The Prayer for the State Of Israel | Rabbi Anthony Manning

Well, welcome all. If I could remind everyone please to just turn off their phones that would be helpful. Also, I'd like to thank our sponsors for the Shirim or today's Shir Wednesday shar certainly. Um, the shir is sponsored as all of the Shirim this academic year and Zelik Ben and we have a special sponsorship today as well. The share is sponsored in loving memory of Mrs. Sally Brower Sarah Rifka Bat Na of Chicago and her family is sponsoring that. Is her family here? I don't know if her family is here but if not then thank you very much in any event. Uh and her side is Tedar and this should be an aliyah. Okay. So we have a fun share I hope today an interesting topic. Two weeks ago, we started with a shir on the uh development of the prayer for the governments and we spoke at some length as to how that evolved through the centuries uh through Oliver Cromwell, man Israel, the modern era, different kings and queens of England. And I mentioned then that that was a hakama that really that sh was really an introduction for today's sh which is the the uh the prayer for the state of Israel for the milina which uh certainly I'm sure everybody in this room has been hearing a lot over the last year and a half in the midst of this uh ongoing war. Um and for many of us I don't know about you but I I I hear this probably 30 times more than I ever hear. uh I have no problem with hearing her tikvah and happy to sing it when it's played. But uh this is of course a uh an anthem that the religious community is very much wedded to and I'd like to talk a little bit about how it came about and analyze a few aspects of it which I think are particularly relevant and and I think very interesting. So let's start at the beginning. Uh shortly after the state was established in 1948 uh rabbitic leaders were approached. We'll see Rab Herzog Rabitzk Isaac Alvi Herzog and it's important that he's a ley we'll see that in a minute was approached to compose prayers for the state of Israel but others as well uh rahudman who was later the uh chief rabbi of Israel he composed a special Misha Rabin Katz in Petikva Petikva was and still is a very important area of religious Zionist community. uh Rav Katsbra made a prayer on the basis of the Hanoten Chiwa prayer. He based it on that like he assumed that that was what would continue and in fact Ra Herzog later in the 1950s visited his shul in Petika and saw that they were still doing the the old quotes and quotes Misha and got a lot somewhat unhappy about that. He says, "Why are you doing that and not the the official one, the au?" And I think that they changed that. But many Rabbi Nim were actually quite negative about continuing the old style prayer that we talked about two weeks ago. And one of the reasons for that is, and I mentioned this in passing, I said maybe this is a bit of a conspiracy theory. Uh but Kapak, Rav Kapak says very clearly, no, it's real. that this prayer he says was instituted in order to um in order to imply that people should be thinking of the other psukim which are next to the pukim in that prayer which actually talk about the downfall of the government the downfall of the enemies of Israel and therefore he said that prayer was instituted as a kind of sly way of them say praying for the zar but uh may God keep the zar well and far away from us yes exactly so he said that's the last thing that we need in the state of Israel. We want something which is specifically for the Jews. Uh and actually on the 20th of September, the 16th of L 1948, the new prayer was announced. It was first announced in the newspaper hat. Don't know if the newspaper is still going. I doubt it, but someone will probably tell me. Uh hats here and I brought you the the actual page from the from the paper there where it says shalom is. And I will read you in a minute the uh the first and last paragraphs of that separate to this sheet. But you'll see in the middle it says the prayer that we know and love etc. etc. Now what's that? Is it? Oh we that's the whole that we're going to talk about that. Okay. So let's go to page two. Asama asked who wrote it? Who wrote it? It appears in the paper but who wrote it? So it was always assumed that Rav Herdzog wrote it. Rah Herdzog was the chief rabbi. But in 1983 there was an article in Mariv by David Tamar that said no actually it was written by Shai Agnon and not by Rav Herzog and that started a flurry of academic inquiry and books have been written on that and in the footnotes I've given you some of the references and we'll have to start today's share with a little bit of a kind of a who done it uh like just to work out who actually wrote the prayer before we go into it. So let's start with the announcement in looking at number one on page two. So this is this was on the page before on the paper copy but if you look here in number one it starts as follows. So the rabbis of chief rabbis of Israel of Herzogen and the chief rabbi with the approval of the moat of the okay and these other three major rabbis in interesting Tel Aviva They have created this prayer which appears below to be said in all Israeli and inadim. That was the official announcement. It was written by was yelled to be to be said afterwards. And then he gives the prayer. And at the end there is one line which is in number one or the last line number one it's worth noting they felt it necessary to say that you should you should just know that Shy Agnon of Ysef known as Shai Agnon who origin name of course was not Agnomo but Chashkus um from I think Hungary uh he of course was not Hungary okay well it doesn't matter he was Galitzia excuse me thank you um and he was living in Israel obviously and he was very famous at the time and he was part of the prayer so which part did he write and of course everybody's getting excited who wrote is thisog is this shagnon so let's see if we can trace what's going on here let's start with number two which is