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We could live our lives filled to the brim with Torah, personal growth, chessed (kindness), maasim tovim (good deeds), perfecting our middot (character traits). We could even be involved in tremendous community work bringing loads of Jews back to their roots. We could be building up our community, starting up new kosher restaurants and cafes. Building new shuls and mikvas.

But even with these incredible mitzvot, we are lacking something so fundamental to us as a nation; our return to Eretz Yisrael. We need our own personal growth in Torah and we need to bring back assimilated Jews, but all this is working with a very small perspective. The larger picture can sometimes get lost. We lose sight that there’s also a national perspective to our existence as Jews. We are a Nation, we are Am Yisrael. Just like Hashem has a plan for our own individual development and purpose in our lives, so too does He have a plan for Am Yisrael. When in chutz la’aretz (outside Israel), our vision is limited to ourselves and our community around us. It’s only when we arrive in Eretz Yisrael that we realise (ironically) that we are in exile, that we don’t have a Beis Hamikdash, that Hashem’s presence is hidden from the world… but at the same time we see redemption has started, we are being gathered in from the four corners of the world to finally rebuild our Homeland after 2000 years of exile. What a whole new perspective to our Torah!

As Yom HaZikaron and Yom Haatzmaut approach, this idea is very profound. These two days bring a whole new meaning to Am Yisrael and to achdut (unity). On Yom HaZikaron we commemorate the incredible courage and messirut nefesh (self-sacrifice) by our soldiers who gave up their lives so we could return to Eretz Yisrael, our Homeland. And it’s not just the soldiers themselves who are heros, but their families too, who live knowing that their children will one day be fighting on our borders to protect our beloved land. From all over Israel do Jews come to Mt. Herzl where all the fallen soldiers are buried, free buses to and from, a ceremony and kaddish. What respect Am Yisrael have for their soliders, what value we have for life and for the need for our Land.

And the very next day we break into celebration and joy, where we thank Hashem for finally returning us to our Land, for the miracles He performed for us, for the start of redemption, for the chance to fulfil all the mitzvot we previously couldn’t do (shmitta, truma & maser, etc). We could only have a Yom Haatzmaut because of a Yom HaZikaron.

Through these two days do we begin to realise that there’s more to our avodat Hashem than our personal obligations, but we have national obligations too. We must always prepared to be musar nefesh, and to live amongst our people in unity. Only in Eretz Yisrael can we retain this perspective and witness and be part of Hashem’s nissim (miracles). May He soon bring us the complete and final redemption.

Some Kabbalists have organized the months from Nissan to Tishrei according to the different Sfirot (Divine Attributes). As we know, all of the holidays which come from the torah happen in between Nissan and Tishrei. After Tishrei, there are still rabbinical holidays but no holiday from the Torah.

The way the holidays were organized are as followed:
The month of Nissan is the month of Hessed. (Mercy) When we were first taken out of Egypt, we were taken out by pure Hessed, mercy. Sure, there are those who bring up the fact that we needed to bring a Korban Pessah and put blood on our doors in order to have a minimum merit to get out, however, this was truly the minimum merit. So much so that afterwards, the angels asked God how he could favor us to the Egyptians – we were both idol worshipers! Therefore, this redemption was almost completely based on God’s mercy and not on our own merit. It was what we call “Hiterouta De-leila”, something which came from God towards us.

We will get back to the month of Iyar. The month of Sivan is the month of the Tiferet, Splendor. It is the month in which we recieved the Torah, the “splendor” of the Jewish People.

Then comes the month of Tammuz, the month of Netzah. Chazal teach us that Netzach is Jerusalem. The month of Tammuz was the month on which we were meant to first enter Jerusalem. We were supposed to get the tablets from Moses on the 17th of Tammuz and then march on quickly, in 3 days, towards Jerusalem and establish on Kingdom. Unfortunately, things went wrong and we sinned with the Golden Calf. However, when the calendar will once again be as it is supposed to, this month will no longer be one of mourning.

The Month of Av, Hod, is representing the Beit Hamikdash. Unfortunately, during the exile, in this month it is quite the opposite which happened as we lost both our temples on that month.

Finally, the Month of Ellul is the month of Yessod, foundation, since it acts as a foundation to our service on the month of Tishrei, the month of the Malchut – kingship of God on this earth, which is our ultimate goal.

