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Judaism: Historical Developments in Religious Thought

Debates about Zionism, science and Holocaust theology

  • 3 things to know
  • A2 Unit 3

Overview

Argument that Zionism is not specifically a Jewish movement, argument that Zionism could only have been a Jewish movement and strongest case that Judaism is compatible with science.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What supports the claim that Zionism is strongly rooted in Judaism?

Key term

What suggests that Judaism has not fully met the challenge of science?

Key term

What is the strongest case that Judaism is compatible with science?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What supports the claim that Zionism is strongly rooted in Judaism?

    Model answer

    Return to Zion is promised by the prophets, prayed for three times a day in the Amidah, declared at the close of the seder and on Yom Kippur, and the land is central to a large body of commandments.

  2. 2

    What weakens the claim that Zionism is strongly rooted in Judaism?

    Model answer

    The movement was founded and led largely by secular Jews on nationalist rather than religious grounds, and a strand of Orthodoxy holds that return before the Messiah is a rebellion against God.

  3. 3

    How did religious Zionists such as Rabbi Kook answer the objection that the movement was secular?

    Model answer

    By arguing that pioneers who rejected religion were nonetheless carrying out God's purpose without knowing it, so that the settlement of the land was the beginning of redemption.

  4. 4

    What is the argument that Zionism is not specifically a Jewish movement?

    Model answer

    It arose alongside Greek, Italian, Polish and other nineteenth-century nationalisms, used the same vocabulary of homeland, language revival and self-determination, and drew support from non-Jews for political reasons of their own.

  5. 5

    What is the argument that Zionism could only have been a Jewish movement?

    Model answer

    Its territorial claim rests on a scriptural promise, its chosen language was a liturgical one, its calendar and symbols are religious, and no other nationalism sought to gather a people scattered for eighteen centuries.

  6. 6

    How successfully has Judaism met the challenge posed by science?

    Model answer

    It has largely avoided the confrontation that troubled other traditions, since its interpretive tradition allowed non-literal readings and thinkers such as Hirsch and Kook absorbed evolution without difficulty.

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