At first glance, 19th-century rabbi Yehuda Alkalai’s writings seem like traditional Jewish interpretations of biblical prophecies, but closer scrutiny reveals a strikingly modern redemptive vision – which had yet to be dubbed Zionism

In 1865, Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai summed up his unbridled commitment to the land of Israel:

For twenty-five years, a fiery love for that land for which our holy forefathers yearned has burned within me, so I read tremblingly of settlement there, and I have written eight pamphlets proving that redemption must be preceded by the settling of the land of Israel […]. And though I’ve heard that some sages are disturbed by the colonization of the land, I have neither changed nor recanted, for I’ve said: Let it be written for the final generation, and whatever reason won’t achieve, let time accomplish. (Writings of Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai [Mossad Ha-rav Kook, 1974], p. 635 [Hebrew])

This passage written in 1865, in a booklet entitled Raglei Mevaser (Feet of the Messenger) is one of the few autobiographical statements in Rabbi Alkalai’s extensive writings. Much of his personal life remains unknown, allowing for such specious theories as the claim that his family emigrated to the land of Israel when he was only eleven. His works mention no such move, though neither do they preclude it. An Israeli novel written by Yehuda Burla in the 1950s describes the Alkalai family’s journey to Jerusalem and young Yehuda’s life there, but no records corroborate this literary flight of fancy. 

Yehuda Alkalai was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia, in 1798. From 1825 onward he lived in Semlin, today Zemun, a small town near Belgrade. At first he taught the children of the Sephardic community, until in 1851 he became its spiritual leader. By 1857, he was serving as the rabbi of Semlin. Ethicist Rabbi Eliezer Papo, author of the classic work Pele Yo’etz (Wondrous Adviser), was his mentor. 

In 1871, Alkalai visited Ottoman Palestine, settling there with his wife three years later. He passed away on 4 Tishrei in 1878 and is buried on the Mount of Olives. 

 

Freedom Fighters

Nationalism was on the rise in the 19th century, chipping away at tolerance of visible Jewish minorities. Jewish separatism was deemed a problem, and assimilation its solution. Rabbi Alkalai, by contrast, insisted that the Jewish nation had no future in exile. Jews had to return to the land of Israel, tilling its soil and living by the Torah as a sovereign people. Uniquely combining religious language and political pragmatism, he addressed two opposite extremes among Jews: 

In our iniquity, the nation of Israel has divided in two, a divide as new as it is old. Some love liberty and some despise it; some love innovation and some abhor it. They rise up against each other “to destroy, kill, and annihilate” (Esther 3:13): one side in the name of the Torah and the other in the name of wisdom; one side calling evil good, and the other decrying good as evil; one side deeming darkness light, the other convinced that light is in fact darkness; one side calling bitterness sweet, while for the other sweetness is bitter. The lovers of liberty have given free rein to their freedom of choice to throw off the yoke of Heaven, of the Torah and its commandments; those who despise liberty also despise the redemption of Israel and the liberty promised by the prophets and sages, “[the freedom] engraved on the two tablets [of the law]” (Avot 6:2, based on Exodus 32:16). (ibid., p. 664)