Page 35 - HaMizrachi #29 Yom HaAtzmaut 2021 USA

HOLIDAY READING

Rabbi David Katz

Desperate Times Call for

Desperate Measures

oincidence? I think not! The the river just like He did at the Yam Suf. an emergency miracle to take us out
Haftarah chosen by the Rab- Rashi and the Radak explain the word of Egypt before it was too late. ה ָּ ל ִ ס ְ מ. It
Cbanut HaRashit for Yom ה ָּ ל ִ ס ְ מ used in this context to mean the wasn’t that we deserved it; the opposite!
HaAtzmaut is the same as the Haftarah dry riverbed and thus the clear path to We celebrate our miraculous salvation,
for the last day of Pesach (Yom Tov Sheni return. despite not being worthy. As mentioned
shel Galuyot). above, Yom Kippur and its ה ָּ ל ִ ס ְ מ repre-
The term ה ָּ ל ִ ס ְ מ is used several other
It is from Yeshayahu (10:32–12:6) and times, in one form or another, in Sefer sent the same concept. So too, perhaps,
speaks of the salvation that will come Yeshayahu. For example, we see it used Yom HaAtzmaut. We were given the
to the remnant of Israel that survive in the prophecy of Nachamu (Yesha- miraculous present of a Jewish State,
the destruction at the hands of Ashur/ yahu 40:3), where we are told to clear a not because we were any more deserving
Sancheirev and how they will return to path for G-d to return to us and begin than earlier, more pious generations. We
Eretz Yisrael. The prophecy contains the healing process after the churban. were given this gift because, certainly
the imagery of the lamb and the wolf We also find it in the Haftarah for Yom in the generation post Auschwitz and
being able to live with each other; how Kippur (ibid. 57:14), where the Navi Treblinka, ה ָּ ל ִ ס ְ מ. Desperate times call
ְ
apropos for Yom HaAtzmaut following tells us ך ֶ ר ָ ד ּוּנ ַּ פ ּו ּ לֹס ּו ּ לֹס. In that context, ּו ּ לֹס for desperate measures.
the commemorations of Yom HaShoah means to clear a path for us to be able “Behold the G-d who gives me triumph!
and Yom HaZikaron. to easily return to G-d. I am confident, unafraid; For Hashem
But we know there is no such thing Given that ה ָּ ל ִ ס ְ מ appears in several the L-rd is my strength and might, And
as coincidence. So perhaps, if we can places in the context of our return to He has been my deliverance” (Yeshayahu
understand the connection of this G-d and His return to us, I would like 12:2).
Haftarah to the last day of Pesach we to connect Yom HaAtzmaut, and thus !ה ָ מ ֵ ל ְ ׁש ה ָּ ל ֻ א ְ ג ִ ל ה ָ ח ְ מ ִ ׂש ְ ל םי ִ ד ֲ עֹומ
can uncover a deeper significance to its the choice of this particular Haftarah, to
relevance to Yom HaAtzmaut. Finding the Haftarah choice for Yom Kippur. In
the connection to Pesach is a bit more theory, the Yom Kippur Haftarah could 1 The eighth day is the Yom Tov Sheni of the
challenging. have remained the same as the Haftarah seventh day and it is from there that it draws
of a regular fast day, which also comes its significance.
Rashi (Megillah 31a) suggests that the from Yeshayahu and also speaks of our
fall of Sancheirev takes place on Pesach, return to G-d (ibid. 55:6–7). 2 Yemei Zikaron p. 243.
and thus the connection. This is more
familiar to us from the Pesach Hagga- Rav Soloveitchik points out that what is
dah, when we mention in a piyut that unique about Yom Kippur is that unlike
ח ַ ס ֶ פ ְּ ב …דֹמ ֲ ע ַ ל בֹנ ְּ ב םֹוּי ַ ה דֹוע. The difficulty a regular fast day, when it is up to us to
with Rashi’s explanation is that this takes do all/most of the work, on Yom Kippur
place on the first day of Pesach and not all we have to do is clear a simple path,
2
the last! Others suggest that the connec- ּו ּ לֹס, and G-d does the rest. We are
tion comes at the end of the Haftarah, downtrodden and weary and otherwise
where the pesukim seem very similar hopeless, and we turn to G-d not with
to those we find in Az Yashir, which is that we deserve His benevolence, but
the Torah reading on the seventh day of simply because we are not worthy, and Rabbi David Katz is the Director of Michlelet
Pesach. In fact, the comparison of Bnei only have Him to rely on. ה ָּ ל ִ ס ְ מ. Mevaseret Yerushalayim (MMY).
1
Yisrael’s return to Yetziat Mitzrayim is Perhaps that is the message of Yom
explicit a few pesukim earlier (11:15-16), HaAtzmaut. On Pesach, we were on A member of the Mizrachi Speakers Bureau
where the Navi speaks of G-d drying up the 49th rung of tumah and needed mizrachi.org/speakers

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