Hassidic Judaism was a necessary precursor to Zionism

Evidence

Another is Hassidism—the movement of religious revival which arose among Polish Jews in the late seventeenth century and affected large parts of East European Jewry. This movement, which gave new warmth and vitality to the rabbinic Judaism of that time, was an important, perhaps a necessary, prerequisite to the growth and spread of the Zionist movement. It is certainly remarkable how large a proportion of the pioneers of Zionism, and still more of the Hebrew revival, were men of Hassidic background. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 952

Categorization

• SEED: Angle for an essay: the spiritual-revival movement that seems least ‘nationalist’ proved the necessary seedbed for nation-building—parallels for how charismatic religious renewal underlies secular political movements.
• XREF: Echoes A Visit From The Goon Squad’s treatment of the ‘necessary other’ that gives birth to the thing that then supersedes it; also fits the general theme of unintended causal chains.