$Unique_ID{bob00255}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Israel
Chapter 1B.   Hellenism and the Roman Conquest}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Richard F. Nyrop}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{jews
jewish
herzl
early
palestine
zionist
arabic
century
first
hebrew
see
pictures
see
figures
}
$Date{1979}
$Log{See Fort Massada*0025501.scf
}
Title:       Israel
Book:        Israel, A Country Study
Author:      Richard F. Nyrop
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1979

Chapter 1B.   Hellenism and the Roman Conquest

     On his march south to conquer Egypt in 332 B.C., Alexander the Great more
or less ignored Judah (Judea) and Samaria, delaying his march only long enough
to crush some opposition in Gaza (the probable locale of the ancient
Philistines, whence the name Palestine) (see fig. 1). On the journey back
through the region on the way to Persia, Alexander's forces paused only long
enough to become embroiled in a theological dispute and to stipulate that as
long as the Jews acknowledged Greek suzerainty, they could "live according to
their ancestral laws."

     After Alexander's death his generals divided-and subsequently fought
over-his empire. In 301 B.C. Ptolemy I took direct control of the Jewish
homeland, but he made no serious effort to interfere in its private and
religious affairs. Ptolemy's successors were in turn supplanted by the
Seleucids, and in 175 Antiochus IV seized power. He launched a campaign to
crush Judaism, and in 167 he sacked the Temple.

     The desecration of the Temple provoked a Jewish rebellion, which under
the generalship of Judas (Judah) Maccabee was successful. In 140 B.C. the
Hasmonean dynasty was begun under the leadership of Simon who served as ruler,
high priest, and commander in chief. Simon, who was assassinated a few years
later, formalized what Maccabee had begun, which in essence was a theocracy
ruled by priests, something not provided for in any of the biblical texts.

     Despite the rule by priests, Jewish society became Hellenized in every
aspect of life except in its generally staunch adherence to monotheism. Rural
life no doubt remained largely unchanged, but cities such as Jerusalem rapidly
adopted the language, sponsored games and sports, and in many more subtle ways
adopted and absorbed the culture of the Hellenes. Even the high priests, for
example, bore such names as Jason and Menelaus. Biblical scholars identify
extensive Greek influence in the drafting of commentaries and interpolations
of ancient texts during and after the Greek period. The most obvious influence
of the Hellenistic period can be discerned in the early literature of the new
faith, Christianity.

[See Fort Massada: Courtesy Israel Government Tourist Office]

     Under the Hasmonean dynasty, Judah became comparable in extent and power
to the ancient Davidic dominion. Internal political and religious discord ran
high, however, especially between the Pharisees, fundamental interpreters of
the Law and tradition, and the Sadducee faction, which supported Hellenistic
royal policies. In 64 B.C. dynastic contenders for the throne appealed for
support to Pompey, who was then establishing Roman power in Asia. The next
year Roman legions seized Jerusalem, and Pompey installed one of the
contenders for the throne as high priest, but without the title of king.
Eighty years of independent Jewish sovereignty ended, and the period of Roman
dominion began.

     In the subsequent period of Roman wars, Herod was confirmed by the Roman
Senate as King of Judah in 37 B.C. and reigned until his death in 4 B.C.
Nominally independent, Judah was actually in bondage to Rome, and the land was
formally annexed in 6 B.C. as part of the Province of Syria. Among the Jews in
Jerusalem two councils, called Sanhedrins, developed. The political Sanhedrin
was composed primarily of the priestly Sadducee aristocracy and was charged by
the Roman procurator with responsibility for civil order, specifically in
matters involving imperial directives. The religious Sanhedrin of the
Pharisees was concerned with religious law and doctrine, which the Romans
disregarded as long as civil order was not threatened. Foremost among the
Pharisee leaders of the time were the noted teachers Hillel and Shammai.

     Chafing under foreign rule, a Jewish nationalist movement of the
fanatical sect known as the Zealots challenged Roman control in A.D. 66. After
a protracted siege begun by Vespasian, the Roman commander in Judah, but
completed under his son Titus in A.D. 70, Jerusalem and the Temple were seized
and destroyed by the Roman legions. The last Zealot survivors perished in
A.D. 73 at the mountain fortress of Massada, some fifty-six kilometers
southwest of Jerusalem above the west coast of the Dead Sea.

