Yom Ha-atzmaut

Today is cause for us to celebrate, it is Israel Independence Day. In looking at the events that have been unfolding on the world stage with Israel at the forefront we are celebrating not only the past but the present and Israels future.According to Daniel Gordis "these are difficult times for the state of Israel. But celebrate we must, for only in rejoicing in our past accomplishments of the last 63 years can we gird ourselves for the complicated days ahead. Only by reminding ourselves of what is at stake do we have any chance of finding the fortitude to stand firm where we must and bend where it will serve our future.
Israel is still the Jewish peoples new lease on life, and whatever our politics, our religious dispositions, or our place of residence none of us has any obligation more sacred than to cultivate and bequeath it whole and flourishing to the generations to come".
As Mordecai said to Esther, "who knows we may have been born for a time such as this". Elisheva Amaris
The teaching below is by Rav Yoel Bin-Nun.

Let us recall the self-sacrifice of our heroic brethren whose blood was spilled for the sake of Eretz Yisrael. Chazal teach us that it is because of the sin of “They despised the pleasant land” (Tehillim 106:24) that the exile persists. This day is the beginning of the atonement for that sin. When our brothers’ blood was spilled for the sake of conquering Eretz Yisrael, for the sake of love of the “pleasant land,” “He forgave His land and His people” (Devarim 32:43).

After we consider all of this, after we approach with simple faith, we open the Tanakh and read:
At that time, a gift shall be brought to the L*rd of Hosts, a bruised nation, a people terrible from their beginning onward; a nation mighty and treading, whose land the rivers have divided, to the place of the Name of the L*rd of Hosts, Mount Zion. (Yeshayahu 18:7)

Let us look around at what is happening in front of our eyes. Are we not watching this verse play out in reality? “A bruised nation, a people terrible…” – whose lot has been terrible events. “From their beginning onward; a nation mighty and treading, whose land the rivers have divided” – kings have plundered their land, but now they are returning to it. Can we view this through any perspective but a messianic one?

Let us consider a different source:
Prophesy therefore concerning the Land of Israel, and say to the mountains and to the hills, to the streams and to the valleys. So says the L*rd G*d: Behold, I have spoken in My jealousy and in My fury, because you have suffered the insult of the nations. Therefore, thus says the L*rd G*d: I have lifted up My hand, swearing that the nations round about you shall bear their own insult. But you, O mountains of Israel – you shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to my people of Israel, for they will soon be coming. (Yechezkel 36:6-8)

Is there any more openly revealed redemption than this
R. Chiya the great and R. Shimon ben Chalafta were walking on the way in the valley of Arbel, and they saw the dawning of the morning star. R. Chiya said: Such is the redemption of Israel; it progresses bit by bit, and as it progresses, it grows greater. (Esther Rabba 10:14)

Redemption progresses gradually, and Chazal tell us that even when the Mashiach comes, there will still be wars. Whether we define our period as “the beginning of the dawn of our redemption” or “redemption bit by bit” is merely a question of semantics.

There is special importance in viewing these events in their messianic perspective, for two reasons. First, “Be comforted; be comforted, My people:” there is no greater consolation than the fact that things are indeed moving. We are entering a stage from which there is no retreat. It is a stage which includes suffering, a stage in which there is still war, but things are moving. The rebirth of our sovereignty is not a passing episode. We have no way of knowing; decades may pass before people begin to understand something of what has transpired in the depths of the Jewish soul that lives on after the Holocaust. How great and terribly deep is that scar on the Jewish psyche! After the Holocaust, if we were to say to the Jews, “Now there comes a period of rest, another brief episode,” this would be no comfort. The comfort is that something is indeed starting. If we view things from the messianic perspective, there is no retreat.

When R. Herzog, of blessed memory, returned from the United States in the midst of the Second World War, as the Germans were about to invade Eretz Yisrael and the Jews here were despairing, he said, “We have a tradition that there will be no third Destruction!” This, to his view, was the beginning of the Third Commonwealth. That is what it means to view matters from the messianic perspective, to view them as described by the prophets.

Second, this fact of redemption proceeding bit by bit demands something of us. If we were told, “Bring the Messiah,” we would say, “In what way are we any better than the previous generations? Are we more righteous than they? They didn’t manage to bring the Messiah; how shall we? What are our actions in comparison with the actions of our forefathers?” But if we are told that we are living right now in the generation of the redemption, that the weight and value of our actions is different from the weight of any action undertaken in previous generations, then matters take on a whole new meaning.

So said the holy Ari to his student, R. Chaim Vital:
Know that the making of a soul’s grandeur is dependent not upon the person, but rather upon the time and the generation. For a small action in this generation is equivalent to several mitzvot in other generations, because in our times the kelippot are completely overpowering, which was not so in the early generations.

If we know that we are living in the generation of redemption, it gives us strength. We are capable of bringing the final redemption because our actions assume a different importance. We breathe different air; we live in a great period, requiring great actions.

“Attribute greatness to the L*rd with me, and let us exalt His Name together” (Tehillim 34:4). Although there are still elements of this faith that we are living through the stages of redemption that are hidden from us, we are required to act. Our expectations and our speech must be different. The redemption is proceeding bit by bit in front of our very eyes; that demands things of us. Therefore, there must be continuous emphasis on the Messiah. In our generation, there are pious and religious individuals who talk about all kinds of things – but make no mention of the Messiah!

“[A psalm] unto the chief musician, unto David, for invocation – G*d, to my salvation” (Tehillim 70:1-2). How can we describe David’s position? We may bring a metaphor of a king who had a herd of sheep, and he grew angry at them. He threw them out, and took apart the sheep pen, and had the shepherd removed. After some time, he gathered up the sheep and rebuilt the pen, but made no mention of the shepherd. The shepherd said: See – the sheep have been gathered in, and the sheepfold is rebuilt, but as for myself – no mention is made of me. (Midrash Tehillim 70:1)

We must pray that the process will be shortened, that Jewish blood will not be spilled, that the birth-pangs of the Messiah will be lessened – but out of faith that we are within the stages of redemption. Then our prayers will be different, our Torah will be different, our expectations will be different – for we will be living in the generation of the Messiah. We shall give praise to G*d with all our hearts: “Sing to Him, praise Him, speak of all His wonders.”