Thanking Saul, Supporting David, Paving the Way for Solomon.

The three kings and the relationships between them

  1. The three kings and the relationships between them

As we have demonstrated, the ancient Jewish state has passed through three stages in its development. Each of these stages had a distinct agenda and had accomplished distinct goals while building upon the accomplishments of the previous phase.

In the first phase, King Saul successfully fought with Israel’s enemies, and built the state. In the second phase, King David linked the life of the nation to Divine Providence. In the third phase, King Solomon carried out the national mission in order to spread the Light of God to the peoples of the world.

During the first phase, the emerging nation did not yet need the Temple. As part of the spiritual revival of the nation during the second phase, the Temple was conceived by David but not yet built. Finally, during the third phase, the Temple was erected to represent the Divine among the nations.

This is summarized in the following table:

 

The king and corresponding messianic stage The king’s priorities The king’s attitude toward the Temple
Saul — Mashiach ben Yoseph Normalization and security No clearly defined attitude
David — Mashiach ben Yishai/Peretz/Yehuda Spiritual revival, strengthening connection to God King David was eager to build the Temple, but the nation and the king were not prepared yet.
Solomon — Mashiach ben David Spreading Torah’s faith among the nations King Solomon has built the Temple

Each phase of this process is built upon the foundation laid down during the previous phase. King David was able to base the spiritual revival of the people on the solid national foundation built by King Saul, and King Solomon was able to carry out his mission of spreading faith in one God by building on the spirituality of the nation developed by King David. We can symbolically view this as a pyramid of three concentric circles, one on top of the other: from state — to the city — to the central building. I.e., from the State of the Holy People of Saul — to the Holy City of David — to the Holy Temple of Solomon.

The transition between phases required a considerable shift in the priorities and policies of the kingdom — from national security to the people’s spirituality to a global mission. Such sharp turns cannot happen without increasing tensions between the outgoing and forthcoming kings. Each king had an uneasy relationship with his successor, was reluctant to recognize his heir, and sometimes even attacked him. King Saul was seeking to destroy David. And King David did not initiate the inauguration of his son Solomon to succeed him, until the conflict with Adonija erupted and David was forced to do it by Bathsheba and the prophet Nathan[4].

  1. The three stages in development of the Kingdom of Israel and their connection to the ongoing Geula in modern Israel

Based on our discussion of the three kings and the vision of Rav Kook, who established the connection between the Zionist movement and the messianic process and identified the movement initiated by Theodor Herzl as MBY, we can relate the history of modern Israel to the ancient Jewish state and its kings. The two main goals of Zionism set by Theodor Herzl — normalization and protection of the Jewish people — have been realized in today’s State of Israel. In terms of the ancient Jewish kingdom and the messianic process, the present moment corresponds to the completion of the first phase of redemption – the reign of King Saul, or MBY.

The next stage in the messianic process is the addition of a religious-spiritual level to the regular state life. In other words, recognition that the Jewish State is a higher level of dialogue of the Jewish people with God, as it was in ancient Israel when King David replaced King Saul. There is one movement in Israel today which aims to do precisely this. It is the Religious Zionist movement. Its impact can be seen in all aspects of life of the State of Israel – in government, in economy, in agriculture, in science, in serving in the army. One of the aspects, which is particularly based on ideology of Religious Zionism and distinct for this movement is settlement in Judea and Samaria.

In this context, we can see remarkable parallels in the confrontation between Religious Zionists and settlement movement, the emerging King David, and the “classic Zionists” in Israel, the outgoing King Saul. As Saul feared that David was coming to replace him as the king of Israel and tried to eliminate his successor, the old Zionist elite is confronting the settlement movement and attempting to discredit and eliminate it. And as Saul’s pursuit of David was ultimately unsuccessful because it was interrupted by the invasion of the Philistine armies, the attempts of the old Zionist elites to tear down the settlement movement are also unsuccessful because of the mounting national security issues with Palestinian Arabs. Importantly, as David himself did not fight against Saul and revered him as the King of Israel, the Religious Zionists respect and support the ideals of the Zionism of Herzl, whose major goal was the creation of the state and the security of the nation.

