Haftarat Yom Ha'atzmaut: Praying and Pushing for the Ideal

Two weeks ago, we concluded the holiday of Passover. In the waning hours of the festival, I was chatting with my father back in Sweden, who was VERY ready for 
Pesach to end. He noted that, for a holiday all about freedom, he sure felt bound to a lot of rituals and laws throughout these meddlesome eight days! During Pesach, he didn't feel very free AT ALL. I thought about it for a moment, and then replied: "Maybe that's the whole point." The freedom we're celebrating doesn't come DURING the holiday, but rather after it. We spend a week and a day obsessing over crumbs, leaven, and food labels, so that when Pesach is finally over, we will have a newfound appreciation and gratitude for the freedoms of everyday life. The holiday is a vehicle for thinking about, and feeling closer to, freedom; it is not the end result. Right now, as we observe a DIFFERENT holiday, I've been feeling like the State of Israel functions in much the same way.

This week, Israel is celebrating her 70th birthday. It's Yom Ha-Atzmaut, our annual celebration of Israel's Independence Day, but this year is a special milestone. In some ways, it is truly a miracle that Israel is still here, despite the best efforts of some extremely violent and antagonistic foes. Yet in other ways,

it is sad that seven decades later, Israel still faces daily existential threats. Its leaders struggle to figure out how to govern a diverse, stubborn, strong-willed, passionate population, and stability and peace feel VERY far away. So how does Israel remind me of Passover, and vice-versa? Each has a side that is flawless and ideal, and also a side that is harsher, harder, and more real. We envision perfect, peaceful, effortless versions of the holiday AND the state... but the lived experience sometimes (often) does not measure up. Let's be honest here; Israel has fallen - and is currently falling - short in many, many ways. Expelling African asylum seekers, using live bullets on protesters in Gaza, and widespread corruption in the government; these are all painful reminders that our Zionist dreams have not been fulfilled. Sure, many countries commit similar atrocities. Israel isn't the only culprit, and by far not the worst. And yet, today, on Yom Ha-Atzmaut, we also must remember that we had higher hopes for The Holy Land.

Over the last couple of decades, liturgy has been written to make Yom Ha-Atzmaut seem less like a modern-day quasi-holiday, and more like an official, legitimate-as-any-other festival on our Jewish calendar. We chant the Hallel prayers, we speak 

of the War of Independence as a "miracle," comparable to Chanukah or Purim, we have a special Torah reading for the day, and we even chant a Haftarah. Interestingly, the Haftarah that was chosen is the same one chanted on the eighth day of Passover, again inviting comparisons between the holiday and the country. The text includes Isaiah's famous vision: "the wolf shall lie down with the lamb... the cow and the bear shall graze together... in all of My holy mountain, nothing evil or vile shall be done" (11:6, 7, 9). This is an important prophecy to read on this day, because it reminds us that we are caught somewhere between the real and the ideal.

Isaiah is NOT describing Israel today. When we try to claim that, or wear blinders so we can talk about what a marvelous, fabulous, unassailable place it is, we are not only kidding ourselves, we are also constraining our ability to have thoughtful, productive, necessary discussions about the state of the State. 

But if we abandon the vision altogether, we may become overly harsh and condemning. We then cede the conversation to the BDS movement and other objectionable (in my opinion) groups. So I actually think it's imperative that we chant Haftarot like this one and recite prayers for Israel, AND voice both our support and our deep concerns. Passover teaches us to be free, and to appreciate freedom, by forcing us to spend a week quite constricted. Many of us feel similarly constricted and conflicted regarding Israel, but those feelings are actually teaching us and reminding us what freedom could - and MUST - look like. And so we do both; we pray and we push, we chant prophecies and challenge prime ministers. And all the while we strive diligently and unwaveringly for peace. That is our birthday wish, on Israel's milestone 70th.


Photos in this blog post:

1. CC image courtesy of Rainerzufall1234 on Wikimedia Commons

2. CC image courtesy of Churchh on Wikimedia Commons

3. CC image of William Strutt's 1896 etching, "Peace," courtesy of Tomisti on Wikimedia Commons

4. CC image courtesy of Gnash on Wikimedia Commons