Aaron David Gordon, born in 1856 to a wealthy Orthodox Jewish family, was a self-educated man who managed an estate for three decades. He was a charismatic educator and community activist. He married his cousin, Faige Tartakov, and had seven children, but only two survived. Gordon died of throat cancer in 1922 at the age of 66 on Kibbutz Degania Alef. His ideas greatly influenced labor Zionism and the development of Israel.

Aaron David Gordon founded Hapoel Hatzair, a movement that strongly influenced the Zionist movement. He believed in the significance of labor, influenced by thinkers like Leo Tolstoy, and essentially made a “religion of labor.” At the age of 48, 1904 Gordon moved to Ottoman Palestine, where he became a revered figure among younger Zionist pioneers due to his leadership by example

A. D. Gordon, a member of the Hibbat Zion movement, moved to Ottoman Palestine in 1904 at age 48, persuaded by his wife. His daughter joined him in 1908, but his son stayed behind due to religious differences. His wife died soon after his arrival. Gordon lived in different places, worked manual jobs, and inspired youth. He settled in Kvutzat Degania in 1919, living simply and supporting himself through farm work while developing his philosophy. He avoided political involvement in Zionist parties.In 1905, A. D. Gordon founded and led Hapoel Hatzair, a Zionist movement that wasn’t Marxist, unlike the Poale Zion movement. Poale Zion had Marxist leanings and was associated with Ber Borochov and Nahum Syrkin.

A.D. Gordon believed that Jewish suffering was due to a lack of creative labor in the Diaspora. He saw physical labor and agriculture as a way to spiritually uplift Jews, connecting them to nature and inspiring vision and spirituality. He considered working the land a sacred duty for individuals and the Jewish people, believing it would unite them with the land and justify their presence in Israel. In his view, returning to agriculture would rejuvenate the Jewish people. He famously said, “The Land of Israel is acquired through labor, not through fire and not through blood.” A.D. Gordon elaborated on these themes, writing:

Everything I do is me. I don’t like taking ideas from people unless they’re the G.O.A.T.

A Boogie wit da Hoodie

The Jewish people has been completely cut off from nature and imprisoned within city walls for two thousand years. We have been accustomed to every form of life, except a life of labor- of labor done at our behalf and for its own sake. It will require the greatest effort of will for such a people to become normal again. We lack the principal ingredient for national life. We lack the habit of labor… for it is labor which binds a people to its soil and to its national culture, which in its turn is an outgrowth of the people’s toil and the people’s labor. … We, the Jews, were the first in history to say: “For all the nations shall go each in the name of its God” and “Nations shall not lift up sword against nation” – and then we proceed to cease being a nation ourselves.

As we now come to re-establish our path among the ways of living nations of the earth, we must make sure that we find the right path. We must create a new people, a human people whose attitude toward other peoples is informed with the sense of human brotherhood and whose attitude toward nature and all within it is inspired by noble urges of life-loving creativity. All the forces of our history, all the pain that has accumulated in our national soul, seem to impel us in that direction… we are engaged in a creative endeavor the like of which is itself not to be found in the whole history of mankind: the rebirth and rehabilitation of a people that has been uprooted and scattered to the winds… (A.D. Gordon, “Our Tasks Ahead” 1920).

Gordon saw nature as a whole and favored natural social bonds like family and community over artificial ones like politics or class. Jews, living in Diaspora, were disconnected from their nation, nature, and the spiritual connection with the infinite. Gordon wrote:

We are a parasitic people. We have no roots in the soil, there is no ground beneath our feet. We are parasites not only in an economic sense, but in spirit, in thought, in poetry, in literature, and in our virtues, our ideals, our higher human aspirations. Every alien movement sweeps us along, every wind in the world carries us. We in ourselves are almost non-existent, so of course we are nothing in the eyes of other people either

Gordon wasn’t just a theorist; he practiced what he preached. Despite being an elderly intellectual with no physical labor experience, he worked in the fields and set an example of a pioneering spirit. He faced challenges like malaria, poverty, and unemployment but remained with the working class, offering guidance and assistance to admirers and followers.A.D. Gordon was principled from a young age. He refused to pay a bribe to avoid military service and later declined payment for his work and teaching, citing the principle of not profiting from it. He encouraged others like poetess Rachel to follow their dreams, even if it went against convention. Gordon had moments of frustration but believed in an idealistic new generation in Israel with high morals and a deep commitment to others. Toward the end of his life, he sought solitude in nature due to growing frustration with people’s pettiness and selfishness. A.D. Gordon, once Orthodox, turned away from religion later in life. He was influenced by Leo Tolstoy, Hassidic ideas, and Kabbalah. His philosophy shares similarities with Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, a key figure in Religious Zionism.

A.D. Gordon believed in the unity of the cosmos, seeing man and nature as interconnected. He emphasized that the Jewish nation’s test would be their attitude toward Arabs. He advocated for sharing land with Arabs in new settlements out of moral reasons, aiming to foster universal human solidarity. His views on Jewish-Arab relations can be found in his work “Mibachutz.”

“Our relations to the Arabs must rest on cosmic foundations. Our attitude toward them must be one of humanity, of moral courage which remains on the highest plane, even if the behavior of the other side is not all that is desired. Indeed their hostility is all the more a reason for our humanity.”