     During the siege of Jerusalem, Rabbi Yohannam Ben-Zakki received
Vespasian's permission to withdraw to the town of Jabneh on the coastal
plain, about twenty-four kilometers southwest of present-day Tel Aviv. There
an academic Sanhedrin was set up and became the central religious authority;
its jurisdiction was recognized by Jews in Palestine and beyond. Roman rule,
nevertheless, continued. Emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117-138), endeavoring to
establish cultural uniformity, issued several repressive edicts, including
one against circumcision.

     The edicts sparked the Bar Kokhba War of A.D. 132-135, which was crushed
by the Romans. Hadrian then suppressed the Sanhedrin, closed the center at
Jabneh, and prohibited both the study of the Torah and the observance of the
Jewish pattern of life derived from it. Judah was included in Syria Palestina,
Jerusalem was renamed Aelia Capitolina, and Jews were forbidden to come within
sight of the city. Once a year, on the anniversary of the destruction of the
Temple, controlled entry was permitted allowing Jews to mourn at a remaining
fragment on the temple site, the Western Wall, which became known as the
Wailing Wall. The Diaspora, which had begun with the Babylonian Captivity in
the sixth century and which had resumed early in the Hellenistic period, now
involved most Jews in an exodus from what they continued to view as the land
promised to them as the descendants of Abraham.

     Emperor Constantine (ca. 280-337) shifted his capital from Rome to
Constantinople in 330 and made Christianity the official religion. Upon
partition of the Roman Empire in 395, Palestine passed to eastern control, and
the scholarly Jewish communities in Galilee continued with varying fortunes
under Byzantine rule and dominant Christian influence until the Arab Conquest
of A.D. 638. The period included, however, strong Jewish support of the
briefly successful Persian invasion of 610-614. Principal Jewish
accomplishments after Hadrian and during the Byzantine era were
self-preservation and development and codification of Jewish law and learning
in their far-dispersed communities, notably in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and other
centers around the Mediterranean littoral.

Life Under Islam

     By the seventh century few Jews lived in Palestine. Most of the world's
Jews still lived in the Middle East and North Africa, however. One of the most
prominent Jewish communities was in Egypt where active and vigorous Jewish
enclaves prospered, despite occasional disturbances, from at least as early as
the time of Alexander until the late 1940s.

     The Jews in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq also comprised a large and
ancient community, dating back to the Babylonian Captivity. By the beginning
of the sixth century A.D. a group of religious scholars was nearing completion
of its work on what came to be known as the Babylonian Talmud. For the next
several centuries Jews throughout the world sent many of their more complex
theological problems to this Baghdadi enclave for resolution. The answers and
decisions-known as the responsa-eventually formed another corpus of
rabbinical authority. The role of the priests-who had performed the ritual
sacrifices and had conducted the affairs of the Temple-ended with the
destruction of the Second Temple in A.D. 70. From that time to the present,
the rabbis had been the key religious figures.

     Thus it was that most Jews lived in the region that the newly energized
Arab Muslims conquered in the second half of the seventh century, a conquest
generally accepted as "the most phenomenal in speed and extent to have
occurred in the history of man." Islamic policy offered conquered people three
alternatives. First, conversion to Islam provided, at least in theory and
often in practice, complete equality to the conquerors. Second, the People of
the Book, i.e., Jews and Christians (Zoroastrians were also protected) were
granted the status of dhimmis; this meant that they were protected from harm
or persecution but were subject to a special poll tax, the jizya. Third, those
who refused to convert to Islam and who were not People of the Book could
claim no protection and technically possessed neither rights nor privileges in
their dealings with the rulers of the state.

     By the early 700s the Ummayyad Dynasty had extended its suzerainty from
the eastern reaches of modern Iran through the Near East and North Africa as
far as Morocco, and Arab forces were in the process of seizing Spain and
attacking France. Jewish communities had existed in all of these regions for
centuries, but with the waning of the intellectual stimulus received from the
Hellenes, and perhaps as a result of oppression at the hands of the Christian
Byzantines, the communities had become inward looking and devoid of original
expression, even in their nearly exclusive subject of study, religion. As a
direct result of the Jewish participation in the Arab renaissance, the next
few centuries were ones of great intellectual endeavor and, with few
exceptions, economic prosperity and occasional political power for individual
Jews and Jewish communities.

