Israel: Why we think it's ours

Sorry to give you another "source sheet" post, but things have been very busy lately. Here are the sources I expect to use for a shiur tomorrow night, on "Israel: Why we think it's ours".

In truth, the title is a bit off; the question I want to address is really "Why we keep coming back." I lay out three parts: Historical connection; Religious mandate (mitzvah or Messianic); Israel as motherland.

History

1.         The Goliath inscription at Tell es-Safi, http://gath.wordpress.com/2006/02/16/comment-on-the-news-item-in-bar-on-the-goliath-inscription/

2.         Remains were Discovered of the Closest Building to the First Temple Exposed so Far… and a Hebrew Seal Bearing the Name ‘Matanyahu’, http://www.antiquities.org.il/ article_Item_eng.asp?sec_id=25&subj_id=240&id=1932&module_id=#as

The remains of a building dating to the end of the First Temple period were discovered below the base of the ancient drainage channel that is currently being exposed in IAA excavations beneath Robinson’s Arch in the Jerusalem Archaeological Garden, adjacent to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. This building is the closest structure to the First Temple found to date in archaeological excavations.

In the excavations, underwritten by the Ir David Foundation, a personal Hebrew seal from the end of the First Temple period was discovered on the floor of the ancient building. The seal is made of a semi-precious stone and is engraved with the name of its owner: “Lematanyahu Ben Ho…” ("למתניהו בן הו..." meaning: “Belonging to Matanyahu Ben Ho…”). The rest of the inscription is erased.

3.         Earliest Archaeological Evidence of the Existence of the City of Bethlehem already in the First Temple Period, http://www.antiquities.org.il/ article_Item_eng.asp?sec_id=25&subj_id=240&id=1938&module_id=#as

According to Eli Shukron, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “it seems that in the seventh year of the reign of a king (it is unclear if the king referred to here is Hezekiah, Manasseh or Josiah), a shipment was dispatched from Bethlehem to the king in Jerusalem. The bulla we found belongs to the group of “fiscal” bullae – administrative bullae used to seal tax shipments remitted to the taxation system of the Kingdom of Judah in the late eighth and seventh centuries BCE. The tax could have been paid in the form of silver or agricultural produce such as wine or wheat”. Shukron emphasizes,” this is the first time the name Bethlehem appears outside the Bible, in an inscription from the First Temple period, which proves that Bethlehem was indeed a city in the Kingdom of Judah, and possibly also in earlier periods”.

4.         The shared genetic heritage of Jews and Palestinians, http://epiphenom.fieldofscience.com/2009/01/shared-genetic-heritage-of-jews-and.html

The good news is that the genetics of Arabs and Jews have been pretty extensively researched. The classic study dates to 2000, from a team lead by Michael Hammer of University of Arizona. They looked at Y-chromosome haplotypes - this is the genetic material passed from father to son down the generations. What they revealed was that Arabs and Jews are essentially a single population, and that Palestinians are slap bang in the middle of the different Jewish populations... Another team, lead by Almut Nebel at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, took a closer look in 2001. They found that Jewish lineages essentially bracket Muslim Kurds, but they were also very closely related to Palestinians. In fact, what their analysis suggested was that Palestinians were identical to Jews, but with a small mix of Arab genes - what you would expect if they were originally from the same stock, but that Palestinians had mixed a little with Arab immigrants. They conclude: We propose that the Y chromosomes in Palestinian Arabs and Bedouin represent, to a large extent, early lineages derived from the Neolithic inhabitants of the area and additional lineages from more-recent population movements. The early lineages are part of the common chromosome pool shared with Jews (Nebel et al. 2000). According to our working model, the more-recent migrations were mostly from the Arabian Peninsula...

So, as far as male lineage goes, the genetic story is very clear. Palestinians and Jews are virtually indistinguishable.

5.         The DNA of Abraham's Children, http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/06/03/the-dna-of-abraham-s-children.html

Researchers collected DNA from Iranian, Iraqi, Syrian, and Ashkenazi Jews around New York City; Turkish Sephardic Jews in Seattle; Greek Sephardic Jews in Thessaloniki and Athens; and Italian Jews in Rome… Jewish populations, that is, have retained their genetic coherence just as they have retained their cultural and religious traditions, despite migrations from the Middle East into Europe, North Africa, and beyond over the centuries, says geneticist Harry Ostrer of NYU Langone Medical Center, who led the study. Each Diaspora group has distinctive genetic features “representative of each group’s genetic history,” he says, but each also “shares a set of common genetic threads” dating back to their common origin in the Middle East. “Each of the Jewish populations formed its own distinctive cluster, indicating the shared ancestry and relative genetic isolation of the members of each of those groups.”

