[Avodah] RAYK and Post-Zionism

[Michael Makovi]

In a previous discussion, it was said by some that religious zionism
is challenged by the reality today, that the secular zionism, which
was supposed to become religious zionism, has instead become secular
non-zionism.

I replied that Rav Kook already predicted this would happen, but I
didn't know the source. I have found it:

Orot, Orot haTechiya, 44
Translated in Lights on Orot: Eretz Yisrael, by Rabbi David Samson and
Tzvi Fishman, pp. xvi, 225:
QUOTE
We recognize that a spiritual rebellion will come to pass in Eretz
Yisrael amongst the people of Israel in the beginnings of the nation's
revival. The material comfort which will be attained by a percentage
of the nation, convincing them that they already have completed their
goals, will constrict the soul, and days will come which will seem
devoid of all spirit and meaning. The aspirations for lofty and holy
ideals will cease, and the spirit of the nation will plunge and sink
until a storm of revolution will appear, and people will come to see
clearly that the power of Israel lies in its eternal holiness, in the
light of G-d and His Torah, in the yearning for spiritual light which
is the ultimate valor which triumphs over all the worlds and all their
powers...When the material drive surfaces, it will erupt with the fury
of stormwinds, and these are the pangs of Mashiach which will come to
refine and purify the entire world through the pains which they cause.
END QUOTE

I'm not sure if Rav Kook himself does, but his commentators relate it
to Shir haShirim Rabbah 2:14, about the gazelle that leaps behind a
mountain, seemingly gone, only to reappear later. See Page 224 in
Lights on Orot.

Mikha'el Makovi