Land, Work, and Redemption in the Religious-Zionist Philosophy of Isaiah Aviad (Oskar Wolfsberg)

Abstract

This article seeks to examine R. Dr. Isaiah Aviad’s outlook with regard to the Land of Israel, worldly labor, and redemption, as reflected in his teachings. R. Dr. Isaiah Aviad (Oskar Wolfsberg) (1893–1957) was born in Germany. He was one of religious Zionism’s main thinkers. He was a pediatrician, and since the establishment of Israel served as an Israeli diplomat in Scandinavia and Switzerland. R. Aviad thought that religious Zionism is the complete Judaism, that which combines Torah and labor, spirit, and matter—multi-dimensional. In addition, R. Aviad believed in natural redemption and human effort, linking the redemption to the Land of Israel and to cultivation of the earth. He thought that human activism—i.e., redeeming the soil of the Land of Israel and cultivating it, is a religious precept that will bring about the redemption.