"If you Will it, It is no Dream"" Binyamin Zeev Herzl

There is a principle in Jewish thought, that when a leader of Klal Israel does something or says something, even if he is not the most righteous person, his actions or words have some sort of meaning. This is especially true when those actions or words become a part of the fabric of Jewish Consciousness.

There is no more famous quote from the Zionist movement, which brought the Jewish Nation back to life, than that of Binyamin Zeev Herzl: "If you will it, it is no dream". On of my rabbis recently made a dvar torah which I think can enlighten us as to the source of this now famous maxim in Jewish texts (tehillim more specifically) and therefore it's place in our Jewish Conciousness.

Tehillim 126 is a famous perek which is read by Ashkenazi Jews before Birkat Hamazon on any special day. My rabbi suggested that we should read this tehillim as a conversation rather than as a single person speaking. He suggested this was really a conversation between a Jew in the land of Israel, after the begining of Atchalta Digueoula, after the start of our redemption in 1948, and a Jew living outside of Israel, still personally unaffected by the fact that the world has just witnessed the greatest miracle of History. This is how the conversation goes:


A Song of Ascents.

The Jews of Chutz Laaretz say: When the LORD brought back those that returned to Zion, we were as dreamers. We were still as dreamers at that time, dreaming of our final redemption as it was being realized right in front of our eyes, dreaming of great miracles as they were happening to our very selves.

The Jews of the Land of Israel answered: Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with songs of praise; Oh, we knew we were in a great process of redemption. Yes, we had hardships, but no joy can compare to the joy we feel while reciting the Hallel on Yom Haatzmaut, thanking God for bringing his redemption to us, blessing us with his most amazing miracle.

Then said they among the nations (the Jews of Chutz Laaretz): 'The LORD has done great things with these.' At one point, we did realize! We realized how the proportion of the miracles which were done to the Jews of the land of Israel. We realized how great the things which God did to our generation really were. He did great this with "these" - with them - with the Jews who were awake enough to embrace the process of this redemption and gain tremendous joy and life out of their participation in that process.

The Jews of Israel then answered: The LORD has done great things with us; we are rejoiced. You are right, he did amazing things with us, and yes, we are full of Joy!

The Jews of Chutz Laaretz then say: Return, O Lord, our captivity like rivulets in arid land. Make us also a part of this redemption - we want in!

The Jews of Israel then answered: They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Wait a minute, in like, you need to work to truly enjoy something. You can't just get this joy just by clapping your hands, or it will just be an external, superficial pleasure. If you want "in", you need to work for it, the way we worked for it for all those years!

The psalm then ends describing how the Jew of Chutz Laaretz, in the end, will also work and get to become a part of this process of redemption, even if he will come later and will have "missed out" on the great joy of Atchalta Digueoula!
He will go along weeping, carrying the valuable seeds; he will come back with song, carrying his sheaves.

May we all become active participants in the current process of our final redemption so that, just as we sow in tears, we shall reap in tremendous joy, and that our dream finally becomes a reality through the expression of our true will!