Likelihood of Success

What’s all this about Zionism?

Apr 24, 2007 Faith and Works, Orient, Past is prologue

Today is Israeli Independence Day — Yom Ha’atzmaut.

Chaim the Lesser — a yeshiva student in California who writes extraordinary well-researched, somewhat dense and, frequently unreadable (if you’re unitiated) articles on Jewish topics — says, “In recognition of Yom Ha’atzmaut, I decided that today’s Qoton Qlassic post is an old discussion about the varying points of view within traditional Judaism concerning Zionism.” Excerpt:

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) categorized the U.N. proclamation [defining Zionism as racism] as “anti-Semitic;” however, this description is not necessarily accurate because Judaism and Zionism have distinct identities, for some Jews are not Zionists (e.g. anti-Zionists, a-Zionists) and some Zionists are not Jews (e.g. Christian Zionists and the waning American liberal Zionists). It is unclear exactly which flavor of Zionism was referenced in the United Nations’ referendum because of the vagueness of the United Nations’ condemnation of Zionism and the multitude of differing diverse Jewish views on Zionism.

(I have posting privileges at Reb Chaim’s blog, by the way, which I have only used two or three times.)

“Chaim the Lesser” is my translation of Chaim’s blog’s actual name, “R’ Chaim HaQoton” — literally “little Chaim,” an allusion to his model, Chaim the Greater, i.e., the truly great Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik, known as Reb Chaim Brisker. “Reb” is an informal, affectionate appellation meaning something short of “Rabbi” and something more than Mister. (Many of the most beloved orthodox rabbis are known as “Reb” even though they are very much rabbis.) “Brisker” means from the town of Brisk, i.e., Brest-Litovsk. Its most famous son, Reb Chaim Brisker was one of the greatest and influential talmudical minds and overall influential figures in orthodox Judaism of the last century or so.

My friend Reb Chaim is no Chaim Brisker — not yet. But he’s klugeh yung (smart kid) in his own right and, as usual, he covers all the bases in this article to which I’ve linked. Just get comfortable.