the memoir of Rav Herzog's um secretary Ravakov Goldman and he gives the background to how this came to be written. Number two, I went to see one day and I saw him irritated. He'd been asked to write this prayer in a very few days because in just a few days after that they gave him a few days notice and said chief rabbi you're the chief rabbi this is your job please write ah and the rah said to his secretary that's not what I do you know I I I write chuvers I don't write poetry I'm not a writer and that they only give me a few days. What am I going to do? He says, I wanted to calm him down a little. I said to him, it's not so terrible. Okay. Write the best thing you can write. Maragnon and I'll take it down the road to Shyagnon and he'll, you know, as um Yehuda used to say, he'll Shakespeareize it, you know, he'll, you know, make it into something. Okay. Um I I'm going to bring it to he'll make on it. He'll give you some input. Herzog was delighted with this idea. Hats he sat down immediately and he wrote but what did he write what was sent to Shai Agnon so it's not entirely clear and we'll get to the two options as to what was sent but one thing is clear is that he sent him a covering letter and the covering by the way I didn't research all this myself this is I mean I did but I I didn't just go to the archives and find all these letters uh this is well documented in the books that have been written on this etc and I referred you in the in the footnotes to those books. Here on the left hand side is a copy of the letter which reads as following on number three. This is August the 30th 1948. So he says so first of all you see he calls him Yadidi and he calls him not butshi. This is a letter from one ley to another ley saying that we are the mashim. We are the ones who sing the praises of Hashem in the mikdash. You and I theim and between us we'll get this done. Okay shalom very very warm letter many places and he says in interestingly are asking me for this prayer. He obviously was receiving requests from them. Instead of I need to do an alternative are brothers in exile their eyes are all me on me and my eyes are all on you which is actually reminiscent of how the uh the how we talk about when he had to d for the rain. Anyway, he says because you are the songwriter, you are the poet. Hashem and you're also and you've always been the and you are equipped and qualified and appropriate to write. Now just for a second before we go back into the to finish that look just for a second at number four. What is Ravitak Herzog talking about? He is paraphrasing the which talks about the of and says in number four that thehat has to be appropriate. He has to be qualified. He has to be suitable. What does that mean? Suitable. He has to be free of sin. Uald it's not good enough to have a baluva who used to be who knows what and now is a has to be someone who is mald interesting I'm not saying that that's the only criteria for choosing the shhats by any means but he's saying to to agnon this is you you are that person from your youth you have a good name let's go back into number three and this is the key I'm going to send you I'm going to sh send you a shorthand form a beginner form and I have written this is a springboard it's going to be like a springboard or is like a foundation a base it's going to be a base for you to write the poem the song Isaac a very warm letter. What was it that Ra Herds sent to Shnon this? So it's not 100% clear. Uh what we do have is we have uh go over the page to page three a second. We have Shyagnan's letter back and this is Shyagnan's letter. you see the with the sort of a less squiggly handwriting. Uh and this is what he wrote back to um to Rav Herdsog and that is basically there are minor minor changes uh in the wording and you see in in the middle he put two options one above the other which he kind of gave us alternatives which are not really that critical. It's as opposed to opposed to and that may be depending on which perspective you have. Is it God should you know fight for us or fight for them or depending on who how you're phrasing it? But this is what Shydon sent back. Now this is pretty much the whole this is from the beginning to the end. So it looks like Shyagnon wrote the prayer because that's what he sent back to Rab Herzog. But and this is where it gets a little bit uh confused. We also have found in the archives you see on the left underneath Shahagnon's letter a letter written out in the chief rabbis handwriting which is also almost the entire of au and now we're left with a conundrum who copied whom rahsock says he sent a short form to Agnon Agnon certainly sent him back this long form Did Rav Herdzog then copy out Shyagnon's long form? Okay. And say, "Okay, that looks beautiful. I'm going to copy this out." And by the way, there is a a small but important change in Raog. It starts. Okay, maybe he added that in. Or alternatively, is this the short form that Rab Herdzog sent to Shyagnon? And then Shyagnon copied it out and sent it back with a couple of changes. It's very difficult to know. One of the problems is like if this is the short form like it's this is the whole thing in what way did Rav Herzog just write something preliminary and ask Shyagnon to to expand it? This is basically the whole thing. And what did Shyagnan do? And if if this is what Rob Herdsock sent him, why did Shagnon just copy it out all over again? Why didn't he just make a note in the margin like I think not this word and yes this word and not that word. So it's not at all clear. Um there is another suggestion which we'll get to when we get there. But those are the two letters that we basically have. One from Shiagnon to Herzog with the whole thing out and one from Herzog. It's not clear exactly who it's to. We're writing out the whole thing with a few extra changes. If you look at the bottom of page three, um there is a conversation that Dov Sadan, Dov Sadan was a Kabek Nesset in the 1960s. He won the Israel