Clashing worlds: religion and state dualism in Jewish political thought
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Date
2015-08-19
Authors
Hovsha, Joshua
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Abstract
This study seeks to understand the tension between religion and state within Jewish
tradition in light of historical realities, Jewish philosophy and modern religious responses.
primary attention will be given to the works of Moses Maimonides, Nissim of Gerona and
Don Isaac Abravanel. These scholars have been chosen as they may be regarded as the
leaders of three distinct branches of thought on Jewish legal philosophy and political
structure. Collectively, these traditions may be viewed as forming the cannon of Jewish
political thought in which modern discourse operates. These archetypes of political thought
may be identified as Maimonides’ unity model, Nissim of Gerona’s model of dualism and
Abravanel’s model of collision.
Attention is then given to reactions by Jewish religious-thinkers to both the emergence of
modern political-Zionism in the late 19th century and the establishment of the State of
Israel in 1948. The collective phenomena of political-Zionism, its aims and achievements
may be seen as a radical departure from the traditional vision of Jewish religious thought.
Broadly outlined, the responses to modern Zionism may be labelled as (i) rejection on the
part of both the majority of the orthodox and the larger reform movement (albeit for very
different reasons), (ii) The Mizrachi movement of religious Zionism based upon pragmatic
necessity as outlined by Isaac Jacob Reines, (iii) messianic religious-Zionism as
articulated by Abraham Isaac Kook and radicalised by his son Zvi Yehuda Kook. Attention
will also be given to Eliezer Berkovits’ (2004: 140-141) conception of “a God-Centred
Republic” in which modern Zionism is perceived as an opportunity for a return to Jewish
national life without messianic implications. These various responses to the Zionist
movement draw from the previous traditions of Jewish Mediaeval thought as well as from
historical memory within Jewish thought both explicitly and implicitly (Ravitzky, 1998:
12-13; Stern, 2001). The manner in which both the Zionist endeavour and the State of
Israel are conceived has broad implications for the status of secular authority within such a
state and the level of engagement or distance that it should have with traditional religious
authority. As such, a complete theoretical study of religion and state in Jewish religiouspolitical
thought must include an investigation into the reception of Zionism as a vital
component.
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MASTER’S RESEARCH REPORT
MA POLITICAL STUDIES
15 FEBRUARY 2015
THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA