Page 31 - HaMizrachi #9 Yom HaAtzmaut 5779

Rav Kook's Teachings

Rabbi Chanan Morrison

The Miracle

OF YOM HAATZMAUT

s there more to Israel Independence did not merit” (Ketubot 112a). We should Atchalta D'Geula
Day than fireworks and flag waving? be grateful to be alive at this time in Nevertheless, many people have
I Is Yom HaAtzmaut just a secular history, to witness the hour of redemption difficulty reconciling the current moral
holiday commemorating our political that so many great and holy leaders of our
independence, or does it hold a deeper people did not merit to see. and spiritual state of Israel with the
meaning for us? vision of the redemption as portrayed
Courageous Spirit by the prophets and the Sages. Is this the
The Holiness of Mitzvot And yet one may ask: why should the Messianic Era for which we prayed 2,000
Rav Kook passed away in 1935, 13 years fifth day of Iyar be chosen for celebrating years?
before the State of Israel was established, this event? Perhaps a different date, such The Sages determined that “The only
but his son, Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook, as the date of the ceasefire after the difference between the current reality
interpreted the historic events of 1948 in War of Independence, would be a more and the Messianic Era is [independence
light of his father’s teachings. appropriate choice?
from] the rule of foreign powers.” While
In general, our connection to sanctity While the military victory of a fledgling we have certainly not yet merited the
and holiness is through the mitzvot of state over the armies of five enemy final phase of redemption, we have
the Torah. Thus before performing countries was certainly miraculous, achieved this criterion of redemption
a mitzvah we say, “Who sanctified us that was not the greatest miracle of the — independence and self-rule over our
with His mitzvot.” The holiness of establishment of the State of Israel. geographical area.
Yom HaAtzmaut, Rav Tzvi Yehuda
explained, is anchored in the holiness of The true miracle was the remarkable Many Torah scholars fought against
mitzvot. But which particular mitzvah is courage displayed on the fifth of Iyar the Zionist movement because they
connected to this historical occasion? in making the fateful decision and envisioned redemption as a future era
announcing the establishment of an
The Ramban defined the mitzvah of independent State. This decision, in the that arrives complete from the very start,
yishuv haAretz, settling the Land of face of heavy pressure from the US not and not an ongoing process. But the
Israel, as “we will not abandon it to to declare a state, and belligerent threats import of the Talmudic statement (Jer.
another nation, or leave it desolate.” This of the surrounding Arab countries, was Berachot 1:1) that the redemption will
definition makes it clear that the mitzvah by no means a trivial matter. The motion appear “little by little,” like the spreading
is first and foremost an obligation to declare independence passed by only light of dawn in the morning sky, is
of the nation; the Jewish people are a thin majority in Ben-Gurion’s cabinet. exactly this: that the redemption is a
commanded to take possession of the process that advances in stages.
Land of Israel and to rule over it. This courageous decision was the
true miracle of Yom HaAtzmaut. The We should examine history with a
This then is the significance of Yom Talmud (Baba Metzia 106a) states that a perspective of faith in G-d. We should
HaAtzmaut: that we have finally shepherd’s rescue of his flock from a lion recognize that the Master of the
merited, after centuries of exile, to once or a bear may be considered a miracle. Universe controls and governs all events.
again fulfill this lofty mitzvah, valued Where exactly is the miracle in this act?
by the Sages as “equal to all the other The Tosafists explained that the miracle (Silver from the Land of Israel. Adapted
mitzvot” (Sifre Re’eh), “to return and is to be found in the shepherd’s “spirit of from Olat Re’iyah vol. II, pp. 287-289.)
possess the Land that G-d promised to courage and willingness to fight.” This
our fathers” (Ramban). We should be spirit of valor is a miracle from above, an Rabbi Chanan Morrison is the author of
full of gratitude to live here, in Eretz inspired inner greatness spurring one to several books on Rav Kook's writings
Yisrael, “the place that Moses and Aaron rise to the needs of the hour. www.RavKookTorah.org

Background illustration of Rav Kook courtesy of www.gedolimcanvas.com 31 31