Reality has demonstrated the great difficulty, both on a theoretical plane and a practical level, of writing on the topic of Jewish thought and practice. I am referring not only to the complexity of the subject matter, but to the highly polarized positions maintained within the entire field of study. Historians, philosophers, and theologians have long deliberated the seminal place Jewish thought and practice have occupied in occidental, and to a lesser extent, oriental histories. However, unique is the group (institution) and rare is the individual for whom the serious nature of the issue has been apparent. Yet rarer still, are those who have burdened themselves with the necessary and due level of contemplation that Jewish thought deserved as well as required in order to derive meaningful results.

In our time, those who affix the title of Jewish thinker to their name or have had others do so, are usually little more than modern ideologues applying foreign ideologies where there belong Jewish ideas. On the other side of the spectrum, there are those for whom Jewish thought consists in the memorization of the historically (traditional) Jewish texts and the mimicry of thought patterns of previous generations. Generations, one must add, that have brought the Jewish people and Jewish thought to the verge of collapse. It is abundantly clear that both are products of incomplete and distorted understandings. Two thousand years of Diasporic life have stunted and perverted the reasoning behind and definition of Jewish thought in both of these dominant schools.

Concerted and intense intellectual labor must be applied toward the most pressing and immediate exigency of the Jewish nation. Unification of Jewish thought, clarification of purposes of the Jewish people, and the meaning of the Land of Israel need, with all alacrity, to arrest Jewish senses and consume Jewish thought. The Jewish people must understand these elements as the fundamental concepts forming the Torah Idea of the Nation of Israel. Without any one of these three components, the Torah Idea of the Nation of Israel as a meaningful end is simply without worth and is indeed false. We must view the Land of Israel as fundamental to the purposes of Jewish existence, as well as for the edification of both the Jews in the Land of Israel and those in the Diaspora of the Judaic principles that will ensure the proper understanding of Jewish statecraft and existence. The purpose of this endeavor must be to promote the infusion of an agenda into Jewish discourse, which as its object seeks the consolidation of Jewish thought within the classical context.

Be it maintained that the Jewish people is a National-Religious people whose fulfillment of purpose rests in the reclamation of Eretz Yisrael and in the Jewish institutions that govern it. Unique among the nations, only the Jewish people is a people for whom it is a religious and national obligation to establish an independent polity. As important to the physical reclamation of the land is the physical return of the Jewish people to the biblically promised lands of our forefathers. It is certain that this position, wholly understood in all its significance, is not within the realm of current public discourse.

Thinking Jews need have as their agenda the construction of such a nation whose faith rests in G-d and whose path is Torah. In every generation decisions must be made and crossroads passed. In our time the Jewish people is blessed in that it possesses the building block upon which to proceed. We must make ours that generation which is confident of the reality and truth of Divine Providence. With this knowledge, the only failure is the refusal to act, and the lack of faith that accompanies it. The test of each individual is in the actions he takes, not the momentary success or apparent failure of the endeavor.

Know that it is the obligation of all men, and in particular the Jew, to strive for knowledge of the truth and to act accordingly. Within reach is the restoration of the Jewish nation as conceived by our Sages. The Jewish people have only to possess the will in order to witness the fruition of a true Jewish nation whose in-gathering is complete and whose support of the Jewish community is unyielding and resolute. Know that G-d has promised the Jewish people the Land of Israel as the physical homeland for its national existence. Know also that there can be no other reasons for the establishment of a Jewish State other than for it to represent the totality of Torah thought and observance. Put more succinctly, the only viable Jewish state is a state in which Jews behave as Jews: that the law of the land is the Law of the Jews. There is no other way for one to justify the need for an independent Jewish polity.

There have been many arguments along this line and, of course, there are many opinions on this subject. Yet, the one thing that cannot be denied is the time-transcending idea, as well as the reality, of the existence of the Jewish people. No doubt that every people wants to live and prosper; however, the distinction for the Jewish people is clear -- there is no need for the Jewish existence if it is not for the aims served. These objectives are not within the realm of the mundane -- they are, indeed, among the most sublime and holy of all possible human ends.