Independence Day

The state of the Jews was established specifically in the Land of Israel. We returned to the land of our fathers; the tribes of Israel were gathered from the four corners of the earth after thousands of years and returned home. This is not a collection of strangers, but brothers who returned to their home after the hardships of a long and difficult road. In the passage the Rav explains the difference between a state that is a collection of individuals - a chance place, chance people - and a state whose purpose is ideal: bound to a place, a people, and a time. We have merited to return home, and to advance each and every day in our state, which is a source of immense pride and a symbol of success, beauty, and connection. A state that is a light unto the nations in its morality, in its high-tech, in its advanced technologies. In the people within it. In the Torah within it. We have known a year of deep sorrow, a year in which it was proven more than ever that the Jewish people must be master of its own fate. In which it was proven more than ever that the world will not protect us and our fate is in our hands alone. The people of Israel live!