Thursday, February 12, 2009

On the State of Religious Zionism: An Opinion

Yehuda Glick, a good friend, is the director of the Temple Institute and he has an op-ed in today's Haaretz in which he bemoans a supposed loss of Religious Zionism in these last elections.

I don't agree but I think the following is important to highlight:

...Our problem is the inability of each side to accept different views as legitimate: Anyone who dares to support refusing an order is destroying the fabric of the Jewish people; anyone who opposes refusing an order is mocking Torah scholars and collaborating with the disengagement;..

But don't these voices exist simultaneously inside each and every one of us?...

The same is true of the other issues. I was recently told about a rosh yeshiva (head of a yeshiva) who had heard that some of his yeshiva students visited the Temple Mount. The rosh yeshiva, who opposes such visits, gathered all of his students to hear a lecture by a guest rabbi about the severe prohibition on visiting the Temple Mount. Doesn't he know that there are other opinions? Does he think that his students don't know this? Wouldn't there have been much greater educational benefit to inviting rabbis with differing views and presenting their various positions to the students?

Our inability to welcome diverse opinions and appreciate the many different sides of our dilemmas is the main cause of our community's inability to unite and our unpreparedness to lead. If we are incapable of hearing all sides of our own internal dilemmas, how will be able to respond to the distress of the poor man or of the environmental advocate?...

...Inclusiveness means understanding that Rabbi Yuval Cherlow is not a reform rabbi and Rabbi Dov Lior is not a fascist. Baruch Marzel is not the bitterest enemy of Zionism, just as Zevulun Orlev is not trying to ingratiate himself with liberals. The day we realize that all of these people are acting for the sake of heaven and all their efforts stem from their desire to worship God and serve His people, and we invest our efforts in developing a leadership with a broad perspective, is the day we will also have a chance to lead.

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