The various Jewish groups were more related to each other than to non-Jews, as well. Within every Jewish group, individuals shared as much of their genome as two fourth or fifth cousins, with Italian, Syrian, Iranian, and Iraqi Jews the most inbred, in the sense that they married within the small, close-knit community. In general, the genetic similarity of any two groups was larger the closer they lived to one another, but there was an exception: Turkish and Italian Jews were most closely related genetically, but are quite separated geographically.

6.         Outside artifacts – Mernepta Stele, Mesha Stele, etc., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artifacts_significant_to_the_Bible

Religion

7.         Exodus 3:15-17

¹⁵And Gd said further to Moses: ‘So shall you say to the children of Israel: HaShem, the Gd of your fathers, the Gd of Abraham, the Gd of Isaac, and the Gd of Jacob, hath sent me to you; this is My Name for ever, and this is My memorial to all generations. ¹⁶Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them: HaShem, the Gd of your fathers, the Gd of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying: I have remembered you, and I have seen that which is done to you in Egypt. ¹⁷And I have said: I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey.

8.         Jeremiah 31:7

Behold, I bring them from the north country, and gather them from the ends of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the pregnant with the woman who is giving birth. A great company shall return there.

9.         Tzefaniah 3:19-20

¹⁹Behold, at that time I will deal with all those who afflict you; and I will save she who is lame, and gather she who was driven away; and I will make them an object of praise and a name, whose shame had once been across the earth. ²⁰At that time will I bring you in, and at that time will I gather you; for I will make you a name and an object of praise among all the peoples of the earth, when I turn your captivity before your eyes, declares G-d.

10.      R’ Yehudah Alkalai The Third Redemption 1843

Now we pray every day: Let our eyes behold Thy return to Zion in mercy and if we believe our own words, then upon whom will the Divine Presence become manifest? Upon the trees and the rocks? Therefore, as the first step to the beginning of redemption of our souls we must return to the Land…

11.      Talmud, Gittin 57a

‘The land of the deer [lit. desire]’ is its textual name. A deer’s hide cannot hold its flesh [after being removed], and this is also true for Israel: when they live upon it the land expands, and when they do not live upon it the land shrivels.

12.      R' Emanuel Ricci, Hon Ashir (1731)

In the year 5478 (1718), when Gd granted me the privilege to ascend to Israel, to Safed in the Galil, I saw with my own eyes how this curse has come true. Due to our many sins, it is completely filled with destroyed houses. In the two years that I remained there, however, I was happy to see that, day by day, it was being rebuilt, thank Gd. I claim that this is a sign of the imminent arrival of the Redeemer, for if he would come when Israel is in a state of ruin, there would be no place for the ingathered exiles to dwell.

 

13.      Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad (1867), pg. 361-362

A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds-a silent mournful expanse... A desolation here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action.... We never saw a human being on the whole route.... There was hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of the worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.

14.      Isaiah 11:6-9 (JPS translation)

⁶And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. ⁷And the cow and the bear feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. ⁸And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the basilisk's den. ⁹They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

15.      Zachariah 8:4-5

⁴So declares Gd: Elderly men and women will yet sit in the streets of Jerusalem, a man with his staff in his hand due to great age. ⁵And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls, playing in her streets.

16.      Malachi 3:4-5

⁴Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in ancient years. ⁵And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers; and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not Me, saith the Lord of hosts.

Motherland

17.      Rosemary George, The Politics of Home: Postcolonial Relocations and Twentieth-Century Fiction, pg. 9

Home is a place to escape to and a place to escape from. Its importance lies in the fact that it is not equally available to all. Home is the desired place that is fought for and established as the exclusive domain of a few

18.      Isaiah 49:14

And Zion said: G-d has abandoned me, and G-d has forgotten me.

