"FIRST 'THE NATIONS WILL SAY: 'G-D DID GREAT FOR [ISRAEL]' "

Beit Midrash

Torah Portion and Tanach
Vayikra
Achrei Mot

קטגוריה משנית

Shabbat and Holidays
Jewish Holidays
Yom Haatzmaut

Female Lesson Parashat Hashavua Series'Library Piskei Din (Hebrew)Test Yourself

This week's parsha returns to the mysterious death of Nadav & Avihu, the sons of Aharon, about which G-d says: 'I will be sanctified through those near Me, and before all the people I will be glorified,' "בקרוביי אקדש ועל פני כל העם אכבד" (Vayikra 10, 3). We don't understand and sometimes Israel pays a price for being "בני ישראל עם קרובו" (Tehil. 148, 14), the closest nation to Hashem, but that is essentially part of our role.
Rav Kook explains (Ayn Aya vii, 41, Orot, p. 157) just like the prophets often suffered for saying uncomfortable G-dly messages, similarly Am Yisrael historically had to pay the prices as "the conscience of mankind", and the way Hashem is seen to the world. Israel is called "the nation of prophets".
I heard Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook zt"l on several Yom HaAtzma'uts, and each time he would mention the central theme until it "sank in": "עם זו יצרתי לי תהלתי ייספרו" "This nation [Israel] I created for Myself; they shall say My praise" (Yishaya 43, 21). G-d is not commanding us to "PREACH" about Him, but our very HISTORY testifies His creation of the world and its destiny.
On Yom HaAtzma'ut we sing (Tehil. 126, 2), first the nations proclaim that Hashem did great miracles for Israel ("אז יאמרו בגוים הגדיל ה' לעשות עם אלה"), and only then we "dare" say that which we always knew, "הגדיל ה' לעשות עמנו".
Just like the greatest praises of Am Yisrael in the Torah apparently must be said by some objective and respected gentile (e.g. Bil'am), similarly today: first more and more gentile leaders publicize that which many Jews are embarrassed to say. Many don't like Pres. Trump for various reasons (some of them objective!), but one cannot deny that he was elected head of the world super-power & his stands regarding Israel can be now considered "politically correct". Trump is not an eloquent philosopher or analyst, but it's unquestionably worth your while to read the following by someone who is:
There’s Something About Israel That Makes People Uncomfortable (by Allister Heath, editor of the British Sunday Daily Telegraph):
"There’s something about Israel that makes people uncomfortable, and it’s not what they say it is.
They’ll point to politics, settlements, borders, and wars. But scratch beneath the outrage, and you’ll find something deeper. A discomfort not with what Israel does, but with what Israel is.
A nation this small should not be this strong. Period.
Israel has no oil. No special natural resources. A population barely the size of a mid-sized American city. They are surrounded by enemies. Hated in the United Nations. Targeted by terror. Condemned by celebrities. Boycotted, slandered, and attacked.
And still, they thrive like there’s no tomorrow. In military. In medicine. In security. In technology. In agriculture. In intelligence. In morality. In sheer, unbreakable will. They turn desert into farmland. They make water from air. They intercept rockets in mid-air. They rescue hostages under the nose of the world’s worst regimes. They survive wars that were supposed to wipe them out, and win.
The world watches this and can’t make sense of it.
So they do what people do when they witness strength they can’t understand.
They assume it must be CHEATING. It must be American aid. It must be foreign lobbying. It must be oppression. It must be theft. It must be some dark trick that gave the Jews this kind of power. It must be blackmail.
Because heaven forbid it’s something else. Heaven forbid it’s real. Heaven forbid it’s earned. Or worse, DESTINED.
The Jewish people were supposed to disappear a long, long time ago. That’s how the story of exiled, enslaved, hated minorities is supposed to end. But the Jews didn’t disappear. They actually came home, rebuilt their land, revived their language, and brought their dead back to life — in memory, in identity, and in strength. That’s not normal. It’s not political. IT'S BIBLICAL.
There’s no cheat code that explains how a group of people return to their homeland after 2,000 years. There is no rational path from gas chambers to global influence. And there is no historical precedent for surviving the Babylonians, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Inquisition, the pogroms, and the Holocaust, and still showing up to work on Monday in Tel Aviv.
Israel doesn’t make sense.
Unless you believe in something beyond the math.
This is what drives the world crazy. Because if Israel IS REAL, if this improbable, ancient, hated nation is somehow still chosen, protected, and thriving, then MAYBE GOD ISN'T A MYTH AFTER ALL. Maybe He’s still in the story. Maybe history isn’t random. Maybe evil doesn’t get the last word. Maybe the Jews are not just a people… but a testimony.
That’s what they can’t stand.
Because once you admit that Israel’s survival isn’t just impressive, but divine, everything changes. Your moral compass has to reset. Your assumptions about history, power, and justice collapse. You realize you’re not watching the end of an empire. You’re witnessing the beginning of something eternal.
So they deny it. They smear it. And rage against it. Because it’s easier to call a miracle "cheating" than to face the possibility that God keeps His promises.
And He’s keeping them still."

Yom Haatzmaut

Achrei Mot