Of course, I have just breifly surveyed these different concepts which deserve much more explanations to be appreciated but I want to concentrate on the month of Iyar, which is, according to this system, the month of Gvurah – which can be roughly translated as courage. This month is the month which is representative of the Jewish People’s ability to take their destiny in their hands. It is representative of the Jewish People’s ability to have the courage to seek things for themselves. Unlike Hessed, which comes solely from God without much of our merit, Gvurah describes a reality where we, the Jewish People, are the ones who take the initiative and then, with God’s help, we are able to arrive through this courage to Tifferet.

The only holiday which exists from the torah in this month is Pessah Sheini. Pessah Sheini is a very interesting holiday. This is a day which was not created by God. No. Instead, people who could not each the korban pessah because they were in a state of ritual impurity, or because they were far away, asked to get a “second chance”. This holiday comes from the people themselves! It is our own initiative. It is quite incredible that we can, through our own initiative, establish a holiday similar to the holiday of Pessah! This is the power of our initiative.

On this month, we also have seen in history the story of the death of the students of Rabbi Akiva. There is a disagreement as to what exactly killed those students. The gemara says it was a sickness which came to them because of their lack of respect for each other. However, an interesting Midrash claims that the reason for their death was that they lost during the rebellion of Bar Kochba. As we know, Rabbi Akiva was not just a yeshiva rabbi, he was a warrior who faught in the Bar Kochba Revolt. However, this revolt was not successful. The Midrach claims that lack of unity caused the revolt to be badly organized which caused the death of the 24 000 students of Rabbi Akiva on the front. Regardless of the reason of the death, one thing which is obvious is that the students of Rabbi Akiva represent the courage of a Jew to stand up and take his destiny in his own hands, and then hope that God will help him complete this initiative. When we mourn the students of Rabbi Akiva, we also mourn the fact that this initiative might, maybe, have been successful if not for dis-unity. We praise the courage and initiative of those students and mourn their loss. The only way I know how to describe this feeling is by comparing it to Yom Hazikaron, a day in which I described my feelings as “mourning with pride”.

On the month of Iyar, it is also the only shabbat mevarchim in which ashkenazi congregations say “Av Harachamim”, because of the killing of Jewish communities during the period of the crusaders which happened during this time. Once again, this is a tragic story. However, once again, its a story which really shows us the courage, the gevurah, of the Jewish People in their own show of love to God, even when his presence is not as revealed.

In our generation, a new miracle happened – the declaration of independance of the state of Israel! There is a halachic discussion as to what date Yom Haatzmaut should be established on. Some people claim it should be established on the day the war of independance ended, not on the day independance was declared! However, Rav Tzvi Yehuda used to say that those who make this claim do not understand what happened on Yom Haatzmaut. The miracle we celebrate on Yom Haatzmaut is the fact that the Jewish People once again had the courage to take the initiative in rebuilding their homeland. We once again found our Gevurah! The month of Iyar which showed Gevurah only in tragic circumstances throughout our exile was once again taking become the joyous month of Iyar. We stood up and took our self-determination, not only asking for it. The fifth of Iyar was, in one day, a representation of a whole generation- survivors of the holocaust returning to the land of Israel and rebuilding the land. This declaration of independance was against all logic! King Abdullah had told Golda Meir a few hours before that if Israel would declare independance, a war would start which would unite all arabs countries. The Jews had weapons for only 3 days of fighting. American and Russian Jews begged Ben Gurion not to declare the state of Israel warning him that even their influence would be of no help. And yet, Ben Gurion made the declaration. Sure, the win of the war is a huge miracle, but its declaration, the fact that a Jew can stand up after 2000 years of exile and have the courage to say “This is our land and we will be rebuilding it!”, is the greater miracle for which we say Hallel on Yom Haatzmaut.

Rav Mordechai Elon Shli”ta writes;
אייר הוא לא רק חודש, אייר הוא גם דור שלם, אייר הוא הדור שלנו, דור שלפעמים לרגע יכול לשכוח שהוא בעצם מעביר העולם מהחסד אל התפארת, ומשם הלאה אל הנצח וההוד . אשרינו שזכינו להיות דור אייר, יהי רצון מלפניו יתברך כי נהיה ראויים לזכות זו שזכינו לה.

Iyar is not just a month. Iyar is also a whole generation. Iyar is our generation, a generation which can sometimes forget that he is bringing the world from Hessed (mercy) to Tifferet (Splendor), and from there on to Netzach (Eternity) and Hod (Majesty). Praised are we that merited to be a generation of Iyar, and may it be Your will, our God, that we be able to merit that which we have merited.

