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Uri Zvi Grinberg (1894–1981) lived at the crossroads of Jewish history, at a time when the Zionist movement was ambitiously caught in a process of bringing about a radical transformation aimed to alter the landscape and map of the history of the Jewish people and the individual, creating a new people and a new man. Of all Hebrew poets in the 20th century Uri Zvi Grinberg was the most politically committed. His political passion and struggle were at the very foundation of his poetry, profoundly imbued with the sense of his mission, rejecting violently an aesthetic value, a dwelling essence, detached from ideological interest and the messiness of history. He was drawn towards radical Zionist politics: active Hebrew messianism and messianic Hebraism. He understood Zionism as a secular messianic movement, trying to turn it into a political ideology, and trying to propose not only a program for a new understanding of Jewish history but also new guiding principles for Zionist activity.

Until the 19th century and to a certain extent, somewhat into the 20th century, most adherents of traditional, orthodox Judaism were reluctant about, or indifferent towards the active realistic Messianism of Maimonides who averred that only the servitude of the Jews to foreign kings separates this world from the world to come. It follows that important sections of Jewry opposed the budding Zionist idea. Zionism was an abomination in that it would substitute a purely human form of redemption for a redeemer sent by God, and therefore appeared to incite rebellion against God. Rabbi Kook’s teaching was an innovative interpretation of Zionism, not in terms of halakha, Jewish law, but in terms of the Jewish religion as a belief system. He tried to understand the secular Zionist world view, attempted to see redemption as a multi-step process, visualized the Land of Israel as a spiritual centre, and imbued its centrality, although profanely based, with religious significance.