     Hebrew remained the sacred language-a restriction that was not removed
until the twentieth century-but within a few decades Jews at all levels of
society and throughout the Muslim lands had adopted the use of Arabic. Queries
to the Baghdad rabbinical center on complex matters of theology frequently
were posed and answered in Arabic. Patai notes that "early in the eighth
century, a Jewish physician, Masarjuwayh of Basra [Iraq], was translating
medical writings from Greek and Syriac into Arabic and also writing original
Arabic medical works."

     Early in the ninth century a rabbi from Tabiristan-known therefore as
Sahl Rabban al Tabari-provided the first known translation into Arabic of
Ptolemy's Almagest, an encyclopedia on astronomy. Sahl's son converted to
Islam and, in addition to a book on Islamic theology, made major contributions
to various scientific fields based on his studies and translations of Greek
and Hindu works. And in the ninth century a Jewish scholar in Khorasan
produced in Arabic major new works on algebra and astrology.

     Jews prospered and thrived almost everywhere during the first several
centuries of Arab expansion, the period often described as the classical
centuries of Islam. The Jews assimilated to the host Community, the Arabs, to
an extent not equaled until the assimilation that occurred in nineteenth
century Germany as part of the haskalah.

     The Golden Age of the Diaspora represented the height of Jewish
intellectual activity, political power, and social involvement under Muslim
rule. Jews lived in Spain for centuries and produced a vast literature that
touched virtually every aspect of science and philosophy; for a variety of
reasons, however, practically no work was done on Jewish history. With the
exception of poetry, most of which was composed in Hebrew, literature was
written in Arabic. Articles were on rare occasions translated into Spanish,
but Spanish was practically never used for serious composition. Medieval
Castilian Spanish did form the base for Ladino, however, which, with Hebrew
suffixes and numerous "cultural phrases" from Hebrew, became the lingua franca
of the Sephardim after they were expelled from Spain. Like Yiddish, Ladino is
written with Hebrew characters.

     Hebrew and Arabic are closely related languages. One of the earliest
intellectual efforts of Muslim scholars was to study, analyze, and standardize
their language. They were enamored of its sonority and beauty and, because as
the language of the Quran it was a sacred tongue, sought to perfect and
protect its use and meaning. Within a short time Arabic grammars and
lexicographical studies were commonplace.

     In conscious emulation of Arab scholars, Jews began similar studies of
their sacred language in the late eighth and early ninth centuries. One of the
first students was Yehuda ibn Quraysh, whose work is among the earliest in
what would now be termed comparative linguistics. Patai notes that other
scholars continued Quraysh's lead, and that in the tenth century Yehuda ben
David Hayyuj "applied to the Hebrew language the theories developed by Arab
linguists and established the basic grammatical law according to which all
Hebrew verbal stems consist of three consonantal letters." In common with his
Arab and Jewish contemporaries, Hayyuj wrote in Arabic, but his rules "became
the lasting foundation of Hebrew to this day." in his work Jews and Arabs:
Their Contacts Through the Ages, S. D. Goitein, an Israeli Jew, notes that
"the Hebrew language developed its grammar and vocabulary on the model of the
Arab language. The revival of Hebrew in our times would be entirely
unthinkable without the services rendered to it by Arabic in various ways a
thousand years ago."

     Indicative of the "renaissance men" of Spanish Jewry was Samuel HaNagid,
a student of Hayyuj. HaNagid also studied rabbinics, and in time became
secretary to the vizier to the king of Granada, and eventually the vizier,
commanding the king's army and leading it to numerous victories. Moreover he
was renowned as a patron of scholars, poets, and artists, and enjoyed
considerable repute in his own right as a scholar and poet, producing both
theological and war poems.