Now we can answer the question we posed in the beginning of this article: Where, in which phase of the redemption process, are we in the modern State of Israel now? — We are in the transition period between the two phases of the messianic process: between the reign of Saul, MBY, the secular Zionism of Theodor Herzl — and the reign of David, the interim messiah of spiritual revival of the nation, religious Zionism of settlements. The third phase — the reign of Solomon, the era of MBD — is still beyond the horizon.

  1. Two levels: real politics and future goals

What should we do now in the transitional period between King Saul and King David?

In the beginning of the twentieth century, Rav Kook called upon religious Jews, at the level of real politics, to support secular Zionism, his practical work aimed at King Saul’s priorities, normalization and protection of the nation.        At the same time, Rav Kook was anticipating King David and was setting goals for the future work. In 1924, he established the Central Universal Yeshiva (Mercaz ha-Rav) in Jerusalem for the education of the next generation of national spiritual leaders. They would have to prepare the political change of national priorities from the building of the Jewish state as a safe haven for Jews to the spiritual revival of the people in the State of Israel. The new leadership would welcome King David and lay the groundwork for King Solomon — the forthcoming MBD.

Today, while engaging, at the level of real politics, in the practical work of the settlement movement aimed at King David’s priorities, the spiritual revival of the nation – the present generation of Religious Zionist leaders should also focus on future changes that will usher in the reign of King Solomon, the era of MBD.

The main difference between King David and King Solomon is in the scope of their mission. While David pursues national goals, Solomon’s agenda is universal. David seeks the spiritual revival of the Jewish people and therefore makes Jerusalem, the political center of the nation, the focal point of the national religion. Solomon seeks the spiritual transformation of Humanity on a global scale and therefore makes Jerusalem, the Jewish spiritual center, the focal point of Humanity’s connection to the God of Judaism, so that “all the families of the Earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3).

To prepare for the reign of King Solomon attention should be paid to making the Divine spirit accessible to the nations of the world.

  1. Three factions within the Jewish people

Rav Kook argued that the Jewish people, according to their cultural values, are divided into three ideological camps: these correspond to those focused on God (Religious), those focused on nationhood (Zionistic) and those focused on Humanity (Universal). In Rav Kook’s opinion, the Judaism of the future will be a synthesis of all three ideologies (Shmonah Kvatzim 3:1). The synthesis goes through the three phases of the Redemption described in this article.

In the first phase, the reign of King Saul, secular Zionism realized the national ideal by establishing the Jewish state. In the second phase, the reign of King David, national and religious ideals are integrated. In the third phase, the reign of King Solomon, the ideals of national-religious Zionism

are combined with universal values. Thus, the synthesis of all three ideologies would be complete in Universal Religious Zionism.

(It should be noted that these two types of “new” ideals, national and universal, which at first seem to be opposed to Judaism, are in fact rooted in it. In the process of this integration, “the introduction of alien ideals into Judaism” does not occur at all – but the inner content of Judaism is revealed. Integration occurs through the fact that important parts of Jewish teaching, which were always contained in it but were not actualized in the past centuries, now grow from their own Judaic roots).

However today, as well as a hundred years ago when Rav Kook began to talk about this, the Universalist faction is still reluctant to embrace both religion and national ideals, seeing them as incompatible with universal human values, so a wide gap still exists between the Universalist camp and the Religious Zionist camp. Bridging this gap through integration of universal values into the Religious Zionist ideology would bring the reign of King Solomon closer and usher in the era of MBD.

  1. Integration of universal human values

So, the current goal of Religious Zionism is to integrate such essential aspects of modern life as science, technology, arts, democracy, human rights, feminism and many others. However, we should not embrace all modern values wholesale. We ought to find the best way to frame their adaptation in accordance with Jewish tradition and the methodology of Rav Kook without compromising the national and orthodox religious elements of Religious Zionism.

It is not an easy task. A century ago, many influential orthodox rabbis argued that there was neither a way nor a need for Judaism to embrace national Zionist ideals. But today these ideals coexist well in mass religious Zionism, which has become an important part of Israel’s spectrum.

