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Sound the great shofar for our freedom,
Raise high the banner to gather our exiles,
And gather us together
from the four quarters of the earth
(From the Amida prayer)
It is impossible to avoid a clear
decision regarding Yom Ha'atzmaut. This day cannot be
given a partial evaluation. One view has it that it is not a holiday, but
rather a day of mourning: the day the Jewish People rebelled against the Torah.
Another view holds that it is particularly apt for us to recite the she'hechiyanu blessing and the Hallel
and mark Yom Ha'atzmaut as a holiday, for it is the
day when the Jewish People opened the door to the possibility of fulfilling the
Torah - a gate that it may enter, if the people decide to apply themselves to
observance of the Torah. This view is not subverted by the fact that the
majority of the present generation does not seek observance of the Torah.
(Y. Leibowitz, Yahadut, Am Yehudi U'midinat Yisrael pp. 90, 91,
96, 97)
Certainly we view the State of
Israel as a healing process. I cannot imagine what would have happened to the
Jewish People if the state had not arisen. It was so necessary for the
rehabilitation of the survivors! When I think of the refugees from destruction,
if they had to continue wandering from shore to shore, not finding a safe-haven
in the
The first expression of
independence was "bringing home the individuals." There is nothing
greater than a home... not only individuals who came and found a home after
years spent in concentration camps and death camps.
(HaRav Amital,
as quoted in M. Miyah, Olam
Banuy, Hareiv, U'Vanuy, pg. 68)
Understanding the prayer for the state of
Yoel Rappel
The Jewish prayer book is the
repository of the significant times - good and bad - which passed over the
Jewish people, both in the
Perusal of the Prayer for the State
of Israel reveals a variety of requests relative to the state and its
inhabitants. Realization of these requests constitutes the identity card of the
Jewish State as optimistically envisioned by the prayer's primary drafter, Chief
Rabbi Herzog, his companion and partner Rabbi Uziel, and
the author S. Agnon who assisted in final formulation.
The prayer is composed of two
sections which unite into a single opus.
Part one - from "Heavenly
Father" through "everlasting joy to its inhabitants". This unit
is composed in contemporary style. It contains poetic literary configurations
not usually found in the prayer book ["send your light and your truth",
"shield it under the wings of your loving-kindness"]. The flavor of contemporary Hebrew flows not only from the vocabulary, but
also from the many requests expressed in the imperative [bless, shield, send,
strengthen, remember]. This is the aspect of the prayer which I shall try to
explain.
Most of part two, from "As for
our brothers, the whole house of
The two parts differ stylistically.
The first consists of sentences which repeat themselves:
Heavenly Father [who is]
Bless the State of Israel" [which
is] the first flowering of our redemption
Shield it under the wings of Your loving-kindness" / "and spread it over the
Tabernacle of Your peace
Grant them deliverance, our God"
/ "and crown them with the crown of victory
Grant them peace in the land"
/ and everlasting joy to its inhabitants.
From this point onwards, the
composition shifts from poetry to prose.
Heavenly Father
The phrase "Heavenly Father"
(or "our Father in Heaven", etc.) is found not infrequently in the
Oral Torah. In the siddur it is found
in two prayers and at the beginning of "The Prayer for the State of Israel".
The Aramaic version appears frequently in the siddur;
it appears in the Kaddish prayer as: "Kadam avuhon di bi'shemaya" - " before
their Father in heaven".
It is written in Tractate Sotah (49a): "On whom is it for us to
rely - on our Father who is in Heaven". And we read in Berahot
(32b) "Rabbi Elazar
said: "Since the day the
Rock of
The names of the Holy One and the
order of their appearance in Scripture are the subject of an entire field of
study – the "Doctrine of Descriptions". In Parashat
Haazeinu, at the end of the Book of Devarim, a new title of the Master of the Universe is
revealed "Tsur' - Rock: "The Rock, His acts are perfect" (32:4); "... and abandoned the God who made him,
and despised the Rock of his rescue" (32:14);" The Rock your bearer you neglected, and forgot the God who
gave you birth" (32:18). The name "Rock" is
repeated seven times in the parasha.
