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Messianic Zionism in the Digital Age: Jews, Noahides, and the Third Temple Imaginary
Judaism in the twenty-first century has seen the rise of the messianic Third Temple movement, as religious activists based in Israel have worked to realize biblical prophecies, including the restoration of a Jewish theocracy and the construction of the third and final Temple on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Through groundbreaking ethnographic research, Messianic Zionism in the Digital Age details how Third Temple visions have gained considerable momentum and political support in Israel and abroad .
The role of technology in this movement’s globalization has been critical. Feldman skillfully highlights the ways in which the internet and social media have contributed to the movement's growth beyond the streets of Jerusalem into communities of former Christians around the world who now identify as the Children of Noah ( Bnei Noah ). She charts a path for future research while documenting the intimate effects of political theologies in motion and the birth of a new transnational Judaic faith.
The role of technology in this movement’s globalization has been critical. Feldman skillfully highlights the ways in which the internet and social media have contributed to the movement's growth beyond the streets of Jerusalem into communities of former Christians around the world who now identify as the Children of Noah ( Bnei Noah ). She charts a path for future research while documenting the intimate effects of political theologies in motion and the birth of a new transnational Judaic faith.
214 pages, Paperback
Published March 15, 2024
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August 6, 2024
An interesting issue that arises in this book is that of the blurring of the dichotomy between the secular and religious. Rachel Z. Feldman suggests in her ethnographic work, that Messianic Zionists and Noahides function as proxy-state actors for the state of Israel, towards a neo-colonial theocratic project. That Israel itself also functions in a syncretic way, not merely as a secular state, but also as a vehicle for Jewish theocracy as imagined by Messianic Zionists and Noahides. There is a self awareness of the author that this would be a controversial take, to the people she has written about, and that they would probably be hurt by and disagree with her characterisation of them. However, it is a valuable ethnographic depiction of the subjects studied.
It’s a fascinating ethnographic analysis from the outsider perspective looking in, despite her own positionality as Orthodox, Jewish, female, and anthropologist, which she acknowledges. She never details what her own political views are in an explicit fashion, but it is clear that she does not support the notion of a Jewish religious theocracy based on the language used to describe the political. This is not the main purpose of her book, to discuss her personal political views. The purpose of the book is to understand and empathise with the subject, despite her disagreements with their views, using her skills as a cultural anthropologist.
Feldman’s writing implies a kind of troubled yet complex relationship with the merging of religion and politics and the perceived collusion between state and religious subjects of noahides and Messianic Zionists. That Noahides are in a didactic with what she labels as “far-right” rabbis. Rather than grounding the analysis in the language of conspiracy theory, Feldman delves into the relationships, worldviews, historical influences, scriptural basis, and technological innovation which allows for the phenomenon of Messianic Zionism and Noahidism to flourish both online and offline.
She separates her own analysis, of Noahidism as a new religious movement, from the identity of Noahides and Messianic Zionists themselves. That Noahide is a halachic category, according to her subjects, and specifically not a new religion. That in their understanding, it is forbidden by Jewish law to start a new religion. However, due to her discipline as an anthropologist, she writes that Noahidism, is a Judaizing faith, a new religious subjectivity, one that has interacted and shares history with Christian Zionism and biblical roots Christianity but is distinct from it, where Noahidism in fact rejects Jesus as the messiah and turns towards the Old Testament, the Talmud and “far right” (her words) rabbis towards a theopolitical goal of a utopian theocratic state in which Israel is run by a Sanhedrin of Jewish Rabbis, where Noahides are welcomed to the live in Israel under the Noahide laws, and where temple priests perform animal sacrifices in the future Third Temple of Israel (Beit Hamikdash).
