Happy 62nd Birthday Israel!

Today's the 62nd birthday (docheh) of Israel, Yom Ha'Atzmaut. Yay.

Every year, I need to revisit the halakhic question, especially when the holiday is docheh (pushed off from its official date), of whether Hallel should be said with a bracha, without a bracha, or if we should say tachanun.

There's strong arguments about the first two (the latter is reserved for cheresh, shoteh or katan - deaf = ignoring the crucial miracle reveals flawed senses, crazy = blinded by twisted ideology, or childlike = too young to realize how earth-shaking the establishment of Israel was).

The best argument for not saying a bracha is that the miracle of YHA was incomplete. I.e. a war started immediately after the declaration of independence and that war has not stopped. This means that the halakhic appropriateness of a bracha is based on an empirical judgment: was the establishment of Israel a big enough miracle to say Hallel (similar to Purim and Hanukkah) for all of Jewry.

This past year I've been doing extensive reading about Zionism and especially anti-Zionism. And I've gotten a new appreciation for the massive miracle of the State of Israel - and how precarious a State it is. I believe Hallel with a bracha I feel a need to express my gratitude not only for the reality warping, dry bones resurrection, miracle of Israel but also for God's continuing miracle of Israel's preservation.

Israel should not, based on rules of Nature and Humanity, have been established in 1948 and should not - nuclear weapons aside - continue to exist. To paraphrase Darth Vader:"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed [nukes]. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force [Hashem]."

Maybe it's my work this semester in liturgy, TAing for Professor Reuven Kimelman. Liturgy uses physical triggers to remind us of theological truths; we use the sun rising to remind us of Creation, and thus bless the God of Creation. We use the reminder of the Exodus to remind us that God is the One Who Redeems. And in Shemona Esrei we use rain to remind us of the resurrection of the dead.

In 1945 Jews were still being rounded up and murdered all over the world. In 1946, 1947 the survivors were living in DP camps and being barred from entry into Israel. In 1948, the dream of 2000 years was fulfilled, a phoenix rising from the ashes, to provide our halakhic homeland and a worldwide protection for Jews. This is modern History's greatest miracle.

Happy Birthday Israel!

Happy 60th, Israel. You may Now collect social Security.




Picture of Celebration from the Jerusalem Post.

Hallel on Yom Ha-Atzma'ut

See this awesome overview-shiur on the different opinions for saying Hallel today from Hirhurim (which has my vote for best Torah blog etc). Rav Student says he got this overview from Rav David Shabtai.

Who Wants to be an Israeli?

Around Yom Ha-Atzmaut, the Israeli papers print their lists of statistics. And it great to see that Israel's population grew by 1.8 percent, reaching 7,150,000. The increase came from births (148,000) and an increase in immigration (yahoo): "18,400 new immigrants."

Also food for thought (fear) is the ratio of Non-Arab/Arab = 80/20.

And grist for a trivia question: Which are the five largest cities in Israel:

The country's five largest cities, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Rishon Lezion and Ashdod, account for a quarter of the population, or 1,810,300 people. Another 462,200, or 6%, live in small towns, while just 119,700 - less than 2% - live on kibbutzim.

Would not have guessed Rishon L'Tzion. Then again, in the past few trips to Israel I hardly stepped foot outside J'slem.

But the best part of the article was the survey of who would have preferred to have been born in Israel:

Approximately 47% of the population would, if born again, prefer for that to happen somewhere other than Israel, according to an "alternative survey" conducted by the Geocartographic Institute's iGeo subsidiary.

The survey, conducted in early April among 500 Israeli Jews, found that 70% of Israelis from the FSU would prefer to be reborn outside Israel, 19% of them specifying Russia as their country of choice and 15% the US.

Among wealthy local-born Israelis, 62% said they would like to be reborn abroad, 18% in the US or Canada, 8% in Switzerland and 6% in Sweden.

A few thoughts:

1. 70% of Russian olim seem to hate living in Israel. Ingrates. Yet only half of those ingrates prefer Russia and the US. Suggesting that 36% either just hate Israel so much they can't think straight or would prefer to have been born in some undefined fanatasyland.
   
2. The two subgroups quoted have either 70% or 62% preferring to have been born outside of Israel, yet the total number surveyed was 47%. What's bringing the number down?

This:

In contrast, 83% of the modern Orthodox sector, 80% of those living in rural towns and kibbutzim, and 65% of Israel's well off pensioners said they would choose to be reborn in Israel.

83% of Modern Orthodox!

We're the backbone of Zionism, baby, and don't you forget it. When I read this statistics off in shul I quipped that the other 17% wanted to be born outside of Israel just so they could get the mitzvah of voluntary aliyah. Kol ha-kavod to the home team, eh.

Backpost finished 8/9/07. All I had was the link

CIA Annexes Golan Heights

So, in preparation for Yom Ha'atzmaut, I came across the CIA World Factbook for Israel. Immediately I looked for the 'disputed territories and, sure as shinola, the disputed territories are not under Israeli control. Nosiree.

What's strange is that while the CIA doesn't allow Israel the West Bank, neither do they give it to Jordan! The same thing with the Gaza Strip; it's hard to tell from the map of Egypt, but it's not listed in the text of Egypt under 'disputed territories.'

However, the generous souls in the declare that Syria owns the Golan Heights! Funny... I thought Israel annexed the Golan Heights! Well Syria has more opium, and Lord knows that counts for something in a modern intelligence organization.

My assumption about the other two territories is that the CIA has already given them to the Palestinians and they're just waiting until they become a country. Funny, no? How a real country, Israel, ranks lower than an imaginary country?

Yom Ha'Atzmaut

Chag Sameach, everyone.

And Happy Birthday Israel!

You Be 55 and ready for AARP, some bran, and a nap.