Moments in the Land of Israel

R. Yehuda Bibas is the first rabbi to be known to openly and strongly advocate the Jewish return to the Land of Israel, and he did so long before the formal establishment of the political Zionist movement. Despite his lack of any meaningful success in terms of actual Aliyah and his untimely death, R. Bibas’s ideas and efforts left an indelible mark. His pioneering ideas inspired many who later took up the cause of Jewish restoration in the Land of Israel. ——— R. Yehudah Bibas (1789-1852) was born in Gibraltar to a Sephardic family descending from Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. On his mother’s side, he was the grandson of the illustrious Moroccan rabbi Chayim ben Attar (1696–1743), known as the Or HaChayim after his most famous book. His father’s family was rooted in the Jewish community of Tetuán in Spanish Morocco. After his father's death, R. Bibas moved to Livorno, Italy, where he lived with his grandfather. Livorno, a vibrant hub of Jewish scholarship and culture, shaped his intellectual and spiritual growth. There, he pursued both religious and secular education, earning ordination as a rabbi and certification as a physician. In addition, he developed fluency in multiple languages, including English, Italian, Spanish, and Hebrew, which would eventually allow him to engage with very diverse audiences. Returning to Gibraltar, R. Bibas became a respected leader in the Jewish community and established a yeshiva that attracted students from across the Mediterranean. In 1810, he traveled to London, where he met Sir Moses Montefiore (1784-1885), a prominent Jewish philanthropist and supporter of Jewish resettlement in Palestine, with whom R. Bibas shared a vision of self-sustaining Jewish revival in the Land of Israel. From 1831 to 1850, R. Bibas served as the rabbi of the Jewish community on the island of Corfu, then part of the Venetian Republic and later under British control. During his tenure, he became deeply disillusioned with the Jewish situation in exile, which he viewed as a desecration of G-d’s name. He began advocating for mass Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel, seeing it as essential for both spiritual and national renewal. Living through the Greek War of Independence (1821–1832), R. Bibas witnessed the successful struggle of the Greeks against Ottoman rule and drew inspiration from their victory. Observing the weakening of the Ottoman Empire, he believed the time was ripe for Jewish self-determination. He proposed that Jews, like the Greeks, could rise and reclaim sovereignty in their ancestral homeland. His ideas were revolutionary for the time, yet he couched them in traditional Jewish terms, aligning them with religious teachings and emphasizing education as a key to national revival. Specifically, R. Bibas expanded the concept of Teshuvah (repentance or “return”) to include a collective return to the Land of Israel. He argued, based on Deuteronomy 30:1-11, that returning to Israel represented a national reconciliation with G-d, just as exile had been a result of the nation’s spiritual estrangement. This redefinition of Teshuvah became a cornerstone of his advocacy for Aliyah. Between 1839 and 1840, R. Bibas embarked on an extensive journey across Europe and North Africa, urging Jewish communities to support resettlement in Palestine. The timing of this journey is very telling as 1840 corresponded to the Hebrew year of 5600, and as such, was imbued with heightened messianic hopes of redemption His mission began in Corfu, traveling to Thessaloniki and then to Belgrade, where he met R. Yehudah Alkalai (1798-1878) in July 1839. During their discussions, R. Bibas cited the teachings of R. Eliyahu, the Vilna Gaon (1720–1797) on Aliyah and the establishment of Jewish settlements. Although R. Alkalai had already written his pioneering tract, Shema Yisrael, in 1832, advocating the return to the Land of Israel, this meeting significantly influenced his thinking. R. Bibas continued his travels, visiting Wallachia and Moldova, where he delivered speeches in cities like Raila and Bucharest. From there, he moved westward, visiting Vienna, Leipzig, Frankfurt, and London. In Livorno, he reconnected with acquaintances from his youth and began planning the next steps of his advocacy. In the winter of 1850, R. Bibas’s wife Rachel passed away, prompting him to accelerate his plans to settle in the Land of Israel. After announcing his resignation as rabbi of Corfu, he embarked on his journey to Palestine via Istanbul. On February 6, 1852, accompanied by two students, he arrived at the port of Jaffa. After spending some time in Jaffa and Jerusalem, R. Bibas settled in Hebron, where he established a yeshivah and built an extensive library. At the time, Hebron’s Jewish community consisted of about 500 people, and his arrival, along with his leadership and extraordinary library, were significant contributions to the city. Tragically, R. Bibas passed away just two months after he arrived in Hebron. He died unexpectedly while delivering a sermon in the synagogue and was buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery of Hebron. His writings were lost or destroyed, and with no surviving descendants, much of his legacy relies on his influence on others. Despite his untimely death, R. Bibas’s ideas and efforts left an indelible mark. His vision of a Jewish state rooted in both spiritual renewal and national sovereignty laid the foundation for modern political Zionism.