19.      Isaiah 62:4

You shall no longer be called ‘Abandoned,’ and your land will no longer be called ‘Desolate,’ for you will be called ‘My desire is in her.’

20.      Rav Avraham Yitzchak haKohen Kook, Orot, Eretz Yisrael 1

The Land of Israel is not an external thing, an external prize acquired by the nation, a means toward the end of national unification and reinforcement of the nation’s physical or even spiritual survival. The Land of Israel is an independent entity, bound to the nation in the bond of life…

21.      Midrash, Psikta Rabti 26

Jeremiah said: When I ascended to Jerusalem, I raised my eyes and saw a woman sitting atop a mountain, wearing black clothing and with her hair undone, crying out, seeking one who would console her. I cried out as well, and sought one who would comfort me. I drew close to her and spoke with her, and told her, “If you are a woman, speak with me. If you are a spirit, leave me.” She replied, “Do you not recognize me? I am the one who had seven sons whose father left to go overseas. While I was yet crying for him, it was prophesied to me, ‘The house has collapsed upon your seven sons and killed them.’ I don’t know for whom to cry, and for whom to release my hair!” I replied and told her, “You are no greater than my mother, Zion, who has been turned into grazing for the wild animals of the field.” To which she replied and said to me, “I am your mother, Zion.”

22.      R’ Yissachar Techtel, Em haBanim S’meichah, First Prologue

I have learned this from the Torah of our master Moshe himself. It is written, ‘And I will remember My covenant with Yaakov, and also My covenant with Yitzchak, and also My covenant with Avraham I will remember, and the land I will remember.’… Rashi there wrote, ‘Why are they listed in reverse? As if to say: Yaakov the youngest is worthy of this, and if he is not worthy then Yitzchak is with him, and if he is not worthy then Avraham is with him.’

Based on this, one may add that even if all of them are unworthy, meaning that the merit of our ancestors has ended, still, ‘The land I will remember,’ for the merit of the Land of Israel itself will save them from trouble… She will protect us, to free us whenever we are placed in trouble, Heaven forbid.

23.      R’ Yissachar Teichtel, Eim haBanim Semeichah

It is known from the Sages that our mother, Zion, cries and wails for us; we are her children, and she waits for us to return to her.

‘With my own flesh I saw my Gd.’ In 1942, before Pesach, a horrifying decree was issued by the accursed wicked ones in in Slovakia, to kidnap Jewish girls from age 16 and up and bring them to a cruel land, an unknown place. Until today, the fate of thousands of pure Jewish souls who were brought there is unknown; Gd will avenge them quickly. There was then a great fear in the Jewish camp, and I know of one who wished to save his young daughters lest they fall into this wicked trap, and he tried to cross the border with his daughters. This was Chol haMoed Pesach, and he promised his wife that he would send a message by telegraph from across the border when he arrived, letting her know that he and his children had arrived safely at their destination. The mother sat in her house with her eyes failing with worry, anticipating at every moment the arrival of the happy news that they had crossed the border in peace and arrived in a safe place. But the father and his daughters were caught before they could cross the border, and they were brought to a city near the border and jailed all through chol hamoed and through the end of Pesach, and they were in great danger of being sent to a cruel land, in accord with their practice of punishing for flight. Anyone who fled and was caught was sent to a cruel land, in a manner which was yet more cruel than that used for others sent there. This became known to his wife, to the mother of the daughters, and we can only imagine the bitter emotion that overtook their mother and turned her joy at their flight into grief, and her Yom Tov was turned to mourning, Gd save us, for her husband and daughters. She sat and wept all through Yom Tov without halt, and the world actually turned dark for her; one cannot put into words her depressed state, when she learned what had happened to her husband and daughters. She knew what awaited them.

But remember this man for the good: The great and righteous man, who served Gd with true self-sacrifice in the fullest sense of the world, who in this time endangered his life, the great and pious Rav Shmuel Dovid Unger, head of the Nitra community, who did not rest and was not silent until he had redeemed these three captives at a great price. They went free and could return home to their house without any obstacle, on the last day of Pesach. They let this woman of bitter spirit know immediately, by telephone, that her husband and daughters had emerged free, and would return home the next day, isru chag, in peace, and without obstacle.

