What is a Jew? II
Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro tells us[1]:
“Unlike other nations, the ‘homeland’ of the Jews is not a country. It is the Torah. Within its borders we flourish; outside of its borders, we die. There, within that homeland, the Jewish nation was born, and to that homeland it pledges unwavering allegiance. Within its homeland the continuity of the Jewish nation is guaranteed for eternity, it is protected from its enemies, and it prospers spiritually and materially.”
“Strip the Jews of their homeland and the Jewish nation is no more.
‘Without land or soil…it became a nation. The Torah was to be its soil.’
We became a nation before we had a land, and we remained the same nation after we were exiled from it.
‘This nation I created for Me, that they declare My praise.’
The Jewish nation was made into a nation by Hashem (‘the name’ God).
Not by a land.
Not by a language.
Not by a culture.
And the only factor by which Hashem united the Jewish people into a nation was the responsibility and the privilege to ‘declare His praise’ by learning Torah and doing mitzvos (‘commandments’).”
“The Role of Eretz Yisroel (‘Land of Israel’) and Malchus (‘ruler; counselor; judge; king’) in Judaism”
“When we say that the Torah was to be the soil of the Jewish people, it does not mean the Jewish people cannot or did not ever have a kingdom. They did, during the days of the Melachim. But those kingdoms were not the cause of our nationhood, neither in whole nor in part. Our status as a fully developed Am Yisroel (‘People of Israel’) was established at kabbalas haTorah. Nothing after that caused us to increase or decrease our national status. As long as we have the Torah we are a nation – the chosen nation, the Am Yisroel. The Jewish kingdoms were given to us for a different reason than the secular nations have theirs. Like sefarim, lulavim, and other holy items, the kingdoms were tools to help us achieve our one and only objective: the fulfillment of the Torah. Different tools for fulfilling the Torah.”
“Nothing except our kabbalas haTorah makes us the Am Yisoel. And the Am Yisroel has no national goal other than serving Hashem and no national value other than the Torah. Anything that we value or pursue as Jews must be understood in the context of promoting that one single goal. Any other value besides the Torah, and any other goal besides fulfilling the Torah, is not Judaism.”
“Therefore, whereas other nations have kingdoms because sovereignty is in itself a national value, for us, our kingdoms and our holy land are only tools and opportunities to better serve Hashem. Under the kings we had a social order that is maximally conducive to Torah learning and avodas Hashem, and in our holy land we have the opportunity to fulfill mitvos that cannot be fulfilled outside of it, and to gain spiritually from the holiness that permeates the land. Even when Moshiach (‘Messiah’) comes, when our “submission to the nations” will be done with and we will have total political independence, we look forward to that independence not for political or nationalistic reasons, but only because it will enable us to better fulfill the Torah.”
“Jews never yearned – and will never yearn – for political independence or self-determination, as such. We yearn to fulfill the Torah. Whatever circumstances facilitate that, we strive for.”
“Other nations need their territories in order to be nations: Without America, is there any such thing as an American? Without Italy, is there any such thing as an Italian? Although there do exist pseudo-national polities that may be considered nations without states (usually depending on whether you ask them or their enemies), such as the Tamils and the Kurds for example, still, when a people does have a nation-state, it invariably functions as a fundamental part of their identity. Because of their common nation-state they come to relate to each other as fellow citizens, and because they are fellow citizens they come to each other’s need (or at least they are expected to), they look at each other as national “brothers,” and a general feeling of unity spreads among them. These feelings and perceptions of belonging to the common polity inspire people to go to war for their countrymen and even to die for them when called upon to do so. A nation-state helps mold its citizens into a national unit – a nation – that becomes an intrinsic part of its citizens’ self-image and identity. The nation-state spawns the nation – because there is America, therefore there are Americans – either totally or at least in part.”
“Not so for the Jewish people.”
[1] The Empty Wagon: Zionism’s Journey from Identity Crisis to Identity Theft