Privileged and Humbled to be Part of Yom Hazikaron

Last night I was privileged to take part in the Yom HaZikaron ceremony, commemorating family members of Lavon residents who fell in the wars of Israel.  As one who not only did not serve in the IDF, nor did anyone of my close family (With the exception of Lonn's two American nephews Ari Roth and Yisroel Weisberger who volunteered to serve), I am very aware that my experience -- and that of most Haredi families -- is very different than that of virtually all Israeli families, almost all of whom have a close friend or family member that was a military casualty. 

This gap is one of the major reasons that there is such a large chasm between the two sides - which on an emotional level is very hard to bridge.  All the more so when images of Haredim speaking with contempt of the army and attacking Haredi soldiers -- it is hard to imagine the fury this provokes on the other side.

I am so grateful that I was given this opportunity to say the memorial prayer for these heroes of the Jewish people.

Right now we are in a lulling "cease-fire" after the 700+ rockets that the accursed Hamas rained on communities in the South in the past few days.  In community after community, there is damage and death (such as the death of American Israeli Gerrer Chasid killed by a missile in Ashdod at the home of my Ayelet haShachar colleague).   We had guests from Ashkelon yesterday who came from the funeral of their close friend.  And mothers who have to protect their children in shelters, or sometimes even in an open field:

While we desperately await the coming of Mashiach soon, we are so grateful that in the State of Israel today, a grandson can fight back against our oppressors in ways that the grandfather could not.

And with all the ambiguity and frustration about some things that go on in Israel, and aware of much that still needs to be done to bring it to where it should be, please join me in praying (as per the emendation of my Rebbe Rav Nachman Bulman זצ"ל:

אבינו שבשמים, ברך את מדינת ישראל

שתהיה

ראשית צמיחת גאולתינו

Our Father in Heaven, bless the State of Israel, that it be the first flowering of our Ultimate Redemption.  

Amen.
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PS As a bonus, PLEASE read this essay.  [If you are looking for an English version, it is published as the entry for Yom Ha'Atzmaut in the Book of Our Heritage, (ספר התודעה in English) by Rav Eliyahu Ki Tov, translated by Rabbi Nathan Bulman.]

As stated in the introduction to the Hebrew version, this beautifully balanced presentation, which lays out the different sides of the question of the religious significance of Yom HaAtzmaut, was -- MOST unfortunately -- considered "too controversial" to be published, and thus omitted from the Hebrew version.  This sad fact was much to the detriment of so many who would have benefitted from seeing a reasoned and beautifully articulated discussion of the serious differing aspects of this thorny but vital issue.  

Rav Bulman זצ"ל told me that the main reason he labored over this translation was so that this essay, (and the essay Ruth and David that appears before Shavuos, without which it is almost impossible to really appreciate King David) would be available to the world.

If only every religious person -- Haredi and Modern Orthodox -- would read and internalize these precious words, there would far greater understanding and less intolerance among us.