Part of The Yom Haatzmaut Project
1. May 15, 1967: Naomi Shemer's Yerushalayim Shel Zahav first sung at the Israeli Music Festival, and what came three weeks later...
2.
July 4, 1976: Operation Yonatan
…with every passing day you acquire a complete world. Now, this very moment, you’ve gained something. From every mistake you make you gain a little. Every single moment of your life is a whole epoch. Do you remember Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If”? In one of the stanzas, he says: ‘If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds worth of distance run, Yours is the earth…’ Because each and every minute is made up of seconds and of even briefer fragments of time, and every tiny fragment ought not to be allowed to pass in vein.(Self-Portrait Of A Hero)
We come with a simple message to the Council: we are proud of what we have done because we have demonstrated to the world that a small country, in Israel's circumstances, with which the members of this Council are by now all too familiar, the dignity of man, human life and human freedom constitute the highest values. We are proud not only because we have saved the lives of over a hundred innocent people—men, women and children—but because of the significance of our act for the cause of human freedom.(Chaim Herzog)
3. February 11, 1986: Natan Sharansky arrives in Israel
4.
February 17, 1977: Team Captain, Tal Brody leads Maccabi Tel Aviv to an upset over the Red Army Team of Moscow sending his team to the European Cup Finals
אנחנו במפה! ואנחנו נשארים במפה - לא רק בספורט, בהכל
"We are on the map. We are staying on the map, not only in sports, but in everything." (Tal Brody)
A religious person constantly working on his personal growth and his personal learning
A soldier in the IDF sacrificing his life for the Jewish People
A Human Rights activist fighting for human rights based on Jewish Values
Is any of them more Jewish?
First of all, I don’t like the term more Jewish. Jewish is not something you can be "more of" or "less of". You are either Jewish or not. Still, I think this question touches on the very foundation of Jewish Thought – ie: What is Judaism?
Some people consider Judaism to be a religion. Others consider Judaism to be a Nationalistic Message of belonging to the Jewish Nation. Finally, others also considered Judaism to be a Universal Message of Morality. In the eyes of Rav Kook, all of these 3 values are included in the Jewish Message. We have a message of Godliness, which is to be brought out by our nation, and this message is for the universal good.
If this is so, how exactly should these seemingly contradicting messages interact? The Religious aspect seems to concentrate on the individual, the nationalist aspect concentrates on the nation while the universal message is to the whole world!
The answer lies in the blessings God gave to Abraham in Parashat Lech Lecha. After telling Abraham to go to the land of Israel, God tells him: “I will make you into a great nation”. Clearly, from this we see that Judaism is first and foremost a Nation, not a religion.
Rav Kook teaches that the particularity of the Jewish Nation is that we look at the world with Godly Lenses (Introduction to Shabbat Haaretz). In other words, we are first and foremost a nation. Still, every Nation has something special: Americans are particularly found of Freedom, the Arab Nation is particularly passionate, the Jewish Nation’s particularity is its message of Godliness which it brings to the world.
We now understand the place of the Nationalist and Religious messages of torah, but what about our universal messages?
In the next passouk, God continues blessing Avraham and says: “all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you.” The Goal of our Jewish Nationalism is to bring our a light which all the nations will be able to gain from.
In order to simplify these complicated concepts, let us define 3 words: Prat, Tsibbour and Klal.
The Prat can be translated as the Individual.
The Tsibbour can be translated as a group of individuals. When many individuals come together, they create a Tsibbour.
Then, there is another concept called Klal. The Klal is more then just a group of individuals. It has an overarching theme. It’s a concept which englobes all individuals into one unit giving out one message. Klal Israel’s message is Godliness.
The Goal of Am Israel is to take the Tsibbour of individual Jews and to turn it into a Klal.
One of my friends gave me an amazing metaphor once.
It is like a nice painting. When you look at a painting, there is an image which comes out. This image is the klal. Each brush stroke is a prat, an individual. All the brush strokes together on the canvas is called the tsibbour. If each brush stroke gives out the right color in the right place, then the right image will come out: The tsibbour will be a klal. If any individual does something wrong, it will hurt the representation given by tsibbour on the canvas but the image (conceptually) will still be pure, the image is always pure. It will just not be well represented on this canvas.
