REPRINTS FROM THE  JERUSALEM POST; BY GOL KALEV, june 25, 2021

   

Balaam was meant to curse, but his words miraculously turned into blessings. This was the case with Wagner, the antisemite opera composer. He sought to curse the Jews, but it was through Wagner’s operas in Paris that Herzl received unexplained inspiration for the Jewish state, and for charting the Jews’ return back home to Zion. “Only on the evenings when there was no opera did I have doubts about the correctness of my ideas,” he wrote. Herzl even played the overture of Wagner’s Tannhuaser in the Zionist Congress.

See feeder article: Parashat Balak: The occupation & liberation of the Moabian territories

THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN THE JUNE 25, 2021 JERUSALEM POST MAGAZINE:

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

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