On May 14th the state of Israel turns 62 in a unique celebration of a small yet special little country. The anniversary of the declaration of the state of Israel is called Yom HaAtzmut, meaning ‘the day of our liberation.’ We Jews have times when we celebrate freedom from bondage, such as on Passover, but on Yom HaAtzmut we celebrate with great joy the rebirth of a new secular nation as a home to all Jews and for the first time a safe place that welcomes all Jews as a place of refuge.
During Passover a single word captures the theme of the Passover Haggadah, (service): redemption. Encyclopedia Judaica defines redemption as “salvation from the states or circumstances that destroy the value of human existence or human existence itself.” At its core lies a relatively simple idea: The future will be better than the present. Not just a little brighter day but a day that eventually becomes more like the difference between night and day.
The 11th century Jewish sage Maimonides put it simply: “In that era there will be neither famine nor war, neither jealousy nor strife.” We see that with the birth of our Jewish State we begin the infant stages of the Jewish redemption of our suffering and our soul. However a more total redemption still lays in wait.
Redemption is about the potential for positive change, ultimately dramatic change, even if it comes about slowly. Our Haggadah states, “Now we are slaves. Next year we will be free.” Whether you interpret that statement in terms of political oppression or spiritual enslavement to false ideals, how can you say those words if you don’t believe in the possibility of change, both of the body and the soul?
We see that redemption of the body leads to redemption of the soul, which is a truer growth because it has a lasting impression on generations to come. Yom HaAtzmut promises that you can make one day different, and that’s a start.
We Jews celebrate more on Yom HaAtzmut than just a nation’s birthday. It is a celebration of a new beginning and eventual end of injustice. For this is also the beginning of our redemption. We were slaves who served Pharaoh in Egypt but we were also slaves to our own desires. On May 14, let us set aside our hatreds and look at the miracle that is the state of Israel.
There is a mystical view of growth from slavery to freedom hidden in the Gematria of the text. The letters of the Hebrew word for slaves, avadim (ayin, bet, daled, yod, mem) forms an acronym for the Hebrew phrase: David, the son of Jesse, your servant, your Messiah. The letter for David is daled, ben (son) — bet, Yishai (Jesse) – yod, avdechah (your servant) — ayin, meshichechah (your Messiah) — mem, a phrase from the Sabbath morning liturgy.
All this is to teach us that our own redemption is hidden within the root of our slavery. Thus, even in our state of slavery we find intimations of our eventual freedom through the coming of the Messiah.
In our modern Israel, we recognize that it is an imperfect state yet we love it because it is ours. For the first time in over 2,000 years we have a home of our own. Perhaps faith in redemption would not have become such a prominent feature in the Jewish psyche had our history been less traumatic and our struggle for statehood not such a miracle.
This is what we look at when we celebrate Israel Independence Day, the modern day miracle of the beginning of our redemption. But it does not finish with physical liberation, we need to change our soul as well. The state of Israel strives to represent the best our faith can give and always stands by her founders’ words in its declaration on May 14, 1948. “WE EXTEND our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.”
The true celebration of this holiday is in recognizing our faith in overcoming the impossible odds and its deliverance. It states in the Passover Haggadah, “In every generation they rise up to destroy us.” The response is, “The Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hands.” But that’s hardly an end to the oppression and persecution that have stalked our people over the ages. We are required to take up the task of ending that oppression.
That task comes from the heart of all individuals seeking freedom and faith. We do this by building ourselves in a free land earning the right for redemption. Finding a true peace in the holy land requires finding peace of mind and peace of heart and thus it can transfer to bettering our world. On May 14 the state of Israel turns 62. I hope that this is only the beginning of many centuries of history of this small but feisty little country.
Rabbi Jeffrey Lipschultz is the spiritual leader Beth Judah Temple in Wildwood. He welcomes your comments at dvjewish@rof.net
Cape May – Governor Murphy says he doesn't know anything about the drones and doesn't know what they are doing but he does know that they are not dangerous. Does anyone feel better now?
