By Moshe Feiglin
May 11, 2005
I shall say Hallel on Independence Day, and give thanks to our Father in Heaven, who has returned us to our land and also given us sovereignty, a Jewish State in Eretz Israel after 2000 years. Who would have believed it?
But this Independence Day has a special meaning, and recalls the feeling of awe and trepidation that we experience on Erev Yom Kippur.
It turns out that independence is not a simple gift, but resembles a particularly strong medicine that you have to know how to use. Otherwise it may be very dangerous.
The terrible use currently made by the criminal leadership of this gift of G-d is not just a great security mistake, or even a case of terrible evil directed at thousands of Jews. It is in fact incorrect use of this tremendous gift called a State, use that threatens to result in something far worse than loss of the country, property, and security. The cynical use made of this gift of G-d that has fallen into the hands of the criminal leadership threatens to turn all of us into monsters.
When well-known rabbis, followed by generals wearing knitted kippot, explain to soldiers that the State is entitled to evict citizens from their homes, because it put them there, this means that it has already happened to many of us, without evil intentions and without noticing it at all.
Because this logic inevitably leads to the conclusion that the State, that is primarily responsible for the security of our lives, has also the right to take them, when necessary.
Without noticing, there have already degenerated to the threshold of this monstrous fascism refined intellectuals, high-minded rabbis and, of course, kippa-wearing generals for whom this "enlightened" position doesn't conflict with their personal careers.
On this Independence Day I shall say Hallel and plead from the Creator not only for Gush Katif, but also for the spirit of the nation, for a Jewish State in which the freedom of man is a basic fact. A State that is only an instrument, however sacred it may be, but is certainly not an objective. A Jewish State that forms an instrument for perfecting the world in the Kingdom of the Almighty.
The current war is about whether the State of Israel -- a gift of G-d that we received in 5708 (1948) -- will be an instrument for bringing humanity from slavery to freedom, or an instrument for the spiritual and material enslavement of the Jewish people, an instrument that perpetrates the great universal despair, since "it transpires that you are just an ordinary State...." (Mohammed Dahlan, Arab terrorist and PA Security Chief in Gaza).
I shall rejoice on Independence Day because of the miracle and the promised victory: Victory of Light over Darkness, of Freedom over Slavery, of Jewish Israel over the enlightened dictatorship.
But we are now crossing a narrow and frightening bridge. On Independence Day 5765 (2005) there is someone who very much wants you to stop thinking, give up your independence, and obey the State. And seeks to use the full powers of the State to impose that order.
We prefer to remain free.
Views expressed by the author do not
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