Now, the time has come for Religious Zionism to embrace universal human values in order to develop and promote the universal Judaism, the one which unites traditional Orthodox, national and universal values. We should not rush and welcome all universal human values with open arms, but we should proceed carefully, seeking and adopting in each value only that part of it, which we define as “sparks of Divine Light.”

Religious Zionists should lead this effort to realize the destiny of Judaism when for all nations “Teaching will go out from Zion; and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3). The ideals of Judaism will become universal values and where Israel and Jerusalem will become the global spiritual center.

Of course, only a part of the religious Zionists is ready to get involved in this process. Just like a century ago, when the orthodox world was split into a small group of pro-Zionists, a relatively small group of anti-Zionists and the majority who did not have their position and were disoriented – today religious Zionism are split into Hardal (Haredi Zionists), modernists and centrists. But the modernists in religious Zionism today have no less strength and supporters than were the supporters of Zionism among the Orthodox a century ago. Therefore, I hope that in the coming decades we will see an active formation of Orthodox Universal Judaism.

The universalist approach is being formed primarily as a response to a request for a religious (and not only pragmatic) meaning of science, technology, art, ecology, and contemporary social problems.  An important contribution to this is also made by the Noahide Movement (Bnei Noah), i.e. “non-Jews professing Judaism” – because presence of such a movement, teaching such people and taking into account their needs greatly strengthens the universalist elements in Judaism itself.

For many centuries in exile, the Jewish people survived like the “dry bones” from Ezekiel’s vision. Judaism supported them as the exclusive Jewish religion, alien to the rest of the world. Now, as the people’s body is revived from the bones in modern Israel, and God is about to “make breath enter” the body (Ezekiel 37:5), the breath will come “from the four winds” (Ezekiel 37:9), that is, from around the world.

Once again, it needs to be emphasized that we have no intention whatsoever of bringing into Judaism values which are foreign to it. Rather, we believe that universal values are contained in the Torah itself and our goal is only to reveal them. Historically, the Torah has been the source of many universal values for humanity. In the period of Exile, Judaism had to “maintain a low profile” in order to fit into the “four cubits of Halacha” and fight for basic survival. In order to do so, Judaism had to temporarily reject nationalistic values (such as an independent State and everything related to it) and universal values (which include science, art, economy and the building of society, addressing all of humanity). Universal values tend to pull a person into the big world. In order to survive in the Diaspora, a purposeful ideological ghetto was created along with a lack of interest about the problems of the “outside world”. Otherwise, the most talented Jews would abandon Judaism, leaving it in favor of the outside world, thus the Jewish people would lose them and their potential contributions[5].

  1. Longing for the Temple

During the reign of King Saul, the building of the Temple was not on the list of national priorities in the Jewish kingdom. Likewise, in the twentieth century, in the heyday of secular Zionism, the Temple did not play any role in the Israeli life. When the Israeli army captured the Temple Mount in 1967, Chief Rabbinate issued an official religious ban to ascend to the Temple Mount.

During the reign of King David, the Temple was conceived and considered a top national priority but was not built because King David and his people were not yet prepared for this work. Likewise, we recently witnessed an increasing interest among Israeli society in visiting the Temple Mount. Many religious scholars joined the growing group of rabbinic authorities who have given permission to ascend and pray on the Temple Mount. However, presently, in the phase of David, building of the Temple is still off limits to us. Like King David, our generation must accept that the Temple can only be erected during the reign of King Solomon — in the forthcoming era of Mashiach ben David. Thus, we must prepare ourselves to make it happen.

This preparation includes, of course, practical activity aimed at an increase of Jewish pilgrimage to the Temple Mount and organizing prayers there.

But this activity is not enough at all. The Temple cannot be built only for internal Jewish needs – and therefore it is no coincidence that most of even religious people do not at all understand why we need the Temple today[6].

To build the Temple, it is absolutely necessary to understand its role as a beacon of Divine Light for all nations, and the focal point of all humans’ connection to God.

