Two phases of Judaism each began in one man’s consciousness.

REPRINTS FROM THE  JERUSALEM POST; BY GOL KALEV, january 20, 2022

Two phases of Judaism each began in one man’s consciousness.

Judaism 1.0 started fully with Moses. God’s initial revelation was only to him. Moses then brought the message to the people.

Similarly, Judaism 3.0 started with Herzl. Through a bizarre process that Herzl describes in his diaries, the ideas of Zionism came to him. He then brought the message to the people. 

Just as in Moses’s case, this was not simply about migration from Egypt/Europe to Canaan/Palestine; this was about the transformation of Judaism.

But the two adopted different strategies. The process of de-Mosesizing Judaism was gradual.Moses accepted Jethro’s advice to enact a system of judges. God later instructed Moses to transfer priestly responsibilities to Aaron, and later to give executive powers to a council of 70 elders. (As discussed in a previous article, it is possible that not de-Mosesizing early-on contributed to the events of the Golden Calf.)

Herzl, on the other hand, tried to de-Herzlize Zionism from the get-go. He hoped to disengage from the cause once his book The Jewish State was published. He wanted to “delegate up” to the Rothschilds, but they refused, and hence Herzl took his message to the Jewish masses.

In the Zionist Congress, he tried to downplay his ubiquitous involvement, and in the Zionist newspaper Die Welt, he wrote articles under various pen names, giving the appearance of a movement that was bigger than just one person.

Today, while there certainly is a full recognition of the transformation that Moses seeded back then – for example, through the holiday of Passover – there has not yet been a recognition of the transformation that Herzl seeded, and hence there is a need to “re-Herzlize” Zionism, to delve into his teachings with rigor and depth as we do with those of Moses.

Indeed, we are only in the early days of Zionism – of Judaism 3.0.

See related feeder article: Jews of Egypt, Europe were bound by mental enslavement 

THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN THE JANUARY 22, 2022 JERUSALEM POST MAGAZINE – CLICK FOR THE PDF OF THE MAGAZINE:

For more of Gol’s articles linking Herzl to Moses: Parasha & Herzl

For Gol’s geopolitical articles: Europe and Jerusalem

GOL’S BOOK NOW AVAILABLE IN AMAZON AND POMERANZ, AHEAD OF THE LAUNCH

Sign-up to get updates on the book’s launch events:

For more of Gol Kalev's parasha commentary: Parasha & Herzl