The phrase "Rock of Israel"
is shared by the Israel Declaration of Independence, read on the Fifth Day of
Iyar 5708 (14.5.1948) and "The Prayer for the State'.
When the "Prayer for the State"
was first publicized, these words were already part of the introduction "Rock
of
Bless the State of
The literary configuration "State
of Israel" does not appear in the Tanakh. We do
find "the
The First Flowering of Our Redemption
Belief in the coming of the Messiah
has an important place in Jewish theology, not only as a philosophic principle,
but as a living and instructive value in real life. Testimony to the centrality
of geula can be found in the "Amida" prayer, wherein it is the subject of eight of
the 19 benedictions. The author of the phrase "beginning of the flowering
of our redemption" was, by his own admission, Chief Rabbi Herzog. What did
he have in mind?
Three words in a single literary
phrase, each one raising numerous questions. Why ‘the beginning'? How do we define ‘beginning'? How, exactly, does ‘flowering
of redemption' occur? What is redemption? The most perplexing question of all
is, if God wishes to grant
In order to answer these questions,
which are at the core of our discussion of the prayer, we must be acquainted
with two concepts in the "Doctrine of Redemption". The first is "it'aruta d'letata" (arousal
from below) - and the second, "kim'ah kim'ah" ( little
by little). The meaning of the former is that the Holy One desires that
deliverance begin not with His action, with "it'aruta
d'le'eyla" (arousal from above), as with the
Exodus from
The concept "kim'ah kim'ah" is taken
from the Talmud Yerushalmi, at the beginning of
Tractate Berachot:
The story is told of Rabbi Hiyya the
Great and Rabbi Shimon bar Halafta, who were walking
in the
Said Rabbi Hiyya the Great to Rabbi
Shimon bar Halafta: Great scholar! Such will be the geula of
The process of redemption - not
only ex-post facto but even ex-ante - is similar to sunrise, "kim'ah kim'ah". But
is it not in God's power to bring the geula all at
once? The answer is unequivocal. Certainly it is, but the geula
process demands adjustment and participation; just as one who moves from
darkness to light needs a period of adjustment lest he be blinded, so the move
from the darkness of the exile to light of redemption cannot be effected
without a process of adjustment.
Shield It under the wings of your
loving-kindness and spread over It the tabernacle of your peace
The request for protection is
composed of two parts, each of which is a metaphor for the power of the
protection which God provides the Jewish people. The term "the wings of
your loving-kindness" is original, appearing for the first time in this
prayer. "Evra" refers to the
wing of a bird, covered with large feathers. The Holy One looks after the
Jewish nation today, just as He did on the difficult journey through the Sinai
desert. "Like an eagle who rouses his nest, over
his fledglings he hovers". Stage one, defense of the perimeter from above;
"He spread His wings, He took him" – if He senses that his fledglings
are endangered, he gathers them to Himself; "He bore him on His pinion"
– He carries them on his wings, protected from all threat. The Hebrew for "your
loving-kindness', hasdecha, derives
from the root hessed; God's actions are
rooted in generosity. The Lord's great loving-kindness is proffered even when
the supplicants are undeserving.
The second part of the prayer for
protection: "And spread over it the Tabernacle
of Your peace" is explained by the author of the Eitz
Yosef: The blessing of protection is not a blessing
of a static situation, it is a foundation of geula.
Send Your light and truth to its
leaders, ministers, and counselors
The words "Send Your light and Your truth were adopted directly from "The
Prayer for Peace in the Land" which appeared in many Machzorim
edited by Yehiel Michal Zachs
and were very popular in central and western
An early source for the phrase "its
leaders, ministers and counselors" is in the prayer "Ribono shel olam" - "Master of the Universe", which
is recited as the Torah is removed from the ark on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
This prayer first appears in "Sefer Shaarei Zion", written by Rabbi Nussen
Nuteh
And direct them with good counsel before You
The first part of the prayer ends
with a request of the Holy One for good and civilized counsel which is also favorable in His eyes, because many are the
intentions in a human's mind, but the Lord's plan prevails. And what exactly is
this counsel which is so necessary? It is the Divine plan for the order of the
appearance of the geula which can come into
being only through the power of "the Rock of Israel and its redeemer"
who generates "the beginning of the flowering of our deliverance". It
can be said that this very request--that He grant us good counsel lest we lose
this great achievement - constitutes the beginning of the geula.
