Can We Say Hallel On Yom Ha’Atzmaut?

By Gennadiy Baruch Faybyshenko

Hallel, a special joyous praise to G-d, composed of Psalms (113-118) is sung to commemorate a miracle that has happened to Jewish People. We sing Hallel on three pilgrimage holidays of Passover, Shavuout, and Sukkot. Also we sing Hallel on Chanukah since G-d performed a miracle where few righteous Jews were victorious over many. On Purim, we make exception and do not say Hallel. The sages teach us that the miracle did not occur in the Land of Israel but in Persia. However, the Rabbis tell us that Megillah of Ester has a Hallel of its own. Also we do not say Hallel on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur because those are not the times of being joyous where the Lord is about to judge us, as it is written, "Is it seemly for the king to be sitting on His Throne of Judgment, with the Books of Life and Death open before Him, and for the people to sing joyful praises to Him?" Talmud states (Arachin 10b).

The Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim in chapter 697 brings down a Halacha that if a miracle occurs, even for a specific individual only, he must make a celebration every year on the date that the miracle occurred, saying "Hallel" and praising G-d. What about Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day? On May 14th, 1948, 5th of Iyar, 5708, David Ben Gurion, the first Israel’s Prime Minister pronounced “We hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish State in Palestine, to be called Israel.” That’s where a two thousand year old dream became a reality. Finally becoming an independent nation and not relying on other nations. But the question is, are we really independent?

I find it very embarrassing to hear from every Jewish leader during the Yom HaShoah, Holocausts Remembrance Day, that if we had an I.D.F. (Israel Defense Force) Army back then, we could have avoided the catastrophe that fell on Jewry. Then how come we cannot resolve the dispute with Arab terrorists groups who constantly surround us? How come, the powerful I.D.F. cannot destroy the Arab terrorists who shoot Kassam rockets from the Gaza strip, which by the way belongs to Israel? How come people are frightened in Israel, to walk in places of high Arab concentration? How come Jewish motorists get stoned by Arab teenagers who throw rocks at them? How come the government paved the road in the Galilee to go around Arab villages, because G-d forbid if a Jew alone ends up in one of the villages? In Jerusalem, Jews are afraid to walk in the old city because Arab hoodlums constantly harass them. How can the Israeli government proudly speak about the I.D.F.?

Being independent is to make your own decisions. Every single strike that I.D.F. makes they have to report to America. Every bomb that they drop has to be registered with an American Government. Every Jewish house that Israel builds or Arab house that it demolishes needs to receive permission from the American President. Do we need to read Hallel for that?

At the beginning G-d created the first man, Adam, to be a resemblance of Him. The Almighty placed him in the Garden of Eden where the first man lived under full G-d’s protection and never had a need in anything. The Adam violated G-d’s trust and was expelled from the Garden, and since Adam expulsion, the humanity lived in desecration. The first person who really made repentance was Abraham, who was born in 1948 from the creation of the world according to a Jewish calendar, a very significant date, where G-d extended His hand to an Earthly person. Jewish nation like Adam was once nurtured in the Land of Israel and after violating His commandments we were exiled. And in 1948 according to Gregorian calendar, once again G-d extended His hand to us and brought us back to the Land of Israel. He saw our tears and He saw how His children were humiliated in the Holocaust and He said, no more. It was not for our sake but for His name that he redeemed us. After the Holocaust, especially what has happened to Jewish People, the world said that there is no G-d, which resulted in a huge Hillul Chashem, a desecration of G-d’s name. That is why G-d had to sanctify Himself as He does through the Jewish People and brought us back to the Land of Israel, as He promised to our forefathers. Despite the resistance, despite how the five large mobilized Arab armies, who wanted to wipe out the newly born Jewish State, lost embarrassingly and more than half a million of them ran away from Israel, saving a tiny Jewish State from Arab demography. That was a Kiddush HaShem, the sanctification of G-d’s name; that is the answer to the world that through the Jewish People G-d does exist. That is a miracle that happened in front of our eyes. It is not a miracle that occurred thousands of years ago, but happened recently, that was documented on televisions and till today we have eyewitnesses and soldiers who saw with their own eyes how the Independence was won against all the odds. A miracle that has happened in the Land of Israel, that saved the Jewish people, has to be celebrated joyfully with a Hallel to be read aloud.

Now we have a fundament where we can start realizing the beginning of our final redemption. We have the core from where we start. G-d gave us an initial push, but it is up to us to actualize it. It does not matter that the world does not recognize us, condemns us and criticize us, since the Torah states, "Lo it is a people that dwells alone, and among the nations shall not reckon itself", (Numbers 23:9). We are not like others, we are a nation of G-d, since He exiled all of us from Israel, He will ultimately bring us all back there, and this time permanently.