Our generation is one which is not afraid to stand up and take intiative for the good of Klal Israel. Our job is to ensure that the direction we give to Klal Israel one which will lead it towards the Splendor, Eternity and Majesty so that, slowly, slowly, and with a lot of patience, without pushing things too quickly, we can translate this amazing courage which was demonstrated on Yom Haatzmaut into a Mamlechet Kohanim VeGoy Kadosh, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

This past Yom Ha’atzma’ut, and related events, have really made me think about Israel. A theme I’ve heard from a few people, which resonates a lot within me, is that while Israel is certainly not perfect, it is also so beautiful, so wonderful, and the greatest blessing for us, the Jewish People. Through my passion for Israel, I’ve tended towards cynicism and a more negative outlook over the past few months, a mindset mostly fueled by some unfortunate events and trends specifically within the more politically related contexts. (Then again, what isn’t politically related in Israel?!) But lately, especially since Yom Ha’atzma’ut, I’ve been heading back towards the side of positivity, joy, and pride in the abundant good in Israel, despite the very real ‘bad’ things that are there too.

Jacob Richman (check out his site) sent out a wonderful email to his subscribers. It’s an article written by Barbara Sofer on the Jerusalem Post: a list of 61 reasons, in no particular order, why she loves Israel. I’m sure that a lot of us have read similar lists, and are probably familiar with some of the facts, but I learnt a lot, and was inspired and moved by some of her facts. It adds fuel to my personal passion of making Aliyah, which is happening in a few months! And it makes me really proud of Israel, of the Jews living in Israel, and of Jews in general. This is great stuff. Here it is:

Top 60 plus one reasons I love Israel

by Barbara Sofer
May 8, 2008

Why do I love Israel? Let me count the whys. Here, in no particular
order, is an updated list, with new additions and highlights of recent
years.

1. Jerusalem is so quiet on Shabbat that you can hear birds singing
even on the main streets.

2. We change our calendars on Rosh Hashana, not January 1,
because that’s the real new year

3. Just hours after leading his Chelsea team to its first Champions
League final, Petah Tikva-born coach Avram Grant joined the March
of the Living in Auschwitz, and told all of Europe that his pride at
Israel’s emergence from the horrors of the Holocaust surpassed
any football achievement.

4. We serve kosher food in the trendiest malls.

5. Streets bear the names of prophets and medieval poets.
Our communications satellite is called “Amos.”

6. Land of milk and honey: Big news when Israeli archeologists
recently discovered evidence of the beekeeping industry - even
beeswax - that goes back 3,000 years.

7. Land of milk and honey: We’re so successful at making milk
products that we have hundreds of choices of cheese and advise
New Zealand about making sheep cheese.

8. The Nahariya-based Strauss company, started by dairy farmer
immigrants from Germany in 1936, together with the Elite company
started by a candy-maker immigrant from Riga in 1934, are the
largest coffee manufacturers in Central and Eastern Europe, and
second biggest in Brazil. Aviv Matza exports its unleavened bread
to Egypt.

9. We have laboratories to check for the biblically prohibited mix of
linen and wool, shatnes, and we’re the first country to make men’s
suits from recycled plastic bottles, for sale soon at Sears.

10. At Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo, the loudspeaker announces
“afternoon prayers (minha) are now being held near the elephants.”

11. The Biblical Zoo is kosher for Pessah. The primates eat matza;
the parrots get rice.

12. Every kindergartner knows that frogs are the second plague in
the Haggada, but our “save the frogs” campaign was launched at
the Biblical Zoo on Passover.

13. Mega investor Warren Buffet’s first investment outside the US
($4 billion) was in Israel’s Iscar company. He got so much positive
publicity that he told Iscar’s CEO: “I was nobody before I bought
your company.”

14. Sixty years after statehood, even young people refer to something
old-fashioned as “from the days of the (British) Mandate.”

15. Theodor Herzl’s bearded image welcomes visitors to hi-tech
Herzliya, and we celebrate Herzl Day.

16. My five-year-old grandson can tell you all about Theodor Herzl.
Also about Spiderman.

17. Combat soldiers aren’t embarrassed to phone their moms and
grandmothers.

18. While Intel Haifa workers were working in an underground shelter
because of the missile attacks in the Second Lebanon War,
Intel announced the new multi-core processor developed there.

