“This is the day Hashem created.”
by Rabbi Shimshon Nadel, Head of the Sinai Kollel in Jerusalem and the Rabbi of Kehillt Zichron Yosef.
As Israel Independence approaches it saddens me because so many Jews today fail to appreciate the religious significance and meaning of the establishment of the State of Israel. So many fail to understand the profound religious significance and meaning in Yom Ha’atzmaut, why the Chief Rabbinate of Israel – together with leading authorities at the time – established the day as a Jewish holiday, and why it deserves to be celebrated as such.
Is the State of Israel merely the product of a series of political machinations and aspirations that took place over that last one hundred fifty years? Or, were all of the Herzls, Ben Gurions, Balfour Declarations, British Mandates and Partition Plans – part of Hashem’s plan, Hashem’s mandate – an answer to two thousand years of Jewish yearning?
Zionism did not begin in the nineteenth century. For two millennia, the Jew dreamt of a return to Zion; a return to the Land of Israel. Three times a day we turned towards Jerusalem in prayer and asked Hashem to “speedily gather us together from the four corners of the earth to our Land.” We asked Him to “return in compassion” to Jerusalem.
Never did we relinquish the deep bond with our historic homeland. Never did we stop yearning. Not even for a moment. We continued to dream.
And then in 1948, that dream became a reality with the establishment of the State of Israel. Like the fiery phoenix, rising from the ashes of gas chambers and crematoria, the Jewish People rose up and returned home. The dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision came to life, and returned to their land. As Zechariah foretold, “Elderly men and women will once again sit on their canes in the streets of Jerusalem… and boys and girls play in her streets.” These are my children! And your children! The world witnessed the restoration of a Jewish State and a Jewish People. A nascent nation fought for its independence and, with tremendous providence, persevered. Hashem was smiling down on us at that moment. He was knocking on our door.
In one of his seminal essays, “Kol Dodi Dofek,” Rav Yosef Dov HaLevi Soloveitchik explores the religious significance of the establishment of the State of Israel. First delivered as an address in May 1956, celebrating the eighth anniversary of Israel’s independence, Rav Soloveitchik draws on the theme of missed opportunity in Shir HaShirim, and describes how Hashem was knocking on the door of history – in the political arena, on the battlefield, and in the religious world – all which led to the founding of the State. Rav Soloveitchik charges us with hearing those knocks, and seeing Hashem’s Hand guiding history.
The Talmud (Sanhedrin 94a) relates that King Chizkiyahu could have been made the Messiah but for the fact that he failed to give praise upon the downfall of the wicked Sancherev, King of Assyria. Chizkiyahu failed to give this profound experience religious expression and thank Hashem.
We dare not make the same mistake.
So whether one recites Hallel with a beracha or without, at night or just in the morning, or not even at all; says Tachanun or omits Tachanun; the greatest tragedy of all would be failing to see the Hand of Hashem in the establishment of the State of Israel and the profound religious significance and meaning in Yom Ha’atzmaut. With yearning for a speedy and complete Redemption.