Prize for Jewish studies and he says he had a conversation with Ra Herzog. Look at number five at the bottom of page three. I came to speak to Ra says I mentioned as part of our conversation that I in my poverty in my limited abilities I tried to write I tried to do this back in the 40s he says to Raertz sorry he smiled smiled at me and he said, "Okay, he beat you to it." Aon beat you to it. Whoa. Really? Okay. So, that sounds from this adot that Ra Herdzog says that Shai Agnon did it. If so, what was Rahzog sending to Shyagnon? So, look on the top of page four. We also found we also found um a a typed version of the prayer for the state of Israel on Rav Herzog's note paper which says on it in his handwriting. Okay. And this is very different. If you look in number six, I brought you this and you'll see that there in bold. It's the the bits that made it into the final draft. But this starts very differently. It brings from that interesting not again we'll have to talk about that. Does make make it stronger or does make it less? Seems to make it weaker a little bit. you I can't tell you this is this is okay and then most of the rest is similar then a little bit different Now this could have been the short form filler that Raher typed and sent to Shyagnon in which case Shyagnon basically wrote the main thing because uh the final version that we have obviously is much more expanded. It's not clear. The academics do not agree on this. Uh the general consensus as far as I can see uh that has been concluded. There's a there's a book on this written um I wrote his name down here. Uh Yol Rapel, Dr. Yol Rapel wrote a whole book on this which you can get on Amazon in Hebrew or in English. Rapel, excuse me, Rapel. Uh and he thinks that Rahz did it. We're not sure what this short form is, but that's not relevant. And Ra Herzog basically wrote it. Um and uh and you're going to have to go and work it out for yourself. Later on on the 10th anniversary of the state of Israel in 1958, Rab Herzog gave a speech, wrote an article, and he talks about the prayer that he wrote back in 1948. Okay, just him, him and Agnon, not clear, but one way or the other, the prayer was written between the two of them and was officially uh posted in the newspaper as we saw on September 20th, 1948. Okay, so you can go away and think about that. Maybe both of them had a hand in it. Maybe both of them had a hand in raidu. Maybe it was Ravagn. Don't know. I'm not sure we'll ever know. Just a word though on the song. Okay, this is not in Dr. Rapel's book, but I have a musical background. And of course uh the song that everybody sings including including everybody's great uncle under every ker it seems to me uh that I've been to in the last year and a half there's some family member who wants to sing this song uh of au shamim not always in the most uh style but you know the song the song was written by Sol Zim okay any of you who remember the brother Zim and the Zim family from the 1980s who recorded a lot of uh what you might early Jewish music in the modern kind of genre and Zim wrote the tune. Yeah. Etc., etc. So that's the Now, where did he get it from? So you can say, well, he composed it. So I have a theory and this is my theory and you can disagree with it and you can research it. I think he copied the song from the theme tune to Exodus. Okay? Because if you think of the if you if you're musical and you think of the chord sequence and you think of auim and the next bita and and the the uh the the exodus song is has the same it's it's the same chords basically. Go to a piano play the chords and you decide if you agree with me. Um, I I I suppose I think Sim Zim is still alive. Is he? I'm not sure. But I we we could always if anyone knows him, could you please send him an email and ask him if he'll admit to having ripped off the tune from the theme uh from Ernest Gold's theme from Exodus. But that's just my suggestion. You you can take it or leave it. Nothing really turns on it. Okay, fine. Yes. Sure. Oh, so that's a good question. I'm not an expert on Shyagnon. Shyagnon is seen by Rav Herzog as somebody who is authentically What's this? Oh, I've just missed something from our uh from our audience here. Cancer Soulzim is still alive as of May 2025. Barak Hashaman, 85 years old, lives in Queens. Um, Mr. Zim, if you're listening to this recording, please send me a note and uh and maybe we'll take it forward. If I hear from Saul, then I will uh I'll let you know in the future. Okay, fine. So, Shyagnon, I'm not an expert on Shyagnon. There's no question. I've heard sock talks about him in the most in the strongest possible, you know, positive way. Um, there's no question that Agnon writes things that aren't always necessarily totally in line with what you might say are fully orthodox, etc., etc., but he wasn't a rabbitic authority. He's not expressing rabbitic authority. And uh, you can go away and research what you feel uh, you know, he was. And do you need to have rabbitic authority in order to put together a for the medina on the basis of something that Raherog you know wrote. He's not turning to him for a rabbitic husk. He's turning to him for a poetic ear I etc. So um good question. I'm not sure it really matters but either way between them they did it. Let's have a look at itself because uh here we're going to just flag some important aspects of it. Let's divide it into five. Um I've done this at the bottom of page four and let's just see what it's how it reads. So it starts as you know with a uh a praise of God. Now we are going to have to look at both those phrases which actually is an unusual way to start a how many other start our father who art in heaven. Oh yes very good. Okay. Yeah, ex not Harold. It's not Harold. Okay. Um, and the question is, the question is, is this a Jewish way to start a um, and we'll see we'll see a bit of that also. Where is that coming from? Where do we refer to God as so you'll immediately say, well, it's the well, of