This – My Land, My People, My State

hero image
Flag of Israel. Close up.
05 May 2006
Israel

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.

 

The words of this author reflect his/her own opinions and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Orthodox Union.