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Shiurim & Adult Education
THOUGHTS ON IYAR & YOM HA’ATZMAUT BY RABBI WILKINSON
One of my childhood memories was going with my parents to see Topol o’’h in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’.
The lyrics of many of the songs have remained with me:
Dear G-d, you made many, many poor people.
I realize, of course, that it’s no shame to be poor.
But it’s no great honour either!
So, what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune?
(Lyrics from “If I Were A Rich Man”)
Tevye, the protagonist from “Fiddler on the Roof,” asks G-d what would have been so wrong if he were rich. However, Hashem in His ultimate wisdom did not make Tevye rich. Tevye cannot understand why he is not blessed by Hashem to be rich.
Tevye, however, is blessed. He has a wife and daughters and a cow. The task for Tevye is to appreciate what he does have although he cannot understand why Hashem has not granted him what he thinks he should have.
Next week the State of Israel and the Jewish people worldwide are marking the 78th anniversary of the founding of the State. Everyone can sing their own version of Tevye’s song: “If the State was my way/ Ya da deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.”
Secular Jews would want the State to be more secular and less religious. Charedi Jews would want the State to be totally halachic. Right-wing Jews would want the State to be more militaristic and nationalistic. There are even some Jews who would want the State to dissolve.
Tevye was not wrong in asking Hashem to be rich. After all, as he himself states:
If I were rich, I’d have the time that I lack
To sit in the synagogue and pray.
And maybe have a seat by the Eastern wall.
And I’d discuss the holy books with the learned men,
several hours every day.
That would be the sweetest thing of all.
Tevye wanted to be able to serve Hashem even more. There is nothing wrong with beseeching Hashem to supply you with the wherewithal to serve Him even better. However, Tevye was wrong in not appreciating what he had in the here and now. He failed to see what Hashem had provided for him right now; irrespective of the fact that he hoped for more.
The Steipler Gaon, Rav Yakov Yisrael Kanievsky, zt”l wrote that although the mitzvah of settling in the Land of Israel may no longer be applicable, the kedushah (holiness) of the Land is still in effect. What does this mean? The Steipler answers that the verse “[The Land of Israel is…] a Land the Lord, your G-d, looks after; the eyes of Lord your G-d are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year” (Devarim 12:11) is still in effect.
He adds “and the settlement of the Land of Israel brings about great spiritual boon.”
Who cannot agree with the words of Rav Yakov Yisrael Kanievsky, zt”l? The land is bursting with Torah and mitzvot. There are more people learning about Hashem in Israel today than any other time in Jewish history since the destruction of the second Beit HaMikdash. How can one not see the spiritual boon which the Steipler, zt”l tells us that Hashem promises?
On the 25th of Elul 5755 (1994), Rabbi Yehoshua Hutner zt”l wrote a letter to an acquaintance describing the miracles of the War of Independence and of the founding of the State:
“Is there any doubt that the whole year 5708 [1948], and especially the summer months of that year, was one long and sustained great miracle, the salvation of the Jewish people and the Land of Israel, that to this day still cannot be fathomed? One living in Jerusalem in the summer of 1948 felt the explosions overhead on all sides of the [Jordanian Arab] Legion, and the danger of the city’s conquest, and the danger of its inhabitants being killed by the Egyptians as well as the Arab Legion . . . . We were not only “few against many,” but a small settlement of less than a million souls, with a few hundred rifles, fighting against six nations of 100 million Arabs with armies and planes and tanks. We had, at the beginning, almost nothing, and they arose to swallow us alive and throw us into the sea. [America declared an embargo against us and forbade selling even one rifle to us. Salvation came by miraculous means, for anyone who wants to see clearly, in that G-d advised Stalin . . . to send us weapons through the Czechs.] G-d turned distress into salvation, and our enemies fled for their lives. Is there any Jew of intelligence, who has even a small flicker of simple faith without mixing in politics, who would not admit to the miracle visible to all the nations, unless he has placed upon his face an eightfold veil and refuses to see reality? . . . In truth, the miracle of Yom Ha’atzmaut 1948 and the miracle of the salvation of 1948 are miracles for all time, for the salvation of the Torah and the nation, even when most of the [government] ministers fight against the Torah, as I will prove . . . The more they have fought against the Torah and religion from the left, the more Torah and religion have grown from the right, and the sum total is the victory of the Torah of the nation in its Land through the heretical government—even though their intent is the opposite! Is this not the greatest miracle? But to see it, one must look carefully, for without deep examination one sees the opposite . . . . “
For a more secular approach Shimon Peres o’’h, in an interview with the newspaper Maariv, summed up the sense of wonder that has driven Israel’s belief in itself, describing the poor odds of the Zionist militia against the Arab world in 1948.
“Israel, mathematically or tangibly, should not have been established,” he said. “Prior to the War of Independence, there was no chance. We were 650,000, they were 40 million. They had seven armies, we had barely 5,000 soldiers.” He added: “So tangibly we were on the brink of collapse, but we won anyway, thanks to hidden powers. Ever since, for all of my life, I have tried to understand those immeasurable powers.” (New York Times, April 26, 2012)
Shimon Peres says, “for all of my life, I have tried to understand those immeasurable powers.” We do not have the mystery of Shimon Peres; we do not have “to try all of our life” to decode what the hidden power is. We know what and who is this “hidden, immeasurable power.” We know Who it is.
As Rabbi Yitzchok Eisenman has written: ‘Dare we replicate the uncertainties of those who fail to recognize that which is so obvious and clear? Do we dare be like Tevye, always wishing for more and never expressing thanks over what we have?’
Israel may not yet be perfect in every way. Whatever the motives of those who helped settle the land, whatever deficiencies there are, whatever remains to be improved and completed, nevertheless we should all thank Hashem for what we have been given to us as individuals and as a people.
On Yom Ha’atzmaut however we observe it, we should acknowledge the blessing we have with the State of Israel. We should say a heartfelt ‘Thank you’ to Hashem.
I will personally say ‘Thank you Hashem’ for allowing me to daven at the Kotel, a privilege denied Moshe, Rashi, the Vilna Gaon and many, many others. Thank you for allowing three of my grandchildren to be born in Yerushalayim. Thank you for allowing Jews from all over the world to be able to study and perform mitzvot in the place the Torah envisioned for them to be fulfilled.
Wherever you are on Yom Ha’atzmaut I hope you will also have time to say, ‘Thank you, Hashem, for giving us the State of Israel’.
Shabbat shalom and chodesh tov.
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