There is no need to tell the effect this great news had on the spirit of that bereft woman, knowing that her husband and daughters had emerged from between the lions’ teeth in peace. From that moment she waited with eyes failing with worry for the moment when the father and daughters would return to her home. The next day she did not have the strength to wait for them at home; she sat at the entrance to the yard, her eyes looking out for the moment they would come, and when they came and she saw them she burst out in a cry, pouring out all of the awesome emotion in her heart. She could not produce words of thanks to Gd for the magnitude of the miracle performed for her and for them, from the outpouring of feeling in her heart. One who did not witness the moment they actually met and saw each other again, mother with her daughters, after they returned from such a horrific captivity, and the mother’s weeping when she saw that her daughters had returned home, and the joy of the mother of children at that moment, never saw a feeling of joy.

Therefore, since I know of that illumination which occurred in our days, so I imagine and describe the joy of our mother, the Land of Israel, when all of us will return to her after such a horrific captivity which we have experienced at this time, and the amazing joy which the mother will experience with her children, meaning Israel with us and us with her. Therefore I have named my book, “The joyous mother of children.”

The Religious Zionism of Menachem Begin

Next week, I expect to present a class on what I consider the unique brand of Religious Zionism of Menachem Begin. I hope to explain why I believe it unique at the class, but here is the source sheet. The quotes are from Menachem Begin, Basic Outlines of ourLife-Worldview and National Outlook, other than Source 9.

Is this vision secular or Jewish?

1.         A national movement - Page 31

What is a national outlook? Does a "national movement" exist at all, or is the Marxist theory correct… whereby every public movement expresses, or must express, the genuine material interests of one of the classes in a society possessing classes?

Indeed, it is in and of ourselves, as sons of Israel and as fighters, that we can find the proof - for the Marxist theory is meaningless - that a national movement exists. In other words, a movement that expresses what is common to all parts of the nation and bears the historical desires of the entire nation is, ipso facto, a national movement.

2.         Individual freedom - Page 11-12

Man must be free in his thoughts and in his belief; he must be free in giving expression to his thoughts, whether orally or in writing… The group of spiritual freedoms is inextricably tied with the group of political freedoms. The individual person must be free to assemble with other people, to express the belief that is common to them, in order to realize, or try to realize, their opinions. Man must be free to dispatch his representative emissaries to the various branches of government; he must be free to demand their resignations and replacement with other representative emissaries….

In our day, "economic freedoms" represent an inseparable part of the concept "human freedom" if not to completely remove from this concept its real content. A person must be free not only in his way of life and occupations, but also in his place of residence and his place of work… But "freedom of movement", "freedom of initiative" and "freedom of creativity" still do not exhaust the concept of human freedom in the economic sphere. A person – any person – must also be free from an absence of vital commodities, that without which he cannot make a living as a cultured person.

3.         Societal reform – Page 20

[T]he positive content of the idea of societal reform is the ceaseless coming together of the social extremes, coming together not in the "up to down" direction, that necessarily brings general descent and withdrawal, but in the "down to up" direction that brings ascent and progress. Just as it is possible "to bring groups together" by providing education to those that lack it, rather than taking away from everyone the possibility of acquiring wisdom and understanding, so one needs to bring together the extremities of the economic sphere and to ensure for those of meager means a constant benefit of conditions for their existence…

[T]he ensured provision of basic needs must be fixed as "the starting point" for every person. Ze’ev Jabotinsky defined these needs as housing, food, clothing, health care, and schooling (in Hebrew, his terms all began with the letter “Mem”: maon, mazon, malbush, mirpa, melamed) and he notated them as the five "Mems".

4.         Classes remain forever – Pages 17-18

There will always be differences, some based on inherited characteristics, such as mental talent which are not dependent on the individual or the society, and others that are dependent to a greater measure on the free will of the individual as well as the general social "atmosphere", such as personal effort, energy and so on. On the background of these differences and their results, "classes" will grow in every period. It is possible to change the basis of the division of classes, to eliminate one basis and create a completely different basis, but the division itself into classes is impossible to eliminate, just as it is impossible to eliminate natural differences, the physical ones and more important, the psychological differences, between people. This law of history has become apparent over the many previous decades.

