Chareidei Hypocrites Say Hallel in Memory of the Hellenized State, Yet Say "Tachnun" on the Anniversary miracle of the establishment of the Jewish state in our time.

 

The article below was printed in Hebrew in the Hebrew Newsletter "Matzav Haruach," I translated this into English! The original article in Hebrew can be seen on their website!

by  Menachem Rahat

The people of Israel, and the Chareidim among them, say Hallel and thanksgiving, in memory of the Hellenized Jewish state, which existed here 2,000 years ago, but refuse to acknowledge the good that the Creator of the world influenced us in the miracle of the establishment of the Jewish state of our time.

1. Of the two leading miracles in the story of the days of Chanukah, the miracle of victory in the war and the miracle of finding the jug of oil and relighting the Menorah of the Temple (and there are two other miracles that we mentioned last week: the return of the kingdom to Israel and the establishment of a Jewish state), which of the two preceded chronologically?

A study of the Jewish and general historical sources makes it clear that the tradition of the story of the miracle of victory is older.

In the ancient sources, only the miracle of victory is mentioned. 

This is the case in the books of the Maccabees and in the writings of Josephus, and so in the prayer for the miracles that we say in the prayers of the days of Chanukah and in the blessings of food: "For the miracles, and for the chapters, and for the mighty, and for the salvation, and for the wars that You made for our forefathers in those days at this time."

 Not a word about the miracle of the jug of oil.

Later on, too, in reference to the purification of the Temple, there is no mention of the miracle of the jug of oil:

 "And afterwards [i.e., after the military victory], they lit candles in Your holy courtyards and established these eight days of Chanukah." All the miracles followed the miracle of the military victory that gave rise to the purification of the Temple, the lighting of the menorah and the establishment of the only Jewish state between the First and Second Temples.

2. The initial source for the miracle of the jug of oil appears in a baraita (an external mishna outside the six orders of the Mishna) that came to the Babylonian (Shabbat 21:2), in response to the simple question, "What is Chanukah?": 

"When the Greeks entered the Temple, all the oils in the Temple were defiled, and when the Hasmonean kingdom prevailed and they were victorious, they searched and found only one jug of oil that was placed under the seal of the High Priest, and there was nothing in it but to light it for one day, and a miracle was performed in it, and they lit from it for eight days." Here is the proof positive that it was the miracle of victory that led to the other miracles.

3. The Hasmonean Revolt, which brought about the Hasmonean state, the last Jewish state to be established 2,011 years before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, has earned a place of honor in world history. 

The renowned historian Cecil Roth points out the astonishing fact:

 the Hasmoneans were the first in the history of the world to dare to rebel against a global empire – for the sake of the victory of the spirit. Until then, the wars had been waged only to obtain the three kilometers: power, money, and honor. The Hasmoneans introduced additional values into this equation: the protection of the national spirit, which is essentially an independent religion and nation, different from all other nations. A dizzying innovation in those days at this time.

4. But unfortunately, only the first of the Hasmonean dynasty followed the path of G-d. Those who came after them deviated. Already in the second generation of the Hasmonean dynasty, the buds of Hellenization sprouted. It began with an innocent process of adopting names for goats. At first, they bore double names – Hebrew and Greek. But in the next generation, the Hebrew names were erased. Even the successor of Simon the Righteous called himself Antigonus.

And then they dared to take the royal crown for themselves. 

Shimon ben Matityahu called himself only a prince, not a king, but his successors were called kings by themselves. From there, the deterioration continued to the cruel rule of the Sadducee-loving King Alexander Jannaeus, who dared to set up crosses in Jerusalem in order to kill 800 Pharisees in terrible agony and humiliation and to slaughter their wives and sons in front of their eyes wide open from torture, while defiantly making love to his concubines at a large feast.

From here the road is short to the civil war between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, who invited the evil Roman ruler Pompey to Jerusalem in order to settle their disputes. Thus they brought an end in 63 BCE to the sick, Hellenized kingdom that sank into the abyss of nothingness.

5. Nevertheless, we recite Hallel for the very existence of that Jewish state, at the instruction of Chazal, to this very day. Because of the fervent readiness of Matityahu and his sons to fight the wars of the Jewish nation, we are halakhically commanded to praise and rejoice even today. And didn't Chazal hear about the bitter end of the state that almost converted to Judaism?

Certainly, they knew, and yet they "turned a blind eye" to its end, because of what the Rambam defines:

"The return of the kingdom to Israel!! The term "the kingdom of Israel" is perceived by him as such a lofty Jewish national value that he does not use it again, but only one more time, on an equally sublime subject – the days of the Messiah: "But the days of the Messiah... The world goes on as usual, but the kingdom will return to Israel" (Hilkhot Teshuva 9:2). Ay, ay, ay – the kingdom of Israel!! Independence for Israel. This is the main purpose, and everything else deals with it.

6. During the 1,954 years since the destruction until today, in the absence of the "Kingdom of Israel," the people of Israel have wandered along the paths of exile, expulsion, pogroms, calamities, slaughter, holocausts, and various inquisitions. Until G-d had mercy on His people and miraculously granted them, in 1948, the "kingdom of Israel" of our time.

It was reasonable to expect that the faithful of Israel would celebrate this great wonder with praise and joy. This is how it was ruled in halakha. 

But the exact opposite happened:

 not a drop of gratitude to the Creator of the world for His wonders. 

The descendants of the Pharisees of our generation prefer to kick all the good, trample and destroy the honor of the kingdom of Israel. And to flee from any kind of thanksgiving for miracles: no praise, no prayer for the peace of the state, no one who blessed the soldiers who defend the kingdom of Israel, not a flag, not an anthem. Alienation to hostility.

Because of this eclipse, not only is Hallel not recited on Yom HaAtzmaut, but there are those who are actually meticulous in reciting Tachanun on Yom HaAtzmaut. And there are synagogues that insist on reciting Tachanun on Independence Day, even when they is a bris on that day, which exempts them from reciting Tachanun, just so that they will not be suspected, G-d forbid...

7. This is the Chareidie paradox. 

It is a halakhic obligation to praise a country that two thousand years ago deteriorated into the wrong Sadducean conception, which crucified observant Jews of the Pharisee variety (of which Orthodoxy in our time is its successor), but at the same time to renounce any word of praise in favor of a contemporary Jewish state, which is the opposite of the Hasmonean kingdom:

 the only one in the entire world that strengthens the ultra-Orthodox-Pharisee community among us by tens of billions. that pours billions into the maintenance of the "self-slain" in the tent of Torah; which gives billions, almost unsupervised, to the ultra-Orthodox Pharisaic education; which exempts the reclusive zealots from the mitzva of "everyone goes out to war for a mitzvah"; which subsidizes the Pharisee family (from the press, this week: "Every ultra-Orthodox family costs the state 10,000 shekels a month"); which implements the vision of the prophets of Israel for the ingathering of the exiles, and today the number of Jews in it has already reached an all-time high, 8 million; which provides a safe haven and an "absorption basket" for every persecuted Jew; And which finances the entire huge industry of holy vessels with imaginary sums.

Ungrateful upwards. Kicking for the good of the place. A double standard that is devoid of gratitude to Heaven. The Chareidie paradox.