Essay: From a Hoe to a Hug – A Constitutive Narrative of Zionism and Renewal

“A good story is never just a story. A good story is a founding story; it is a basis for identity, for action; it creates a network of meanings in which we cling to in our lives – as individuals, as a group.” With these word the essay opens, dealing with the renewal of cultural values ​​in contemporary Israeli Judaism – the transformation of our national story and our hero/ines.
The text (about 500 words, in Hebrew) was incorporated into the “Israeli Talmud – Tractate of Independence”, edited by Dov Elbaum, with the support of BINAH. It is included in Unit D of the anthology, entitled “The Israeli Traditionalism in the Present and Its Vision for the Future”.

Dozens of writers – thinkers, artists and journalists – joined in creating texts for this anthology, which was written as a Talmud studying the paragraph in the Declaration of Independence of Israel, which begins with the words “Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland”.
Other sources were also woven throughout the anthology. For example, Ruac-Midbar’s essay was printed on a page together that also included a source by Mordechai Kaplan.
Later, the anthologies of “midrashim”, by 160 writers, dedicated to the various sections of the Declaration of Independence of Israel were assemled into the “Treatise (Massekhet) of Independence”. The current essay was reprinted therein – see on this page.

For a research article by Ruah-Midbar, that presents insights similar to those appearing in the essay, and deals with images and narratives of the Israeli people’s past – see here.

From the back cover:
Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment – on the question of traditionalism in Israeli society.
The third paragraph of Israel’s Declaration of Independence opens with the words: “Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland”.
What should be the weight of the Jewish tradition in the Jewish state? Is it Jewish in the national sense only, i.e. intended for those who share Jewish history and peoplehood, or is it Jewish also in its cultural character and the prime principles that are the basis of its laws and central values? This booklet dealing with the third paragraph in the Declaration is a continuation of the previous one which dealt with the seventh paragraph.