Do Not Provoke Providence: Orthodoxy in the Grip of Nationalism deals
with the whole complex of relations between the Land of Israel, the
Jewish Torah, and the People of Israel from the Pre-Zionist Period until
the establishment of the State of Israel. The book examines the dynamics
of those relations through the modernization of Jewish society, and the
problem of Jewish Identity vis-a-vis modernity. The discussion follows
historical events in both philosophy and everyday life. It explores the
anti-Zionist sphere and also discusses the attitudes toward the conflict
of religion and nationalism in the world of Religious Zionism. The
dispute between advocates of a religious concept of the community and
proponents of a secular nation revolved primarily around perceptions of
the ideal relationship between the religious and national entities. One
group sought to make religion a tool of the nation; the other sought to
make the nation a tool of religion.