CLD #865 - Yom Ha'aztmaut 5773

Should I celebrate Israel's Independence Day? Wait. Why are there people who don't celebrate Yom Ha'atzmaut? 

Instead of jumping and attacking those who do NOT celebrate Yom Ha'aztmaut, maybe let's delve into the issue of WHY people refrain from celebrating it. For Jews around the world, whether it be from Arabic countries where so many were killed or from European countries where the only memory European Jews have is the Gas Chambers R'L, the establishment of the State of Israel was seen as a glorious day of simkha (happiness) and as a gift from Shamayim (the Heavens). Until they got there.

For many Jews, especially the ones I know who personally took months to cross oceans to get to Israel in the early 1950's (running away from Arabic countries and leaving everything they had behind), going to Israel was a dream they never thought would come true. Especially being in Israel when it was governed under Jews! However, their dream became spiritual death stories when they arrived to the ports of Israel. Besides for the government sending the Arabic Jews to deserts (such as present-day Sederot and Dimona), they were greeted by Jews who looked exactly like non-Jews. 

People do not understand that 100% of Sephardic Jewry was pure and holy until the families stepped onto the land of Israel when they emigrated in the late 1940's and early 1950's. I know personal accounts from people that live in my neighborhood in Queens, NY today that they still remember the first time they saw a Jewish girl wear pants. That was in Israel after '48. The Yemenite Jews have horrible stories of children simply "disappearing" in hospitals after births because the doctors would take them to adoption centers and tell the parents the child died. There are countless stories of Yemenite Jews landing onto Israel ports where the Israelis would cut off their Pe'ot (hair behind the ears) that symbolized their religious observance before receiving their passports.

The stories continue on and on. The point is, people do not understand that a large chunk of religion was thrown to the garbage after the Israeli government was controlled by secular Jews. FOR THIS REASON ONLY so many religious Jews today do NOT celebrate Yom Ha'aztmaut because they see it as a day that waved religion "goodbye." Let's not begin discussing the secularism in Israel today, the fact that the Education system is against the Torah and the contiuation of religious observance and for the mixing of Jews and non-Jews. The Kenesset is filled with people that want to burn the Torah to the ground and Arabs who HATE ISRAEL. We can go on and on. The point is, these people who refrain from celebrating Yom Ha'aztmaut have a great deal why they do not celebrate.

~ON THE OTHER HAND~

Many religious Jews today DO celebrate the Independence day of Israel because it is the BEGINNING

of the Yeshua (Geula, redemption) and after all, it is the land of Israel: the land of Avaraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov, the land where so many miracles happened for us as a nation. The land of Israel is also the land of the Torah, especially today where on every corner in Israel there is a religious establishment that connects people to the Torah. In the end of the day, if an individual looks at it as a gift from Hashem and the reason we have Israel today is because HASHEM GAVE IT TO US as a gift, then it is okay to thank Hashem because there is NO sin to thank Hashem for the miracles He did for us. Celebration could be saying: Thank you Hashem for gathering all of us together to our homeland where 65 years ago You gave us the permission to walk on the holy cities of Israel and get even closer to You.

May we Jews just do whatever is possible to increase brotherly love between us so Mashiakh comes quick to save us under Hashem's rule from all the wicked leaders and countries that want us dead. Next time you think about fighting with a Jew think how many people hate us and want us in our graves, maybe this will prevent stupid bickering.

Judaism=Think.

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