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The Invention of Jewish Theocracy explains why the idea of halakhic state - a demand that Israel should be governed by the law of the Torah - emerged, what happened after it initially failed to take hold, and how it has regained popularity in recent decades, provoking a schism between secular politics and religious fundamentalism. The book engages with contemporary debates on global human rights, the role of religion in Middle East conflict, and the long-term consequences of European imperialism.
List of contents
- Introduction. The Halakhic State
- Chapter 1. The Pluralistic Roots of Religious Zionism
- Chapter 2. Isaac Herzog before Palestine
- Chapter 3. A Constitution for Israel According to the Torah
- Chapter 4. Modernizing the Chief Rabbinate
- Chapter 5. Failure and Resistance
- Chapter 6. "Gentile Courts" in a Jewish State
- Chapter 7. The Persistence of Jewish Theocracy
- Bibliography
About the author
Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Chair of Israel Studies; Assistant Professor, Department of Near East and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University.
Summary
The tension between secular politics and religious fundamentalism is a problem shared by many modern states. This is certainly true of the State of Israel, where the religious-secular schism provokes conflict at every level of politics and society. Driving this schism is the idea of the halakhic state, the demand by many religious Jews that Israel should be governed by the law of the Torah as interpreted by Orthodox rabbis. Understanding this idea is a priority for scholars of Israel and for anyone with an interest in its future. The Invention of Jewish Theocracy is the first book in any language to trace the origins of the idea, to track its development, and to explain its crucial importance in Israel's past and present. The book also shows how the history of this idea engages with burning contemporary debates on questions of global human rights, the role of religion in Middle East conflict, and the long-term consequences of European imperialism.
The Invention of Jewish Theocracy is an intellectual history, based on newly discovered material from numerous Israeli archives, private correspondence, court records, and lesser-known published works. It explains why the idea of the halakhic state emerged when it did, what happened after it initially failed to take hold, and how it has regained popularity in recent decades, provoking cultural conflict that has severely shaken Israeli society. The book's historical analysis gives rise to two wide-reaching insights. First, it argues that religious politics in Israel can be understood only within the context of the largely secular history of European nationalism and not, as is commonly argued, as an anomalous exception to it. It shows how even religious Jews most opposed to modern political thought nevertheless absorbed the fundamental assumptions of modern European political thought and reread their own religious traditions onto that model. Second, it demonstrates that religious-secular tensions are built into the intellectual foundations of Israel rather than being the outcome of major events like the 1967 War. These insights have significant ramifications for the understanding of the modern state. In particular, the account of the blurring of the categories of "secular" and "religious" illustrated in the book are relevant to all studies of modern history and to scholars of the intersection of religion and human rights
Additional text
Kaye's book does great service in bringing Herzog's thought to light and forcing us to think about the nature of halakha as a legal system and its less-than-obvious relationship to the workings of a modern state.
