THE STORY OF ISRAEL

Seventy-seven years ago, G-d once again gave the Jewish people the historic opportunity of returning freely to their ancient homeland, Israel, with the ability to govern their affairs, protect their borders, and live freely as Jews. 

This was by no means inevitable. It took extraordinary courage and a miracle. 

From the moment the United Nations passed the partition resolution on November 29, 1947, the Arabs, desperate to thwart its implementation, ruthlessly intensified their attacks on the Jewish population of Israel. 

Nearly 1,200 Jews, half of them civilians, were murdered by Arabs in the six months between November 1947 and May 1948. That instability – and fears for the survival of this remnant of Jewry that had survived the Holocaust – engendered a desire in many quarters to postpone indefinitely the notion of Jews declaring statehood. 

General George Marshall, President Truman’s secretary of state, warned of an impending massacre of Jews that American soldiers would not – and could not – prevent. 

At least seven Arab nations – some only independent states for less than a decade – were poised to strangle the Jewish state in its infancy. Conversely, for the first time in 19 centuries, the opportunity existed for Jews to be sovereign in their land. 

But at what price? 

The Jewish Agency, under the direction of David Ben-Gurion, was itself bitterly divided. Should a state be declared, even knowing it would provoke immediate hostilities? If yes, then under what boundaries? 

Secretary of Defense James Forrestal played the Arab oil card and attempted to convince Truman – and the rest of the cabinet – that a Jewish state would endanger American security by angering the Arabs. Further muddying the waters, the Soviet Union in early May 1948 called for Jewish statehood and announced that it would recognize the Jewish state. 

By Thursday, May 13, nothing had yet been decided in Israel or the United States. 

In Washington, Truman defied most of his cabinet and the political establishment and sent word to Marshall that if a state were declared, the United States would recognize it. 

In Israel, Ben-Gurion argued that if statehood were not declared immediately, history would not be forgiving, and the opportunity lost might not be regained for generations. 

He submitted his motion to declare a Jewish state without defined borders to the Provisional Council. The motion not to specify borders carried 5-4; the motion to declare a state, on the following day, passed 6-4. One or two votes made all the difference. 

At 4 p.m. that Friday, the 5th day of Iyar, May 14, 1948, with the British Mandate due to end at midnight, Ben-Gurion, out of respect for the sanctity of the approaching Shabbat, read the Proclamation of Independence. He declared to the world the establishment of a Jewish state, “by our national and intrinsic right.” Rabbi Yehuda Maimon recited the Shehechiyanu prayer. 

Statehood went into effect at midnight in Israel – 6 p.m. Washington time. At 6:11 p.m., the United States extended de facto­ recognition to the Jewish state. The Soviet Union, several hours later, became the first nation to recognize Israel de jure. 

This was incredible. Both the United States and the Soviet Union agreed on the establishment of the Jewish state. They would agree on little else for the next 77 years. 

That same Friday, the last Jewish defenders of Kfar Etzion were taken captive. The provisional Government of Israel, in its first official act, abolished the British White Paper of 1939 that had cruelly barred the gates of Israel to European Jews during the Holocaust, and plans to evacuate Jewish displaced persons from European camps were immediately put into effect. 

The British authorities and most soldiers sailed that night from Haifa harbor. Early on Shabbat morning, the Egyptian Air Force bombed Tel Aviv, the armies of seven Arab nations invaded Israel to carry out Azzam Pasha’s “war of extermination,” and the deadliest of Israel’s wars ensued. 

When hostilities ended, approximately 6,000 Jews – 1% of the population – had fallen in battle, but Israel had successfully expanded its territorial holdings far beyond the boundaries of the 1947 Partition Plan that had been summarily rejected by the Arabs. 

Israel’s sovereignty extended over the Galilee and the Negev to Eilat, the coastal plain was expanded, and Jerusalem itself – the “New City” – came under Israeli jurisdiction. 

