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Traditional
Congregation Phone: (314)576-5230 Fax: (314)576-1162 Rabbi Seth D Gordon |
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Articles by Rabbi Gordon: May, 2008 |
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Israel 60 Celebrating Israel’s 60th anniversary is not so simple. I am not referring to the anxieties over the political and military struggles that, unfortunately, we must still endure, nor to the inner religious, ethnic, and economic tensions of modern society, including in Israel. I mean the very celebration of “60” itself. Although M’dinat Yisrael (the modern State of Israel) is 60, Eretz Yisrael (the land, as a Jewish national homeland) is so ancient that it dwarfs 60. Eretz Yisrael begins with Avraham’s heed of God’s call to “Go from your land, from your birthplace, from your father’s home, to a land which I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1) Six p’sukim later, God states, “I will give this land to your children.” This promise is reaffirmed to Yitzchak (26:2), and Ya’akov reaffirms the same to Yoseph (48:3-4). Our enemies assert that Israel is a modern creation out of a land not ours. Ironically, our emphasis on 1948 and other 20th and 19th century Zionist milestones unwittingly lends credence to those charges. When we perceive of Israel as primarily or exclusively a modern phenomenon, we do a disservice to our history with the land and the underlying theology that is its foundation. M’dinat Yisrael deserves celebration. Israel’s birth revived a depressed Jewish people that had recently learned of 6,000,000 murders. M’dinat Yisrael provided a real haven from physical harm – Nazi and European refugees, Jews unwelcome in Arab countries, Jews oppressed in the Soviet Union, vulnerable Ethiopian Jews. And M’dinat Yisrael attracted idealistic Jews who yearned to share in its survival and future success, free Jews who wanted to live in a Jewish homeland, under the rhythms of a Jewish calendar, with other Jews. As a consequence, a dynamic Jewish state emerged and Israel has once again become the center of Jewish cultural life. None of this would be possible without M’dinat Yisrael. But M’dinat Yisrael would not have been possible without Eretz Yisrael – a.k.a. the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and “the land of milk and honey.” Without God’s promise to Avraham, reaffirmed to Yitzchak and Ya’akov, who would we be, what would we be, and where would we be? Without the embrace of the promise by those who left Egypt with Moses, those who conquered parts of the land under Joshua, and settled that land in subsequent generations, what connection would modern Israel have to us? Under our kings (Saul, David and Solomon and their successors) and periodically challenged by our prophets, the Jewish people built a nation on this soil. Even after destruction and exile, returning exiles refreshed the connection between our people and the land. Threatened from forces without and within, the Maccabees reestablished national and religious independence. And Jews, guided by Torah and the rabbis during the Tana’itic age of Mishnah, farmed this land, traded its produce, and raised their families, generation after generation. And during the many centuries of exile, the dream did not fade; the religious promise and the national connection were not abandoned. Had not Jews still believed as they studied Torah and chanted the prayers for and over the land, there would be no 60th anniversary of M’dinat Yisrael. As we celebrate M’dinat Yisrael, let us remember and honor Eretz Yisrael and all who made it possible.
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