Holding On

More than the Jewish People have kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept the Jews – Ahad Ha’am

Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsburg was an early Zionist and an essayist, writing over the pen name of Ahad Ha’am. He was secular but believed that it was necessary to have a Jewish state, not simply a state for Jews. Although raised in an observant household, he rejected many of the strictures of Judaism. He recognized, however, the centrality of the religion in the lives and in the essence of his people but, while Palestine would ultimately be the home of the Jews, now was not the time for them all to descend on it. Perhaps an ingathering would take place in messianic times, but meanwhile the Jews already in Palestine would set an example for those elsewhere.

Ahad Ha’am was what we now call a “cultural Zionist.” He believed in Judaism's ethics and in the Jewish People. And he knew that “Palestine” was their home. At least ultimately. He worked to establish it. But until then it was necessary to strengthen Jews in the diaspora, where he favored a Jewish nationalist revival.

Perhaps he was a “secularist” and not personally observant, but he recognized that it was our traditions that kept us together. And antisemitism. According to a citation in Wikipedia, Ginsburg wrote in a latter to Max Nordau, Only anti-Semitism had made Jews of us. Our best way of preserving ourselves was preserving Judaism.

For him it was Shabbat that kept us together, and there is no denying its importance as a binding force. Of course there are many others, of which a few examples are Torah, the siddur, the mezzuzah, prayer, and pride. Whether or not he “believed” in G-d, it seems clear that he believed in the Jewish People, and in the traditions that held them together. We have our own state now, but if we are to survive in a world that wants to eliminate us, it will because we follow our traditions.

The survival of the Jewish People over many millennia when other nations have come and gone has been noted by many, Jews and non-Jews, who have difficulty explaining it. Mark Twain wrote

If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one quarter of one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk.

Tradition has kept the Jews.

Recent surveys suggest the eventual assimilation of non-traditional Jews, while there will be a continued increase in the number of those who follow tradition – primarily the Orthodox. There has been, and will continue to be, a shift to the right among them. Whether this is good or bad is not the point. More important is the idea that tradition is what Judaism has going for it and, if we are to survive, members will have to pay more attention to maintaining and strengthening them, rather than discarding them.

Tradition, and the will to survive – whatever it takes.

January 18, 2017