The concerns of some of the opponents of statehood – Jews and non-Jews, religious and otherwise – were not illegitimate. War did come and exacted a heavy toll in Jewish lives lost, but the yishuv was not destroyed and was able to repulse the invaders. Israel did not fall into the Soviet orbit – something that in a very short time would cause the Soviet Union to turn against Israel with a vengeance. 

In retrospect, Ben-Gurion, forced to make an agonizing decision, was right, and Truman’s judgment was vindicated. When Israel’s chief rabbi, Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Halevi Herzog, visiting the White House in 1949, told Harry Truman, “G-d put you in your mother’s womb so you would be the instrument to bring the rebirth of Israel after two thousand years,” the president burst into tears. Ben-Gurion, who knew that war was inevitable, chose to fight it on his terms from a position of moral strength – a nation fighting for its independence and not relying on the kindness of strangers or the cult of victimization. 

Israel’s founders, despite being secular, had a profound knowledge of the Bible, of the eternal rights of the Jewish people to the land, and of the wars that needed to be waged to found and preserve the Jewish state. They never doubted that the Land of Israel belonged to our people. 

It is an absolute miracle, by G-d’s grace, that Israel is in a remarkably place as its seventy-seven anniversary is celebrated, even though it has its profound challenges specially for the last year and a half from October 7, 2023 the hostages that are still in Gaza and what is going on in the north and Gaza and with our society in Israel. A “sheep surrounded by 70 wolves,” in the expression of the Midrash, has emerged strong and cohesive. We should not take this for granted. What is more, a temporary rapprochement has been achieved with many of the countries surrounding Israel – Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and others born not necessarily of love for Israel but of fear of their common enemy, Iran. That Israel would ally with an arc of Sunni Muslim states to ward off the common threats from Shiite Iran could not have been predicted even ten years ago. Would that Israel’s leadership be better able to exploit this moment in history – a friendly American president and alliances with its Arab neighbors – to change the entire dynamic of the conflict and move beyond preserving the status quo. 

In another extraordinary development, the attitudes of much of the Arab world toward Israel have shifted from hatred to jealousy, even a grudging admiration of what Israel has been able to achieve – a prosperous, stable, just, free and diverse society – all of which stands in stark contrast to the economic hardships, political instability, and notable lack of freedom that plague their own countries. For sure, many Arabs still harbor the fantasies of Israel’s disappearance, but many more, especially the modern ones, would love to emulate the openness and success of Israeli society. Israeli ingenuity, technological genius, and economic success are conspicuous in the Middle East, especially, and in the world generally, and Israel’s willingness to expend its resources saving lives and rescuing innocents across the globe is in the best tradition of the aspirations of our ancient, holy people. Many would never admit it publicly, but Israel is perceived as a beacon of morality and human rights. 

Seventy-seven years ago, for one moment in time, true and gifted leaders made decisions without consulting pollsters or reading tea leaves and in defiance of some of their closest advisors. They led, knowing that their choices would have adverse consequences, but with the confidence that the positives far outweighed the negatives. They made decisions recognizing that war would follow, casualties would ensue, criticism was sure to follow, and political defeat might be their fate. They understood that good is not the enemy of the perfect, and that inertia is often fatal to both personal and national aspirations. 

There are, and were, two reasons and motives for the Jewish people to return to their homeland. One is like a cloud being carried by the wind; one is like a dove seeking love and intimacy.  

There were the Jews who were “pushed” to come to the land because the “winds” of anti-Semitism, the dark stormy winds of the Holocaust, pushed them out of their homes and countries and forced them to find refuge elsewhere. 

When Pope Paul VI criticized Israel's "fierceness" during a private audience with Golda Meir, she replied: "Do you know what my earliest memory is? A pogrom in Kiev. When we were merciful and when we had no homeland and when we were weak, we were led to the gas chambers." 

While visiting Israel, a Jewish leader encountered an American minister who started badgering him with hostile questions and comments about Israel, and finally asked him, “What is it that you Jews want?" 

