Rosh Chodesh Iyar Torah Essay

The Hallel of Yom Ha-atzmaut

It is a special z’khut to write a d’var Torah for the month of Iyar. For the character of the month of Iyar – the bridge between Pesach and Shavuot –  has fundamentally changed in our time.

Pesach celebrates our redemption from Egypt. What is the character of our redemption and where are we headed ?  The most fundamental answer lies in the first line of the Ten Commandments. God as our Redeemer from Egypt gives us Torah: defining our relationships with God and with other people. We testify to this by counting the omer from Pesach to Shavuot.

During the Exodus we also experience the immediacy of God. The haggada describes moraim gedolim , great and awesome (acts), as the experience of gilui shekhina (the revelation of the Shekhina).[1] Redemption is fully realized with the building of the mishkan[2] The cycle of the haggim  ends with Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Succot when we experience a heightened sense of God’s presence.

The Torah closes its description of yetziat mitzraim with the promise of our entry into Eretz Yisrael.[3] There we are to create a society guided by the Torah’s mitzvot. We are to take with us not only our redemption, but also the pain of our slavery, and treat the stranger in our midst with great care.[4] The potential for redemption and for the immediacy of God in our midst is bound up with our moral behavior.[5]

Suddenly, in the 20^th century, within these patterns of redemption, in the gap between Pesach and Shavuot, we experience Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim. The creation of the State of Israel includes the memory and experience of trauma. It is a return home: physically to the land of Israel and spiritually to the potential created by yetziat mitzrayim and Matan Torah.

Yom Ha’atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim bring a new Hallel into the Jewish calendar.[6] The Gemara explains that the prophets among the Jewish people instituted Hallel to be said by the people in every epoch and over every trouble that comes upon them, God forbid, and when they are redeemed, over their redemption.[7]

The Rabbis instituted the recital of Hallel on Hanuka but not on Purim. Today, when we recite Hallel on Yom Ha-atzmaut we continue the tradition of Hanuka. How is Yom ha-atzmaut similar to Hanuka when we say Hallel rather than to Purim when we do not? To examine that question we turn  to the Gemara as it asks why we don’t say Hallel on Purim. It gives three answers. First of all, Purim took place in exile. Secondly, the reading of the Megilla fulfils the role of Hallel. Thirdly, at the end of Purim we remained the servants of Ahashverosh.[8]

All of these phenomena differentiate Hanuka from Purim.  The miracles of Hanuka took place in Eretz Yisrael. We do not celebrate and thank God by reading a different text. Most dramatic, on Purim, we remained the servants of Ahashverosh. We were saved but we were not fully redeemed. We did not emerge into a new reality. Our situation and our identities were not fundamentally changed. There is nothing that remotely resembles the transition from slavery to freedom of Pesach. Hanuka, on the other hand, celebrates a changed reality: the freedom to serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the return to the beit Hamikdash and a path to national freedom.

These differences between Purim and Hanuka also apply to Yom Ha-atzmaut. Of course, the events celebrated by Yom Ha-atzmaut happened in Eretz Yisrael. And there is no alternative liturgy like the megillah reading. But most important is the fact that the establishment of the state of Israel did not solely, or (arguably) even primarily, help to save the Jewish people of that generation. It created a change in the status and the potential of the Jewish people. The Torah values developed over a few thousand years could be applied to modern  political, economic, medical and other issues. We could strive for a new kiddush Hashem. Our individual avodat Hashem, our service of God, demanded a changed balance between personal and communal commitment. The birth of the State of Israel empowered every individual and added meaning to our lives.

Our recital of Hallel on Yom Ha-atzmaut helps define Yom Ha-atzmaut. It challenges us and demands that we attempt to live up to the potential created by the wondrous gift we received 77 years ago. It also transforms our experience of Hallel. As we live through these difficult times, verses resonate in new ways.

The collection of Psalms 113-118 that we call Hallel is a complex literary phenomenon. It opens with a psalm with the broadest possible vision of reality. God, who is transcendent, “lowers” Himself to “see” and care for everything and everyone in Heaven and Earth. All are called upon to serve Him. The second psalm moves the focus to the Jewish people: It is a poetic envisioning of the Exodus, Matan Torah and  our sojourn in the desert. As Hallel continues, it includes intermittent descriptions of deep pain and fear and of exultation and gratefulness to God. Sometimes a verse may refer to the past and the future; a prayer for help or one of thanksgiving or both. “Torments of death encompass me… and in the name of God I call, God rescue my soul.”[9]

All this turmoil of pain and happiness, of desperation and hope, of our roles and the role of God, call to us from the pages of the Siddur and of our lives. On Yom Ha-atzmaut verses reverberate with new meaning and are transformed forever:

The stone that the builders have rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is wondrous in our eyes.          This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad on it.                  Lord, please save us.                                                                                 Lord, please grant us success.[10]

In the midst of our gratefulness, we cry out hoshia nah. May God save all those suffering and in danger. May the hostages return. May we all celebrate Yom Ha-atzmaut together. May God helps us to act wisely and successfully.

 

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[1]  See also Rashi on Exodus 15:2

[2]  Introduction of the Ramban to his commentary on Exodus. See Exodus 29:46

[3]  Exodus 6:8.

[4]  See for example :Exodus 22:2, 23:9, 12. Leviticus 19:9, 33-34; 24:22, 25:3. Deuteronomy 24: 17-21, 27:19

[5]  See, for example, Exodus 1:17, Numbers 35:33-34

 

[6]   I will focus on Yom Ha-atzmaut . Study of Yom Yerushalayim would require a separate dvar Torah.

[7]  Pesahim 117a.

[8]  Megilla 14a

[9]  Psalms 116:3-4

[10] Psalms 118:22-25