course, it's not just the it's based on and we'll, and we'll see that soon. Then the second section is a for the for the state of Israel. We're going to look at that phrase as well. So shielded would beneath the the wings of your now these phrases okay you'll recognize from fromu from the last the last inkish which call because there is this question as to how can we interrupt between the bra of Israel in and then estra because there is an idea the ghoul has to be immediately before and indeed in the morning we are very particular not to interrupt. We go and doesn't even say it out loud often because in case someone says a because you mustn't interrupt and yet in Mariv we have a whole we have a kadesh. So what's going on there? So it's interesting that that bra itself has a resonance of it's called by an extension of Israel and there's no question I think that Raherog when he put these let's assume it's Raherog when he put these words in he's channeling that so send your lights and your truth to the leaders of the Jewish the people and again is fromu And there's a was not clear whether it should be etc. Shalom. Okay. So far so good. If you go over to page five, then the third section of the is then a prayer for the Jews outside of Israel to make aliyah, which I think is one of the reasons why a lot of communities do not say this prayer outside Israel. They've got their own prayer which doesn't call on their congregation to make aliyah. But it says here, so go remember them please in all of their scattered communities around the world. come immediately at bring them proud to the land of Israel and then he then he bring the theim of the people in terms of their chuvat god spiritually but also chuvat the land okay et I'm not going to read all the pukim very beautiful pukim and you will be aware also and this is a very important aspect we're not going to talk about really today so much is that ra alkaline when he in the early religious Zionist world when he interprets these inim of chuva he says it's very clear that this is a national chuva that people as a whole will do chuva and the national chuva means return to the land it's all focused on kibbut gallot it's not talking about each one of these individual Jews doing what we mean in a sense of their own personal spiritual spirituality which obviously they need to do it's talking about a national return to the And therefore this is channeling that idea of chuvat to the land and is ding for the non for the for the non-Israeli part of the Jewish world to come back then is a call for unity in the Jewish people which then calls for the Jewish people to come back to Torah and then finally a last call is the coming of Msiah which we remember that had no chah also ended with valion. on. So here it says then it's the final days where the whole world is unified. Five. So there are those five aspects to the prayer. I would like to look in the time that we have together at three of them. and because I think there's a lot to say about all of those three. Let's start with a sham. So the truth is that Shamim does appear in classic Jewish sources but not really as a filler but as a statement. Have a look here at the Mishna at the end of Sot. And this I think is one of the reasons that Rahzog picked it because the the Mishna at the end of Sot talks about the way the world will will look how things will move towards the end of days when Mashiach is on the way. So let's look at it together. It's a very beautiful Mishna that finishes off number seven. when the B mikdash was destroyed. So there was the theim the higher level observers of mitzvah were ashamed and the free people were ashamed and their faces were covered in shameu anisa and people who were were men of action people of action they dwindled za and violent people became um over usal lashian and people who were slanderers also had power over us aesh ael and nobody's searching and nobody's asking for God and nobody's seeking out God and then the famous line on whom can we rely and that's of course the famous song is from this uh from this and he continues in that vein from the when the mikdash was destroyed everyone went down a notch. The scholars became scribes. The safari kazana and the saf the sophri became khazanim kazanim doesn't here really mean singers. Okay, someone once told me kazan is rashias for zingish. Okay, but but uh but butan here means the gabay. They went down to the level of gabayim. Okay. the and the became. Now everything has just gone down and down and down. Who can we rely on? Finally, it finishes off in the footsteps when you can hear the the coming tapping of the the feet of Mashiach in the hall on the way. There will be a massive increase in the okay and the prices okay the prices will go up yes there'll be wine to buy but things will be very expensive and the nations of the world will not even be religious in their own religions they will just turn to secularism and nobody will rebuke them there will be an absence of truth. Youth will embarrass their elders. Okay. And the elder elderly will have to stand in front of the youth. It will everything will be on its head. The child will not be embarrassed or rebuked by his father. And finally, and there's no question, therefore, that Raog chose this phrase because this is the phrase. It's not a but it's a phrase that talks about this is what's going to be at the end of days. Who do we turn to as we approach? Okay. Um there's another Gmorra in number eight. From the day the temple was destroyed, there is now an iron wall, an iron curtain, interestingly between us and our father. Father in heaven, it brings apost from talks about that the placing of that iron curtain. There is a one place in the sidur that I was aware of or could find where we do use a shab as its and that is in shakar after the before the corban there's a little piece that you know if you're if you're late saying krishma you should say that and it has a little snippet of krishma in it as well