Draft:Aaron Samuel Tamares

Rabbi Aaron Samuel Tamares
הרב אהרן שמואל בן משה יעקב תמרת
Aaron Samuel Tamares
Born	1869 Grodno
Died	1931 Milejczyce
Other names	Aḥad ha-Rabanim ha-Margishim
Education	Kovno Kollel, Volozhin Yeshiva
Occupation	Rabbi
Spouse	Rachel
Children	Miriam, Zirka, Shlomo, David, Hannah, Rivkah Perelis
Father	Moshe Ya'akov Tamares

Aaron Samuel Tamares (Hebrew: אהרן שמואל תמרת Aharon Shmuel Tamares, sometimes Tamaret; 1869 – 1931) was an Ashkenazi Orthodox Rabbi, author, and philosopher, most notable for voicing a pacifist opposition to the mainstream Zionist movement. He often wrote under the pen name Aḥad ha-Rabanim ha-Margishim ("one of the passionate rabbis").

Biography

Early life

Tamares was born in 1969 in a shtetl called Malech, in Grodno, within the Pale of Settlement. His father, Moshe Ya'akov Tamares, owned a tavern and was the grandson of a well-known tzadik known as Maltsher Preacher, Reb Arehle. He began studying in the cheder from a young age, and soon became regarded as a prodigy. At the age of 19, he left to study in Kovno at the famed Kollel Perushim, followed by two years at the Volozhin Yeshiva.

Marriage and children

He was originally set to marry the eldest daughter of the Chief Rabbi of Milejczyce, but she unexpectedly passed away before the marriage went through. He instead married her younger sister, Rachel, at the age of 17, with whom he would go on to have six children. Three of his children would ultimately immigrate to Mandatory Palestine, while the other three were killed in Treblinka after his death. His children, including daughters, were highly educated in the Bible, Mishnah, and even Talmud.

Career

In 1893, he replaced his father in law as the Chief Rabbi of Milejczyce, which is a position he would retain throughout his life. Tamares was an early defender of Zionism, standing against the prevailing Haredi opposition. In 1900, he was an elected delegate at the fourth Zionist Congress in London. There, he seemingly became disillusioned with the movement. In 1905, Hayim Nahman Bialik and S. Boriskhin published his Sefer ha-yahadut veha-ḥerut, which argued for a justice-centered Judaism and against what he viewed as a non-Jewish nationalism that was dominant in the movement. He continued to write for the next decades, both in his own books as well as in journals and newspapers like HaMelitz and Ha-Tsfira. In 1912, he was invited by Chaim Tchernowitz to take over the latter's yeshiva in Odesa, although he declined the offer because of his aversion to urban living.

Death

He died in 1931 at the age of 62, and was eulogized by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as a "champion of Zionism and of world peace."

Philosophical and political views

Tamares was most well known for his criticisms of mainstream Zionism along several different fronts:

Pacifism

From a young age, Tamares was sharply critical of the glamorization of violence and militarism. As a child, he railed against portraits of soldiers being on display in the home. In kollel, he was noted for his anti-war preaching, arguing that war consisted of "taking people from their homes, against their will, and setting them in front of the firing cannons [...] This is the pinnacle of dread against which a special struggle must be initiated." This belief in particular became essential to his system in the years following World War I, and the destruction that that wrought on Europe and on European Jewry in particular. This commitment to non-violence included a general opposition to violent revolution.

Anti-Marxism

While Tamares was certainly sympathetic to socialist ideas, especially their anti-war tendency, he gradually came to harshly oppose Marxism. This both for the pacifist reasons mentioned above as well as for more abstract reasons. He argued that "Marxism was a food that was too dry, he desired a socialism of the heart, not a socialism of numbers" and that it "sought to replace one ruling class for another."

Anti-nationalism

Tamares offered a radical Jewish critique of nationalism, going well beyond other Satmar-style anti-Zionism. He opposed national projects not merely out of a concern for the Messianic implications of Jewish autonomy in Palestine, but out of a broader political-theological concern. He argued that even the great Kings of Israel and Judah, such as David and Solomon, being monarchs, were spiritually corrupting. The Destruction of the Temples, then, offered an opportunity to overcome statist illusions and shift Judaism into a personal religion, which had greater potential than that of the First Commonwealth.

The Role of Exile

Tamares argued that the long Galut, or Jewish exile and dispersion to the diaspora, had a necessary rectifying effect on the Jewish People. The Medieval and Modern worlds had created spiritual hardships of war and nationalism. The Jews, in their powerlessness, were spared from having to wield violence or act as national players on the world stage. In their victimization, they also were meant to learn what it means to be oppressed and the great need for universal social justice and peace. Jews, he argued, had a greater freedom in statelessness to maintain their moral compass and reject corrupting influence. Thus, secular aims to "force the end" missed the whole point.

Two Kinds of Evil

Tamares distinguishes between two kinds of evil. The first of these is a natural inclination, an "animal urge," to do violence in a moment of passion, knowing it is wrong. Another, more insidious evil, comes from the corrupting influence of a corrupt society. When one is engaged in the latter, not only is one more likely to commit immoral acts, they will be unable to see that such acts are immoral. Such evil "walks upright in the streets of the city and struts about without meeting any opposition."

Published works

• Sefer ha-yahadut veha-ḥerut (Odesa,1905) [lit. "The Book of Judaism and Freedom"]
• Sefer musar ha-Torah veha-yahadut (Vilnius, 1912) [lit. "The Book of Torah Musar and Judaism"]
• Sefer ha-emunah ha-tehorah veha-dat ha-hamonit (Odesa, 1912) [lit. "The Book of the Pure Faith and the Plentiful Religion"]
• Keneset Yisra’el u-milḥamot ha-goyim (Warsaw,1920) [lit. "The Congregation of Israel and the Wars of the Gentiles"]
• Yad Aharon (Piotrków Trybunalski,1923) [lit. "The Hand of Aaron"]
• Sheloshah zivugim bilti hagunim (Piotrków Trybunalski, 1930) [lit. "Three Indecent Pairings"]
• A Passionate Pacifist: Essential Writings of Aaron Samuel Tamares (edited/translated by Everett Gendler, 2023)

See also

• Everett Gendler — Translated Tamares' essential writings to English
• Shaul Magid — His book The Necessity of Exile is heavily inspired by the writings of Tamares
• Abraham Yehudah Khein — A Chabad Rabbi who outlined a similar religious-pacifist critique of mainstream Zionism
• Menachem Froman
• Judah Leon Magnes
• Yehuda Ashlag
• Jacob Israël de Haan
• Abraham Isaac Kook