     Among the thousands of Jewish scholars who first flourished in Spain, the
one acknowledged by his contemporaries and successors as possessed of unusual
genius was Moses ben Maimom (1135-1204), known as Maimonides. According to
Patai, "Maimonides is not only considered the greatest Jewish philosopher, but
also one of the two greatest creative minds of the medieval world in general,
the other being Averroes" (Ibn Rushd, 1126-98). With the exception of one
theological code written in Hebrew, Maimonides produced his works in Arabic,
writings that included philosophy, medical studies, and comments on moral
behavior and the halakah. His major work, Guide of the Perplexed, for
centuries has been studied not only by Jewish theologians but by Muslims and
Christians as well.

     Near the end of the golden age in Spain and at a time when the position
of the Jews was becoming increasingly precarious because of the growing
zealousness of Spanish Christians, a new mystical movement emerged known as
kabbalism. The earliest known kabalistic writings were by Moses ben Nahman
and Abraham ben David. Both men were scrupulously orthodox in their adherence
to and interpretation of the Talmud and halakhic injunctions, and their works
were accepted as unusual but not heretical. But their successors, perhaps
inspired by such Muslim mystical movements as Sufism, became ever more exotic
and esoteric, and the authors and adherents were and are accused of
theological deviationism and heresy. The literature that evolved over the
centuries is voluminous, complex, and in many striking ways closely related to
some aspects of Hindu cosmology. The most startling concept in kabbalist
literature is the depiction of, among other things, the Divine Couple "locked
in an eternal marital embrace." Although these descriptions of the God-King
and his "wife," the Matronit, abound in graphic physical detail that goes far
beyond the sensual scenes set forth in the Song of Solomon, the adherents of
kabbalism claim that the descriptions present only the love between God and
his chosen people. Another relationship described in the literature is that
between the God-Father and his daughter, whom he also calls sister and mother
and for whom he has a strong sexual longing, another indication that the
kabbalists in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Spain were familiar with and
influenced by some of the ancient Hindu writings.

     By the late 1300s the Arabs began to "fade from world history." At the
same time the importance of Jews in Muslim lands began to wane, and the focus
of world Jewry for the next several hundred years shifted to Europe (see table
B, Preface). It was in Europe that the Jews suffered the most systematic
persecution, yet it was also in Europe that the haskalah occurred, leading to
the greatest participation by Jews in nonreligious intellectual activities
since the classical age of Islam. It was also in Europe that the Zionist
movement, which had as its goal the establishment of a homeland for the Jews,
began.

Zionism: The Founding Fathers

     By the late 1970s the Zionist movement was several decades old-by some
reckoning over a century in age. Its role had been the paramount and decisive
one in the creation and development of the early settlements in Palestine and
of the social, cultural, economic, political, and military institutions that
continue to influence events in the State of Israel. The historical record and
literature of the Zionist movement also provide the framework within which
most discussions occur as to the nature and future of Israeli society. One
might thus conclude that from its inception Zionism has been centered on one
universal and unifying body of ideas that were and are enthusiastically
endorsed and supported by world Jewry and the Jews of Israel. Such a consensus
has never existed.

     The impulse and development of Zionism were almost exclusively the works
of Ashkenazim; few Sephardim were directly engaged in the movements in its
formative years. (In 1900 about 9.5 million of the world's 10.5 million Jews
were Ashkenazim and about 5.2 million of the Ashkenazim lived in the Pale of
Settlement). Moreover, despite the role of Theodor Herzl as a catalyst and
innovator, the early expressions of what became Zionism were, with some
prominent exceptions, set forth by East European Jews. In addition, East
European immigrants-particularly those of the early 1900s-created social,
economic, military, and other self-help institutions in Palestine that were
carried over into independent Israel. Throughout the period, however,
most East European Jews, who undoubtedly endorsed the millennia old dream of
returning to Eretz Israel, reacted to the pogroms in Czarist Russia by
migrating to places other than Palestine. Between 1880 and 1915 well over 2
million East European Jews made the trek to Canada and the United States, and
perhaps another 150,000 settled in the United Kingdom. Only a few
thousand-between 55,000 and 70,000-journeyed to Palestine, and many of those
eventually moved elsewhere.