and there it says I'm not going to ask for a show of hands but I'd like to bet that quite a lot of people myself included usually end up skipping that part do brahas and then corbanas whatever they can do and then you know they're lucky to get into zimra as Isaac Bernstein Bernstein a mentor of ours and a friend our son's actually named for him he was born shortly after he died he said in his classic Irish uh wit he said when people come late to shul the first thing they sacrifice is the corbonus Okay. So, he had he had a beautiful way of speaking, unbelievable wit. Uh for those who knew him, uh they're fortunate to have known him. Um so, there's no question that Aino Shabbash Shamayim has a resonance in classic uh in classic Jewish sources, especially for the end of days. However, there is a theory like I indicated or intimated before that Rav Hersog was well aware of the Lord's prayer. Uh he and one of the major questions that came up when the state of Israel was created is what are we going to do about the Christianity in the country? Is it a vodor? Is it not a vodora? Um and he he wrote at Chuba that we do not have to destroy churches and he justified why that is even though we now have control. But one of the things he felt very strongly about is that the coming of the state of Israel was a direct contradiction to 2,000 years of Christian theology that they who for thousands of years had been praying for the souls of the perfidious Jews who are damned because they did not accept the true religion. The state of Israel as we know the Vatican took decades to to deal with it if it has indeed dealt with it. um this is a direct reputation of Christianity and therefore there is a theory put out that that this is exactly what Raug meant and said yes this is now the new prayer au not the Lord's prayer and in fact I brought you um Rav Solvich in number on page six and number nine he talks in Kodi doc about the different knocks that resonated when the state of Israel was created and he says third the beloved also began to knock on the doors of the tent of theology and possibly this is the strongest beckoning I have on several occasions emphasized in my remarks concerning in the land of Israel. The theological arguments of the Christian theologians to the effect that the Holy One has taken away from the community of Israel its rights to the land of Israel. And that all of the biblical promises relating to Zion and Jerusalem now refer in an allegorical sense to Christianity and the Christian church were all publicly shown to be false baseless contentions by the establishment of state of Israel. One must have a broad familiarity with theological literature from the time of Justin Martyr down to the theologians of our own day to comprehend the full extent of this marvel by which the central axiom of Christian theology was shattered. Very strong words and it could be therefore that that is part of a shayim that he that is put into into that prayer. So that's the first suggestion on a shim. Let's go to Israel. So the use of the expression God for God as Israel has very strong Tanaki roots. And I brought you in number 10. I'm not going to read the whole thing. This is from which actually was my bar mitzvah para and again and again and again and again God is referred to in as the rock the dependable rock. He called then later the Jewish people became fat and kicked. Who did they kick? Shamanita etc. And he talks about Serenu and our rock is not like their rock and our rock saves us and their rock doesn't save them etc. And God is referred to again and again and again as a rock. not just as a rock but also as I brought you in 11 in where David says that the Israel has spoken. God is called Israel again and again in Yeshua as well. I brought you number 12 famous in our own fillers in number 13 from Hashem said and go Hashem for Ali similar similarly number 14 as it begins and this is probably why is put in there by let's say by Ravidkerog because the idea of Hashem being the T who is go and Moshia this is deep deep in our liturgy. Um and in fact as we know we finish off the before um the with this expression in number number 15. So etc etc. However, what you might not know and in fact what I didn't know is that there is a an alternative to the of that we say every day and that is the actual words from that used is part of that alternative looking number 16 says it's if you read the says it's in the in the When you do the final, you need to mention a few things. You need to talk about which of course we do. You have to talk about Hashem's over the Jewish people. You have to talk about the Red Sea and the killing of the firstborn. And then we have to say all of these things. And how do we end the to now that is not what we do and I brought you in number 17 the Taz on the has a very interesting side comment and he says when Taz is living in 16 late 16th 17th century in 17th century Poland and from when I was a young man I remember Ehad who was a doctor living near There was an old doctor. His name is he went on at the end of his days in the 1600s on and he asked one of the mayor the raots in the Maraviots. What are the Maraviots? If you remember back in the old days when you would used to dav init. So on yon they used to put in yachts in the morning and marvy in the evening extra extra extra extra stuff that doesn't even make it in small print now into the modern day Israeli okay but does still make it into the but one of the things we say in that is and the taz wants to say how can we say that that's not what it says in our garra says we have to say is not And in fact he brings the shami and he says no the shami survived in this minhag of the look at number 18 I brought you here from the art scroll sitter okay which still has of course all that stuff in gray that nobody says anymore I mean maybe you do say it but most places don't say it I used to dam in monks in London and they not only do they say everything in the small print but