Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl

 by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed Shlitah

The yahrzeit of the founder of the Zionist movement, Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl (1860-1904). falls next week, on the 20th of Tammuz. 

It is difficult to exaggerate the value of Herzl’s work for the Jewish people and the realization of the vision of redemption.

Within the framework of the Zionist movement, the people of Israel began to desire a return to their land, act as a nation regarding the ‘Ingathering of the Exiles’, and work toward the establishment of the State of Israel.

Through the Zionist movement, the word of God in the Torah and the Prophets about the ‘Ingathering of the Exiles’ and the flourishing of the desolate places of the Land of Israel began to be fulfilled, and the Jewish people returned to keeping the commandment that is equivalent to all the commandments combined - the commandment of Yishuv Ha’Aretz (Settling the Land) in its fullness, namely, through sovereignty.

By means of the Zionist movement, decades later, salvation was rendered for the Jewish people who began to recover from the afflictions of exile after the Holocaust.

Herzl’s Personality

In his private life, Herzl was secular; such was his education. In his personality, he was noble and moral, and from his diaries, it is evident that from his youth, he had special moral sensitivity. The nation’s suffering and afflictions touched his heart, and since he was seized by the Zionist vision, he was completely swept away with passion, and sacrificed himself without reserve for the restoration of the Jewish people, and for the salvation of his persecuted, tortured, and groaning Jewish brothers.

Among most leaders we find personal pettiness, competitiveness, and a desire to also provide for their own family - often at the expense of the public treasury. Herzl was completely different. He did not take money from the movement, instead he dedicated all his wealth to it, and after his death, his family was left in poverty.

The Attitude of Rabbi Reines

Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov Reines of blessed memory (1839-1915), rabbi of Lida, was among the great rabbis of his generation. When he was about sixty years old, he joined the Zionist movement and founded the Mizrachi movement within it.

Rabbi Reines was older than Herzl by about twenty years. He met with him several times and corresponded with him regularly, and therefore, his position toward him carries great weight. In general, Rabbi Reines was impressed that, relatively speaking, for a person who had not received a Jewish education, Herzl related to Judaism and the commandments with great respect. He was impressed by Herzl’s eagerness to finish the discussions of the Third Zionist Congress (in 1899) before the entrance of the Sabbath, “for we do not intend to touch (harm) religion in any way” (Ish HaMeorot, page 108).

His impression stemmed from the fact that in those days, often secular people scorned religion and clashed with it spitefully. Rabbi Reines wrote to Herzl several times, complaining about the desecration of the Sabbath and kashrut in the branches of Russian Zionists, and Herzl always replied he would do his best to rectify the wrongdoing.

After Herzl’s death, Rabbi Reines wrote: “God as my witness, the death of our leader made a crushing impact on me, and will cast me upon a bed of ailment.” “And all the people of heart in Israel will weep, and also all the people of knowledge in the entire world will weep.” However, we must not cease the work because of the great disaster. For Zionism is a “historical necessity,” Herzl did not give birth to it, but “it gave birth to Herzl, and made him what he was.”

Zionism lived in the heart of the people thousands of years before Herzl was born, but it was in a dormant state in the hiding of the Jewish heart, “and we did not know the way in which we should walk, and the thing which we should do.” Herzl brought the idea out of its slumber and breathed life into it, which will continue even after his death (Ish HaMeorot, page 239).

Determining the Attitude Toward Herzl

Over the years, among the opponents of Zionism, there were those who claimed that Herzl’s goal was to secularize the Jewish people, and they searched through his writings and found passages inconsistent with Jewish tradition, and in so doing, distanced many Torah observers from his figure. However, over the years, anyone who truly wished to know his personality realized that his intention was pure - the salvation of the Jewish people, and the restoration of their honor and heritage.

As a person who received a secular education and earned a respected position in non-Jewish society, there was almost no chance that he would become acquainted with Torah and its commandments.

 In those days, there were almost no chozrim betshuva (returnees to Torah observance). And yet, Herzl became a great chozer betshuva regarding the Jewish people and their heritage, and reached a supreme level in this area, to the point where the words of our Sages were fulfilled in him:

 “In the place where penitents stand, even the completely righteous cannot stand” (Berakhot 34b).

And thus, he said in his speech at the opening of the First Zionist Congress (1897): “Zionism is a return to Judaism - even before the return to the land of the Jews.” 

Even before that (1895), in the process of his return to Jewish identity, he wrote a personal note to himself in his diary: 

“Our nation is not a nation except in its faith”; “We recognize our connection almost only through the faith of our fathers… Faith unites us.”

In response to those who condemned Herzl as a heretic, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda felt a sacred duty to defend his status and the honor of Israel, and published a short article titled “To Justify the Righteous” in the ‘HaTzofeh’ (28th of Tammuz 5734) newspaper, in which he wrote: 

“In the writings of Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl of blessed memory, there are no words of heresy. In his diary writings it is written: ‘Our nation is not a nation except in its faith.’ One who thinks and speaks and writes in such a manner is a man of faith, and not a heretic.”

He further added and noted Herzl's lineage - the “sanctity of racial origin,” in that he was descended from “the holy Gaon Rabbi Joseph ben Solomon Ṭaiṭazaḳ of blessed memory” (Netivot Yisrael part 2, page 593 in the Beit El edition).