How the Hebrew Bible Can Bring Haredim Back to Zionism

I want to thank my friend and colleague Rabbi Ya’akov Trump for his learned and important essay on the study of Tanakh. I also want to register my agreement with his analysis of why, for so many years, the study of Tanakh was largely neglected in so many halls of study and among so many Torah scholars. As Rabbi Trump puts it, during the long centuries of exile Judaism “stepped out of history.” To survive in the Diaspora and to avoid the ever-present danger of assimilation, Judaism had to shift “from being a national identity to becoming a religion.” One element of this shift was the transition from the national vision of the Bible to the religious devotion of the Talmud.

This argument was developed most masterfully by the Hebrew University scholar Yehezkel Kaufman in his monumental Golah v’Nekhar (Exile and Alienation). Rejecting biological and racial theories of Jewish survival, as well as the claim that Gentile animosity was the decisive factor in preserving the Jewish people, Kaufman argued persuasively that Judaism was sustained through long centuries of exile by religion, and more specifically by halakhah: religious practice. The mechanisms of halakhah ensured that Jews lived within a distinct, organized rhythm of time and life, insulating them from assimilation. “As a religion,” Rabbi Trump likewise writes, Judaism “could survive in other cultures and across all borders.”

In this response, I would like to pick up where Rabbi Trump leaves off. The study of Tanakh as an independent field, and the return to a literal reading of the biblical text, is not merely an academic matter. It entails a profound mental shift, with ramifications for some of the most crucial Jewish questions of our time. The fact that many Haredim—and especially those in Israel—are now taking up the study of Tanakh is a sign of hope, and of important developments yet to come.