religions Article Prophetic Disappointment and Ideological Change among Israeli Settlers’ Rabbis: The Case of Rabbis Yehuda Amital and Shmuel Tal Motti Inbari   Citation: Inbari, Motti. 2021. Prophetic Disappointment and Ideological Change among Israeli Settlers’ Rabbis: The Case of Rabbis Yehuda Amital and Shmuel Tal. Religions 12: 1017. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/rel12111017 Academic Editors: Amir Mashiach and Isaac Hershkowitz Received: 26 September 2021 Accepted: 15 November 2021 Published: 18 November 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). Philosophy and Religion, The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, Pembroke, NC 28372-1510, USA; inbari@uncp.edu Abstract: In this article, I examine the role of prophetic disappointment in creating ideological change. I discuss the response of two Orthodox rabbis, Rabbi Yehuda Amital (1924–2010) and Rabbi Shmuel Tal (b. 1962), to the crisis of faith they encountered regarding the role of Zionism in the messianic drama. This research describes the process of religious switching they have gone through due to failure of prophetic faith. This work argues that their transformation was an attempt to cope with the tension that results from cognitive dissonance in two different instances while blaming a third party for misunderstanding the true will of God. Their religious switching was an act of theodicy, justifying God’s justice, while renouncing their previous held beliefs. Keywords: Israeli settlers; rabbis; prophetic disappointment; ideological change; cognitive disso- nance; Yehuda Amital; Shmuel Tal 1. Introduction In this article, I examine the role of prophetic disappointment in creating ideological change. I discuss the response of two Orthodox rabbis to the crisis of faith they encountered during their lifetime regarding the role of Zionism in the messianic drama, and I evaluate the changes they made in their teachings and actions in response to their new situations. To date, research into prophetic failure has centered on movements and individuals that remained loyal to their original beliefs even after disconfirmation. This article casts a spotlight on those who prefer to exit and to admit a mistake; however, one should not view their exit as acts of disloyalty to the old beliefs. The rabbis included in our examination are Yehuda Amital (1924–2010) and Shmuel Tal (b. 1962). Rabbi Amital was the head of Har Etzion Yeshiva in Gush Etzion in the West Bank. He was initially a loyal supporter of Gush Emunim (the Bloc of the Faithful), a hawkish movement that advocates the annexation of the West Bank and Gaza to Israel and the establishment of settlements. However, the death of several of his students in Israel’s wars led him to change his mind; he became a political moderate, an advocate of the principle of “land for peace”, and a supporter of the Oslo Accords. Shmuel Tal is the head of Torat Chayim Yeshiva, which was originally situated in the Gaza Strip. After Israel evacuated all its settlements in Gaza as part of the Disengagement Plan (2005), the yeshiva was relocated inside the Green Line. The personal experience of being evicted from his home transformed Rabbi Tal from a hardline Zionist nationalist to a non-Zionist. This article begins with a discussion of theories concerning prophetic failure and religious switching. We will then discuss the approaches of the two above-mentioned rabbis, providing a basis for comparison and conclusions. The discussion will bring together the theoretical analysis to understand the reactions of the rabbis mentioned below and to evaluate their transformation. Religions 2021, 12, 1017. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12111017 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions