Part Five: A compendium of inspiration for Israel’s upcoming 63rd Independence Day
Click here for the previous parts of this series: Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4
The late Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel (died in 1935, 13 years before the establishment of the State of Israel):
The Land of Israel is not something external, an external national acquisition, a means for the purpose of general uniting together and sustaining the material - or even spiritual - existence of the nation. The Land of Israel is an independent entity that is linked via a bond of life with the nation...
A state (country) is not the supreme happiness of man. This is referring to a regular state, which is nothing more than a large society of mutual responsiblity, above which the crown-of-life concepts hover but do not touch it. This is not the case in a state whose very foundation is ideal, and in the essence of which is engraved the most supreme content of ideals, which truly are the supreme joy of the individual. Such a state truly is the highest joy, and this state is ours, the State of Israel, the foundation of G-d's throne in the world, whose entire desire is that G-d shall be One and His Name shall be One, which is the supreme joy in the world...
Rabbi Chaim Druckman, head of the Yeshivot Bnei Akiva:
The special prayers for Independence Day begin with Psalm 107, in which we say, "Hodu LaHashem - Give thanks to G-d, for He is good, His kindness is everlasting." The Psalm lists those who must give this thanks - "those who are redeemed by G-d, those whom He has redeemed from enemies, and gathered them from different lands, from east and west, north and south..."
And I ask: Do we realize that this Psalm is talking about us?! That this Psalm refers to us, that we are the ones who have been redeemed, that we are the ones who must give expression to our deepest thanks to Hashem for the kindnesses He has done for us?...
[He then cites the Meiri, a 13th-century commentator, who says that the Psalm was written in prophecy regarding the "redemption from our current long exile with its grave troubles... and when G-d redeems them and they will be saved from it all, they will thanks G-d and publicize His wonders and return to their desolate land and build cities and will be successful [as the Psalm states] and the land will be filled with knowledge..."]
Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, Rabbi of Ramat Gan (explaining in brief why we say the Hallel prayer of praise on Independence Day):
The very fact of the renewal of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel after 2,000 years of destruction and exile is a tremendous historic event, for which we must thank G-d. We also thank Him for having saved us from our enemies. The Jews who came here were saved from grave dangers hanging over their heads. Of course, the Jewish population in the Land of Israel was also save dfrom destruction, Heaven forbid. And in addition, for the Ingathering of the Exiles, the flowering of the desert, and the establishment of the largest Torah center in the world.
Shlomo Fisher, Director of the Yesodot Center for Torah and State
One who [reads the Torah] cannot overlook the constant presence of non-Jews - often referred to as "your strangers within your gates" (gerei toshav, who accept the government of Israel] - in all situations of total religious actualization... When the Torah speaks of the Kingdom of Israel and a complete Jewish society in the Land of Israel, it reserves an equal place for civil rights and justice to the non-Jew as well... On this basis, I therefore propose that specifically in order to actualize the G-dly ideals, the State of Israel must deal with the presence of non-Jewish citizens... Our relationship to Jews is mostly regulated by the Torah's commandments [while] our relationship to non-Jews is regulated by natural ethics. We must relate to them with the fairness demanded by natural ethics, which of course also includes the way we relate to enemies of the State. Such that in order to establish the complete structure of G-d's kingdom, we must include everyone: religious and secular, right-wing and left-wing, and even Jews and non-Jews. This entireness is our State - the State of Israel.