Q&A: Hallel on Independence Day This Year
Hallel on Independence Day This Year
Question
Hello,
According to my understanding of the political situation today, the State of Israel is no longer the state of the Jews. Maybe this still has not found formal expression, but I believe that among most of the secular Ashkenazi public, consciously or unconsciously, the concept of nationhood is considered racist, and therefore they deny the shared fate of the Jewish people. That is my belief at the moment. Accordingly, I am currently living in a country that, from my perspective, is a foreign regime (a bit like how the Haredim experience it). Assuming that until now I have recited Hallel—do I still need to recite Hallel even though the reason for saying it (the renewal of Jewish rule in the Land and the miracles that accompanied it) has already ceased? In other words, should I treat Independence Day like Hanukkah, where even though the original reason for Hallel has ceased we still say it, or like Frankfurt Purim, which is no longer observed today even by descendants of Frankfurt, apparently because there is no community in Frankfurt today—and I am not obligated in Hallel (and perhaps it is even forbidden for me to say it)?
Answer
First, on the factual level, your perception is fundamentally mistaken. The connection to Judaism, and even to religion, is only increasing all the time across all layers of the public. True, there is a noisy minority that opposes this, but it has become noisier because it senses a constant retreat (from its point of view). It is like the increasing extremism among the Haredim, which grows over time because they feel they are in retreat as well (because problematic ideas and patterns of behavior are spreading even within the Haredi world).
Also on the normative level, Hallel is not said because of the state's Jewish character, but because of the rescue and the establishment of the state for Jews. Even if the state is not Jewish by your definition (and in my opinion as well), it is still the state of the Jews. Therefore I, as someone who thinks the state is not Jewish—not because of the facts you described but in principle—recite Hallel without hesitation.
And third, Maimonides writes in the laws of Hanukkah that sovereignty returned to Israel for more than two hundred years. That sovereignty was very problematic, and in the end it collapsed with a great crash. Yet to this day we celebrate Hanukkah. The reason is that we received a state for Jews, and if the Jews decide to run it improperly, that is our decision and not God's. That is not a reason not to say Hallel to Him. If someone gave you a gift of one hundred shekels and you threw it into the sea, would you not still owe him thanks?
Discussion on Answer
First of all, someone who knows that he belongs to Frankfurt might perhaps still observe it ("Blessed is He who performed a miracle for my forefathers in this place"). Usually people think the place is what determines it. In Frankfurt there was a miracle of rescue, whereas for us this is thanksgiving for the establishment of the state. It is still here with us.
I understand. But I was not talking about a Jewish state, but indeed about the state of the Jews. It was indeed established for them, but today it has ceased to be that; rather, it is a state of all its citizens like the United States (in my view). If so, why do the descendants of the Frankfurt community no longer observe Frankfurt Purim today?