This image which needs to be brought out is a universal message of morality based on Godliness. This is how we improve the world. Each individual joining into the message of Godliness in the Klal in order to bring it out to the world.
So, once again, who is more Jewish?
Well, first of all, we can see that this predisposition we have to classify who is more “Jewish” based on external things is very misleading. Many times, people decide if someone is religious or not based on a small piece of cloth which a person wears on his head, a piece of cloth which is, at the very most, a rabbinical commandment (and according to many a tradition). So, to these people, a person who wears a piece of cloth on his head all the while being impolite is “More Jewish” than one who does not wear this piece of cloth but acts like a really good person.
Don’t get me wrong. I love this piece of cloth lol. I wear a kippah myself. But one’s Judaism is not defined by these external things.
So, once again, who is more Jewish?
I think the answer is that all of them are expressing different aspects of Judaism and hopefully, as our redemption unfolds, we will be able to unite all of these aspects into one powerful message of Judaism.
Rav Kook explained, in many of his essays, that the reason for the Kfira (rejection of Godliness) in his time was that people were not presented with authentic Judaism, authentic Godliness. Rather, they were presented with a torah based on the small details of halacha without connecting these details to the general ideas expressed by this Jewish Law. If the small details of halacha are not connected to the general message of Jewish Law, then they become meaningless and people will not want to follow them anymore. They will say “This is not Godliness” and they will be right, since Godliness is attained not just with this small detail of halacha but through the general picture painted by all these details together which gives the message of Jewish Nationalism for universal good expressed earlier.
One of the ladies speaking in the video said something expressing this feeling. She said: “I don’t know if God cares about mixing meat and milk, but I know he cares about how we treat our neighbors.” This sign of rebellion is a healthy one. This person wants Judaism to paint the true picture that it should pain (I don’t agree with the picture she is painting, but her spirit of rebellion is healthy). If we were expressing a true Judaism where mixing meat and milk was part of a general system of behavior in which the Jewish People were bringing back God’s morality to this world through the example of living like a holy nation, this person would not be rejecting God anymore. Actually, the right approach she should be taking, instead of rejecting God, is to reject the picture she has been given of God and look deeper. Then, maybe she can find authentic Judaism which is not at odds with those principles she’s expressing but is rather the most accurate expression of those very principles.
This is the work of our generation. As the Jewish People gets back to its land, it also needs to get back to authentic Torah. To do so, all the aspects of this authentic torah need to be properly learned and fused into one powerful, eternal and Godly message.
I've taken a lot of videos and pictures that I thought represented moments that can only happen in Israel, and I've decided I should post some of them here to share! This video is from a prayer rally by the kotel earlier this year..and it doesn't even remotely show you just how MANY people there were. There's nothing more beautiful than the gathering of am yisrael en masse to make you feel true achdus!
I recently discussed the power of sudden change to provoke introspection and reveal the latent.
The pigua that occured last week at Merkaz HaRav poinantly exemplifies this ability. It has demanded that we think. It has demanded that we realize. It has demanded that we act, once again, as a We.
The murder was attrocious. It is perhaps, though, more powerful to leave the illustration and description to the sensitivity of the mind as words can only convey certain meaning.
This video is a subtle yet sharply powerful interview with Rabbi Yerachmiel Weiss, head of the of the yeshiva of the mourning Merkaz HaRav.
It is imtimate and important. It is emotional and difficult.
Just like life here in Israel.
Please watch.
http://www.keshet-tv.com/vod/vod.aspx?id=4745&article=172147&GroupID=4803
When it’s “too easy” to be Jewish
I have a rabbi which often says: You know, Israel is the only country without any Jews! In Morocco, you have Jews. In America, you have Jews. In Canada, you have Jews. In Poland, you have Jews. In South Africa, you have Jews. In India, you have Jews. In Israel, you don’t have any Jews. You have Americans, Canadians, Poles and South Africans.
In the video of the first episode of the Jewish Reconnection Project, almost all of the speakers spoke negatively of the fact that Jewish Identity in Israel is too simple. “It’s too easy”. Of course, the idea was that once it’s too easy, you do not fight to become Jewish which ends up making easier to drift away from traditional practices.