He responded with the following story:  

At Stolpce, Poland, on September 23, 1942, the ghetto was surrounded by German soldiers. Pits had been prepared outside a nearby village where the Jews would be led and then shot. The Germans entered the ghetto, searching for the Jews. A survivor by the name of Eliezer Melamed later recalled how he and his girlfriend found a room where they hid behind sacks of flour. A mother and her three children had followed them into the house. The mother hid in one corner of the room, the three children in another. 

The Germans entered the room and discovered the children. One of the children, a young boy, began to scream, "Mama! Mama!" as the Germans dragged the three of them away. But another of them, only 4 years old, shouted to his brother in Yiddish, "Don't say 'Mama.' They'll take her, too." 

The boy stopped screaming. The mother remained silent. Her children were dragged away. The mother was saved. 

"I will always hear that," Melamed recalled, "especially at night.  'Don't say Mama.' And I will always remember the sight of the mother. Her children were dragged away by the Germans. She was hitting her head against the wall, as if to punish herself for remaining silent, for wanting to live." 

After concluding the story, the Jewish leader told the minister, "What do we Jews want? Well, I’ll tell you what I want.  All I want is for our grandchildren to be able to call out 'Mama' without fear. All we want is for the world to leave us alone." 

As all of Europe became a “killing field” of the six million, the winds of hatred have pushed the clouds to one little region in our world, called Israel, where we can protect ourselves, with G-d’s grace, and protect our brothers and sisters the world over.  

But there is another experience that this Holy Land offers, and it is another reason to come to Israel: It is my home. It is our home. I come to Israel because, like a dove, I am seeking love. I am yearning for intimacy with the Divine, I am yearning for holiness, for the full expression of my soul and my Jewishness. Israel is an organically holy land; it is the soil G-d designated for the Jewish people and the Jewish soul. It is the Holy Land, the space where heaven kisses earth, and where the doves can unite in everlasting love and harmony. 

Israel, the land where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob walked; where Moses dreamt to come into; the land where Isiah, Jeremiah, Amos shared the word of G-d; where David weaved his Psalms and where the Divine presence dwelled in our eternal capital Jerusalem; the space of the two Holy Temples, and the home for the Sechinah, the Divine presence. 

Reflect on the passionate words expressed by the groom to his beloved bride in the Song of Songs: "Behold, you are lovely, my beloved; behold, you are beautiful, your eyes are doves." What does this mean? The Midrash says it is G-d's moving testimony about the Jewish people. "Just as the dove, from the moment it recognizes its partner, never exchanges it for anybody else, so the Jewish people, from the moment they recognized G-d, never substituted Him with any other deity." 

And, in that relationship of love, we never forgot His and our Holy Land. Exiled and dispersed the world over, for 2000 years, Jews did not stop remembering, praying, and hoping for the day they would return to their eternal homeland. Like the dove who does not make peace with her exile from her cove, and at some point, will return to her nest to be back with her mate, so did we never forget Eretz Israel, Jerusalem, Moshiach, and the Holy Temple. We never stopped learning the Torah about the Bait Hamikdash, and the laws of Terumah, Maasar, Bikurim, and Shmitah. Israel has been the dream and hope of every Jewish child for over 2,000 years.  

When Israel is merely a country of refuge, we have no other place to go, it often fails to give us the confidence we need to defend our homeland. So many of Israel’s great leaders stumbled when criticized by the Arabs and by their sympathizers. “Just because you suffered a Holocaust, does not give you the right to displace another people.” 

But when we are not like clouds, but like doves, we appreciate that Israel is our homeland. We are not thieves. This is our nest—the nest created for us by the Creator of the world. Our presence in that land is moral, right, just, and healthy. It is what our children, students, and the world must know. 

