This - My Land, My People, My State

Yaffa Ganz
© 2006

There are those who say
the present state
of the Israeli State
is not enough.
Enough? I say.
Nothing man has
is ever enough.

There are those who say
that patriotism for the Jewish State
is not eminently respectable
nowadays.
Faulty, unstable, imperfect,
this is not the State
we hoped for.

But it is the only state we have,
I reply.
It is a gift, a challenge, a treasure;
a child born of longing,
long travail
and millenia of pain,
waiting to be perfected.
It is and will be what we make it.

There are those who say
not everyone sees
or agrees
with what I see and say is here.
But how can they not see?

Earth blessed and fruitful,
bestowing lavish bounty upon her sons.
Life giving waters, rain and dew.
Winds laden with scents of growing things.
Mountains soaring upwards to seven tiered heavens.
A sky filled with visions
of a Godly throne;
a land filled with visions
of an ancient, earthly home.
And across the length and breadth of the land,
women
pregnant with dreams and heavy with child.
Pity the blind who do not see.

This is my Land,
legacy of my fathers,
fruit of my labors
(I, too, am a pioneer of sorts),
partially realized fruition of ancient dreams.

I treasure and give thanks
for the faulty, wayward, imperfect
State
we are trying to perfect.
I love our holy, fearsome, sometimes maddening
G-d given Land
and the holy, fearsome, sometimes maddening
G-d chosen People
who have chosen to return to its embrace.
These are my People, my Land, my State.

May G-d keep us,
protect us,
watch over us.
May He bless us
and cause His Countenance
to shine upon us.
May He bring His promised, perfect peace
to His Chosen People,
His Promised Land,
and to this nascent, wondrous, maddening,
still highly imperfect
State.

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