Should Jews Go Into Politics?

In a Jewish State, Rav Z.Y. Kook called it ‘G-dly politics’ — not a materialistic distraction.

Q. Should Jews go into politics?

Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook would often say that politics in the context of a Jewish State is “G-dly Politics”. The welfare of each and every Jew, the Israeli national security and health, even the national budget, are all halachic, G-dly and idealistic issues, and surely not “materialistic distractions”. R. Yisrael Salanter is quoted as saying that “my fellow-Jew’s materialism is my spirituality!”, for being caring and altruistic is to be G-dly, and how much more so on a national level. This type of national and military politics is exactly what preoccupied our spiritual heroes who we are meant to emulate (!) as the ideal Jews, like Moshe and Joshua, Kings David and Solomon, etc. These halachot, of how to run a moral and G-dly economy, army, and politics are detailed extensively in the Rambam (Hil. M’lachim), and present one of the major challenges of modern poskim. This is a central ideological reason why G-d created Israel as a nation, with a land, language, economy and army, and not just a religion. On the other hand, if you’re asking regarding the involvement of Jews in non-Jewish politics in their countries of exile, Jews are not meant to be living there, and are generally better off keeping a low profile. “A light for the nations”, (“L’Or Goyim”, see Isaiah 42 and 49)- is always (!) in the context of being a unique nation in the Land of Israel, for other nations to emulate. Thank G-d we live in a time when this is once again, possible and from now on, the norm, which we should focus on constantly improving on all the aforementioned accounts.