OU Torah Insights Project

This week, the modern State of Israel enters its Jubilee year. Just as Pesach behooves us to reflect on how yetziat Mitzrayim impacts upon our contemporary lives, so too Yom Ha’atz-ma’ut gives us reason to reflect upon the vital role Medinat Yisrael plays in our lives.

At a Mizrachi convention, some forty years ago, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, zt"l, com-pared the work of Mizrachi to the life of Yosef. Yosef was concerned about the future of Bnai Yisrael. He believed that their national destiny was about to take a turn and dreamed about how they could prepare for the new civilization on the horizon.

His brothers, on the other hand, saw their future as a continuation of the present. They would forever remain in their father’s home, generation after generation.

Yosef dreamed of the stars, the moon, the sun. He had visions of grandiose technical advancements, challenges to their heritage and solutions to those challenges. The brothers said, in effect, "That’s not our business to figure out; that’s G-d’s domain."

Clearly, G-d led history forward according to Yosef’s position. Preparation for Jewish survival in a new and alien society was imperative.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, many Jews saw the future of the Jewish people merely as a continuation of the present. Thousands of Jews wanted nothing to do with the winds of advancement. The new world did not interest them at all.

Others, however, could not sit back. Seeing destruction on the horizon, they knew intuitively to move forward, to establish the foundations of Medinat Yisrael, to advance the physical and spiritual survival of Klal Yisrael.

Just as Yosef dealt with the Egyptians, with whom he had very little in common, in order to secure the survival of his family, so too the policy of religious Zionists has always been to find common ground with secular Jews, with whom we have much more in common, for the sake of Jewish survival.

And yet, although Yosef’s insights maintained the survival of the house of Israel, he is introduced to us with the words, "Yosef brought disparaging gossip about (his brothers) to their father."

But did he mean to be disparaging, or rather to be corrective, to point out the inappropriate short-comings of his brothers, the founding fathers of the Jewish nation?

Perhaps religious Zionists should not make waves with those who refuse to re-cognize the sacred value of Medinat Yisrael. After all, the Torah admonishes us not to gossip.

On the other hand the Torah states, "Do not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds."

It is time for religious Zionists to come forward and reclaim our position as the uniting force of Klal Yisrael. We must again have a voice. Klal Yisrael is bleeding. We must speak out against actions positions, coming from both the right and the left, which impede the ongoing development of Medinat Yisrael as the modern manifestation of the prayers and dreams of Jews throughout the centuries, reshit tzemichat geulateinu.

AMIT	Orthodox Union	National Council of Young Israel
Bnei Akiva	Poalei Agudath Yisroel	Religious Zionists of America
Emunah	Rabbinical Council of America	Touro College Alumni

RIETS Alumni, Stern College Alumnae, Sy Syms School of Business Alumni, & Yeshiva College Alumni (YU)

Torah Insights for Shabbat Parashat Kedoshim

Yom Ha'atzmaut

May 10, 1997