Yom Ha’Atzmaut 2025; What are we celebrating?

 This article will also feature in ‘HaMizrachi’ and has been published here by permission of the author.

Yom HaAtzmaut regularly falls out in the week of Parashat Tazria, as it does this year. The concept of Tumah and Tahara– this perplexing, challenging, and amorphous concept, often translated into ritual purity and impurity – take centre stage in this section of Sefer Vayikra. Although we often view these terms as reflecting a simplistic good/bad dichotomy (tahara/tumah respectively), this is not precise. We find one of the clearest examples in the opening to Parashat Tazria – the birthing woman (Vayikra 12:1-8). 

Indeed, this instruction by the Torah is very perplexing – how can it be that an act which is not only natural, but definitively positive and of such high value in the eyes of the Torah itself – not only render the woman ‘impure’, but also require her to bring an offering, seemingly to atone for some sort of sinful act? What about birthing a child into the world could require atonement?

Sensitive to this issue, Rav Simshon Refael Hirsch explains that the Torah is not alluding to any wrongdoing on the part of the woman. Rather, the Torah is addressing the psychological experience of childbirth, and how that might affect mindset of the mother, and indeed anyone who has entered a state of tumah.

Rav Hirsch directs us to consider the psychological impact of the experience of childbirth – an intense, physical, body-centred experience – that is similar to many other sources of tumah. Not only this, but the process happens involuntarily, wherein the body is acting of its own accord, and we, our conscious selves, are no longer in control.

Rabbanit Sharon Rimon, in her article on this topic, explains Rav Hirsch as follows:

“The birth process involves a huge, mighty collision between the material world and the spiritual world. It is no coincidence, it seems, that this collision comes about specifically amidst the process of birth. The creation of man is bound up with the special combination of material body, flesh and blood, and spiritual soul – the image of God. This combination is no simple matter, and it is therefore specifically at childbirth that the two worlds collide with such force. The woman is in the middle of this collision, a partner in this clash.”

The offering brought by the birthing mother is not an indication of sin, Rav Hirsch explains, but rather reestablishes the proper balance within her between her higher, spiritual faculties and the physical elements of herself. The process of bringing the korban reminds her of the proper hierarchy, with the former guiding and directing the latter, and not the reverse, as had occurred during the birth itself. 

But what does all of this have to do with Israel?

Often, when discussing with people who have mixed feelings about celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut, one of the main points that is raised is their ambivalence to the reality of Israel. They are not opposed to the idea of a Jewish State per se (which Torah Jew honestly could?), but in their eyes what we have today is not at all what the Torah had in mind.

And in truth, Israel has many struggles and has a far way to go before it fulfils our visions of what the perfect Jewish state can be. But what I try to explain when discussing this matter with people, is that we must ensure that we do not miss the forest for the trees. Sometimes if we are too caught up with the image in front of our eyes, we cannot see the true value of what we are looking at.

Imagine someone who was entirely unfamiliar with childbirth taking a peek inside a labour ward – what would they think?They would hear cries of pain and distress coming from mother and baby. They would see people sat in the waiting room with clenched hands, and nervous looks on their faces. They would see a bloody mess.

But we all know that that is not the real story. This is not what childbirth is really about. The screams, the anguished faces, and the blood – all of that is momentary, in comparison with what lies ahead. For underneath this grim scene lies true joy,and unlimited potential. But we are not like this first-timeobserver. We have the benefit of a broader perspective. We know what childbirth really means.

So many people look at Israel like they are looking for the first time. They see many reasons for doubt – political scandals, social turmoil, security crises. But all of this is just the surface picture – we must know to expand our narrow vision.

The uniqueness of Israel, of the life of a Jew in Eretz Yisrael and the life of our nation in the state of Israel, is acombination never before scene throughout our years in exile. It is a display of the colliding and merging together of the physical and the spiritual worlds, to create an entirely new reality.

The mitzvot that we can do, the chessed that we can do, theKiddush Hashem that we can perform with the state of Israel is incomparable to that which was we could have achieved as individuals or as a nation before it’s existence.

Yet I recognise that it is true, that we are still working our way out of the intense physicality of the (re)birth of our nation, in our land. We have a way to go until we find establish the proper balance.

But we must not forget for a moment what we are witnessing and experiencing in our generation. We cannot get distracted and caught up by the screams of pain, by the faces of anguish, or by the bloody mess that that is shown to us on the media by those with a narrow perspective.

For when we open our eyes wide, we bear witness to miracle after miracle, we live the Nevuah of old come to life before our eyes, for we have been granted the opportunity to rebuild our people as a free and independent nation.

To live in Eretz HaKodesh. To live with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. This is what Israel is truly about. This is what we are celebrating.

Do not lose sight of the bigger picture.