Religious Tensions of the Season

Today having been Yom Ha'Atzmaut (Israel's Independance Day), I got up to be at minyan at 7:30, at which point (and before) I began to have my yearly confusion about this particular holiday. I feel a bit uncomfortable with making an Independence Day, which is, in my mind, purely a secular holiday (we certainly don't do anything religious for the Independence Day of the country we actually live in- and are citizens of). I can understand saying Hallel- it's a momentous occasion in religious history as far as access to the land and the like. But I can't associate the modern state of Israel with some assurance that the Messiah is hurrying along more speedily than he she or it was before the founding of the state. The way history has been working just doesn't feel like it supports that theory. And there I was, in shul with a text inserted that begins with something like "when your children were returning to the land"- as if no Jews had been living in Israel before Independence (they have, my IFD teacher is something like an 8th generation 'Israeli'), and like there was some sort of particularity to that time. It's hard for me to see miracles in the winning of wars, and having them be recent wars makes it that much the harder.

A vaguely related thought about my tensions about Zionism: religious thought makes Israel into an ideal, a holy land, while the modern state is just that- a Modern nation existing in the real world. Of course I support the existance of the state- that isn't a question. But when Israel is behaving like a regular country in a rough situation rather than like an exemplar of holy and righteous living, how am I supposed to treat its national holidays are religious holidays any more than my own country's national holidays are religious holidays? For me religious holidays need to have more than just historical content- a good holiday is Supposed to have moral content and spiritual content as well. And this one doesn't have much besides that same theme of "the weak wins against the strong" shared by Channukah and Purim without a different overtone that lends particular new messages to the holiday.

And while I'm being confused about this holiday, let me add that I'm also confused about the Omer. I'm torn about how to observe them (counting won't work: I tried, and then realized I'd counted day 2 twice. But I'm not sure exactly what observing them as a mourning period means, either as far as what abstentions I actually feel comfortable with, or as far as the reason/spiritual purpose. Mourning R. Akiva's students seems a bit odd, since well, there are lots of dead people in our history, lots of dead scholars even- so why mourn these ones so physically, like a newly dead relative? I understand that it contributes to the understanding of sinat chinam (free or "baseless" hatred)- but I'm not sure how effective it is. At least for me. THere are all these interpretations, and none of them quire speak to me. Mourning, preparation... It isn't very clear. And I don't know what I'm doing with it.

In more everyday notes, my car has been fixed, but the noise remains because I have scallopped tires, which isn't a problem, it's just loud. Also I took a Yiddish final today.

Religious Tensions of the Season

Today having been Yom Ha'Atzmaut (Israel's Independance Day), I got up to be at minyan at 7:30, at which point (and before) I began to have my yearly confusion about this particular holiday. I feel a bit uncomfortable with making an Independence Day, which is, in my mind, purely a secular holiday (we certainly don't do anything religious for the Independence Day of the country we actually live in- and are citizens of). I can understand saying Hallel- it's a momentous occasion in religious history as far as access to the land and the like. But I can't associate the modern state of Israel with some assurance that the Messiah is hurrying along more speedily than he she or it was before the founding of the state. The way history has been working just doesn't feel like it supports that theory. And there I was, in shul with a text inserted that begins with something like "when your children were returning to the land"- as if no Jews had been living in Israel before Independence (they have, my IFD teacher is something like an 8th generation 'Israeli'), and like there was some sort of particularity to that time. It's hard for me to see miracles in the winning of wars, and having them be recent wars makes it that much the harder.

A vaguely related thought about my tensions about Zionism: religious thought makes Israel into an ideal, a holy land, while the modern state is just that- a Modern nation existing in the real world. Of course I support the existance of the state- that isn't a question. But when Israel is behaving like a regular country in a rough situation rather than like an exemplar of holy and righteous living, how am I supposed to treat its national holidays are religious holidays any more than my own country's national holidays are religious holidays? For me religious holidays need to have more than just historical content- a good holiday is Supposed to have moral content and spiritual content as well. And this one doesn't have much besides that same theme of "the weak wins against the strong" shared by Channukah and Purim without a different overtone that lends particular new messages to the holiday.

And while I'm being confused about this holiday, let me add that I'm also confused about the Omer. I'm torn about how to observe them (counting won't work: I tried, and then realized I'd counted day 2 twice. But I'm not sure exactly what observing them as a mourning period means, either as far as what abstentions I actually feel comfortable with, or as far as the reason/spiritual purpose. Mourning R. Akiva's students seems a bit odd, since well, there are lots of dead people in our history, lots of dead scholars even- so why mourn these ones so physically, like a newly dead relative? I understand that it contributes to the understanding of sinat chinam (free or "baseless" hatred)- but I'm not sure how effective it is. At least for me. THere are all these interpretations, and none of them quire speak to me. Mourning, preparation... It isn't very clear. And I don't know what I'm doing with it.

In more everyday notes, my car has been fixed, but the noise remains because I have scallopped tires, which isn't a problem, it's just loud. Also I took a Yiddish final today.