!חג עצמאות שמח

From your friends at

The American Sephardi Federation

In honor of today’s celebration of Israel’s 74th Independence Day, the ASF’s Sephardi World Weekly is pleased to offer the following “Letter from the Land of Israel”:

Is there a special religious value to the state of Israel and to the historical period in which we are living, a period in which the nation of Israel has regained political sovereignty in the land of Israel, including over the united city of Jerusalem? Speaking in very broad terms, Israel’s national-religious community says ‘yes,’ while most of the Haredi community says ‘no.’ Throughout the 20th century, it should be noted, Sephardi sages overwhelmingly identified with the national-religious position. When, however, we probe the religious meaning attributed to the state and present age by national-religious rabbis, we encounter a variety of perspectives and rulings regarding the state, its institutions, and its history.

One area in which the debate regarding the religious status of the state plays itself out most clearly is the question of whether or not one should recite the celebratory Hallel prayer on Israel’s Independence Day, which we recently celebrated. Sephardi sages in the national-religious camp offer a variety of answers.

Some, like Mordechai Eliyahu (1929-2010), the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1983-93, ruled that Sephardim should say the Hallel prayer but without making the initial blessing. Others, like the great Moroccan sage and Chief Rabbi of Haifa, R’ Yosef Massas (1892-1974), ruled that one should say the complete Hallel prayer with the initial blessing. His cousin, R’Shalom Massas (1909-2003), the Chief Rabbi of Morocco until 1972, then the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem until his passing, made a distinction: those who say the complete Hallel prayer with the initial blessing, according to the original ruling of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, should continue to do so, while those who do not customarily make the initial blessing shouldn’t do so, since “new opinions have been voiced that one shouldn’t make the initial blessing, and we are lenient when dealing with doubtful blessings.” Finally, the contemporary scholar and communal leader, R’Ouri Cherqi, has ruled that one should say the complete Hallel with initial blessing both in the evening and in the morning, parallel to the practice on Passover.

But truth be told, rabbinic arguments can sometimes be wearying, and there is a danger that the bigger picture will get lost in the small details, no matter how great the rabbis are and the possible import of those details. In this context, the approach of the Israel-Prize laureate and Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, R’Hayim David HaLevi (1924-1998), comes as a breath of fresh air. R’HaLevi treated the question of Yom Ha’Atzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day) and Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) with a broad and humane approach, true to the best of the classic Sephardic tradition, in his monumental five-volume legal work, Maqor Hayim HaShalem. While he refrained from offering an authoritative ruling regarding the recitation of the Hallel prayer, “since the opinions of Torah scholars are divided,” R’ HaLevi used the question of correct religious practice as an opportunity to make a general observation and statement regarding the ebb and flow of Jewish history.

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The first thing to note in R’HaLevi’s treatment of Yom Ha’Atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim is that he writes about these holidays in a chapter devoted to the period, “between Passover and Shavuot.” Originally, these forty-nine days were supposed to be one extended, festive period, seven festive weeks seven times over, like the festive, intermediary days that mark the beginning and end of both Passover and Sukkot. The festive character of these days was transformed, however, by the death of R’Akiva’s 24,000 students in the period between Passover and Shabuot. Because of the national tragedy—some scholars argue that the students were soldiers who, lacking unity, died in the war with the Roman Empire—the originally festive time was transformed into an extended period of mourning. Therefore, traditional and religious Jews often observe various mourning rituals during this period, such as not shaving, not marrying, and not listening to instrumental music.

When R’ HaLevi writes about Yom Ha’Atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim, he treats these days in this broader perspective. And in R’ HaLevi’s opinion, it’s no accident that these amazing days occurred, and are observed as holidays, during this charged period: “We have merited, thanks to God’s will, the establishment of the state of Israel on the 5th of Iyar… And again we merited, thanks to God’s will, the great victories during the six-day war, the greatest being… the unification of Jerusalem on the 28th of Iyar.” Thanks to these great historical events, writes R’ HaLevi, “New and vibrant waves in the history of our people are coming and slowly removing the layer of mourning and sadness that have attached themselves to these days, slowly purifying them… and restoring their original joyousness, days of light and splendor for the nation of Israel.”

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Ir me kero madre a Yerushalayim

 The Safra Square—named in honor of Jacob and Esther Safra, the parents of the extraordinarily successful Sephardic banker and philanthropist Edmond J. Safra—near Jerusalem’s City Hall features Arman Darian’s colorful mosaic based on the historic Bünting Clover Leaf Map (Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae, Magdeburg, 1581). A mappa mundi created by German theologian and cartographer Henrich Bünting, the map depicts Jerusalem as the figurative center of the world, at the intersection of a clover leaf composed of the European, African, and Asian continents (Photo courtesy of Österreichischen Jüdischen Museums).

Jak, of Jak and Janet Esim Ensemble fame, captured Turkish-Sephardi singer Bienvenida “Berta” Aguado singing a live and, one suspects, impromptu restaurant rendition of Ir me kero madre a Yerushalayim (“I want to go to Jerusalem, mother”) in 1992. Describing a Sephardic exile’s yearning for a return to Zion (“I will make a home there/ I will belong there”), this Ladino romance is thought to be based on a poem composed in memory of the celebrated poet, thinker, and communal leader Yehuda HaLevi, the most romantic figure from the world of classical Andalusian piyyut. Aguado, who was born in Turkey, fulfilled the song’s promise by making aliyah.

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R’ HaLevi places Yom Ha’Atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim in the broad sweep of Jewish history, and he accordingly sees these holidays as signs that the nation of Israel is slowly recovering its original vigor and strength. From this higher perspective, R’HaLevi then descends and returns to the disputations that characterize our present-day reality, noting that different congregations have different customs and traditions regarding the way these holidays are to be observed. Without a consensus of scholars, concludes R’HaLevi, “it’s not yet possible to include these days in the framework of a work dedicated to establishing determinative legal decisions.”

The implicit message of R’HaLevi’s approach is clear: one can celebrate Israel’s Independence Day and Jerusalem Day in various ways—one can recite Hallel during the evening and morning, or only in the morning with a blessing, or in the morning without a blessing—but the different approaches should be tolerantly accepted. God forbid that different approaches should lead to conflict between Jews. The main concern is that we should appreciate the greatness of the period in which we live, a period in which, slowly, the nation of Israel is “renewing our days as of old.”

“For the Freedom of Jerusalem”

The American Sephardi Federation

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Photo credit: The flagship Sephardic rabbinic institution, Yeshivat Porat Yosef, built between 1914-1923 in the Old City of Jerusalem overlooking the Western Wall at the behest of Iraqi-Sephardi sage, the Baghdad-based Hakham Yosef Hayyim (the Ben Ish Chai). Pictured here, the destruction of Porat Yosef by the Jordanian Arab Legion, Jerusalem, Israel, May 1948 (Photo by John Phillips/Life Magazine; Image scan courtesy of Wikipedia).

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