they've got their own books of even smaller print that they bring out and say more because whatever it works for them that's great. Um but if you see here you'll see this is on first night seda on seda night there's this the the we say le shim etc etc and it ends there is so in case you're wondering why in in the state the presence state of Israel we say then um that is actually directly out of our own although not one that we generally say but as you mentioned before um it of course had much more resonance in 194 48 because it was the big argument in the uh declaration of independence and I actually did a little bit of research on that. um an early draft of the text. What happened here? Um that the Felix Rosenluth who became Pinhas Rosen who was the first justice men minister of the state of Israel was given the job by Bengurian to write the migilata atma to write the declaration of independence and he didn't exactly know where to go. So he delegated it to a fellow called Morai Beh who was a junior min you know worker in the the uh proto ministry as it were before they became the justice ministry. Uh and Beh put together a first draft of the migillat of the declaration of independence. He didn't exactly know where to start. This young man uh the Morai Felix sorry what's his name? Moraiham. So he he went up the road where he was living and there was a fellow up the road, a Kutsnik guy, a conservative rabbi that made aliyah called Shalami Davididovitz um who was spent many years as a conservative rabbi in the states and moved to Tel Aviv in 1934. He actually had a dental practice there and he said, "I'll help you." He went to this uh rabbi of the road and said, "Where do I start? Where do I start drafting a declaration of independence?" And of course, what did this American rabbi say? the Declaration of Independence, you start with Washington. You So he brings down from the shelf the American Declaration of Independence and says, "And this is where we're going to start." And if you look at the end of the Declaration of Independence, the American Declaration of Independence, they make an oath and they say, "With a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, okay, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, fortunes, and sacred honor." Okay, they just translated that into Hebrew. Number Israel Israel is a translation of the American with firm reliance on the protection of divine providence. That's where the word came from. And that word su Israel was in the very first draft that was produced all the way to the very last draft that was actually signed uh on May the 14th in 1948. I brought you on the top of page eight a little extract from the uh from this the declaration of independence is and in the final draft which was prepared by Mosha Shertok um later Mosher that was still there. Now you should just know that this was a big argument and even on the day before independence itself when they were still deciding much more fundamental things like what shall we call the country they couldn't decide it was a choice between Israel Yeuda and Israel okay which is very interesting and all of them have upsides and downsides but they still hadn't decided the name for the state but they were still arguing about s is should we have or shouldn't we have and I actually brought you in the appendix. I'm not going to read the whole thing now. I brought you an extract from a book by um uh a fellow called Raachevski, Israel's Declaration of Independence. And you can see that basically it goes through the whole debate. Bengurian wanted to just go with Su Israel. It had been there from the beginning. It was a translation of the Americans which was divine providence. So Israel means whatever you want it to mean. Uh whatever we rely on, we rely on uh providence. we rely on God, we rely on the strength of the Jewish people. Bangorian was totally okay with that. Um, however, Rahm was not okay with that and insisted it has to be S is the goal. That is the way we have it. S is the goal. So, he was lobbying Bengurans till the last minute to put Su Israel. Um and on the other side uh there was a uh more on the left wing there was someone called Ziskin Zisling sorry Aaron Zistling who was a secular leftist at the time who wanted the whole thing to be taken out entirely su Israel should be taken out you can't tell me that I believe in Su Israel and Bengurian said to him you can believe in whatever you want to believe in and just say that's what Sur Israel is and they couldn't agree Ravimman wanted more Zissling wanted less and even on the morning of the David they still arguing about it and you can read in the appendix the Bengurian basically smacked the table and said that is all we're going to say about so Israel it's in and next let's think about what the country is going to be called um and uh in the end they went with so Israel Benguran you should just know was a very strong spinosist he was a big follower of Spininoza and I brought you actually in the in the footnotes on page eight uh on page seven probably was actually um an extract from an article that Bengurian wrote later on in 1953 uh which he labeled let us amend the injustice. I'm not going to read the whole thing now but when he was already a prime minister he wrote let us amend the amend the injustice. What is the injustice that Bengurian is so upset about? Is it the British? Is it the gun? Is it the al what is the injustice? No, it's the kim on spininoza. He was very unhappy about the kim on spininoza and he wanted the kim on spininoza lifted because Bengurian together with a number of very famous Jews in the mid 20th century Albert Einstein being another one was very keen on the spinosan idea of god which is a pantheistic idea of god that god and the universe are basically the same that god is a conscious version of the universe which is not a an acceptable Jewish theology. Um but nevertheless goes very well with the idea of Su Israel. Uh actually what what that