הרב יצחק יעקב ריינס: מניח התשתית להגות אורתודוקסית מודרנית ציונית

The ideological and theological foundations that Rabbi Reines (1839— 1915), the founder of the Mizrahi movement, laid down in his writings were of great depth and left a significant imprint on the religious Zionist movement in the twentieth century. Rabbi Reines' teachings are marked by self-contradictions and inner tensions between opposite trends, such as tradition versus modernity; religious tolerance toward transgressors versus the reluctance to legitimize Jewish secularity; and Jewish particularistic tendencies versus Western ideologies. The inner tensions in Rabbi Reines' conceptual world culminate in his religious Zionist approach. On the one hand, his teachings were pragmatic and realistic, thus enabling him to join Herzl in developing a doctrine of political Zionism that strove to resolve the plight of modern Jews. On the other hand, his conception of Exile and Redemption led him to the recognition that the modern Zionist movement is a providential tool designed to curb the rapid course of the assimilation processes that gathered momentum after the Emancipation. Despite the explicit messianic elements in his teaching, Rabbi Reines refrained from reading history as an open book, nor did he link mundane politics with celestial theology. He left ample room for incertitude and compromising worldly considerations. Rabbi Reines' complexity as a Zionist thinker was consistent with his complex stands on democratic issues. While his particularistic positions betrayed suspiciousness toward the notions of Western Enlightenment — an approach which is incompatible with the liberal democratic heritage — in his Zionist activities he tended to exercise pragmatic, and essentially liberal-democratic, politics. He thus left a complex and multi-dimensional heritage to his followers in the religions Zionist movement.