Finding a Middle Path

Today is Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel's Independance Day. In our community, there are two orthodox day schools, one that is affiliated with Torah U'Mesorah and one that proclaims itself Modern Zionist. As you can probably guess, these schools react completely differently to Yom HaAtzmaut. At the former, they pretend that today does not exist. They don't mention it, they don't do anything special, they act as though there is not even such a day as Israel Independance Day. At the latter school, they act as though this is the most important day of the year. They are having a special assembly. They are having a dinner tonight for the community. The kids have been practicing for a performance they are going to give tonight. You can bet they said Hallel this morning, and all the kids will be singing Hatikva today, probably more than once.

So which of these approaches do I take? Neither. We are Zionists. We beleive that the state of Israel is a huge bracha for Am Israel. The state is what keeps us safe. We all know, in the backs of our minds, that if need be, we can go to Israel. There can never be another Holocaust. At least in theory. We may disagree with the government. We may think they are somewhat spineless. However, we can't deny that the mere existance of the state makes all of us in galut a little safer.

I wish that the two schools could find a middle ground that was a little more sane. The right wing school should teach the kids about Israel today, about the founding, about the UN vote, about the war for Indpendance. They don't have to say Hallel, they certainly shouldn't make today on par with a yom tov from the Torah, but they should set aside a day to talk about Israel.

The Modern school, on the other hand, neeeds to remember that Yom HaAtzmaut is not THE most important holdiay of the year. They spent as much energy, if not more, preparing for this day thean for Pesach. A child could easily be confused that Zionism is Judaism, or is at lesat the equivilent. If they are going to make an assembly for this holiday, they should certainly make one for the holdiays given to us by Hashem in the Torah.

I know there are objections to having a big public celebration today, during the Omer. And it is also true that there were and are many non-religious Jews running the state who are hostile toward frum people. But that doesn't mean the yeshivish/charedi community should pretend that today does not exist. And I know also that Eretz Yisrael is very important to frum Jews, but that doesn't mean there is nothing equal or even more imporant. Torah needs to be emphasised as well.