The Sanctification of Place In Israel's Civil And Traditional Religion / פולחן ומקום קדוש בדת האזרחית ובדת העממית בישראל

The symbolic constitution of Israel's sacred geography is informed by Judaism's folk and traditional religion on the one hand and by Israeli civil religion on the other hand. The article discusses these two avenues of spatial sanctification as being juxtaposed and interrelated. The Zionist sanctification of space was based on Jewish traditional idioms and symbolism which were cast in the mold of a revolutionary movement of liberation and, later, of an evolving nation-state. The major patterns of Israel's national cults are discussed in relation to the patriotic glorification of independence and to the commemoration of fallen soldiers - Mount Herzl as a national shrine, military cemeteries and monuments, and the patriotic ritual calendar. Special attention is given to the penetration of Jewish traditional motifs into the Zionist statist civil religion following the Six-Day War. As against the weakening of Zionist ideology in its secular-collectivistic guise, the renaissance of popular beliefs and practices related to traditional holy places reflects the strengthening of folk-religious and nationalistic themes in Israeli society. Some patterns of saint veneration in Israel are treated, stressing the central role played by Israelis of Moroccan background in the cult of the saints. The concluding remarks deal with the linkage between the two avenues of sanctification discussed in this essay.