476) Did the Vilna Gaon’s Religious Zionism precede modern Secular Zionism?

A 1835 letter written by R. Hillel Rivlin from the Holy Land  to his family back in Shklov

Introduction

In the previous post, we examined the work by Dr Arie Morgenstern entitled ‘Hastening the Redemption,’[1] which supports the notion that various waves of Aliya during the early nineteenth century were undertaken by students of the Vilna Gaon and on his command. Hundreds of families left Europe to settle in the Holy Land in what was believed to be the beginning stages of the final Redemption, and they were inspired by the Kabbalistic and messianic Zionism of the Vilna Gaon. This Redemption was to be a pragmatic and practical process of rebuilding and settlement of the Land that would involve human effort and not rely on supernatural intervention.

This notion, however, has been severely challenged by Professor Immanuel Etkes in his work  entitled ‘The Invention of a Tradition.’[2] Morgenstern’s work is convincingly and meticulously researched based on recently discovered communications by the leaders of the Mitnagdic Aliya, such as R. Menachem Mendel of Shklov and R. Yisrael of Shklov − and so is Etkes’ work based on historical facts and convincing argumentation. Etkes is backed by scholars like Yoseph Avivi, David Assaf, Israel Yuval, Benjamin Brown, Ada Rapoport-Albert, David Assaf, David Biale and Allan Nadler (a student of Isadore Twersky). 

This means that we are confronted by a fascinating and important head-to-head historical, political and theological deliberation, on a topic of major significance, let alone interest. 

402) Was R. Nachman’s Tikun haKelali a ‘fixing’ of Sabbatianism?

 

Kamanets-Podolsk

Introduction

Years ago, when I was in yeshiva, Breslov was a rather unknown Chassidic sect. Today R. Nachman (1772-1810) and his Breslov movement need no introduction as it has become one of the most popular of the Chassidic movements. I spent about fifteen years in the movement and have always been fascinated by the personality of R. Nachman. According to Professor Yehuda Liebes (1995:109),^[1] when it comes to machshvet Yisrael (Jewish theology), R. Nachman is certainly one of its key personalities. However, Liebes boldly maintains that R. Nachman was - at least in his early days (Liebes 1995:109 in the Appendix) - influenced by the secretive yet powerful and widespread Sabbatian and Frankist movements of Shabbatai Tzvi (1626-1676) and particularly Jacob Frank (1726-1791) respectively.[2] Liebes suggests that in his youth, R. Nachman may have had contact with Frankists who had remained Jewish and who were plentiful in Podolia at that time. Although, Liebes continues, these influencers may have been factors, nevertheless, R. Nachman indeed produced highly individualised and unique teachings (Liebes 1995:109).