19. Entire families show up for military graduations, and bring
enough food to feed an army.

20. Name droppers. The poet Chaim Nachman Bialik named the
Egged bus company and also the Tishbi winery

21. Youngsters travel far to visit the Kibbutz Kinneret cemetery
where poet Rahel and national song laureate Naomi Shemer are
buried.

22. First graders read the Bible in the original Hebrew, and celebrate
with a party.

23. We follow the level of the Kinneret more faithfully than we do our
stock portfolios.

24. We have only one Pessah Seder but Purim, our dress-up holiday,
lasts three days. In Jerusalem on Purim, it’s hard to tell who’s in
costume and who isn’t.

25. We have the highest concentration of hi-tech companies outside
Silicon Valley, and also the most yeshivot anywhere.

26. After a calamity, police have trouble keeping away bystanders
who want to help.

27. Thousands of free-loan societies flourish. You can borrow wedding
dresses and pacifiers.

28. Despite the tensions and political dissension, Israel has the
highest Jewish birthrate in the world.

29. Despite the tensions and political dissension, Israel is the
fastest growing Western country in the world.

30. “Jerusalem of Gold” is still voted the favorite national song.

31. We have timeless cuisine: You can order Israeli breakfast,
business lunch and dinner simultaneously at Israeli cafes.

32. Our pilots fought over the honor of taking part in a fly-by over
Auschwitz 60 years after liberation.

33. Israeli fighter jets accompanied tourists safely home from
Mombasa after they were threatened.

34. We have 120 members of the Knesset because that’s how many
were in the ancient Great Assembly.

35. We first developed candy-sweet cherry tomatoes as a
TV-watching nosh.

36. On Remembrance Day and Holocaust Remembrance Day,
the act of remembering halts traffic. Even kindergartners stand
silently, and understand why.

37. While dining rooms are shrinking in Western homes, Israeli
dining room tables are getting longer.

38. We invite strangers for a home-cooked Shabbat meal.

39. An Israeli artichoke farmer with a sore back developed the
sophisticated Hollandia beds and exports them from Sderot to
many countries, including Holland.

40. Strangers feel free to tell a parent to put a hat on the baby in
a country where we wear scarves, snoods, spodiks, streimels,
wimples, fedoras, berets, tarbushes, homburgs, kippot and keffiyot.

41. While other Western nations debate immigration, we absorb
more immigrants per capita than any other country in the world.
Almost immediately all learn the Hebrew word for patience, savlanut.

42. Our street musicians can play in symphony orchestras;
our supermarket clerks know calculus.

43. Our biggest shopping seasons precede Rosh Hashana and
Pessah.

44. Municipalities’ decorating contests feature succot, not trees.
The Succot holiday is high season in Israel; book hotel rooms
a year in advance.

45. Even politicians from anti-religious parties say “Baruch Hashem.”

46. “Where were your grandparents from?” is a common question.
Where else would anyone care about my grandparents?

47. We celebrate Mother’s Day, now Family Day, on the yahrzeit of
Henrietta Szold who, with Recha Freier, organized Youth Aliya but
who had no children of her own.

48. For all the talk about the greening of the planet, we’re the only
country in the world that started the 21st century with a net gain of
trees. (Thank you, Jewish National Fund)

49. During the Second Lebanon War, JNF rangers stayed in the
forests during Katyusha attacks to save the trees

50. We’re among the most Internet-connected people on the planet.
We invented the cellphone, instant messaging, the chat room and
the silent prayer, but still talk best with our hands.

51. Before Purim, the TV weather forecast relates specially to the
day the kids go to school in their costumes. For a week before
Yom Kippur, the weather report focuses on the upcoming fast.

52. We love children, and have more IVF per capita than any other
country. It’s free up to the first two children.

53. We celebrate Independence Day with a Bible Contest.

54. Israelis developed both the system to see photos from Mars and
cameras to monitor crime on buses in Brazil.

55. Despite our soul connection to chicken soup, per capita we’re
the world’s biggest eaters of healthier turkey, bigger even than
America. Go figure!

56. We’re among the first to help countries that experience
disasters, and the first to have our field hospitals up. When Israel
helped Turkey after an earthquake, an Israeli doctor made an
incubator from a matza box.

57. Jewish soccer players for Bnei Sakhnin compete against
Arab players for Maccabi Tel Aviv.

58. Childbirth and burial are free. Even the homeless have health
insurance.

59. On Saturday night, the radio summarizes the news for all those
who don’t listen on Shabbat.

60. We’re agricultural high achievers, producing seven times the
output with the same water we used 25 years ago. Our date trees
average 182 kilos - 10 times more than the average in the Middle
East. One date tree is growing from 2,000-year-old seeds found in
Masada.

