The invention of a tradition : the Messianic Zionism of the Gaon of Vilna / Immanuel Etkes ; translated by Saadya Sternberg ; with a foreword by David Biale.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Etkes, I., author.

Contributor:

Sternberg, Saadya, translator.

Biale, David, 1949- writer of foreword.

Series:

Stanford studies in Jewish history and culture.

Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Elijah ben Solomon, 1720-1797.

Elijah ben Solomon.

Elijah ben Solomon, 1720-1797--Disciples.

Rivlin, Shelomo Zalman, 1884-1962.

Rivlin, Shelomo Zalman.

Jewish messianic movements--History.

Jewish messianic movements.

Zionism--Israel--History.

Zionism.

Zionism and Judaism--History.

Zionism and Judaism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (237 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2024]

Summary:

The Gaon of Vilna was the foremost intellectual leader of non-Hasidic Jewry in eighteenth-century Europe; his legacy is claimed by religious Jews, both Zionist and not. In the mid-twentieth century, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Rivlin wrote several books advancing the myth that the Gaon was an early progenitor of Zionism. Following the 1967 War in Israel, messianic sentiments spread in some circles of the national-religious public in Israel, who embraced this myth and made it a central component of the historical narrative they advanced. For those who identified with the religious Zionist enterprise, the myth of the Gaon and his disciples as the first Zionists was seen as proof of the righteousness of their path. In this book, Israeli scholar Immanuel Etkes explores how what he calls the "Rivlinian myth" took hold, and demonstrates that it has no basis in historical reality. Etkes argues that proponents of the Rivlinian myth seek to blur the distinction between Zionism as a modern national movement or a religious one—a distinction that underlies many of the central conflicts of contemporary Israeli politics. As historian David Biale suggests in his brief foreword to this English translation, "what is at stake here is not only historical truth but also the very identity of Zionism as a nationalist movement."

Contents:

Intro

Title Page

Copyright

Series Page

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I: The books Hazon Zion and Kol ha-Tor and the Rivlinian myth

1. Hazon Zion, a Messianic Zionist movement

2. The main ideas of Kol ha-Tor

3. Does Kol ha-Tor express a Messianic Zionist doctrine held by the Vilna Gaon?

Part II: The Vilna Gaon and his disciples as the first Zionists: The evolution of a myth

4. Why did the disciples of the Vilna Gaon immigrate to the Land of Israel?

5. How did the Rivlinian myth take form?

6. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Kasher's Ha-Tkufah ha-Gdolah

7. The academic version of the Rivlinian myth

8. Did Shlomo Zalman Rivlin receive the text of Kol ha-Tor from Yitzhak Zvi Rivlin?

Part III: Additional writings by Shlomo Zalman Rivlin

9. Mossad ha-Yesod: The Old Yishuv recast as the beginnings of Zionism

10. Midrash Shlomo and the Department for Training Young Orators

11. Ha-Maggid Doresh Zion: Rabbi Moshe Rivlin as a "Zionist" leader

12. Sefer ha-Pizmonim: Yosef Yosha Rivlin as a "Messianic Zionist visionary"

Part IV: The creation of Kol ha-Tor

13. Who was the author of Kol ha-Tor?

14. Shlomo Zalman Rivlin: The man and his literary motives

15. The embrace of the Rivlinian myth and Kol ha-Tor in Religious Zionist circles

Conclusion

Appendix: Rivlin family members

Notes

Bibliography

Index of Names

Series List.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Etkes, Immanuel The Invention of a Tradition

ISBN:

9781503637092

1503637093

OCLC:

1412008500