     The first writings advancing the notions that later came to be known as
Zionism appeared in the mid-1800s. In 1840 the Jews of Eastern Europe and the
Balkans had been agitated by rumors that the messianic era was at hand.
Various writers, most prominently Rabbi Judah Alkalai and Rabbi Zevi Hirsch
Kalisher but including many others, were impressed by the nationalist fervor
of Europe that was creating new nation-states and by the resurgence of
messianic expectations among the Jews. Kalisher wrote that Jewish nationalism
was directly akin to the other nationalist movements and was in fact the
logical continuation of Jewish Enlightenment that had begun in France
in 1791 when Jews were granted civil liberties. Alkalai consciously
altered his expectations from one of a miraculous messianic salvation
to one of a redemption by human efforts that would pave the way for
the arrival of the messiah. Both authors urged the development of Jewish
national unity, and Kalisher in particular foresaw the ingathering to
Palestine of many of the world's Jews as part of the process of enlightenment
and emancipation.

     Moses Hess, sometimes called the Red Rabbi, was a German Jew, socialist,
and philosopher who advocated Jewish nationalism in such terms as nationality,
national renaissance, and creative genius of the nation. In his book Rome and
Jerusalem he wrote "mystically of now transcendent values which are to issue
from a restored Zion." Hess envisaged the new Jewish nation as the moral
custodian of the Near East and as partaking in a civilizing (Westernizing)
mission to the backward societies of the region. Although Hess's writings were
generally ignored by his contemporaries and those who read his works were for
the most part critical, his works were "rediscovered" in the early twentieth
century and are now included in the canon of Zionist literature.

     The most prominent predecessor of Herzl was Leo Pinsker, a Russian
physician, who in 1882 in his work Auto-Emancipation expressed his doubt that
the Jews would ever be able to identify with the societies within which they
lived. Pinsker believed that anti-Semitism was too pervasive and deeply
entrenched in these societies to enable Jews to assimilate completely.
According to Pinsker, as summarized by Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, there are three
basic and unchanging causes of anti-Semitism: "The Jews are a 'ghost people',
unlike any other ... and therefore [exist] as a thing apart; they are
everywhere foreigners and nowhere hosts in their own national right; and they
are in economic competition with every majority within which they live.

     His writings provided an ideological framework for the members and the
activities of Hibbat Zion. The shocking and devastating pogroms in Russia in
the wake of the assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881 prompted a huge
exodus of Jews and gave an impetus to those who advocated a return to the
"promised land" of Israel. Scores of societies were established throughout
Eastern Europe with goals and programs similar or identical to that of the
Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion), which advocated migration "to the land of our
fathers ... to which we have historical rights."  Pinsker endorsed and
supported these small efforts to colonize Eretz Israel, but his major concern
was "the revival of the spirit." Pinsker viewed this revival or renaissance as
possible only in the promised land, but he thought in terms of a small, elite
community there, at least in the early period.

     The impetus to the founding of an organization with specific goals was
provided by Herzl. Born in Budapest on May 2, 1860, Herzl grew to maturity in
an environment of assimilation. He was educated in Vienna as a lawyer but
instead became a journalist and playwright. By the early 1890s he had achieved
a degree of prestige and recognition in Vienna and other major European
cities. Up to that time his life had only peripherally been identified with
Jewish culture and politics. He has unfamiliar with earlier Zionist writings,
and he noted in his diary, and stated publicly, that he would not have
written his book had he known the contents of Pinsker's Auto-Emancipation.

     The 1894 trial in Paris of Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jew with the rank of
captain in the French army, on charges of treason (the sale of military
secrets to Germany) altered Herzl's life in a fundamental and revolutionary
way. Dreyfus was convicted, and although he was eventually cleared of the
charges, his career and life were ruined. The trial and the later exoneration
sharply divided French society and unleashed widespread anti-Semitic
demonstrations and riots throughout France. To Herzl's shock and dismay, many
members of the French intellectual, social, and political elites-that element
of society to which the upwardly mobile emancipated Jews of the Enlightenment
wished to assimilate-were most vitriolic in their anti-Semitic writings and
activities. According to Herzl, he for the first time became aware of the
insecure and precarious position of Jews in Europe. He realized that their
day-to-day existence depended on the good will and suffrance of the host
community, and somewhat later, "like a revelation," he set forth his concept
of a Jewish homeland in his classic pamphlet Der Judenstaat, which was
published in 1896. The title is usually translated as The Jewish State, but
Herzl preferred the literal translation, The Jew State, to emphasize his break
with the assimilationists who used such terms as Hebrews or Israelites rather
than Jew.

