How Would a Jewish State Look? Part I: Bibi as Heresy Against the Kingdom of Heaven
Both the idea of "Bibi as King of Israel" and that of a state of law are deeply opposed to the original Jewish aspirations, which Zionism manipulatively harnessed for its needs. The Jewish system of government for the end of days, which generations of Jews yearned for, is not Jewish rule but religious anarchism, which was the great political message of the people leaving Egypt, as the anarchist Gershom Scholem well understood. This is a system that opposes any rule of flesh and blood, because "we have no king - but You." On blockchain and other technological developments that enable the revival of Jewish anarchism as a realistic option - and on anarchism as the source of monotheism
Almost every historical Jew, who lived in any period of exile, would look with instinctive revulsion and nausea at the Bibi-ist personality cult and the State of Israel of our time. For generations, Jewish consciousness was built on opposition to the rule of flesh and blood, as such flawed and inherently corrupt rule was attributed to gentiles and their kings, while Jews saw themselves as not really subject to government and not believing in it and its laws, but subject only to God himself - directly. Jews prided themselves on the fact that, unlike foreign nations, "we have no king but You," and yearned for a return to God's kingdom, not for "self-rule" or a "Jewish state." But only today, with certain technological developments, this option, which was always considered a matter for the end-times vision, is becoming realistic.
Unlike contemporary dreamers who imagine the ideal Jewish state as led by a king from the House of David, reading the primary sources will reveal that this mixture of past (monarchy) and present (the modern state) was never the ultimate ideal that Judaism presented for the end of days, which was entirely a vision of the future, never realized (the original kingdom of David and Solomon was morally and governmentally flawed to an extreme degree and far from redemption). Messianism was also not the original ideal of Judaism in the Torah of Moses, but perhaps, in difficult times, an intermediate stage of compromise with a problematic political reality in the present, which gained (partial) canonization in Halakha, alongside other concepts. In practice, the restoration of monarchy was never a realistic goal that Judaism ever pursued politically (and not even Zionism, except perhaps only Sabbateanism). On the contrary, it preferred to wait for the realization of the vision of the return of God's kingdom, and not to try to create its own human kingdom. This overwhelming opposition to human rule also contributed to its distancing from any human leader standing at the head of the religious establishment - unlike the other two monotheistic religions, which have popes and caliphs - and this despite the costs of this organizational anarchy. Because it was precisely religious anarchism that was the system of government that diaspora Judaism actually implemented - and this is the reason it never really tried to return to Israel.
Few know that from the perspective of the Torah itself, as expressed in Deuteronomistic ideology, the kingdom of David and Solomon was a historical mishap, which may have received approval "after the fact," but was certainly not desirable from the outset. In fact, monarchical rule is presented in this literature as sinful and causing sin almost by its very existence, its foundation in the days of Samuel being a great sin of rebellion against God, which ultimately led almost inevitably to exile. Opposition to the power of government, both ideologically and in practice by the prophets, is perhaps the driving force of this literature, and its central critical message. So what is the original ideal Jewish system of government? What is the Jewish equivalent of the social state of nature, from which Enlightenment thinkers and modern political philosophers derived the legitimacy for the state and government?
From the perspective of the Torah's original vision, the people who were liberated from the flesh and blood rule of slavery in Egypt transitioned, as a radical antithesis, to a primitive desert state of resolute opposition to any human rule and of chronic rebelliousness and anti-authoritarian anarchism, including against Moses' own authority, which in the language of the Torah is called a "stiff-necked people." From this opposition to human rule emerged a form of government unparalleled in the ancient world - a government where the king is God himself, and every individual is directly subject to him. In this state, a kind of ceremony of cutting a social contract took place, in which each individual stands in the desert before God at Mount Sinai, and makes a covenant with him, as was customary in the ancient world to make between subjects and the human king.
This is in fact the central political vision of Judaism, which formed the basis for the invention of monotheism and established it as the first monotheistic religion, with Moses' Torah not appointing a king on God's behalf at all (in stark contrast to all religions of the ancient world). The anarchistic opposition to human and monarchical rule is what created the need for a single, superhuman source of authority, namely a single god. This opposition also created the revolution of Torah and commandments, because in the absence of any human law with any authority set by man, only superhuman law has legitimacy for social regulation. Hence the innovative idea of religious civil law and opposition to secular law (even later kings are subject to religious law, and are never sources of law). Moses is not a king, and his descendants are intentionally portrayed as miserable sinners, not as heirs. Moses is only a messenger of God's word - and this is the source of the idea of the prophet, who is the ultimate biblical hero, not the king, who is portrayed as a serial failure and sinner, including David and Solomon.
Thus, the opposition to government inherent in Judaism does not only concern foreign rule, but the very existence of any human rule of man over man, which is rebellion against God's rule. Hence the tendency to oppose both slavery and idolatry, namely the worship of God through statues - as intermediaries between God and man. This tendency was perhaps never realized historically or even from the perspective of biblical historiography, except for a short period after the days of Joshua, in the sense of every man under his vine and under his fig tree. Therefore, it remained a utopia for the end of days, but this is exactly the utopia that technology will increasingly enable in the rest of the century: the establishment of a true Jewish state where there is no rule of flesh and blood, but only computerized regulation of the community. A Jewish nation-state is a ridiculous internal contradiction, as is a halakhic state, because the rule of the modern state is contrary to the Jewish anarchist conception. Therefore, Bibi's rule is rebellion against the kingdom of heaven, and the more a government pretends to royal airs and permanence - the more blatant the rebellion. Moses our teacher would certainly not have voted for Bibi.
Continued in Part II: The Halakhic State is Gone - Welcome the Kabbalistic State