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- Author: Hayyim Rothman x
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This chapter is devoted to the life and thought of perhaps the most theologically radical of all the figures considered in this study, R. Aaron Shmuel Tamaret. Like many of his peers here, R. Tamaret studied in elite rabbinic institutions but, despite more prestigious offers, took up a congregational post in a quiet village in Poland. The chapter begins with an examination of his typology of religious phenomena, in which he identifies paganism with de-individuation, distinguishing it from pure faith as the opposing tendency. It then proceeds to present his views on ultra-orthodoxy and Zionism as pagan regressions from pure faith undertaken in response to the supposed tragedy of exile; the one reducing man to God’s arbitrary will, the other reducing man to nationality, territory, and the state. Then, tracing his account of Jewish history from the period of Egyptian slavery through the rise of diaspora Judaism, the chapter demonstrates Tamaret’s understanding of Judaism as realized in the diaspora experience. Namely as a civilization organized around a divinely inspired ethical system organically developed within the popular institution of the beys midrash. Finally, it shows that Jewish chosenness, the Jewish mission to humanity on his interpretation of it, entails spreading precisely this idea by living example. In other words, it is argued that Tamaret’s work is a shining example of theologically grounded anarcho-diasporism.
This chapter reviews major themes covered in the discussion of Anarcho-Judaism as embodied in the figures studied throughout this volume. These include: Jewish collective identity, the mission of Israel, the question of organization (geographical, institutional, legal, and economic), and the place of violence in effecting large-scale change. After this review, proposals re offered as to contemporary relevance of anarcho-Jewish perspectives. This begins with a discussion of distinctions between utopia and ideology on the one hand, and classical utopianism and critical utopianism on the other. I argue that World War I can be interpreted as a critical-utopian discourse. I then put this claim to use in suggesting ways that values and concerns that appear in the articulation of World War I can inform responses to the contemporary crisis of Zionism.