In a recent article on a pseudo-charedi website, the author [in the context of a discussion of the WZO election] writes:
There are many examples contained in the kol korei that will tick people off.. here [is one]:
“The Zionist Movement was founded 125 years ago with the purpose of uprooting the foundations of Judaism.” Of course this is not true [note that R' Chaim Brisker said just that (Ohr Layisharim p. 55) and his belief was shared by many - too many to quote here E.E.]. It was started to allow Jews to escape persecution and penury in Europe by creating a Jewish homeland on the Land we had been linked to for millennia. Uprooting them from the foundations of Judaism was certainly what many, many of the adherents of secular Zionism wished for – and later acted upon. But it was not a definitional element of Zionism.
That comment exposes ignorance of basic history. Actually, Secular Zionism was about escaping Europe and building a completely secular homeland in Israel. It wasn't *just* to escape persecution. Let us read two short passages from the father of the movement himself - Theo H. [no relation to Theodore Huxtable. If you don't catch the reference - consider yourself fortunate]:
Shall we, then, end up by having a theocracy? No! Faith unites us, knowledge makes us free. Therefore we shall permit no theocratic inclinations on the part of our clergy to arise. We shall know how to restrict them to their temples, just as we shall restrict our professional soldiers to their barracks. The army and the clergy shall be honored to the extent that their noble functions require and deserve it. But they will have no privileged voice in the State which confers distinction upon them, for otherwise they might cause trouble externally and internally.
Every man will be as free and as unrestricted in his belief or unbelief as he is in his nationality. And should it happen that men of other creeds and other nationalities come to live among us, we shall accord them honorable protection and equality before the law.
Of course Ben Gurion and his kofrim-kronies [:-)] similarly dreamt of building a secular state and only for pragmatic reasons they made agreements with the religious on such matters as draft exemptions for Yeshiva students.
This is important information as not much has changed. Netanyahu and most of the powers that be also wish for a secular-non-Halachic-non-Jewish-Jewish-State. "להיות עם חילוני בארצנו".
That sorta tempers my euphoria every ה' אייר.
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The author continues:
To argue otherwise is not only inaccurate, but a slap in the face of those who supported a Torah Zionism – like Rav Shmuel Mohliver, the Netziv, and Rav Isser Zalman.
No slap. No face. All of the early pro-settlement Rabbonim [we must add Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, Maran HaRav Kook, Rav Reines and many others] understand what the secular Zionists wanted and their purpose in joining forces was to make sure it didn't happen!!
