Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Shabbat and Holidays
- Jewish Holidays
- Yom Haatzmaut
The Torah study is dedicatedin the memory of
R. Meir b"r Yechezkel Shraga Brachfeld
My own opinion, though, is that such a analogy is inaccurate. The comparison itself is a misleading one and represents a crooked portrayal of our situation. If one wishes to present an analogy, the following one would be more accurate: A family anxiously awaited the birth of a child for a long time. Yet a short time before the child was about to be born the family was overtaken by severe sicknesses and hardships. Despite these difficulties, they were blessed with a healthy child. Is it not fitting, then, that they celebrate the event? Should their joy at the birth of this child be diminished by their other misfortunes? To the contrary, they ought to be comforted by the fact that the child was born healthy, happy, and energetic. It is not the state that is sick but the nation. The State of Israel is not responsible for the spiritual crisis of the Jews. This crisis existed before the arrival of the state, and were it not for the establishment of the state who knows what would have happened to the Jewish people from a spiritual point of view. Just take a look at what is happening to the Jews of the Diaspora today. The rate of assimilation there is frightening. Were it not for the establishment of the State of Israel which has given dignity to Jews everywhere in the world, the situation would be much worse. The State of Israel halted assimilation very significantly.
We received the state while in the midst of a crisis, and because of out lowly condition, we have not derived from the state all of the spiritual strength that we might have were our spiritual condition better. Were this the case our people would rise to a new spiritual height by virtue of the state.
Yet even in her present condition, the State of Israel managed to save a half of a million Jews from Russia who were otherwise destined for spiritual destruction. She has become the spiritual center of the Jewish people in the world. Educators are sent from Israel to Jewish communities all over the world in order to strengthen them in their Jewishness. There is certainly much to be happy about. There is also much to pray for. We must be happy about all that is good, and pray concerning those things which still need perfecting.
Peninei Halakha 2. The Beginning of the Redemption and Sanctifying God’s Name
Chapter 4: Yom Ha-atzma’ut
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
fast navigation
Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