I think this book would’ve have much been better if Feldman had toned down some of the negatively valenced language used in describing her subjects. Examples include when the Messianic Zionist rabbis are described as being “far right”. This type of description significantly reduces the quality of the ethnographic analysis, and creates a kind of othering towards a group which she implicitly disagrees with by labelling certain rabbis that she presumably finds too extreme as “far right”. Another example of negatively valenced categorisations that are couched in objective sounding terminology, include the descriptions of Orthodox Jewish women who go to the temple mount in Jerusalem, as engaging in a liberal democratic discourse by using the language of feminism and democracy, and are thus functioning as proxy state actors for Israel in an expansionist, neo-colonialist, theopolitical project. These type of characterisations are not necessarily inaccurate depictions towards her subjects, but they are, however, subjective and skew the understanding of her subjects towards something disagreeable. I don’t deny that there is most definitely a synthesis of politics with religion going on in Noahidism, Messianic ZIonism, Third Temple activism, and with Israeli politicians, but it is definitely not as insidious or as subversive as the language she uses makes it out to be.
In Rachel’s own words:
“Chapter 2 also rendered visible some of the modalities through which messianic political theologies collude with state power in Israel. Messianic activism in Israel is not antithetical to liberal Zionism and the biopolitics of the contemporary Israeli state but rather functions as a supportive appendage to them. Third Temple activists, including Temple Mount pilgrimage guides, function as proxy-state actors, hybridizing messianic and liberal ideologies to support expansionist territorial policies and Jewish eth- nonational dominance.” P138
“My overarching argument throughout this book can be summarized this way: Messianic Zionism, as a traveling political theology, allows for the interaction and merger of religious systems, paradoxically enabling liberating modes of spiritual empowerment alongside patterns of neocolonial spiritual influence.” P141
“As chapters 2 and 3 in particular demonstrated, beneath their universalistic claims of perfecting and uniting humanity, the Third Temple / Noahide movements are connected to state-sponsored projects of territorial conquest and have gained broad-based political and economic support from Israeli politicians as well as religious legitimation from authoritative members of the Israeli rabbinate (including the current Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau and Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef). In 2016, Chief Rabbi Lau publicly expressed support for the rebuilding of the Temple and for Noahide outreach.15 In the same year Chief Rabbi Yosef gave a controversial sermon that was later aired on national television in which he stated that only non-Jews who accepted the Noahide Laws should be allowed to live in Israel.16 I mention these examples to emphasize for the reader once more that the Third Temple movement, which began as a marginal religious faction in the wake of the attempted Al-Aqsa bombings by the Jewish Underground in the 1980s, has made significant inroads into the Israeli religious and political establishment.” P142
Feldman also wants to make sure that she is trying to understand her subjects, and not merely caricature them using anti-Semitic tropes. It is a difficult territory to tread, but despite her political differences, she somewhat manages to succeed, albeit in a politically biased fashion. Rachel Feldman concludes with hopes to inspire new ways of thinking about scripture in the Jewish community:
“As much as religion has the ability to oppress, I still believe it equally has the potential to liberate. If this work circulates beyond the academic community, perhaps to religious com- munities, it is my hope that it will also provoke new engagements with Jewish sources themselves, with mystical and metaphysical interpretations of the Temple dating back to antiquity, which might provide inspiration and alterna- tive imaginings of what it means “to rebuild the Temple speedily in our days.”22” (p145)
It’s a fascinating ethnographic analysis from the outsider perspective looking in, despite her own positionality as Orthodox, Jewish, female, and anthropologist, which she acknowledges. She never details what her own political views are in an explicit fashion, but it is clear that she does not support the notion of a Jewish religious theocracy based on the language used to describe the political. This is not the main purpose of her book, to discuss her personal political views. The purpose of the book is to understand and empathise with the subject, despite her disagreements with their views, using her skills as a cultural anthropologist.
Feldman’s writing implies a kind of troubled yet complex relationship with the merging of religion and politics and the perceived collusion between state and religious subjects of noahides and Messianic Zionists. That Noahides are in a didactic with what she labels as “far-right” rabbis. Rather than grounding the analysis in the language of conspiracy theory, Feldman delves into the relationships, worldviews, historical influences, scriptural basis, and technological innovation which allows for the phenomenon of Messianic Zionism and Noahidism to flourish both online and offline.