What these people spoke of negatively, I feel is the greatest miracle of recent history!
During 2000 years of exile, our Judaism had morphed from a national practice of Judaism full a meaning, to a Judaism whose main concern was of keeping ourselves closed off from the world in order to survive assimilation. Rav Kook explains that there are two types of Shemas (the prayer in which we accept the yoke of heaven). At night, the Shema is one we say to ourselves. When it is night, we don’t really see anyone around us. We are alone. We need to work on our own personal self. The outside world is dangerous. In the morning, however, the Shma is not only to us. We call out to the world. Our universal mission comes into play and we act as an example to the world on how to be a moral Godly nation. Of course, Night symbolizes the time of Galut, a time in which our Judaism is limited to the ability to survive as a nation until a better time, a time where our focus is solely on ourselves because we do not have any influence in the world. In the time of gueoula, the day starts to come and we can once again act as a Light unto the nations.
When people start feeling that Judaism is “too easy”, it means that the time of the lower level of Judaism from Galut is now over. We can see it clearly in the past 300 years with so many Jews rejecting that form of Judaism. Of course, I do not believe they were right when rejecting it. They should have looked deeper, found the deeper truth of Judaism which is not limited to “the survival of our faith”. However, I understand their choice. They were looking for more. Their souls were thirsty, and since many still did not meet the special Torah of Eretz Israel, their souls are still thirsty.
Some people in the video seemed to imply that the facility of Judaism in the land of Israel caused the Jews to assimilate. Let’s make one thing clear: There is less assimilation in the clubs of Tel Aviv then in the Yeshivot of Monsey. Once you are in Israel, even though you are not religious, you are very unlikely to assimilate. That is why the Judaism of the past 2000 years is not enough anymore. People are thirsty for authentic Judaism of the Land of Israel.
In Israel, there are no Jews because everyone is Jewish. It’s easy to be Jewish. We need to look deeper for our Judaism. The fact that we are looking for the deeper, more authentic Judaism, is probably the greatest miracle in recent history. We are bringing back Judaism to its true glory.
You heard what they said. You heard what I had to say. Now it is your turn to further comment.
I was once sitting in a meeting with my Rav, HaRav Mordechai Elon Shli"ta, and we started speaking about different organizations working together for the purpose of Jewish Education. We spoke about the problems which arise when you work with an organization which disagrees on key issues with you: be it a non-zionist orthodox organization, or a secular zionist organization. His answer (which he had said many other times in yeshiva) was clear: Communication between Jews is ALWAYS good! This is the first premise.
So what about our disagreements?
If me and Chabad both provide programming for Jewish Students, why not make an event? Is their Non-Zionism a good enough reason? What does a Channukah Candle Lighting event for students have to do with being Zionist or not ?
I think this perspective is a very clear one: We believe what we believe. We believe it strongly. But we are willing to listen. We are willing to talk with people who disagree with us. We are willing to discuss, argue, disagree etc... This should be even more true when "the other" is our Jewish Brother.
The truth is: History has shown us that anyone who needs to censor someone else is not holding the truth. If you need to censor someone else, it means your truth cannot stand against their arguments.
There is a new Project online which I think bases itself on this perspective.
5 young Jews from New York speak to 4 young Jews in Jerusalem. Some are from the Left, others from the right. Some are Orthodox, others go to "temple". Some are Religious, Others are secular. Yet, they communicate. They talk! No one is trying to convince anyone. Each of them are just giving their own perspectives.
I plan on starting a series over here where I will take each episode which is about 3 minutes long and comment on it. My comment will sometimes be analyzing their opinions on the issue, sometimes giving my own opinion, sometimes just expressing the feelings I got when watching the episodes. I encourage everyone to posts comments with their own opinions, their own comments and their own thoughts.
If we learn to communicate, we will learn to be united. True Unity is not Uniformity. True Unity is only possible when we recognize that our peers are different, and yet respect their difference. Even the lowest level of respect includes an open ear, a willingness to listen. Let's prepare the building blocks of our national unity.
Hopefully, as I comment on each episode from my perspective, you will post your comments from your perspective.
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