Efrat, Israel – This coming Monday evening and Tuesday we will be celebrating the newly created festival of Yom Ha’atzamuat or Israeli Independence Day. Although Religious-Zionist and secular Israel join together in their celebration of the day marking Ben Gurion's declaration of the Independent State of Israel on the 5th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar, May 14, 1948, the Haredi (ultra Orthodox) population of Israel does not mark this day as a special day of celebration. What are the issues which are responsible for this religious division within the Israeli population?

The first question to be asked is whether the Jewish community in modern times has the power to create a new festival. Although many ultra Orthodox religious leaders will say that without a prophet or Sanhedrin (Religious Court) we lack the judicial ability to create a new festival, major religious authorities such as the Hatam Sofer and the Pri Hadash to Yoreh Deah 233 resoundingly maintain that we do have this power – especially when the Jewish people had been saved from death in the Land of Israel. Even as far as the recitation of Hallel – special psalms of praise which punctuate every Jewish Festival – the Talmud records that "the prophets at the time of the splitting of the Reed Sea enacted that whenever the Israelites face a difficult and dangerous experience and are redeemed, they must recite the Hallel." (B.T. Pesahim 117 a)

Herein however resides the fly in the ointment. Rashi explains the Talmudic passage providing for the enactment of Hallel "As, for example, in the instance of  Hanukkah".  Indeed, we recite the Hallel psalms of praise for all the eight days of Hanukkah. The first day – the 25th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev – marking the miraculous military victory of the few righteous Hasmoneans against the many wicked Greek- Syrians. But such a victory never happened on the fifth day of the Hebrew month of Iyar. Much the opposite: on Nov 29, 1947 the United Nations proposed a Partition Plan which would give the Palestinians 80% of the West Bank of the Jordan River and the Israelis 20%. The Israelis accepted the plan whereas the Arab world did not and immediately attacked the Israeli Yishuv.  This war known as Israel's War of Independence became a life and death struggle. In the midst of the war, indeed just one day after Gush Etzion fell and most of its defenders were massacred, the British Mandate controlling the Middle East ended and the window of opportunity for the provisional government of Israel opened up. That day was May 14th, Iyar 5 1948 – and David Ben Gurion declared the Independent and Jewish State of Israel. But this was not a day of a victory of merit for Israel or even of a cease fire which would allow the Jews to live in peace, even temporarily. After Israel's declaration of Independence the fighting became even more ferocious and the old city of Jerusalem fell to the Arabs. The cease fire only came many months later.

From this perspective, it is difficult to justify reciting Hallel on Yom Haaatzmaut. Yom Yerushalayim, on the other hand, when we won a decisive military victory against the Arab invasion on June 5 1967 and succeeded in liberating the holy city of Jerusalem, fits much better into the rubric of the passage in the Tractate Pesahim. By what right do we recite psalms of praise on the day of the declaration which is not linked to any military victory or Israeli redemption?

After having said this I proudly rule that Hallel is to be recited on Yom Haatzmaut with a blessing. I believe that it is critical that we realize that Hitler was waging a second world war against 2 enemies: the free world of the West and the Jews together with Judaism. Even a cursory reading of Mein-Kampf  by Adolph Hitler reveals to what extent the Nazi madman saw the Jews and Judaism as its number one enemy. Nazi fascism saw physical might and power as belonging to the Aryan race, the super men of the universe. They looked at the Jews as a weak, slave nation who bequeathed to the world a slave morality and the fairy tale about a G-d that loved and protected the humble and the weak. The only evidence to counter Hitler's thesis was the very existence and survival of the Jewish people despite their weakness and statelessness for close to 2,000 years. And the Jews were G-d's witnesses!  If the Jews still exist despite their weakness this must mean that the G-d who loves the weak also exists and that there is morality and ultimate justice, if not in this world then in the next. Hence for Hitler his most important task was to annihilate the last Jews and the last remnant of Judaism. Only then could he continue his life unafraid of any eventual punishment by a G-d who created every human being in His image.

The Holocaust was therefore a great war against the Jews. It was a tragic war , a costly war, a cruel and destructive war. WE lost 6 million innocent and sacred men, women and children as a result of that war. But nevertheless we won that war when Nazism was dethroned and Hitler committed suicide in his bunker and when Israel was declared a State. Dry - Boned muscle men arose from their graves and proudly walked on the land of the Independent State of Israel and it became clear that Israel emerged victorious and the Nazis were vanquished. The 5th of Iyar marks our victory and redemption from the cruel claws of the Nazis. It fits into the rubric of the Talmud and we must proudly recite Hallel.

An important postscript:
The monument-memorial to the 6 million in Berlin Germany is a nameless grave site of 2,711 stones sculpted by the artist Eisenman in his stunning cemetery memorial. Why 2,711 stones? The artist claims it was merely arbitrary and happened to make sense artistically. In Hitler's final bunker which became his grave site – only a stone's throw from the memorial – was remarkably found a Talmud tractate Pesachim which is the holiday of our redemption. The Talmud was presented to Rav Isaac Herzog of blessed memory, Chief Rabbi of Israel at the time of the establishment of the State. Why did Hitler bring the Talmud into the bunker? No one really knows, but it would seem that Hitler believed or hoped that he was burying the last Talmud in the world. The fact however is that following the holocaust there were 2 miracles: the establishment of the State of Israel and the explosion of Torah learning in the Jewish world. This is reflected especially in the popular study of the Daf Yomi, the study of the Talmud every day for 7 years after which time the student will have concluded the entire Talmud. The truth is that Hitler did not bury the Talmud, our all and eternal law; the Talmud buried Hitler. And remarkably enough there are 2, 711 pages all together in the Babylonian Talmud.!