Today I Met a Traditional Jew

Today I was in Yerushalaim.  I stood outside Sha'ar HaShalshelet, looking at Har HaBayit, and, in addition to praying, I had a nice chat with a policewoman who is currently studyign at the Police Academy in Beit Shemesh (and dogn shifts in Yerushalaim).

She is not religious, she said.  Just traditional.    

As a traditional Jew, she has been skipping the cheese at suppers in the Academy if it isn't six full hours since she finished the meat portionof her lunch.  (Yes, I told her Rav Ovadia's psak on the subject).

And, as a traditional Jew of Indian background, sh is strict about her family's custom of not swimming inteh ocean during Sefirat HaOmer, despite living pratcically on the beach in Ashqelon.

No, she isn't completely strict about Shabbat.  So, she isn't "religious," she is traditional, she said, and showed me aphotoo of her son in gan, wearing kippa and tallit, saying the beracha while holding the hallot at Kabbalat Shabbat.

Wow! Is this book Jewish?

One of my math students made Aliya only a few months ago.

As she was solving a math riddle, the clues spelt out a phrase which I informed her comes from Pirkei Avot.

"Wow!" she exclaimed, "Is this book Jewish?"
We old-timers take it for granted that a"secular" math text book in Israel doesn't only teach math.  It teaches Gematriya, it teaches that 14 and 15 are written with the letter ט, not י, in order to avoid writing Gd's name.  It talks about Jewish holidays and Shiv'at HaMinim, the characters are named "Mishpahat Cohen" and "Mishpahat Levi," and it has quotes from Pirkei Avot as the solutions to riddles.

But, to a new Oleh, the idea that EVERYTHING in Israel is not only in Hebrew, but actually connected to our religion, is truly awesome.

And, if we think about it, it really IS awesome.  

A people that, more than once, has almost been completely wiped out, has made a comeback and rebuilt their ancient homeland.

A language that was not spoken in over 2,000 years is now the mother tongue of an entire country, with 4 of the world's top 300 universities teaching almost exclusively in that language.

And a religion that has, over the millenia, seen reforms, rejections, intermarriages, forced conversions-out, and more rejections, this religion is the centre of every aspect of life in this amazing country, including commonly used phrases in kids' math books.

Why are the two days together?

ב"ה

Every year, more and more people ask the same question.

Why is Yom HaZikaron set on the day before Yom HaAtzmaut?  How can we be properly happy tonight when we have spent all of today in mourning?

Unfortunately, every year, there are more and more people, new Olim as well as veteran Israelis , who have lost someone dear (whether they knew him personally or not).  Every year, there are more people to whom this question is relevant, more people who truly feel pain on Yom HaZikaron.

The answer is painful.  The answer is all about us and our uniqueness.

Despite the inflatable hammers and "snow" spray, Yom HaAtzmaut is not just a day to party.  Yom Hatzmaut is about gratitude.  "Yemei Hallel V'Hodaya," is how the Chief rabbinate declared Yom HaAtzmaut and Yom Yerushalaim. 

It is important to note that the official Yom Yerushalaim  ceremony takes place on Giv'at HaTahmoshet, site of the worst battle for the liberation of our holy city.

We aren’t celebrating our independence tonight and tomorrow, we are expressing thanks.  Just as eating the marror is a vital part of the Seder , because we MUST remember how horrible the Egyptian slavery and mass murder was, in order to appreciate freedom from Human bondage, on that very night that we are kings, so too we are obligated tonight to still taste the bitter herbs of anti-Semitism and the still-continuing war the nations around us have declared upon our nation.

When we say Hallel tonight and tomorrow, we are thanking Hashem for all that we have here, knowing full well that, but for His Miracles, we would only have Yom HaShoah and Yom HaZikaron.  

By the laws of nature, the Jewish people should not have survived the holocaust; how much more so the Jewish religion should have been eradicated.

By the laws of nature, the local Arab attacks (with assistance from the British Mandatory guards), should have succeeded in quashing any desire for independent rule over this difficult land (just as they have recently caused many Jews to feel that Yehuda and the Shomron are simply not worth the blood and tears).  

By the laws of nature, the organized armies of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan (with supplies from Kuwait, Iran, and more) should have taken no time at all to finish off 600,000 Jews, weakened from sieges and from the Holocaust.

At the time that Israel declared independence, one out of every 20 Jews living here the time was a soldier.  The youngest Jews to die while actively defending their homes were between  9 and 14 years old.   Our only tank at the time of the invasion did not have a gun.  We had no war planes.

We lost fully one percent of Israel's Jews in that war.   And today, as before our independence, there are still local Arabs who do not accept our right to be here, who continue to fight and attempt to chase us away.  There are still those who take the initiative to run over Jewish pedestrians.

On Yom HaAtzmaut we say Thank You; to HaShem who breaks His Own rules of nature in order to ensure our survival, as well as to those whose deaths or injuries, are the Silver Platter upon which HaShem gave us  this Land and our freedom.  Tonight, we do not just celebrate;  we are still crying.  Our happiness is marred by the sacrifices that our brothers and sisters have made and continue to make, so that the Jewish people can continue to rebuild our nation.

My personal prayer is  that we use today's tears to remind us that we must work in order to deserve our brethren's sacrifice.  May we recognize that it is up to each and every one of us to ensure that their losses of limb and life were not in vain; that, from the dry bones of our nation 67 years ago, we must strive to create a living and breathing, honest, decent, loving, kind and considerate society – a model to the nations of what humans can and should be.  

I hope that, by keeping the two days attached, we remember to fulfill this mission in good times as well as we remember it in hard times.