History of Eretz Israel - Introduction

There are those who say that Religious Zionism started with Herzl, as a way to combine the secular ideology of Zionism with the religious teaching of Torah. Those people are wrong.

There are those who say that Religious Zionism started with Rav Kalisher, Rav Gutmacher and Rav Alkalai, the "mevasserei hatzionut" (callers of Zionism), who preceded Zionism with a religious call to go back to Israel and build a state. Those were some of the greatest talmidei chachamim of their times, students of Rav Akiva Eiger and the Pelei Yoetz. Yet, they were not the start of Religious Zionism.

Some people go even further back. To the GRA, the Vilna Gaon, who called on his students to build a Jewish State in Israel; to the Ramban, who tried to encourage mass aliyah to Israel in his time; to Rav Yehudah Halevy, who famously said "My Heart is in the east".

Modern Religious Zionism started the day where the Jews were exiled from their land, as you can see from all the Tanaim who lived right after that time. Religious Zionism as an ideology came even before! It started with Avraham who left his land to get to Eretz Israel. The importance of the land of Israel came even before! It came even before the creation of this world!

The goal of this new series will be to look at the history of Eretz Israel, look at history in order to understand what is so special about this land and its connection to Klal Israel and the Jewish People. We will go all the way back to the creation of the world and move forward, slowly, post by post, until we get to the modern Zionist movement.

Stay tuned for more!