is, what the rock is and the material and the spiritual etc. But that's all I'm going to say about that. In the end, Su Israel was in uh and Rahman didn't get his way. Neither did this. Fine. You can read that appendix later. Let's finish off in the last 10 minutes with so being is not a new one. that wasn't invented by the religious scientists. The idea of that is something is not gulah. It's not redemption but it's the beginning of redemption. And now is not a whole sh to talk about redemption. But let's get clear just at the start that redemption is not the same as Mashiach. Redemption means we get our land back, we get our independence back or we go in that direction. It's not necessarily the same thing as Messiah. But if you but it is connected obviously in many people's minds. But if you look here in number 21, this is quite a famous Gmorra mula where the the Gomorrah said that the end of days will come in the year in the seventh year. Then the Gomorrah asks on that number 21. Don't we have a tradition in the sixth year there'll be noise. There'll be the the sounds of approaching war. In the sixth in the seventh year there'll be wars of the Jews fighting and then only after the seventh yearb can Mashia come. And again, I don't know if it's da talking about years or periods. But this which you said was the the end of days is the time of to which the Gmorrah answers quite famously. The very fact that the Jews can fight a war with their own army with their own and on their own destiny. That is part of what gula is. Gula is being able to have some level of independence on determining the destiny of the Jewish people and not be completely subservient on the outside world. Obviously, we've we've always been connected to the outside world. Back to the first temple time, we were never able to just ignore Mitrion and Ashure and say we can do anything on our own and we still can't. You know, Russia, America, greater powers than us, China are still have to be relevant to us. But nevertheless, the ap the ability to fight a war says the garra there is also at therefore this phrase comes up in number of different places. I brought you in the footnotes. It's been used by religious scientists throughout uh Ravk doesn't actually talk about that phrase. Ravk uses the phrase well he does talk about but he doesn't use the phrase. He says and but he doesn't quite say not really a difference there subtly. He doesn't quite say however um the phrase is used in many other contexts. Um even the Uganda plan in 1903 to take down the Jews and just plop them in Kenya was actually in Kenya was called by the Misrai movement goulah. That is the beginning of gula because again it may not be inherit Israel but it gives some level of independence. The peel commission which was not a friendly commission in many ways to the Jewish people gave us a right to a sliver a tiny sliver of land which was far less than what was included in the original Bafa declaration. Nevertheless said that the ability to even get a little bit of land back is what's called the beginning of um what does mean colot? Good question. call it I think means like distant rumblings you know the approach the approach of war the thunder and the the lightning coming to us yes what's an example I know it's a good question I don't know how all these things play out in uh you know the the the sounds of approaching troubles yes when you talk about no no well you can read it you you want to read it in our way again it's not just talking about years there's no question it's talking about eras and you can see what you mean by the millennia and that's a whole conversation about how the calendar works. We are in the sixth, like I said, we are in the sixth millennia. The question is, is the sixth millennia the one which Mashiach can come? The Gomorrah says the fifth and the sixth millennia are the ones I don't know if this tracks exactly with the 6,000year idea. I have a whole sh I'm actually working on for that calendar idea which is not necessarily for now. However, there is a very strong idea from and I do want to share this with you. I think this is very important because gives a prediction. Look at number 22. beyond when I purify you with from all of your sins. You the the cities will be rebuilt and the the and the uh the destroyed towns will be replaced and the land which had been so desolate will once again be worked. And instead of being desolate, everyone who goes past it, it will now be worked. And the land will they will say this land which has been so desolate has become again like the garden of Eden and the cities which had been so destroyed which have been desolate which had been completely trampled but they have been built up into new citadels and then the nations will know which the the Jews are left ine I God have rebuilt your destroyed towns I have replanted your destroyed agriculture and the garra in Sanhedrin when discussing how do I know that the gul has arrived and again I'm not using the gul in the same phrase as mashiach gul say mashia and gul are two separate things how do I know there's a massive argument across a whole damar. He once had a shir about this. Do the Jewish people need to do chuva in order for the gul to come and says yes there is no gulah without chuva. Okay. And Yeshua says no the gulah will come even without chua chuba and they go back and they go forth and they go back and they go forth. And by the way this word chuva also resonates with the idea of return to eritral. Do the Jews need to return or will God shle them back? Okay. How does that work? Back and forth and back and forth and they throw sukim at each other and it's not clear who wins that argument. It's not clear. The ram seems to pass in one way like rebel and the ram seems to pass like Yeshua. It's just like a not nonclear ending. But the gared ends with number 23 and it says and says or but says there is no clearer sign that the end is being revealed than this and the mountains of