‘In Days to Come’: the nature of the Jewish state and society in the thought of Ze̓ev Ya̓avetz

Abstract

The Orthodox historian Ze̓ev Ya̓avetz (1847–1924) strove to harmonize Orthodoxy with life as it was developing in the Land of Israel, in part by blending it together with nascent Jewish nationalism. Theodor Herzl’s utopian novel Altneuland (1902) urged him to deal intensely with the portraying of the anticipated Jewish entity which was forming in the Land of Israel. At 1904 he published an article in the journal Ha-Mizrach , of which he was the editor, entitled ‘In Days to Come’. In the article, he clarified his theory on the relationship between religion and sovereignty, science and aesthetics. His main motive was to prove that there is not any contradiction between these factors. Ya̓avetz’s article, in which he set out his concept of ‘government in the spirit of the Talmud’, was a pioneering attempt to place these issues on the agenda of the religious Zionist camp.