A Message In Honor of Yom HaAtzmaut

Today we commemorate 60 years since the declaration of the State of Israel.

Our attachment with the land of Israel dates from God’s promise to Abraham. Through destruction, persecution, rebuilding, absence and hope, our people held fast to the eternal hope brought by even the very concept of Eretz Yisrael.

The State of Israel embodies those ancient promises and everlasting dreams. Its existence gives meaning to our existence. Its strength gives us strengths. Its trials are our trials. We rejoice with Israel even as we grieve at dark moments.

Israel brings us fulfillment even as it concretizes within our spirits all of those Jewish abstractions that we study as diaspora Jews. Some 15 years ago in leading a trip to Israel , a typically-cynical 13 year old acted at first as if he was not going to let Israel touch him. It was just another trip on which his parents schlepped him. Several days into the trip, the group participated in the archaeological “dig for a day” program. He found an oil lamp sifting through the dirt and debris. And his first reaction was to say: “Man, this stuff is real!”

The sight of Jerusalem , or the Kineret, or Haifa harbor, or a Maccabean defensive position, or rusting trucks from 1948 on the side of the highway… all of these are real. The determination of a people within the land and a Jewish people worldwide—these, too, are real. Alas threats from terrorism and a nuclear Iran are real.

On this 60^th Anniversary of the State of Israel, please join with Jews worldwide in our prayers for the State of Israel. And please resolve to continue sending both your children and yourselves to Israel to participate in this rebirth of the Jewish People.

Rabbi Ned Soltz