Israel. You are going to give give of your branches. and lift up your fruit. Give your fruit to my Jewish people because they are approaching. They are coming closer. Rashi explains when the land gives of its fruit with a generous eye, you know that this is the approach of the end, the end game. And there is no clearer indication of gula than the turnaround of the land. And in fact in 24 he said that that's why this Gomorrah is here because this Gomorrah is just given a whole page of back and forth. Do the Jews need to do chuva? Yes they do. No they don't. Yes they do. No they don't. Yes they do. So how do I know? How do I know when it's really gula? Because you if I pass that then it can't be gula because they didn't do chuva. hasn't maybe he could be says that's why this Gomorrah is there because this Gmorrah finishes that debate and says but this you know for sure there is no doubting this the one sure sign of the coming is the land because you can't interpret that politics you can interpret where are we politically we're in a good place we're in a bad place you can talk that all day long on the one hand we're in a great place on the other hand we're in an terrible place and you each can give their interpretation You can't interpret what's happening to the Israeli land. There's no interpretation. Oh, it's not really giving its fruit. What are you talking about? It's a fact. It's facts on the ground. As Ra Shalom often said, if you want to talk to God, you go to the Ka. If you want to experience God, you go to the shook. Go to look at the fruit. There's nothing else to say. And said, that's why this Garra is here. Because one sure sign if you're in a confused world is the land. And I brought you here in number 25. Cohen says, "I asked asked him in the 40s when he wrote this shisha was probably about 20. How do you know?" Clearly, you wrote this. How do you know this? Maybe the state is extremely important, has great value and it saves Jewish lives. How do you know it's the gula? And of course clearly said, we don't have to say that it's the gula. It's an incredibly valuable um reality for the Jewish people irrespective of the gula. So he asked, he challenged him, "How do you know?" Prophesied. Okay. He the rabbi smiled at me and he snagged me on the cheek. Okay. And he said to me, "It seems you've forgotten an explicit He says that's how did Rafer know in 1948 that this was indeed racial without any with any doubt the land not the politics not the army nothing just the land because the land doesn't lie and that's a very very uh very strong idea in fact I brought you just briefly on page uh number uh 10 I brought you Rav Amital. Skip nine for now. That's Rav Goran's interpretation of uh of Rav Herzog. Rav Amital says when Ra Herzog spoke of the beginning of the flowering of our redemption, he did not mean the messianic redemption. Rather, he meant the simple redemption consisting of Jewish sovereignty in the land. Carson Sofa comments that several times during the course of history God wanted to redeem Israel with an incomplete redemption as during the second temple but the nation of Israel refused etc. And therefore um indeed he says in 1948 we did not speak of the Messiah. We prayed for Malut Israel and sufficed with sovereignty comparable to that of the second temple period. There is no doubt that we attained at least that much during Ezra's time. Very few people came back to Israel in our time. Thank God we have reached five or six million. We have never had such numbers here says Rab Amital. The messianic feeling the sense of the revealed end started only after the sixth day war. And therefore Rav Amital wanted to say that don't get carried away with messianism means that we have begun a process of in its straightforward sense a return to our land. Remember from the from the sukim in the Torah if a person if a tribe loses their land or loses their independence is sold as a slave someone can buy it back someone can redeem them getting back your land and your sovereignty said it's no worse than the kashim because of the kashim they got a certain amount of sovereignty back to Israel we say halal with a bra for eight days on kanek just for that and there's no question that many of the rulers of the kashman were worse than any government that this country has ever had okay says that was enough says I'm not going to speak about mashia ramit was very clear about this. I'm not going to talk about Msiah. Maybe he is Mashiach, maybe it's not Mashiach, but for sure it's gula in that sense. I just wanted to end with one comment which uh I brought you on the top of page 11. You can read in your own time. This idea of the land responding is so fundamental because in the in the says I give you a that whoever else comes to your land, it will not respond to them. They won't flower. It won't give fruit. It will be desolate. I even brought you Mark Twain on page 11 as well. It'll be desolate. And says the Ramban and says Raenu Baka, this is an enormous consolation because even if they try to grow the land, it won't work for them. And says Raenu Baki says, I'll tell you something else. In many cases, they won't even try, says Raenu. All they'll do is burn it down. All they'll do is destroy it. And Salahadin's nephew destroyed all the walls of Shalam. The Mamalukes destroyed all the crusader fortifications on the coast because they said, "We don't want anybody else to be able to get a foothold here. We don't want the place. We just want it to be like Saudi Arabia, barren, because we need to control it. We're not here to build it. We're not here to grow it. We're just here to destroy it." That's the shitta. That's what Raenu Baki says. That's what the Ramban says. That's what the other nations will want to do and be able to do. We're different. We have a different agenda and the land relates to us differently. And therefore, but should really be attain in every sense and we should uh we should go from there to higher and higher things.