 ISRAEL INDEPENDENCE
DAY (cont...) (BACK
TO NEWSLETTER) Rabbi
Friedman's early morning shiur focused
on the Halachic basis
of a love of Israel.
"When one visits Israel, there is a
natural affinity one has for the land, " said
Rabbi Friedman. "You naturally feel the sanctity
of the place. You feel kedusha just being there. But what makes the Land of Israel
holy,
as stated in the Rambam, are the laws that emanate
from it."
"The Land of Israel is a Bracha,
but, like the Bracha of physical health,
the question if what
are you going to do with it. The true blessing
of Eretz Israel is that it affords us
an opportunity to live as a people in the ultimate
manner according to the laws of the Torah."
"We have an obligation to always live according
to the standards of the Torah. A Torah Jew
inspires others to think : what a great, intelligent
and ethical people we are; and we are, when we stay
in line with the laws and dictates of the Torah."
Rabbi Eliach's afternoon presentation focused
on the blessing to live in a time when
there is a Jewish homeland. To illustrate this,
Rabbi Eliach took the talmidim on an imaginative
journey:
"Imagine that I had a time machine and that I
could go back in time and visit Jews a key points
in history," Rabbi Eliach began. " I’m
going to pick Jews 1500 hundred years ago in
the 5th to 6th century somewhere in Asia Minor,
1000 years ago in Southern Germany during the Crusades,
400-500 years ago in Spain during the Inquisition,
120 years ago in Belarus, Ukraine during a pogrom
and 61 years ago in Auschwitz.
These are particular painful times throughout
our history.
These were not good times.
"Now imagine that
I was to tell Jews in the past that I come from
a time when there is a sovereign Jewish state.
There is Jewish sovereignty with a flag and the
emblem of the country is the menorah.
There are 5.5 million Jews in this country called
Israel.
There are fields and forests that have started
to grow
again.
Jews
have
been
in-gathered to this place from all over the world.
Jerusalem is a huge, modern city and a plaza,
with new buildings and thousands of people davening there
every day. This land called Israel has a government
and Jewish army that has volumes that deal with
the
melding
of the military and halacha.
"Imagine you could tell these Jews from the past
that all this is true, it's all come to pass exactly
as I've described it today and you could tell them
that you’ve
been there, you've seen it with your own eyes and
walked on this soil with your own feet.
"I’m sure the Jews you visited in the
past would stand and weep. Have you really been
to such a
place, they would ask. Have you seen Mosiach? May
I touch you to see if you are real?
"This is what a blessing it is to live in a time
of Eretz Israel."
Then Rabbi Eliach showed a film, The
Return to Zion on “what the rebirth
of Israel really means." The film demonstrated
the historical movement
that led to the establishment of Israel, in particular
the Jews connection to Jerusalem. This was followed
by a video which presented
a moving montage of images of Jews
from
all over the world relocating to Israel.
Then everyone stood and sang the Hatikvah with
a renewed appreciation of what the song means to
Jews everywhere.
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