The past week has been a painful one for Israel, with hundreds of rockets pouring down on Southern Israel from Gaza, taking life and instilling tremendous amounts of fear. It gave Yom Ha’Atzmaut a different feeling this year. I felt the imperative to not take Israel for granted, to remember the difficulty inherent in trying to have a Jewish state.
Last night, many of us celebrated Yom Ha’Atzmaut at the JCC with the entire Memphis Jewish community. The evening started out with a torch lighting ceremony, honoring four members of the Memphis Jewish community committed to Israel and its contributions to our world. The theme of the ceremony was taken from a line HaTikvah, Israel’s national anthem - לִהְיוֹת עַם חָפְשִׁי בְּאַרְצֵנוּ Lihyot am chofshi b’artzeinu - to be a free people in our land. This line expresses the deepest hope of the Jewish people for thousands of years and is the heart of the project of the State of Israel.
Each of the 4 torch-lighters were given one word of that line on which to base a dedication, and Beth Sholom’s Jonathan Judaken lit the third torch, using the word “chofshi - free” as the basis for his dedication. Here are Jonathan’s words from last night:
“I dedicate my torch lighting to Israel as a light unto the nations, to Israel as a beacon of freedom, but to the ideal of freedom that French Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas calls “Difficult Freedom” -- the freedom that comes with obligations. In Levinas’s terms this means the infinite obligation of an ethical commitment to the Other. So I light this torch in dedication to the idea of Israel as a light unto the nations, and as such, to the glory of the State of Israel.”
These words inspire me because it reminds me of Israel’s unique mission in the world. The goal of Israel as a political entity is both to be a proud Jewish state, and to simultaneously use that identity as a force for good in the world. This is the Israel that I celebrate and this is the Israel that I continue to pray for every day. May Jonathan’s words ring true for all of us, celebrating the glory of Israel and remembering the ethical commitment embedded into our freedom.
