David Ben-Gurion (First Prime Minister of Israel) publicly pronouncing the Declaration of the State of Israel, May 14 1948, Tel Aviv, Israel, beneath a large portrait of Theodor Herzl, founder of modern political Zionism, in the old Tel Aviv Museum of Art building on Rothshild St.
After two millennia the Jewish people re-established sovereignty in the Land of Israel but it was not without unreconciled tensions of Jewish belief within the document itself, particularly the role of the religious tradition and belief for the Jewish state.
The dream of a Jewish state existed for two millennia, first among the Jewish refugees of Roman persecution and later among Jews who carried the hope of return to the Land of Israel throughout the lands of the Jewish diaspora. By the early 20th century, Zionist thinkers such as Theodor Herzl, Ahad Ha’am, Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky and Rav Abraham Isaac Kook, and many others, developed substantially different worldviews about the purpose and Jewish character of the modern state.
The official translation of the Declaration concludes: “Placing our trust in the Rock of Israel (Tzur Yisrael), we affix our signatures to this proclamation”. In the Book of Samuel, King David, delivering his deathbed oration, calls God Tzur Yisrael: “The God of Israel has spoken, the Rock of Israel said concerning me: ‘He who rules men justly, He who rules in awe of God is like the light of morning at sunrise.”
The final draft was overseen by a small committee including David Ben-Gurion (then the executive head of the World Zionist Organisation), Rabbi Judah Leib Maimon (leader of the religious Zionist party, Mizrachi), Aharon Zisling (leader of the socialist Zionist party, Ahdut Ha’avodah) and Moshe Shertok (later Sharett, head of the Jewish Agency’s political department).
Religious Zionists insisted God’s name was a necessary component of the document establishing the state of Israel. Zisling, leading the secularist Zionists, was committed to a separation of religion and state and would not sign a political document which rested on allusions to the supernatural. He maintained that the inclusion of God’s name imposed an expression of belief on non-believers. Although Rabbi Maimon’s position did not prevail, he did include God’s name next to his signature on the Declaration. Forging a compromise, Ben-Gurion used the phrase “the Rock of Israel” to satisfy both parties but left out the theological component, “and its Redeemer”, contained within the Bible.
Following the establishment of Israel, the Sephardic and Ashkenazic Chief Rabbis reintroduced God as Redeemer in the Prayer for the State of Israel. The prayer begins, Tzur Yisrael v’Goelo, “ the Rock of Israel and its Redeemer”, it goes on to ask for blessings for the state and its leaders and affirms the establishment of Israel as the “first flowering of our redemption”.
People with knowledge of the Torah hear the phrase Tzur Yisrael in its biblical and sacred context. For atheists, the phrase Tzur Yisrael connotes a more literal reference to the Jewish people’s connection to the military, the Land of Israel or Jewish cultural and historical traditions.
Excerpt from: Kolodny, "Why Israel's independence led to an argument over the name of God"
(ג) אָמַר֙ אֱלֹהֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לִ֥י דִבֶּ֖ר צ֣וּר יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל מוֹשֵׁל֙ בָּאָדָ֔ם צַדִּ֕יק מוֹשֵׁ֖ל יִרְאַ֥ת אֱלֹהִֽים׃
(3) The God of Israel has spoken, The Rock of Israel said concerning me: “He who rules men justly, He who rules in awe of God
(1) The Rock of Israel spoke to me. The Rock of Israel spoke to and commanded me that I should be a ruler over men, over Israel who are called "men" as it is written, "You are men (Ezekiel 34:31)." [He also told me] that I will be a righteous person, a ruler and a God fearing person. Our Rabbis interpreted [this verse] with a different explanation:6(Moed Katan 16b.) David said [as follows:] "The God of Israel spoke to me, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, I am ruler over men. And who rules over me? The righteous man, because I [may] issue a decree and he [can] annul it." But according to the flow of these verses it is the first explanation that is the simple interpretation of these verses.
(כט) הַשִּׁיר֙ יִֽהְיֶ֣ה לָכֶ֔ם כְּלֵ֖יל הִתְקַדֶּשׁ־חָ֑ג וְשִׂמְחַ֣ת לֵבָ֗ב כַּֽהוֹלֵךְ֙ בֶּֽחָלִ֔יל לָב֥וֹא בְהַר־יְהוָ֖ה אֶל־צ֥וּר יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
(29) For you, there shall be singing as on a night when a festival is hallowed; There shall be rejoicing as when they march with flute, with timbrels, and with lyres To the Rock of Israel on the Mount of the Eternal.
(15) May the words of my mouth and the prayer of my heart be acceptable to You, O God, my rock and my redeemer.
Selected Text from the Declaration of Independence
1. Eretz-Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books....
2. The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions…
3. PLACING OUR TRUST IN THE “ROCK OF ISRAEL,” WE AFFIX OUR SIGNATURES TO THIS PROCLAMATION AT THIS SESSION OF THE PROVISIONAL COUNCIL OF STATE, ON THE SOIL OF THE HOMELAND, IN THE CITY OF TEL AVIV, ON THIS SABBATH EVE, THE 5 TH DAY OF IYAR, 5708 (14TH MAY, 1948).