5.         Supremacy of law – Pages 26-27

I propose not being satisfied with "independence of the judiciary" but rather to engrave on our flag the supremacy of the law… The supremacy of the law will thereby be expressed in that a panel of independent judges will be granted not only the power to determine, in the case of a complaint, whether a rule or administrative statute of the institutions of the executive regime is legal or just, but also the power to decide, in the case of a complaint, whether the laws that are made by the house of representatives… abide by the fundamental law or contradict the rights of the citizen that are stated in the law.

6.         In order to create this reality – Page 31

Israel's historical desires, from the day of its exile from its land, have found expression in the prayer "renew our days as of old", indeed the prayer enfolds within it the two national aspirations: liberation of the homeland and concentration of the nation once again on its land. Of course, being interdependent, the two historic aspirations of our people who have fashioned its character from generation to generation, are in fact one aspiration. Concentration of the nation is not possible without liberation of the homeland; and, every stage of liberation of the homeland would be impossible without some stage of concentration of the nation on its land. The movement that carries both these aspirations, which are "the common elements" in national consciousness, over its classes, diasporas and generations, is the national movement in Israel. In addition, only a movement that carries both these aspirations in their entirety is a national movement. Any Jewish movement that has become estranged or is estranged from one of them – the estrangement from one of the aspirations is inexorably an estrangement from both – it is not a national movement, whatever its "Zionist" phraseology be as it may.

7.         This reality must be created in Israel – Page 35

From that day hidden beyond the historical horizon, and until this day, a process of thousands of years of existence, formation, persecution and resistance, we have stood against tremendous empires. We have fought, we have fallen, we have risen, we have been struck blows, we have been enslaved, we have rebelled, we have been oppressed, we have been redeemed, we have established, we have been exiled, we have been scattered to the four corners of the world, we have been persecuted from behind, we have been burned on the pyre, we have been nearly trampled out; but never did we concede one grain of our land. There is no example and no model in all of human history for this faith and for this preservation of faith that all the known winds of oppression and slavery in history have dashed into pieces. But who would deny that only by merit of this irregular faith, unnatural, imaginary, "almost inhuman" have we remained on the stage, despite the disappearance, without trace, of other great and mighty empires? Who would further deny that "unrealistic" faith can be quite realistic in its facts? Who would deny that only by merit of this "faith in fact" have we returned, after global wanderings, to the starting point, and we are again a nation?

But indeed, while we became a nation, there are rulers, heretics in Israel, that are prepared to sign in the name of the nation of Israel, that Jerusalem and Hebron and Bethlehem, Jericho and Nablus and all "the good broad land" that spreads forward, east beyond the Jordan, are not ours, but are the foreigner’s, the invader, the occupier – in perpetuity. Is there a political-historical crime that compares with this crime? What is the crime of "appeasement" of Chamberlain in Munich compared to the crime, that the heads of the government were about to commit at the expense of the tradition of the patriarchs and the future of the children?

Does religion fuel Begin's ideas, or is it aligned with his ideas?

8.         Religious language - Pages 39-41

Those who speak highly about the "ingathering of the exiles" but reject the idea of liberating the homeland, or deny it, are estranged also from the national outlook in its entirety which is to say they prevent in the end the concentration of the people on its land… I suggest a new definition of attainment for the concept of “concentration of the nation”. At this point in time, the implication of this concentration is a Jewish majority in the Land of Israel. Not an undefined "ingathering of the exiles"; not another Jewish majority in the State of Israel; not even a Jewish majority – in the Land of Israel, but rather a majority of the Jews in the country Israel.

9.         Religious language – "All of it is mine", a Betar song (cited on page 31)

From the day I was called to the wonder of Betar and Zion and Sinai,

a brother's hand has imprisoned me and my mother's house is closed to me…

10.      Religious roots of the three goals – Page 30

It is possible to prove that this outlook on life, clarified here in its basic outlines in previous sections, is an original Jewish outlook. In my saying this, I am not claiming that the good of our outlook on life is solely and exclusively its Jewish source for, without doubt, we must also learn from other nations, to learn – not duplicate. But it is a fact that our outlook is nursed on the sources of Jewish thought, from the strengthening wellsprings of our national tradition, from the roots of the nation's soul, as it was molded in an amazing war for existence as the messenger for those near and far. Are the ideas of a person's freedom and social reform not embodied in the basic fundamentals of Israel's Torah, in a verse which embodies a complete philosophy: "because man was created in the image of G-d"?

