The vision of a new Israel

The anti-intellectualism of the early socialist Zionist movement derived in part from the glorification of the worker culture that was flourishing in Russia in the late-19th century/early-20th century. The other source of the anti-intellectualism was the antipathy the secular Russian Jews had to the over-ripe scholasticism of the traditional rabbinic leadership. The Diaspora had evolved a brand of religious scholasticism that was onerous to the activism of the youthful Russian political agitator. Zionism was propelled in no small part by those young, Jewish agitators. It was the generation gap that spawned a nation, and it centered on Jewish work as labor for the glory of the working class. 

Had the young, socialist, early Zionists known how to appreciate the biblical regime they would have respected the balance between ruling class and ruled class the teachings of Moshe tries to promote as the centerpiece of the national project of God's chosen people in the Promised Land. Instead, the Labor Zionists at the time believed in the triumph of the working class and the withering away of the ruling class – a utopian dream that became a nightmare in Russia and a bureaucratic mess in Palestine, now Israel. 

Today's Israeli youth have the luxury of being able to think about the responsibilities of an Israeli government and an Israeli economy. Work is still important but not merely manual labor. Any sort of creative enterprise is what the people in the Promised Land need to promote. Rulers and ruled struggling together under the guidance of a divine authority to carve out a nation that serves the values of civil society, of dignity, and of reverence in a posture of stewardship and humility – that could be the vision of a new Israel.