaism was lost and adrift for centuries only to find direction again as the effort to reestablish Israel as a state was afoot. The religion lends itself to nationality and the nation finds its origins in religion.
The separation of religion and state, of belief and nationality, is a modern phenomenon. Until recently, the cult of Athena was the national tradition of Athens, Hinduism of the Gupta Empire, Taoism of the Tang Dynasty, and Christianity the state religion of the Late Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire). Only in a modern sense have states begun to exist outside of a religious context and even then, most nations have a majority religion that dominates the culture. The United States may be a state without a religion, but it behaves culturally as one would expect a Protestant Christian nation to behave. Even states without “official” religions still behave like states wherein their majority religion is dominant.
If any reading of Jewish scripture lends itself to the establishment of a Jewish state, then belief in Judaism lends itself to Jewish statehood. How can one read or believe in the scriptures and not understand that a state is the essential goal of the entire belief system? The original covenant between Hashem (G-d) and the Yakov (Jacob) involved Hashem promising security, statehood, and general prosperity to Yakov and his descendants forever if they serve Hashem and are His people. Later, the Torah would offer a more complete description of what Hashem requires of the Israelites, that being morality, decency, and dutifulness to our nation which was founded by the covenant with Hashem.
Among Jews, the separation of religion and state became a value very much as it did among Western states in the modern era, except that Jews did not have a state of their own when this shift took place. Given the pervasive maltreatment of Jews around the world it became critical in the mid-Nineteenth Century that Jews seek a secure place to live. The events of the Twentieth Century would only confirm this mission with death on a massive scale. It thus, not only seemed reasonable that Jews establish a state of their own and have the same security that other communities have when they have at least one state generally made up of people from that belief system; but essential to the survival of Jews and of Judaism.
When one encounters Jews in the West one generally encounters one of two stereotypes: a secular Jew who knows little of Jewish religion and tradition and who regards being Jewish as an ethnic label; and a religious Jew (typically dressed in a conspicuous manner) who is clearly dedicated to a firm religious practice. Though more knowledgable about Jewish belief and practice, the religious Jew will be aware of the ethnic attribute of Judaism and the secular Jew will be aware that there are Jews who have religious practices. To the non-Jew this leads to confusion as to what Judaism actually is. The confusion is deepened when various associations are overlayed. It is true, for example, that almost all Jews are Zionist, that is, they support Israel, while only very few oppose Israel. Jews have also been generally affiliated with efforts in the West to spread secularism and reduce the centrality of religion; naturally since this was important to advancing the interests of minuscule Jewish populations living in diaspora in Western countries.
Are Jews a Religion or a Nation?
When one reads Torah as a continuous narrative it becomes very clear that the purpose of the B’reishit (Genesis) is to establish the ethnic and geographic origins of a nation of people. Shemot (Exodus), Vayikra (Leviticus), and Bemidbar (Numbers) provide the foundation legends of this nation and offer its basic laws for governance and conduct. Devarim (Deuteronomy) offers further detail as to the national laws and institutions. A common theme throughout these books is one of dutifulness: if the Israelites are dutiful to Hashem, He will reward them with an independent state wherein they can live by the moral laws Hashem, Himself provided and enjoy a general prosperity. There is no otherworldly reward offered, no promise of eternal life, resurrection, or enlightenment. The existence and perpetuation of the Israelite Nation is the whole point of the Torah.
Thereafter, histories were written and books of the Prophets, poems and prayers were recorded, books of wisdom and lament, but throughout the same theme remains: Israelites must remain loyal to Hashem in order to be rewarded with an independent state and general prosperity. The Prophets warn the people that they are not being properly devoted to Hashem and eventually the northern kingdom of Israel is exiled from their land. The Prophets speak of a coming end times when the southern Kingdom of Yehudah (Judah) will be destroyed and its population exiled to foreign lands if the Israelites/Yehudim cannot return to the proper service of Hashem.
When the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom circa 721 BCE, many of its inhabitants (most of whom had fallen into idolatry) were exiled to other parts of the Assyrian Empire. The remaining Israelites traveled to the Kingdom of Yehudah (Judah) which was itself later conquered and exiled. Israelites are called Jews today because they were the exiles of the Kingdom of Yehudah (Yehudah – Judah – Judea – Jew). Jews today are thus the inheritors of the tradition of the Israelites exiled from their lands two and a half Millennia ago who soon returned to those lands; only to be exiled once again by the Romans centuries later.
Since religion is essential to the identity of Israelites/Jews, the national identity is wrapped up with religious overtones. Nevertheless, as Jews we are more a nation than a religion. Like any nation we have those more devoted to religion and those less so. Like any modern nation we have those who are patriotic, those less so, and of course we have our traitors. It is for this reason that nationality is still at the core of the question: “who is a Jew?” One cannot become a Jew simply by belief, neither can one be removed from the nation simply by being irreligious. A Jew is a Jew whose parents were Jewish, depending upon the Jewish tradition the mother or the father. Talmudic (Rabbinical) Jews switched from patrilineal to matrilineal descent in the Late Roman (Byzantine) Empire because the Romans transmitted nationality by the mother. Karaite Jews hold to the tradition of patrilineal descent which is self-evident in the scriptures. I personally, prefer to think either parent’s lineage is acceptable so long as the individual in question is dedicated to the nation.
Like any nation of people or nation state, new citizens can be naturalized. The process of conversion in Judaism is essentially a naturalization process. Much as one seeking citizenship in a modern nation-state, the prospective citizen must learn about the laws, government, beliefs, culture, and customs of the nation of which they wish to be a citizen. Once accepted by the national authorities duly authorized, the individual takes an oath to become a new citizen. Once a citizen, they enjoy the same rights and privileges of all other citizens as if born to citizenship.
Israel is Essential
The self-reinforcing relationship between the command from Hashem that the Israelites behave morally and that such dutifulness will be rewarded with a state in a particular piece of land means that Israel is not an accident or sideshow of Jewish belief; it is essential to it. Without a state of our own we Jews cannot be truly moral people. We must live according to our own moral standards, those given by the highest authority, and be judged by our fellow Israelites according to these moral laws. When combined with the obvious truth that Jews can never truly be safe living among other peoples without at least a state of our own, the necessity of Israel is evident. Even those Jews continuing to live in diaspora today have a state in which to take refuge should things go amiss. The Torah can be fulfilled only when it is the constitution and basis for a nation of Jews living in the promised land.
Silver Trumpets 