Universal Religious Zionism
IN LIEU OF AN EPILOGUE
Doesn’t it seem like Judaism is just lagging behind secular culture?
In discussions surrounding the integration of universal values into Judaism, a common set of questions arises: “The ideals you seek to incorporate into our religious tradition have long been present in secular culture. Doesn’t this suggest that Judaism is merely trailing behind? And if culture is constantly evolving, does that mean religion is doomed to remain perpetually behind the curve? Moreover, how does this integration align with the rabbinic teaching that the Torah contains the entirety of the world?”
These are serious questions that touch the very core of Universal Religious Zionism; engaging with them is essential for a proper understanding of its vision.
First, we must reject the notion of religion as something isolated from the world or from life itself. (The division between religious and secular spheres is not originally a Jewish concept—it is, in fact, an anachronistic borrowing.) Civilization evolves as part of an ongoing dialogue between humanity and God, and every sphere of human activity contributes to this unfolding process. Some Divine messages find clearer expression within the religious sphere, while others emerge more fully in the secular realm. When our sages taught that the Torah encompasses the entirety of the world, they were referring to the ideal, complete Torah. But at any given moment in history, human Judaism actualizes only part of that Divine fullness. As a result, many Torah ideals are realized outside the boundaries of formal religion. This is not a deviation, but a part of the Divine plan.
Judaism has made extraordinary contributions to civilization: what we call “universal values” are rooted in the Torah. However, they are perverted, sometimes beyond recognition, by the “isms,” or in Kabbalistic terms, by the shells that encase the Divine sparks—the essence of these values—and feed off their energy. The secular world is not driven to distinguish the sparks from the shells; it consumes everything as is. Judaism, on the other hand, strives to separate the sparks from the shells to make them acceptable by religious standards. The result is a set of purified ideals that work better in our lives.
We can draw important lessons from the previous stage in the development of Religious Zionism, when national Zionist ideals were integrated into traditional Judaism. In the 1920s through the 1950s, secular Zionists—many of whom were deeply anti-religious—settled and built the Land of Israel with a fervor that can only be described as religious. What drove them was the Divine spark of love for the Land of Israel, always present in Jewish tradition but left unacted upon for millennia. However, after the Six-Day War, their spiritual heirs displayed far less commitment to settling Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. The reason is clear: the ideological spark that had once driven secular Zionism to prioritize land settlement had begun to fade. At the same time, Religious Zionism had absorbed the national ideals and breathed new life into them. That same spark, once embedded in the shell of secular ideology, was purified and revived within Judaism, where it acquired renewed force and meaning. (Poetically speaking, in the late 20th century, Zionism returned to Judaism the soul it had borrowed at the beginning of the century.) Empowered by this transformation, Religious Zionists undertook the extremely demanding task of settling the Land and became active participants in all facets of Israeli life. Today, Religious Zionists are the vanguard of Zionism, embodying a compelling integration of religious commitment and national ideals.
A similar transformation is now needed in the realm of universal values. Our aim is not to adopt these values as they are presented in secular ideologies. Rather, for each universal value, we must identify the Divine spark hidden within the shell of “ism,” extract it, reconnect it to its roots in traditional Judaism, and nurture it in its proper religious context. Only then, enriched by this integration, can Universal Religious Zionism emerge as a leader, not just in embodying these values, but in advancing them meaningfully on the world stage.
Once again, the dialogue between God and man is not confined to religion—it embraces the fullness of the world. In this light, the secular and the religious are no longer rivals in a race, but partners whose reintegration is not only natural but essential.