And, as on a birthday cake, one for next year:

61. We come from more than 100 countries and dream in Hebrew.

The original article on JPost can be found here.
Image of the bumper sticker from here.

A short thought from my dad:

“The problem with today is that many people forget that although Israel is ‘independent’, it is completely dependent on God. When Israel celebrates its dependence on God, then we will be truly free!”

מֵאֵת יְהוָה, הָיְתָה זֹּאת; הִיא נִפְלָאת בְּעֵינֵינו
This is Hasmem’s doing, it is wonderous in our eyes
זֶה-הַיּוֹם, עָשָׂה יְהוָה; נָגִילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה בוֹ
This is the day which Hashem has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it/Him (?)
-Tehillim 118

Part of The Yom Haatzmaut Project

I’ll be honest, it’s taken a long time and a lot of bugging from Dan to get me to write this post. Clearly, it’s not because I’m not a Zionist… (I don’t think I’d be writing for Tzipiyah if I wasn’t!) and it’s definitely not because I don’t have anything to say. It took me so long because I view Israel, and it’s history, as an entity that is impossibly split up. Each event is a cause for the next; each accomplishment is a product of it’s predecessors. It’s really difficult for me to find any moment in Israel’s history that can possibly stand alone. Having said that, I do need to answer the question. So I will.

I would like to explain what I see as the true “accomplishments” of Israel. In backwards order of precedence, they are:

4. Falafel, Beaches, Children, Heat.
These are the physical aspects of Israel. They are the smells and the sites and the sounds and the feelings that hit you in the face as soon as you step out of the Ben Gurion airport. They are the sun rising over the Judean Hills. They are the smell of the trees that line the roads into Jerusalem. They are the loud Hebrew bartering that you hear as you pass the Machane Yehuda Shuk. They are the 12 o’clock sun that melts your back when you walk through the old city. They are the taste of the Western Wall when you put your lips to it. This accomplishment of Israel is the unique sensory experience… the one that can be found only in glimpses in other parts of the world, never in such a complete way as is found in Israel.

3. Yeshivas, Books, “Little Women” in Hebrew
The next accomplishment is that of the intellectual. Israel is full of knowledge. The streets are lined with book stores, both new and used. People sit on benches and read. Yeshivas, high schools, elementary schools, universities, and preschools are packed and expanding. The fact that there are over 50 American Yeshiva/Seminaries in the Jerusalem area alone reminds us that those are not just Israeli’s spending time learning in Israel. People go to Israel just to learn! They pack up their lives wherever they were living and take a year just for that purpose. Books are translated from Hebrew to other languages and back again. I even found an old and worn out copy of Little Women in Hebrew when I was there last year. The point is, Israel is a country that can’t stop learning. Learning is education, and education is success. To me, this is an awesome accomplishment.

2. Shloimie, Yitzy, Chava, and Yardena.
The Rosh Yeshiva of the seminary I was in last year used to talk about how everyone in Israel is one big family. This might sound super cheesy, but put in context it makes incredible sense. People often joke about the rudeness of Israeli culture, and how the word “polite” doesn’t seem to be part of their lexicon. Israeli;s are rude, they push, and they add in their own two cents, whether or not it was asked for. I have distinct memories of the lady in the Jerusalem post office actually scolding me for having carried a big box down the street all by myself, because I may have hurt my back. To me, this is what it means to feel completely comfortable with the people around me. To have the chutzpah to lecture me about carrying heavy boxes means that lady was not just a post office lady. She was someone who cares about me because we are members of the same family tribe. This family strength is felt in a magnified way in times of terror and distress. This is the emotional accomplishment of Israel. It allows Israel to be the only place in the whole world where I feel comfortable and at home with almost all of the people around me.

1. God.
The most important accomplishment of Israel (though the word accomplishment seems inappropriate in this particular context) is its spirituality. God is the spiritual connection that elevates Israel to such an astounding level. As a country divinely chosen for a divine people, Israel radiates with holiness and with pride. I believe that it is this holiness that allows for accomplishments 4, 3 and 2 to exist.

May we all have the merit of experiencing the holy Land of Israel in it’s entirety, as a physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual whole. Moadim L’Simcha! -Elana