The work of the Sitro Achro

Alan Brill, a Modern Orthodox Jewish studies professor, posted recently a write-up of the thought of Eli Sadan, who Brill calls “the leading intellectual influence of the Religious Zionist world” and “the architect of the religious military preparatory programs, Bnai David, which in turn became a model for the others.” According to Brill, “the average school principal or teacher is a product of his worldview.” It is important to note that Brill admires Sadan and his book His Hands Remained Steady, which Brill summarizes. As disturbing as what follows may be, Brill is not trying to portray something negative but something positive. The write-up gives us a glimpse into the values of the RZ world and how they differ from Torah values and sanity. Some excerpts (I put in bold the most telling sentences):

“The main purpose of Sadan’s preparatory program and of his teaching is to mediate the tension between the ideal Torah view and the requirements of the State, the government and the army (described here in a prior post by Elisheva Rosman-Stollman). To do this, Sadan invests the government and the army with messianic import as the realistic arm by which God’s providence takes place, similar to the kings in the Bible.”

“In his vision, there is never a heresy in the authority of the state. Religion and Torah scholars define democracy. Refusal of orders is not an option.”

“The most important chapter is chapter four where he defines democracy as the collective work of the Jewish people to realize the messianic vision. He is against any form of minority rights, civil rights or liberal democratic principles. Additionally, since the government is like the kings of ancient Israel, he affirms Divine right of Prime Minister and he thinks the military police advance humanity. The message is that the current state is the Divine presence on earth and we have to study the current events through Torah eyes. This is a very strong exceptionalism outside of all secular and liberal understandings of politics and in which everything in the world and in Israel revolves around religious Zionism.

“It is worth comparing this pre-millennial dispensation model to the Evangelical versions in the United States or the anti-liberal democratic Muslim thinkers. How does this compare to American dominionists like pastor Hagee or Islamic democrats like Yusef Al-Qaradawi. My own interest is what does this make of the Jewish religion? Torah study, prayer, ethics, and mizvot take a back burner to realizing the millinarian vision. One should compare this Torah to other recent formulations of Torah, either spiritual or intellectual conceptual.”

“The Third Chapter is on the ideological battle his students will face. For Sadan, there is no freedom of thought in Israel because the left controls everything. Liberal pluralism is entirely wrong and nonsense. We need truth and justice of the Torah to be stressed in the public sphere. Pluralism is not tolerance but against truth and the Torah. For example, didn’t Bibi Netanyahu’s  "Terrorism: How the West Can Win"  1986  already prove that all Palestinians are terrorists but this truth does not matter to the Israeli pluralists and the media who ignore the truth.  Bibi’s book becomes part of the secrets of the redemption.”

“Chapter Six is on the holiness of the State. The building of the state is a mizvah of Torah. The centrality of inheriting the land is the pillar of the Torah. Statements in the Bible such as being a “nation of priests”  or “one nation” and all other statements are about nation building. The whole Torah and its very essence is about state building.  The State of Israel is God’s presence on earth.”

“Chapter Eight is on the possibility of tensions between religious Zionism and the State. He answers that there are not any tensions if everyone is working for the collective. The Prime minister should be treated as an angel of God; he is like a king of ancient Israel given by God. There is a divine right of prime Ministers as God’s chosen leader. We are not to change what most people want.  We need to pray for the success of the Prime Minister.” (End of excerpts. Full post here: https://kavvanah.wordpress.com/2017/07/16/rabbi-eliezer-sadan-rav-eli-sadan-his-hands-remained-steady/)

For me, these are some of the most disturbing words I have ever seen. They resemble the writings of Italian dictator Mussolini. He wrote, “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.” and “The keystone of the Fascist doctrine is its conception of the State, of its essence, its functions, and its aims. For Fascism the State is absolute, individuals and groups relative.” And mostly chillingly, “Fascism is a religion. The twentieth century will be known in history as the century of Fascism.”

Mussolini's fascism ruled Italy before and during World War II, which is approximately the same period in which fascism ruled in Germany, Spain, and Romania and totalitarianism in Japan, the USSR and elsewhere, the same period in which the State of Israel emerged. Coincidence? We see otherwise from the writings of Sadan. It is worth noting that Romanian fascism utilized theology and religious symbolism.

I can't decide which of Sadan's views, as summarized by Brill, is the most off the rails but this one is a good candidate, "The whole Torah and its very essence is about state building." This is such crazy comment that I struggle to see why I need to refute it for any Jew that has ever studied the Torah. Sefer Bereshis and the trials and wanderings of the Avos and Imahos – state building? What about Shemos and slavery in Egypt, the receiving of the Torah? Or Vayikra and its detailing of mitzvos? Was the Talmud, which discusses so many topics, in essence about state building? Can we say anything more absurd? Tractates Kiddushin, Gittin, Brachos, Rosh Hashanah, Yoma, Baba Kama? Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai in the cave with his sons studying Torah -- state building? How? What was 2,000 years in Exile about? Would Sadan say that the lives of Rav and Shmuel, Rav Ashi, Sadya Gaon, Rashi, the Rambam, the Maharal, the Vilna Gaon, the Baal Shem Tov, the Chofetz Chaim, and R' Moshe Feinstein, to name just a few, who lived in exile, were only a preparation for us and our magnificent work in pouring concrete.

Was the Jewish Agency the presence of God when it was cutting off the peyos of Jewish children in the 1940s? And what about the State and the Yemenite children in the 1950s? When he refers to the military police advancing humanity is that the same military police that knocked three teeth out of the mouth of the little boy in Meah Sha'arim last month? When the national anthem of the country doesn't mention God can it be the anthem of the instrument of God? When the founder of modern Zionism Herzl proposed that all Jews convert to Catholicism was he serving as an instrument of God of the Jews?

And to think that RZs have taken over many leadership positions in the military. One can see why the Charedim want no part of the military as the military is not just a defense force, particularly in the religious units. It's an idol worship, a brain washing, and a madness. For the best rebuttal of all, I give you the words of the world-renown Torah sage and leader HaGaon HaRav Chayim Ozer Grodzensky zt'l ((1863-1940):

“Your honour knows that in the matter of the Zionists and the Mizrachi, I am in correspondence with the Gaonim of this generation, and all of them have decided that Zionism is the work of the Sitro Achro with all its seductions and incitements for the purpose of turning Israel from the good path, and that a great danger arises from it for all the Congregation of the Exile--Heaven forbid--and that all those who venture to defend the Zionists, are no better than they.

“To our shame, some rabbis in our country have joined the Zionists and have founded an organisation under the name of Mizrachi, and they have rejected all the rebukes of the Gedoilei Hatorah, and they pretend to be men with respect for the Word of the Lord. They have founded committees and it is likely that they will turn to your honour. I am therefore informing your honour that all the Gedoilim in our land are perplexed at the matter. In the books of the Poskim there is no suggestion that it is our duty to found a kingdom. On the contrary, our sages, the Tenoim and the Amoiroim, have expressly forbidden this. These rabbis of the Mizrachi have no faith, and do not trust in the salvation of the Lord and their minds have become deranged into believing that in a state founded by the hands of man there will be peace for us.”

[HaGaon HaTzadick HaRav Chayim Ozer Grodzensky zt'l in the Transformation (Brooklyn, NY: Hachomo, 1989) p. 187)]