If man was created in the image of the King of Kings, surely he cannot be a slave who need fear the ruler over him.

If in the image of the Creator of All man was molded, surely he will be unable to direct all his thoughts and all his desires to his primary needs, which are, in part, also the basic need provisions, if he will suffer from a want of basics. In this verse you will even find the aspiration for equality. There is no going down or bringing down, but a constant rising or bringing up, inasmuch as man – every man – is created in His image. And the commandment "you will love your fellow-man as yourself"; and the rule "man lives not by bread alone", are they not marvelous expressions of the aspiration for social reform, to abolish suffering and want?

And as regards "the supremacy of the law", this is but a characteristic of our nation’s esprit, that in an entire historical period the nation's leaders and rescuers have been awarded the crown of ‘judge of all things’? And indeed the words "justice" and "law" are an ancient Jewish expression together in one breath, and they have become a saying of Israeli wisdom in one sentence: "justice and law". From this you may infer that as there is no law without justice, indeed no justice is possible without law.

11.      The Torah's freedom imperative – Page 13

Israel's Torah hates enslavement as well as “willing” slaves. Our Torah commanded – already in those days! – that one is to punish severely, by executing a mark of disgrace, on a Jewish man that will declare "I love my master," and would prefer his material security over his spiritual freedom.

12.      The vision of the Prophets – Page 17

Israel's prophets and seers, from whom we have inherited the aspiration for justice that guide our repose, elevated visions that are very difficult to realize. There were those that introduced the vision of social justice, to "repair the world in the Kingdom of G-d" and those that highlighted the vision of world government: "and everyone will make one association". That gave mankind the vision of world peace: "and nation will not raise sword against nation". However, they did not delude their generation or the coming generations; they admitted that the realization will be difficult and saw it only "at the end of days". They made their vision a sort of "guiding star" by whose light man wandering in darkness will proceed and find his path and even reach his objective. Their vision is a vision of truth, because even beyond the historical horizon, beyond "the end of days", they did not promise to abolish any difference. Indeed, "at the end of days" nation will not raise sword against nation, but even then there will be many "nations"; and while "at the end of days" devouring hatred will disappear for "the wolf will lie down with the lamb", but even then the differences between one species and another will not be eliminated. In other words - if one expands the symbolic meaning of the metaphor – the differences between a person and his fellow will not disappear with the desired disappearance of the hatred between them.

13.      Implicit religion – The perfectable world – Page 16

No form of society lasts forever. The truth is that there is no form of society whose power is eternally valid for the present and the future. Whoever says that there is no need to change the existing form of society ignores the natural aspiration for justice and whoever says there is no possibility to change the existing conditions in society ignores the law of historical development.

14.      Implicit religion – We must perfect it – Pages 28-29

Certainly, in regard to judges, one should also not invalidate the measure of realistic truth that is embodied in the well-known statement of Marx summing up his materialistic philosophy: "existence determines consciousness". But historical experience directs us that the greater measure of realistic truth is in the complete reversal of Marx's statement that is perhaps a summing up of idealistic philosophy: "consciousness determines existence". It is not "the existence" of our people that makes it carry the belief in one G-d that has any image of one. On the contrary, "the consciousness”, the belief in monotheism, is what has determined to a decisive measure the existence of our people, whether it has lived in its country or whether scattered among the nations. It was not the "existence" of the "BILU pioneers", mostly children of wealthy people, which determined their consciousness; on the contrary, "their consciousness” is what motivated them to determine their existence not in the comfortable homes of their fathers, but rather in an abandoned land, on land infested with swamps and fever… It is not "our existence" as individuals that made us, in the period of direct British enslavement, enter the underground and become fighters; on the contrary, inner consciousness, clearly the labor of Ze’ev Jabotinsky, is what determined "our existence" as rebels against the foreign rule.

It would be possible to expand upon these examples. But there is no need for additional cases for once something is proved, there is no need to add proof. The vision of "determining existence through consciousness" passes through history – and uniquely through the history of Israel.

15.      Implicit religion – Living ideals – Pages 30-31

We must prove "the living connection", and not just "the nursing connection", between ideas that are based on our "world outlook", upon the foundations on which the national outlook is built.