Aḥad Ha‘am: Difference between revisions

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Aḥad ad Ha‘am was the founder of Cultural Zionism. He was a critic of Herzl and political Zionism, and argued that first, before the return to Palestine, there must be a spiritual awakening of the Jewish people.

He founded the “Sons of Moses” society to materialize his ideas. He defined the goals of the society in his essay “[https://benyehuda.org/read/3361 Way of Life]” and in the journal “Hive”, which he was the editor of. The society dispersed in 1897. Aḥad Ha‘am travelled to Palestine in 1891, 1893 and 1900 and wrote about his journeys in ''HaMelitz'', in his articles called “[https://benyehuda.org/collections/7883 Truth from Palestine]”.

== The Philosophy of Aḥad Ha‘am ==

According to his philosophy, “Love of Zion” is not ''a part'' of Judaism, ''is'' Judaism in its complete form, and is not dependent on Palestine, but on its spirituality. The Palestinian settlement is not meant to

The settlement of Palestine is not to settle settlers on their land, but rather that “we ourselves return in spirit to Zion”. The solution to the revival of the nation is to make Zion a national center, to which the people of Israel will aspire to return to revival: the revival of hearts, and will aspire to develop anew in a free spirit in a national life on general human foundations.

This aspiration will begin in the Diaspora, and only one settlement is needed that will be an example from which to learn how to renew the new revival of the Israeli nation on historical foundations. Foundations on which the national morality was imprinted that will develop from generation to generation by national laws.

Aḥad Ha‘am strongly opposed the reform Judaism invented by Ashkenazi Jews. He called their system, “slavery from freedom”: political freedom founded on the slavery of the spirit; the body is free and the spirit is forbidden in prison. The aspirations of Jews in Western countries are freedom in state affairs for the sake of their bodies, and they are not afraid of the national enslavement of all Israel on which the essence of Judaism depends.

In his opinion, these Reformers gave rise to foreign feelings when they rejected the “certificate of Israel among the nations” and distanced themselves from the doctrine of nationalism. They say that Judaism is only a religious church and not a people or a nation.

Even the observance of the practical commandments as written in ''Shulḥan Arukh'' is, in his opinion, slavery, and he complains (in his essay “[https://benyehuda.org/read/2469 Torah that’s in the heart]”) about “our misfortune that we are not a people of literature, only of the book”: that we are slaves to the book of the written Torah, and therefore we are “a people whose soul blossomed from its heart and entered entirely into the things in the book.” We should be free in the way the national spirit developed and developed throughout our history as a nation on its own land before it was exiled from it.

==Quotes==

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 Aḥad ad Ha‘am was the founder of Cultural Zionism. He was a critic of Herzl and political Zionism, and argued that first, before the return to Palestine, there must be a spiritual awakening of the Jewish people.
+He founded the “Sons of Moses” society to materialize his ideas. He defined the goals of the society in his essay “[https://benyehuda.org/read/3361 Way of Life]” and in the journal “Hive”, which he was the editor of. The society dispersed in 1897. Aḥad Ha‘am travelled to Palestine in 1891, 1893 and 1900 and wrote about his journeys in ''HaMelitz'', in his articles called “[https://benyehuda.org/collections/7883 Truth from Palestine]”.
+== The Philosophy of Aḥad Ha‘am ==
+According to his philosophy, “Love of Zion” is not ''a part'' of Judaism, ''is'' Judaism in its complete form, and is not dependent on Palestine, but on its spirituality. The Palestinian settlement is not meant to
+The settlement of Palestine is not to settle settlers on their land, but rather that “we ourselves return in spirit to Zion”. The solution to the revival of the nation is to make Zion a national center, to which the people of Israel will aspire to return to revival: the revival of hearts, and will aspire to develop anew in a free spirit in a national life on general human foundations.
+This aspiration will begin in the Diaspora, and only one settlement is needed that will be an example from which to learn how to renew the new revival of the Israeli nation on historical foundations. Foundations on which the national morality was imprinted that will develop from generation to generation by national laws.
+Aḥad Ha‘am strongly opposed the reform Judaism invented by Ashkenazi Jews. He called their system, “slavery from freedom”: political freedom founded on the slavery of the spirit; the body is free and the spirit is forbidden in prison. The aspirations of Jews in Western countries are freedom in state affairs for the sake of their bodies, and they are not afraid of the national enslavement of all Israel on which the essence of Judaism depends.
+In his opinion, these Reformers gave rise to foreign feelings when they rejected the “certificate of Israel among the nations” and distanced themselves from the doctrine of nationalism. They say that Judaism is only a religious church and not a people or a nation.
+Even the observance of the practical commandments as written in ''Shulḥan Arukh'' is, in his opinion, slavery, and he complains (in his essay “[https://benyehuda.org/read/2469 Torah that’s in the heart]”) about “our misfortune that we are not a people of literature, only of the book”: that we are slaves to the book of the written Torah, and therefore we are “a people whose soul blossomed from its heart and entered entirely into the things in the book.” We should be free in the way the national spirit developed and developed throughout our history as a nation on its own land before it was exiled from it.
 ==Quotes==