Four People Must Give Thanks
The unique prayer of the special day Yom Haatzma'ut opens with the psalm of thanksgiving (Psalm 107): “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His kindness endures forever." And who are those to whom this call is directed - “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good"? Who should give thanks? The verse explains (2-3): “Let those redeemed by the Lord say so, whom He redeemed from the hand of the foe, and gathered them from the lands, from east and west, from north and from the sea…" These people were “redeemed by God," and they must give thanks.
Do we not feel that this speaks of us, that it is all directed toward us-“We are the ones here today, all of us alive"?! Are we filled with the awareness that we are “the redeemed of the Lord, whom He redeemed from the hand of the foe," and that through us the verse has been fulfilled: “He gathered them from the lands, from east and west, from north and from the sea" - and therefore we are those who must thank the Lord: “For He is good, for His kindness endures forever." Upon us rests the great obligation to proclaim before all people and the whole world that God has redeemed us, and to express from the depths of our hearts profound gratitude to the Rock of Israel and its Redeemer.
Our Sages learned from this chapter an obligation of personal thanksgiving-the need to recite the blessing HaGomel for one upon whom the Holy One, blessed be He, has bestowed goodness (Berakhot 54b). Four are obligated to give thanks: One who sails on the sea. One who passes through deserts. One who was sick and recovered. One who was freed from prison.
The source for this ruling is this chapter, in which the verse is repeated four times: “Let them thank the Lord for His kindness, and for His wonders to the children of men." This describes four different types of miracles for which people are obligated to give thanks.
This refers to personal thanksgiving. But no less than that, according to the plain meaning of the text, the chapter speaks of the nation of Israel as a whole: “Whom He redeemed from the hand of the foe, and gathered them from the lands, from east and west, from north and from the sea." Does this not refer to the people of Israel, who endured all these dangers? Is this not the people of Israel, who crossed the seas, wandered through many deserts, suffered various illnesses, and were imprisoned in many exiles? The nation of Israel, once redeemed, must surely give thanks in a great voice: “Give thanks to God who is good, for His kindness endures forever!"
And note the parallel: four thanksgivings corresponding to four different difficulties. On the national level, we count four kingdoms, four exiles-each with its own special oppression. And when Israel is redeemed from exile, especially from the fourth and hardest of them all, they will praise Him: “The redeemed of the Lord, whom He redeemed from the hand of the foe" with a new song-the song of: “Give thanks to the Lord!"
So emphasizes Rabbi Menachem HaMeiri, who sees the plain meaning of this psalm at a broad national level: “It seems to me that this is a prophecy about redemption from this long exile, in which we are in great distress."
Note that HaMeiri wrote this about seven hundred years ago, clearly referring to the final exile and the redemption from it. And when God redeems them, they will be saved from all this, and they will thank the Lord and proclaim His wonders to mankind. They will return to their desolate land, establish inhabited cities there, and prosper there in every form of success. The land will be filled with knowledge when they perfect themselves in every form of completeness, as he says at the close of his words: “And all injustice shall shut its mouth" (verse 42).
Is this not an exact description of what happened to us in recent generations, in the history of the final redemption? Is this not the renewed process of the return to Zion-beginning with the return to the desolate land, continuing with: “They established a city to live in" (verse 36), leading to: “For the earth shall be full of knowledge of God, as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9). The constant progress toward this good depends on us, as HaMeiri says: “When they perfect themselves in every kind of perfection."
“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those who He redeemed from the hand of the foe." Let us all recognize and know that these words pertain to us. We have been redeemed by the Master of the Universe. Everything that has happened in recent generations is the outstretched arm of the Holy One, blessed be He. All the unfolding events of the establishment of the State of Israel and the process of gathering us into it-all are acts of God, both the revealed and explicit as well as the hidden and concealed. Behind them all peeks the Master of the palace.
All these are divine acts. Any denial of this truth shows disbelief and ingratitude toward Heaven. On the contrary: precisely from Jews whose lips speak the name of Heaven and whose hearts are bound to Him, there is an even greater demand to recognize the acts of God.
The Miracle of Deliverance
Because of the routine of life, we fail to appreciate the force of our great salvation and the mighty help by God during the time of the declaration of the State and the War of Independence. It is frightening even today to remember the reality in which we stood on the eve of that war. Is there in the history of our people any situation more fitting to the phrase: “The many into the hands of the few" -- “The mighty into the hands of the weak"?
Who stood against whom in that war? Against the organized armies of all the surrounding Arab states we stood-the small Jewish community then living in the land, including newly arrived immigrants. A collection of Jews from different countries and cultures, an “army" without uniforms and without weapons-a reality almost unimaginable to the younger native-born imagination. Little David stood before giant Goliath, sank the stone into his forehead, and the giant fell face-first to the ground. Can all this be explained rationally, by human logic, while “removing" the Holy One, blessed be He, from the picture, as though His hand had not done it all? Is this the language of faith? Is this how a believing Jew speaks? Jews are accustomed to recognizing Divine providence in private life-but what of the events of the nation of Israel?
Moreover, the hand of God was clearly visible in the very decision of the United Nations to establish the State of Israel. At that time there were two great blocs of nations in the world-East and West. On nearly every issue, they were indeed as far apart as east is from west. Yet at that historic moment of the vote approving the State of Israel hands were raised in favor from every side of the United Nations. The two opposing poles united to affirm this eternal truth: Israel had returned to its land to build and to be rebuilt.
Is this not a great act of God? Is this not an exact repeat of what is described in Tractate Megillah (15b), when Esther stood about to meet Achashveros? “Three angels came to her at that moment: one lifted her neck, one drew a thread of grace upon her, and one extended the scepter." At that historic vote approving the State of Israel, how could one fail to hear the fluttering wings of those angels? Only blindness in faith would deny it. And sadly: “Who is blind but My servant?" (Isaiah 42:19). Precisely among some of those entrusted with concepts of faith, one sometimes finds the opposite of faith.
“The Counsel of the Lord Shall Remain Forever" (Tehillim 33:11)
One who recognizes that God drives the processes of our national revival can be confident that everything appearing to oppose this plan is best described by the verse: “Many are the thoughts in a man’s heart…" (Tehillim 19:22), whether it stems from within us or from foreign fields, from inside or outside. As Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook wrote (Igrot HaRe’iyah II, p. 37): “The counsel of God, who has chosen to begin the light of redemption wrapped in hidden treasures, as we see with our own eyes, though surrounded by many afflictions of those poor in understanding and suffering spiritual maladies-surely all the calculations that arise in the human heart, whose thoughts are vanity, will not prevail against the supreme counsel of God, who has spoken good concerning Israel, to establish the light of redemption and a path of life for the remnant of His people…"
Difficulties, delays, and even question marks that arise from time to time along the road of redemption cannot dim in the slightest our confidence in the future of the Divine plan. “The counsel of the Lord shall stand forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations" (Tehillim 33:11). “For He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm" (33:9). “For the Lord will not forsake His people, nor abandon His inheritance" (94:14).
We, who have been redeemed by God, can say with a full heart: “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His kindness endures forever!" And we shall rejoice wholeheartedly: “This is the day the Lord has made," and therefore, “Let us rejoice and be glad in it." “Be glad in it"-in the day, and “be glad in Him"-in its Maker, the Holy One, blessed be He. This is the complete, deep, and full recognition that leads us forward with the strength of faith in our redemption, which continues and advances steadily until this very day.