I Hereby Renounce My Personal Stance on Zionism

I began writing this within days of the October 7th massacre, but I wanted to sit with it. Now that we've passed the Shloshim (30 day) mark, I think it's time for me to share.

The Torah content for the remainder of Cheshvan has been sponsored anonymously in memory of those who were murdered by Hamas. May our Torah learning lead to living in line with G-d's will and all the goodness that entails.

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Artwork: Adobe Firefly 2.0’s response to the prompt “wallpaper with the Israeli flag peeling off of a wall”

I Hereby Renounce My Personal Stance on Zionism

Preface

One of my favorite phrases used from time to time by Shadal is “hineni mevatel mah she’kasavti b’[kach v’kach]” which Daniel Klein translates as “I hereby renounce what I wrote in [such-and-such publication on such-and-such date].” Shadal typically follows this up by summarizing his former position and explaining why he no longer thinks as he once did (see Bereishis 27:1 and 41:56, Shemos 15:11, 20:4, 23:30, among other examples). Comments like these reveal the level of intellectual humility to which we should all aspire. Shadal embodies the teaching of my rebbi, Rabbi Moskowitz zt”l, in the name of Saadia Gaon (from an unknown source): “you should have 100% conviction in your own mind, but enough intellectual humility to retract when shown to be wrong.”

Following in the footsteps of Shadal, I hereby renounce what I wrote in my article entitled My Babylonian Zionism (and Why It Keeps Me in Far Rockaway) on July 10, 2023. Well, perhaps “renounce” is too strong and inexact of a word. I can’t say I was wrong in what I wrote because my explicit goal in that article was to convey my “de facto stance” on Zionism rather than attempt to articulate an “informed position.” Not only that, but after rereading that article, I can’t say that I disagree with any of the statements I made.

At the same time, the present war between Israel and Hamas – which, at the time of this writing, has been going on for 32 days – has brought to my attention the fact that my personal stance on Zionism was missing an essential component. This, in turn, has made me aware of how woefully underdeveloped my position vis a vis Israel is. If there is any time to reexamine and develop my views, that time is now. This article is my first step.

I made the decision to keep the bulk of my aforementioned article behind a paywall because I knew it would rub some people the wrong way. I’ll do the same here, for the same reason.