„And this state is our state, the State of Israel, the foundation of G…”

The State of Israel, 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 gathered from the four corners of the earth after thousands of years and returned home. This is not a collection of strangers but of brothers who returned to their home after a long and hard road. In this passage Rav Kook explains the difference between a state that is a collection of individuals—a random place, random people—and a state whose purpose is ideal, bound to a specific place, people, and time.

We have merited to return home, to the State of Israel, and to advance day after day in our state, which is an enormous source of pride and a symbol of success, beauty, and connection. We have merited a generation that contains many myriads of servants of God and students of Torah in various shades. A generation containing a people that desires the good of its state and its people. May there be success in all fields, and an ever-deeper connection to the tradition of Israel—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. The people of Israel live!

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