  1. In conclusion: what is to be done

To summarize, in the current phase of redemption, the phase of King David, we must take the following steps in order to bring the phase of King Solomon, the era of MBD, closer:

  • Understands the life and history of mankind as an ongoing dialogue between humanity and God.
  • Integration of universal human values into Judaism, harmonizing universal, religious, and national values in agreement with the vision of Rav Kook.
  • Support and development of the Noahide Movement, making the values of Judaism accessible to non-Jews. Preparing the ground for Judaism to become a religion for anyone willing to do so, without becoming a Jew. Also to develop a dialogue between Judaism and Christianity, which helps the development of Judaism itself.
  • Spreading knowledge about the deeper meaning of the Temple in Jerusalem and its future role as a beacon of Divine Light for all of humanity and the focal point of connection between the nations of the world and God of Israel.

Acknowledgements:

 I am very grateful to Rabbi Ouri Cherki who helped me develop the ideas of this article.

I would like to thank Ariel Margulis, with whom we worked together on this text, for our many helpful discussions and his helpful suggestions.

Special thanks to Dr. Zvi Leshem for his very important help and critical comments.

I also would like to thank everyone who helped me work on this article: Alex Shlyankevich, Itzhak Streshinsky, Nechama Simanovich, Svetlana Rousakovski, Vassili Schedrin, Elena Chopko.

[1] In all cases where Vilna Gaon’s teachings are mentioned we refer to Kol ha-Tor. This book was published in 20th century by descendants of the students of Vilna Gaon and according to their tradition is reflecting Gaon’s messianic vision. Alternative opinions about authenticity of this book exist, but this polemic is outside of the current discussion.

[2]This era is to be tentatively called Mashiach ben Yishai (Jesse), or Mashiach ben Peretz, or Mashiach ben Yehuda. We don’t have a final choice yet.

[3] According to the Tanach and Jewish tradition, King Solomon had an enormous number of wives which could not be accounted for by his personal needs. The political nature of these matches created connections between King Solomon’s kingdom and many other states and attracted foreign guests to Jerusalem. In particular, the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Jerusalem facilitated the influence of the concepts of Torah on her personally and her country, a situation described in Ethiopian tradition as well (Kebra Nagast, chapter 28). It seems that cross-cultural contacts and exposure of other nations to the ideas of Torah were the goals of King Solomon’s dynastic marriages (Yevamot, 76a: “And Solomon became allied to Pharaoh King of Egypt by marriage and took Pharaoh’s daughter — He caused her to be converted”). The story of the Queen of Sheba can be viewed as a model of this kind of influence. Of course, such a strong influence did not occur everywhere. Apparently, at that phase of historical development, a mere introduction of the ideas of Torah to the world was an important matter

[4] Note that it is incorrect to think that the conflict between Saul and David was solely of a personal nature. King Saul realizes that David is completely subordinate to him and therefore his seeking the throne is not personal. The question was who will become king after Saul, i.e., this was a matter how the dynasty would develop. That is why King Saul is angry at his son Jonathan who is ready to hand over the throne to David. King Saul also says to his servants: “He said to them, “Listen, men of Benjamin! Will the son of Jesse give all of you fields and vineyards? Will he make all of you commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds?” (I Samuel 22:7). Here is a description of not only a personal dilemma but a problem of different sectors and groups, maybe even tribes. This is exactly the form in which ideological differences were expressed in ancient times.

[5] Specifically, the process of reviving universal values in Judaism is a separate topic, and for a detailed discussion the reader can refer to my brochure “Religious Zionism of Rav Kook” at https://www.pinchaspolonsky.org/en/. On the same site the reader can find my new Torah commentary “Bible Dynamics”, which shows the process of Torah’s ideas and personalities evolving.

[6] Not to mention that the order of worship in the Third Temple can be radically different from the service in the First and the Second Temples – for example, it is very likely that there will be no animal sacrifices, see Rav Kook’s article “The vision of vegetarianism and peace”; however, this is a separate topic.

Contact PPolonsky@gmail.com

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