Tzipiyah.com

Yesterday was Yom Ha’atzma’ut, Israel’s Independence Day. It was my first Yom Ha’atzma’ut as an Israeli citizen. I woke up early to get to a hired bus that would take a group of us on a Tiyul (hike/trip).

It was very early in the morning, and I hadn’t managed to get to an early minyan to join in the special festive Yom Ha’atzma’ut morning prayer services. I brought my Tefillin along, and began to pray on the bus.

On Yom Ha’atzma’ut, we substitute the regular daily Pe’sukei de’zimra section of the morning prayers with its Shabbat and Yom-Tov counterpart, and, most famously, we sing Hallel. As I sat on the bus next to the window, in my Tefillin, singing the beautifully poetic and expressive praises of Hallel, I looked out at the beautiful countryside of the Land of Israel. I was filled with deep emotion: the verses of praise and thanks that I was singing were immediately and deeply relevant to what I was seeing.

The beautiful greens of trees bunched together, of bushes and shrubs speckling a rocky hill landscape, the fine growth of flat fields in their shades of green and yellow, the slope and curve of the mountains and hills and valleys in an array of balance and serenity, and the beautiful blue sky, spoke to me today like they hadn’t before.

I was falling more in love with this special land. And as I sang the Hallel, I directed the thanks of King David to my personal heart-bursting appreciation for our privilege of having our beautiful Land of Israel, and of having a sovereign state to control and protect it, and to continue to develop it and build it up.

I praise You, (God), for You have answered me, - אודך כי עניתני,
and you have been a salvation to me. - ותהי לי לישועה.
The stone that the builders despised - אבן מאסו הבונים,
has become a corner-stone. - היתה לראש פינה.
This (thing) is from God; - מאת ה’ היתה זאת,
it is wondrous in our eyes! - היא נפלאת בעינינו.
God made this very day, - זה היום עשה ה’,
we will rejoice and be happy on it! - נגילה ונשמחה בו.
(Tehillim 118:21-24 - תהלים קיח:כא-כד)

(Image from here)