A few years ago I suggested to our congregation on Rosh Hashanah that since we had chosen to be in Portland, Maine, for the holy days rather than in Israel, we at least could show our pride in Israel and our gratitude to Hashem by singing the Hatikvah following Adon Olam. And so we did – and have continued to do so on other Shabbat and Yom Tov occasions.
I suggest this practice be adopted in other traditional congregations where it has not yet become the custom. Perhaps a good time to start would be now; this is, after all, spring – the season of rebirth in which we celebrate not only the miraculous creation of Israel in May, but also the equally miraculous liberation of Jerusalem in June.
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