I found I couldn’t let the day go without comment, so here are two old posts of mine written originally for other fora on the subject of the meaning of Zionism.
R’ Aharon Soloveitchikzt”l gave the following parable, to explain his position on the sanctity of “secular” Zionism.
During WWII, a family raised just enough money to get one son out of Europe. They gave him the family heirloom pocket-watch, contacted the Jewish Agency in NY, and put the young boy on a boat. The boy makes it to Ellis Island, and the Agency finds a home to raise the child.
He grows up, and in time, forgot his original family’s faces. But he still held onto the watch, and loved it for the attachment it represented.
Time marches on. He no longer even remembers how many siblings he had, or anything about his parents. But he still lovingly polishes his watch, keeps it wound, cares for it. You always saw him pull it from his pocket.
The man (no longer a boy) hits on hard times. He was forced to sell the watch. But still, he held onto the fob at the end of the chain. He was very attached to that watch-fob even though he remembered almost nothing of what it represented.
40 years later, a brother who survived the war finds him. The reunion is awkward, the man doesn’t rememb