Strengthen the hands of the defenders of our
The second paragraph of the prayer
contains three requests for blessing. The first - itself threefold - concerns
defense and security, as befitted the period in which the prayer was composed: "Strengthen
the hands of the defenders of our
The second: Appeal for a blessing: "Grant
peace in the land".
The third: "And everlasting
joy to its inhabitants."
The realization and fulfillment of
the first three requests are the attainment of peace, as we recite in the
prayer "Grant peace in the land", a phrase found in the book of Vayikra (26:3-4) "And I shall set peace in the land". And what will
be the expression of peace? "And you will lie down with none to cause
terror… and no sword will pass through your land". The blessing of peace
is a result of the action of "the defenders of our holy land" and
because of it the sword will not pass through the land. If the defenders grow
in numbers and strength and peace will be achieved, then will come joy, which
will comfort us from the yoke of exile, joy shared by all the inhabitants of
the land, "and everlasting joy to its inhabitants."
The author of the prayer, Chief
Rabbi Yitzchak Halevi Herzog, anticipated that the
wording of the prayer, to be recited every Shabbat, with its variegated content,
would give expression to the religious significance of the Zionist project, significance
absent from the Declaration of Independence.
Dr. Yoel Rappel wrote an extensive study of The
Prayer for the Monarchy and the Prayer for the Welfare of the State. The study
is to appear this year in an English language book
Should a woman quicken with seed… she shall be unclean
seven days… and on the eigth day the flesh of his
foreskin shall be circumcised.
We have seen that the seven unclean
days end a period which one must overcome: one leaves a condition marked by
lack of freedom (six) and becomes a free person (seven), and he achieves this
by virtue of a covenant with God. On the eighth day he is reborn for the Jewish
mission; this birth is based on the Divine freedom of man, for the sake of a
more elevated fulfillment of that freedom's purpose. The eighth day is a
repetition of that first day - on a higher level; it is, as it were, an ‘octave'
of the first day of the human birth. Now, the coercive power of the laws of
nature - which have revealed itself in the mother and her son during the bodily
birth - brought about the seven days of impurity due to birth; and this very
cause also demands, in the case of the son - in normal circumstances - the
completion of seven days prior to fulfillment of the mitzvah of circumcision. Opposed
to this, if the mother was not a daughter of
(Rabbi SHimshon
Rafael Hirsch, Vayikra 12:2)
Leper - Defamer
Why is the tongue compared to an
arrow? Because if a person draws his sword to kill his fellow,
and the latter begs him to have mercy upon him, the killer may recant and
return his sword to its scabbard. An arrow, however, cannot be turned
back once shot, even if he wants to. Therefore it is said, [O deceitful
tongue!] A warrior's sharp arrows, with hot coals of broom-wood (Tehillim 120) - Once broom-wood is lit, its coal
are never extinguished. There was an incident involving two people traveling in
the desert who sat under a broom-wood. They collected sticks from it and used
them to cook their food, which they ate. A year later they returned to the same
spot in the desert and discovered ashes from their fire. They said: It has been
twelve months since we passed through and ate in this place! They touched the
ashes and stepped in it, and their feet were burned by the coals beneath the
ashes, because they had not been extinguished. That is why evil speech is
compared to the coals of broom-wood, as it says, A
warrior's sharp arrows, etc. And so this wicked man kills people with his
tongue. Just as an arrow remains unnoticed until it reaches its victim, so too,
evil speech remains unnoticed until the arrows of Esau's Kingdom arrive
suddenly.
(Midrash
Tehillim 120)
"Two pure live birds" - excepting the impure bird. Because
affliction comes (as punishment) for slander (Hullin 140. Arachin 15) which is an act of babbling words,
therefore were necessary for his purification birds which always babble with a
chirping voice. "And cedar wood": Because
afflictions come (as punishment) for arrogance. "Scarlet of the worm
and hyssop": How shall his cure be
effected? He shall divest himself of his pride, (lowly) as the worm and the
hyssop.
(Rashi, Vayikra 14:4)
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