     Herzl, in effect, took the arguments of the anti-Semites and used them to
support the notion of a Jewish homeland. In an assessment of anti-Semitism and
the Jews that was very close to Pinsker's, Herzl argued that even if Jewish
separateness in religion and social custom were to disappear, the Jews would
continue to be treated as unrespected strangers. Other strangers, Italians
residing in London, for example, were regarded as individuals with a home and
culture. Until a homeland-a nation-for and of Jews had been created, Jews in
the Diaspora would remain a people apart. Herzl seemed to believe that after
the establishment of a Jewish state-which he envisaged as a new
Switzerland-the Jews in the Diaspora would be able to assimilate and would
eventually disappear as a group.

     Whereas Pinsker was a pessimist, Herzl was an optimist. He believed that
all men-including anti-Semites-are basically rational and will work for goals
that they perceive to be in their best interest. The anti-Semites, therefore,
would assist in the formation of a Jewish state to which the Jews would
move. According to Hertzberg, Herzl's Hegelian dialectic progressed from the
thesis that anti-Semitism creates widespread public disorder. The antithesis
stated that the liberal nationalism and egalitarianism of the age could not
tolerate such unrest and disorder. The thesis, therefore, called for all
elements of society to support Zionism, i.e., the establishment of a Jewish
state.

     Within a year of publication of his pamphlet Herzl was able to convene
the First Zionist Congress in 1897 in Basel, Switzerland. The word zion
stemmed from the locale of the Temple in Jerusalem. Over the centuries the
word had come to represent Jerusalem, the Temple, the Land of Israel,
and the glories of the reigns of David and Solomon-all of the memories
retained and cherished by the Jews in galut. One of the first to use the word
in its new sense was Nathan Birnbaum, the editor of the journal entitled
Selbst-emancipation (Self-emancipation). In 1893 he added the subtitle Organ
der Zionstein (Organ of the Zionists). In the aftermath of the congress in
August the word zionist entered the vocabulary of world Jewry.

     The first congress adopted a program that centered on the goal: "To
create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by Public Law." The
Zionist organization was founded to work toward this goal, and arrangements
were made for future congresses. (The name was not officially changed to the
World Zionist Organization until a new constitution was adopted in 1960. The
title World Zionist Organization was used in legislation enacted by the
Knesset in 1952, however, and some writers refer to the World Zionist
Organization at even earlier dates, causing some confusion.)

     The Zionist Organization established a general council, a central
executive, and a congress held every year or two. It developed member
societies on a worldwide basis, continued to encourage the settlements in
Palestine, registered a bank in London, and established the Jewish National
Fund (Keren Kaymeth) to buy land in Palestine. Acting from the premise that
the state he envisioned could be brought about only by support of the European
powers, Herzl spent the rest of his life in negotiations with the Turkish
sultan, the German kaiser, the pope, the Russian court, Austria, and Great
Britain. With all but Great Britain, his efforts were nonproductive. After an
initial discussion of settlement in the Sinai Peninsula, which was opposed by
Egypt, Herzl came to the Sixth Zionist Congress in 1903 apparently willing to
consider, as a temporary shelter, a British proposal for an autonomous Jewish
entity in East Africa. The concept, known as the Uganda Scheme, was vehemently
rejected by Russian and Eastern European Zionists who, as before, insisted on
the ancient political identity with Palestine. Exhausted, Herzl died of
pneumonia in 1904 with no signal diplomatic victory. He had, however, created
the Zionist Organization and inspired its goals.

     The goals were sharply criticized by a number of Jews, however. Many of
the assimilated and assimilating Jews of Western Europe and North America
tended to view Zionism as a retrograde manisfestation of emotionalism, a
proposed solution that was out of joint with the spirit of the Jewish
Enlightenment. These critics were dismayed by the extent that Herzl had
accepted basic anti-Semitic principles, i.e., that the Jews were a unique and
separate people who could not and should not live among other peoples.

