{This essay appears in the The Koren Mahzor for Yom HaAtzma’ut and Yom Yerushalayim, and was written Rabbi Yehuda Amital, zt”l}
After two thousand years, children play in the streets of Israel, in the squares of Jerusalem! Can this be a natural phenomenon? After two thousand years?
Just as the connection between the nation of Israel and its land did not follow the natural order, so too the connection between the nation and the State of Israel was formed before the Jewish nation was in the land. Along came a Jew from an assimilated household, lacking any background in Judaism, lacking any familiarity with Jewish culture, and – using “Jewish intuition” alone – revealed what our Sages had long before understood: that Zion is the birthplace of all Jews, “ both those actually born there as well as those who yearn to see it” (Ketubot 75a). Herzl intuitively under- stood that although there were almost no Jews living in Eretz Yisrael, nevertheless this would become the Jewish state. Is it generally acceptable for a nation to choose a place, go there, and create a state? Isn’t a state usually created for those who already live in a place and not for the sake of those who will flock to it after it is created?
At the time of the Balfour Declaration, in 1917, how many Jews were living in the land? A few tens of thousands? Nevertheless, the declaration stated: “His Majesty ’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” A strange phenomenon. So too later, when Britain betrayed the Jewish nation by refusing to allow the survivors of Auschwitz and Majdanek entr y into the land. The mighty Britain closed the doors. Certain of its policy, Britain made every effort to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Yisrael, and transferred the decision into the hands of the United Nations, fully confident that this body would leave control of the region in Britain’s hands.
And then the unbelievable happened. A committee was formed and its recommendation was to create two states in Eretz Yisrael: a Jewish state and an Arab state. In order for such a resolution to be passed, a two-thirds majority of the UN was required. And the UN was clearly divided, with a cold war between East and West. Whatever one side supported, the other would reject. And even if the countries of the East and West would agree, what would be the position of Uruguay, Paraguay, and all the other little countries – how would they vote?
The family history of every ambassador from Uruguay and Paraguay was carefully investigated in the hope of finding a grandmother, a third cousin, anyone who served as a connection to Judaism. One of the delegates, Dr. Leo Cohen, told me that throughout the day of the UN vote he walked around with a Book of Psalms in his hand, knowing that “Only a miracle could save us.” To obtain a two-thirds majority!
I remember it well. On November 29,1947, I was at Kibbutz Be’erot Yitzhak. We all listened intently to the voting on the radio: “Yes. No. Yes. No.” And the miracle happened: two-thirds! An unprecedented event!
But what happened after that? Today we live in a “now ” generation: Peace now, Moshiach now – everything must be now. We are incapable of imagining what tomorrow might bring. Everything is measured by the yardstick of what is happening today. Today is quiet – tomorrow will be too. Today there is terrorism – tomorrow it will continue. Today there is peace – tomorrow there will be peace. It is a generation with an impaired sense of history. There is no awareness of the past, and none of the future – only a sense of today, of now.
In 1948, it was a different generation, one with historical perspective. Recently we have suffered terrible terrorist attacks. Let me tell you some- thing: During those few months, between the UN vote on November 29 and the Declaration of Statehood on May 14, there were seven car bombs here. One of them, on Ben-Yehuda Street, killed fifty Jews, and this in addition to the victims killed by marauders on the roads and by snipers in the yishuvim. I won’t mention too much; I won’t detail everything that happened here in Gush Etzion, all within five months. The Convoy of Thirty Five fell, the Nebi Daniel force lost fifteen victims, an attack on the high ground here brought another twelve to their deaths, and an attack on another convoy making its way to the Gush cost another ten lives.
And do you know how many victims fell here in Gush Etzion on the 3rd and 4th of Iyyar, 5708? More than one hundred and fifty. Just two days before the declaration of the state! During those five months, two hundred and forty victims fell in Gush Etzion alone. And despite it all, the establishment of the State of Israel was declared, and the next day everyone recited Hallel with great excitement. People danced in the streets. Had they gone mad?
It was the strong sense of history that prompted this. That generation knew and understood the significance of Jewish independence in Eretz Yisrael after two thousand years; it was a state meant not for the 600,000 Jews living there then, but for millions of Jews yet to come. Each person understood that he was fighting for the millions who would come to Israel.
What were the borders of that state? They did not include the Kotel. Nahariya was not ours, nor were Nazareth, Lod, Ramle, Ashkelon, Be’er Sheva. Jerusalem was an international city. What were they saying Hallel for?
They said Hallel for the sovereignty that had returned to Israel. They remembered the words of Maimonides in Hilchot Chanukka, where he teaches that in the merit of the Hasmoneans, “Sovereignty returned to Israel for two hundred years” (3:1) They understood the significance of that sovereignty. There was a strong belief that “It was not by their sword that they took the land, nor their might that saved them, but rather Your right hand and Your arm, and the light of Your countenance, for You favored them” (Ps. 44:4). Without “You favored them,” there is nothing.
I will not even go into how, on the day after the declaration of the state, I had to rush to finish reciting Hallel because I had been drafted. They began to invade from all sides: from Egypt, from Syria, from Jordan, from Lebanon; units even came from Iraq. How were we supposed to stand up to them, after the British had forbidden us to stockpile arms? All in all we were 600,000 Jews.
If, in Zechariah’s time, normal life in Israel after seventy years of exile was considered wondrous, should we consider it natural after two thousand years of exile?
Three books of the Prophets – Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi – and two from the Writings – Ezra and Nehemiah – deal with a time when a total of forty thousand Jews resided in Eretz Yisrael. Those were all who returned. Forty thousand. And today, thanks to God’s grace, we have merited to see many millions of Jews in Israel!
Someone who cannot see the past will also be incapable of seeing the future and of perceiving God’s hand “when God redeems the captivity of His nation” (Ps14:7). Can a nation rising out of the ashes of the Holocaust allow itself to ignore this?
{This essay appears in the The Koren Mahzor for Yom HaAtzma’ut and Yom Yerushalayim, and was written Rabbi Yehuda Amital, zt”l}