Yom Haatzmaut

It is a mitzva to recite Hallel on special occasions, in order to thank and praise God for the miracles He performs on our behalf.

There is a mitzva to establish a holiday of rejoicing and praising God on a day when the Jewish people were saved. It was on this basis that the Sages established Purim and Ĥanuka as permanent holidays.

The verse states: “I adjure you, O maidens of Jerusalem, by gazelles or by hinds of the field: Do not wake or rouse love until it please!” ). The Sages explain that God administered three oaths: two to Israel – not to ascend to their land forcefully all together and not to rebel against the nations – and one to the gentiles – not to subjugate the Jews excessively.

On Yom Ha-atzma’ut (Israel’s Independence Day), the Jewish people were delivered from bondage to freedom, from subjugation by foreign powers, with all it entails, to political independence.

After so many years passed without God’s word coming to fruition, God’s name became increasingly desecrated in the world, and the enemies of Israel decided that there is no chance that the Jews would ever return to their land

When the State of Israel was established, on the fifth of Iyar in 5708 (1948), the Jewish people fulfilled the mitzva of settling Eretz Yisrael (the land of Israel).

A historical application of a word found in this week's Parshat Beha'alotkha in Jewish communities throughout the world, showing how it clearly also applies to celebrating Yom Ha'Atzma'ut in our time.

It sounds complicated to declare new holidays, but it's actually not at all. Similarly to allow haircuts and music during the Omer also is simple. Just declaring Hallel with a bracha is more complicated, but an historic return to the forgotten background of the "6 Day War" helps clarify that, as well.

It is a well-known Torah truism that a third destruction, following those of the First and Second Holy Temples, will never occur. There will be no Exile following the beginning of the Redemption that we have been experiencing these recent decades and more.

Our independence day is a happy day, but is it a holy day? We established a state but why do we see it as a day of some special spirtual event?