     Orthodox Jews-and especially the Hasidic Jews in Eastern Europe-rejected
the notion of a return to the promised land before the appearance of the
messiah. To the extent that the members of the thousands of these
congregations took notice of Zionism, they viewed it as being in violation of
the belief that a messiah would orchestrate, arrange, and conduct the return
to Jerusalem of all observing Jews "at the end of days."

     The most effective of Herzl's critics was Asher Ginsberg (his nom de
plume was Ahad Ha-Am, meaning one of or one with the people). Unlike Herzl,
and like Pinsker, Ahad Ha-Am did not trust the gentile world. Over the years
he wrote many tracts explaining and amplifying his reservations about Herzl's
political Zionism. In essence, he favored cultural Zionism, a refurbishing and
rekindling of the Jewish spirit, and the gradual establishment of Jewish
cultural centers in Palestine as examples to the Jews in the Diaspora. Ahad
Ha-Am doubted that a Jewish homeland could be a "normal" state as envisaged by
Herzl.

     Hertzberg sums up Ahad Ha-Am's central beliefs in the following words:
"There is nationalism in general, that of power, which is a genus comprising
many species and individuals-i.e., all the nations of the world; counterposed
to it there is the nationalism of the spirit, a unique genus of which there is
only one species, the Jewish." Ahad Ha-Am did not conceal the fact that he
was an agnostic, and his assertion of Jewish uniqueness provoked anger and
ridicule by many. A contemporary, Jacob Klatzkin, asked the central question:
"How can one deny God and yet affirm chosenness?"

     Several decades later David Ben-Gurion, also an agnostic, confronted the
same dilemma and described his belief in a fashion similar to Ahad Ha-Am: "I
believe in our moral and intellectual superiority, in our capacity to serve
as a model for the redemption of the human race. This belief of mine is based
on my knowledge of the Jewish people, and not on some mystic faith; 'the glory
of the Divine Presence' is within us, in our hearts, and not outside us." The
intellectual paradox of Ben-Gurion's response satisfied his critics no better
than Ahad Ha-Am's statement had satisfied his, and both statements were
offensive to many non-Jews.

     Herzl's slogan of "let us be like all the other nations" nonetheless
remained central to the credo of the Zionist Organization. In the meantime,
however, immigrants to the promised land from Eastern Europe were evolving
their own philosophies. The First Aliyah began with a group of fourteen
people-one of whom was a woman-that landed in Jaffa (Yafo) in July 1882.
During the next twenty years perhaps as many as 10,000 Jews entered the area,
generally in groups of fifty or less. These early immigrants did not get on
well with the leaders of the ancient Sephardic community there, and economic
progress was slow (see The Old Yishuv, ch. 2). Many immigrants departed, a few
returning to Russia and others going to the United States.

     The Second Aliyah was composed of a young, militant, aggressive group,
many of them teenagers, who viewed the 2,000 years of the Diaspora as a period
of shame. Ben-Gurion, the nation's first prime minister, and Itzhak Ben-Zvi,
the second president, were among this group. These two formed part of the
majority that, in general, subscribed to the Socialist-Zionist philosophy of
the Poalei Zion (Workers of Zion) movement. The movement's prominent
spokesman, and the originator of many of its ideas, was Ber Borochov. Borochov
was a Marxist committed to historical determinism who advocated the formation
of a society based on a socialist economy.

     Borochov's philosophical adversary was Aharon David Gordon, a disciple of
the work ethic. Gordon scoffed at the notion of "historical inevitability" and
argued that Zionism was "an act of will." Hertzberg describes Gordon's
teachings as being centered on "an affirmation of the dignity of physical
labor and the rootedness of man in his own soil, of the desperate necessity to
create a new Jewish man in the Land of Israel to replace the disfigured human
being who had been shaped by his misery and alienation from nature in the
Diaspora." In the early decades of the twentieth century the Zionists in
Palestine sought to create the socialist economy advocated by Borochov while
at the same time making a virtue of the necessity of working and living on the
land, albeit at the expense of the land's Arab inhabitants.