This week Jews in Israel and all over the world celebrated the founding of the Jewish state. Unfortunately, positive recognition of the State of Israel is controversial. The fact that this is the land that Hashem bequeathed to the children of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov is agreed by all who believe in the Bible; it is also agreed that the Third Temple will be built on Har HaBayit.
The Jewish nation survived many generations of persecution and sorrow to finally make it back to the chosen land. How many fought and died to get this land back under Jewish sovereignty? How many sacrificed their lives so that their children and all who came after would live here like kings? Many returned from the death and horror that the Holocaust brought. Many from behind the Iron Curtain. Many came from Europe and the United States, while others walked by foot from Yemen and Ethiopia just to kiss the ground that was promised to us after so many years in exile.
So how is it that in such a precious and beloved homeland, we have such strife when it comes to the state itself? There is the right wing and the left wing, the extreme right and the extreme left; there are the middle parties and the religious ones. And who would believe that in the Jewish State, there are parties for the Arabs as well, showing how fair and just our nation is – that we give every citizen an equal chance?
I believe that this way of treating everyone as an equal is the heart of the problem. In every home, institution, and workplace, there is the head of the house, or a boss or manager. Yes, everyone is and should be respected for who they are, but clearly a child and a parent don’t have equal rights! Managers work very hard to earn their positions. They clearly have different rights than an 18-year-old who is looking for some temporary job for the summer. Why then do we have so many fights and disagreements amongst the parties leading this country? Why isn’t it obvious that the Jews living in their land according to the laws of the Torah are to decide the destiny of this country and not every person who feels they have a right to an opinion?
Israel is a Jewish state. That should mean that Jewish laws apply, and that the Jews are the ones running the show and deciding how things should be. However, this is not the case at all. The left pull us to be a secular country just like any other land in the world; the right wing rightfully wants us to settle the land and all parts of it. The middle try to stay correct in everyone’s eyes, which isn’t ever possible. The religious parties cry out that the Torah must be kept, while the Arabs scream and shout that we are all sitting on their land and we should leave immediately.
The split in the country is heavily felt. It is so sad that after so many thousands of years and so much bloodshed, we finally make it back home and this is the outcome. The Jews who came back in the early 1900s, throughout the wars of Israel, and until the late 80s, experienced a different atmosphere and idealism that was felt throughout. Building the settlements, big aliyah movements, volunteers to the army from all over the world. The army was so patriotic, not political. It backed each and every soldier for being brave and fighting the enemy. Today the army is scared of international media and how things might look to the world. Today even young men who live here have mixed feelings in enrolling in the army. We let the Arabs raise their heads so high that they have no respect or boundaries and they act as they wish.
We have gotten to a point that the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs could say after the shooting at the Chabad shul in Poway that thank goodness there were no Israeli casualties in the incident! What an outrage – are we not all Jews? It’s OK if Jews were harmed? This is a perfect example of how distant we have become from the proper path of Torah and its way of life.
What are we celebrating on this Independence Day? Unity? Love of each other? Worship of Hashem in His homeland? Victory over our enemies? What power do we have while they send rockets daily to the entire southern region of the land? Joy that yeshiva boys can’t sit and learn Torah without being called names and threatened to be taken to jail if they don’t have the proper permission for not joining the army? Happiness that a brave soldier who protects us can’t walk through Me’ah She’arim in a uniform without having stones thrown at him? Joy for the fight over Shabbat which is not being kept in all parts of the country?
Sure, we are happy that we returned to the land. Sure, we are very grateful to live as Jews in our Jewish homeland. But we must act as Jews and not just like any other people in the world. We must follow the Torah – and then we will truly be free and worship G-d and do what He thinks is right. We will not wonder what the countries of the world think of us and want us to do. We must really become independent, and that can only come by going in the path of Hashem.
We are Jews and should be proud of who we are and what we stand for. Hashem returned us to our land and gave us back our home so that we might live in it in the proper Jewish way. Through that merit we will see G-d returning to his Kingdom and being proud to dwell amongst us. We must unite and stop with all the separation. We are called Am Yisrael because we are united by the power of following the Torah that was given to us at Mount Sinai.
These weeks before Lag Ba’omer, the 33rd day of the counting of the omer, is the time period that Rabbi Akiva’s 24,000 students died for not respecting one another. We should take this time to pray that all the people of Israel unite as one big Jewish nation and come together with love and respect for all, especially for G-d and His Torah. May we merit to see unity amongst the Jewish nation.