One of the great rabbis of our times was Rabbi Yisroel Zeev Gustman. His meteoric rise from child prodigy to the exalted position of religious judge in the Rabbinical Court of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski at around the age of 20 was the stuff of legend -- but fact. While a long, productive career on the outskirts of Vilna could have been anticipated, Jewish life in and around Vilna was obliterated by the pain and fear of World War II. Rabbi Gustman escaped, though not unscathed. He hid among corpses. He hid in caves. He hid in a pig pen. He somehow survived. 

 At the invitation of the previous Rebbe, in 1946, he became the Rosh Yeshiva, the chief Talmudic teacher, at the central Yeshiva at “770.” Later, he moved to Jerusalem, where he founded a yeshiva. 

The year was 1982. Once again, Israel was at war. Soldiers were mobilized, and reserve units were activated. Among those called to duty was a reserves officer, a former student of the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, who made his living as a high school teacher: Shlomo Auman, the son of Prof. Yisroel (Robert) Aumann. On the eve of the 19th of Sivan, in particularly fierce combat, Shlomo fell in battle.  

Shlomo was married and had one child. His widow, Shlomit, gave birth to their second daughter shortly after her husband was killed. 

The family had just returned from the cemetery and would now begin the week of shiva -- mourning for their son, brother, husband, and father. Rabbi Gustman went to the funeral, then to the cemetery, and from there went straight to the home of the broken family for a shiva call. He entered and asked to sit next to the father, Professor Robert Aumann. The father said, "Rabbi, I so appreciate your coming to visit… but you have spent all day with our family, feel free to go back to the yeshiva. I am sure the students are waiting for you.”  

Rav Gustman spoke to all those assembled would hear: 

"I am sure that you don't know this, but I had a son named Meir. He was a beautiful child. He was taken from my arms by the Germans and shot in front of my eyes. I survived. I later bartered my child's shoes so that we would have food, but I was never able to eat the food -- I gave it away to others… My Meir, he is holy -- he and all the six million who perished are holy." 

Rav Gustman then added: "I will tell you what is transpiring now in the World of Truth in Heaven. My Meir is welcoming your Shlomo into the minyan and is saying to him, 'I died because I am a Jew -- but I wasn't able to save anyone else. But you -- Shlomo, you died defending the Jewish People and the Land of Israel.' My Meir he is holy -- but your Shlomo is a Shaliach Zibbur -- a Cantor in that holy, heavenly minyan." 

Rabbi Gustman continued: "I never had the opportunity to sit shiva for my Meir; let me sit here with you just a little longer…"  

42 years after the death of his son, Rabbi Gustman sat shiva together with the Aumann family… 

Professor Aumann listened to the story. And then he said silently: "I thought I could never be comforted, but Rebbi, you have comforted me." 

Rav Gustman and his wife would attend an annual parade where children would march on Jerusalem in song and dance. A rabbi who happened upon them one year asked the Rabbi why he spent his valuable time in such a frivolous activity. Rav Gustman explained, "We who saw a generation of children die, take special pleasure in a generation of children who sing and dance in these streets." 

A student once implored Rav Gustman to share his memories of the ghetto and the war more publicly and more frequently. He asked him to tell people about his son, his son's shoes, to which the Rav replied, "I can't, but I think about those shoes every day of my life. I see them every night before I go to sleep." 

On December 10, 2005, Professor Yisroel, Robert J. Aumann, the father of Shlomo (may G-d avenge his blood), an observant Jew with a long white beard, was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics, because of his incredible contribution to the Game Theory of Economics.  

This is the story of the Jewish people, and it is the story of Israel. We never forgot our home, and we never forgot our G-d. And today, our brave holy soldiers protect the romantic doves who have come home. 

And very speedily, we will all experience the fulfillment of the words of Isiah: 

Lift your eyes all around and see, they all have gathered, they have come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be raised on [their] side… 

Who are these, who fly like a cloud, and like doves to their cote-windows nests? 

As Moshiach comes and takes us all back home, eternally, to the Holy Land, to the Holy City, and to the Holy rebuilt Temple, speedily in our days, Amen! 

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky

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