She separates her own analysis, of Noahidism as a new religious movement, from the identity of Noahides and Messianic Zionists themselves. That Noahide is a halachic category, according to her subjects, and specifically not a new religion. That in their understanding, it is forbidden by Jewish law to start a new religion. However, due to her discipline as an anthropologist, she writes that Noahidism, is a Judaizing faith, a new religious subjectivity, one that has interacted and shares history with Christian Zionism and biblical roots Christianity but is distinct from it, where Noahidism in fact rejects Jesus as the messiah and turns towards the Old Testament, the Talmud and “far right” (her words) rabbis towards a theopolitical goal of a utopian theocratic state in which Israel is run by a Sanhedrin of Jewish Rabbis, where Noahides are welcomed to the live in Israel under the Noahide laws, and where temple priests perform animal sacrifices in the future Third Temple of Israel (Beit Hamikdash).
I think this book would’ve have much been better if Feldman had toned down some of the negatively valenced language used in describing her subjects. Examples include when the Messianic Zionist rabbis are described as being “far right”. This type of description significantly reduces the quality of the ethnographic analysis, and creates a kind of othering towards a group which she implicitly disagrees with by labelling certain rabbis that she presumably finds too extreme as “far right”. Another example of negatively valenced categorisations that are couched in objective sounding terminology, include the descriptions of Orthodox Jewish women who go to the temple mount in Jerusalem, as engaging in a liberal democratic discourse by using the language of feminism and democracy, and are thus functioning as proxy state actors for Israel in an expansionist, neo-colonialist, theopolitical project. These type of characterisations are not necessarily inaccurate depictions towards her subjects, but they are, however, subjective and skew the understanding of her subjects towards something disagreeable. I don’t deny that there is most definitely a synthesis of politics with religion going on in Noahidism, Messianic ZIonism, Third Temple activism, and with Israeli politicians, but it is definitely not as insidious or as subversive as the language she uses makes it out to be.
In Rachel’s own words:
“Chapter 2 also rendered visible some of the modalities through which messianic political theologies collude with state power in Israel. Messianic activism in Israel is not antithetical to liberal Zionism and the biopolitics of the contemporary Israeli state but rather functions as a supportive appendage to them. Third Temple activists, including Temple Mount pilgrimage guides, function as proxy-state actors, hybridizing messianic and liberal ideologies to support expansionist territorial policies and Jewish eth- nonational dominance.” P138
“My overarching argument throughout this book can be summarized this way: Messianic Zionism, as a traveling political theology, allows for the interaction and merger of religious systems, paradoxically enabling liberating modes of spiritual empowerment alongside patterns of neocolonial spiritual influence.” P141
“As chapters 2 and 3 in particular demonstrated, beneath their universalistic claims of perfecting and uniting humanity, the Third Temple / Noahide movements are connected to state-sponsored projects of territorial conquest and have gained broad-based political and economic support from Israeli politicians as well as religious legitimation from authoritative members of the Israeli rabbinate (including the current Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau and Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef). In 2016, Chief Rabbi Lau publicly expressed support for the rebuilding of the Temple and for Noahide outreach.15 In the same year Chief Rabbi Yosef gave a controversial sermon that was later aired on national television in which he stated that only non-Jews who accepted the Noahide Laws should be allowed to live in Israel.16 I mention these examples to emphasize for the reader once more that the Third Temple movement, which began as a marginal religious faction in the wake of the attempted Al-Aqsa bombings by the Jewish Underground in the 1980s, has made significant inroads into the Israeli religious and political establishment.” P142
Feldman also wants to make sure that she is trying to understand her subjects, and not merely caricature them using anti-Semitic tropes. It is a difficult territory to tread, but despite her political differences, she somewhat manages to succeed, albeit in a politically biased fashion. Rachel Feldman concludes with hopes to inspire new ways of thinking about scripture in the Jewish community:
“As much as religion has the ability to oppress, I still believe it equally has the potential to liberate. If this work circulates beyond the academic community, perhaps to religious com- munities, it is my hope that it will also provoke new engagements with Jewish sources themselves, with mystical and metaphysical interpretations of the Temple dating back to antiquity, which might provide inspiration and alterna- tive imaginings of what it means “to rebuild the Temple speedily in our days.”22” (p145)
Displaying 1 of 1 review