Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary Yeshiva University Center for the Jewish Future THE BENJAMIN AND ROSE BERGER TORAH TO-GO® Established by Rabbi Hyman and Ann Arbesfeld April 2016 • Yom Haatzmaut 5776 Dedicated in memory of Cantor Jerome L. Simons Featuring Divrei Torah from Rabbi Nissim Abrin Rabbi David Bigman Mrs. Dina Blank Rabbi Jesse Horn Rabbi Shaya Karlinsky Rabbi Moshe Lichtman Rabbi Chaim Pollock Rabbi Azriel Rosner Rabbi Ari Shvat 1 Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • The Benjamin and Rose Berger CJF Torah To-Go Series • Yom Haatzmaut 5776 We thank the following synagogues who have pledged to be Pillars of the Torah To-Go® project Congregation Ahavas Congregation Young Israel of Achim Shaarei Tefillah Century City Highland Park, NJ Newton Centre, MA Los Angeles, CA Congregation Ahavath The Jewish Center Young Israel of Torah New York, NY New Hyde Park Englewood, NJ New Hyde Park, NY Young Israel of Beth El in Congregation Beth Boro Park Young Israel of Shalom Brooklyn, NY West Hempstead Rochester, NY West Hempstead, NY Richard M. Joel, President and Bravmann Family University Professor, Yeshiva University Rabbi Kenneth Brander, Vice President for University and Community Life, Yeshiva University Rabbi Yaakov Glasser, David Mitzner Dean, Center for the Jewish Future Rabbi Menachem Penner, Max and Marion Grill Dean, Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary Rabbi Robert Shur, Series Editor Rabbi Joshua Flug, General Editor Rabbi Michael Dubitsky, Editor Andrea Kahn, Copy Editor Copyright © 2016 All rights reserved by Yeshiva University Yeshiva University Center for the Jewish Future 500 West 185th Street, Suite 419, New York, NY 10033 • [email protected] • 212.960.0074 This publication contains words of Torah. Please treat it with appropriate respect. For sponsorship opportunities, please contact Paul Glasser at 212.960.5852 or [email protected]. 2 Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • The Benjamin and Rose Berger CJF Torah To-Go Series • Yom Haatzmaut 5776 Table of Contents Yom Haatzmaut 2016/5776 Dedicated in memory of Cantor Jerome L. Simons Yom Haatzmaut: An Introduction Mrs. Stephanie Strauss . ................................................................. Page 4 Eretz Yisroel: The Prism of God Rabbi Nissim Abrin . ................................................................. Page 5 The Meaning of the Establishment of the State of Israel Rabbi David Bigman . ................................................................. Page 7 Yom Ha’atzmaut: Heeding the Call Mrs. Dina Blank . ................................................................. Page 9 Eretz Yisrael and the First 61 Chapters of the Torah Rabbi Jesse Horn . ................................................................. Page 11 Kedushat Eretz Yisrael Rabbi Shaya Karlinsky . ................................................................. Page 13 Simchah Shel Mitzvah Rabbi Moshe Lichtman . ................................................................. Page 15 A Torah Approach to Medinat Yisrael Rabbi Chaim Pollock . ................................................................. Page 17 Three Days before Aliyah Rabbi Azriel Rosner . ................................................................. Page 19 What’s So Important About Eretz Yisrael?! Rabbi Ari Shvat . ................................................................. Page 21 3 Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • The Benjamin and Rose Berger CJF Torah To-Go Series • Yom Haatzmaut 5776 Yom Haatzmaut: An Introduction ehillim chapter 126 begins שיר המעלות“ :with the verse Mrs. Stephanie Strauss בשוב ה’ את שיבת ציון היינו ,When God will return us Director, Yeshiva University in Israel — ”כחולמיםT to Zion, we will be like dreamers. Director, S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program How might we explain the phrase “we will be like dreamers”? Among several than 40 learning institutions for men chessed and service learning missions answers offered by our commentaries, and women in Israel, enabling the across the United States and around the Rada”k suggests the following: hundreds of students enrolled in our the world. Nowhere but here can he So great is our joy at the prospect of program to learn firsthand about or she receive the training to excel in redemption and of returning to the Israel’s land, people, history, and careers from medicine to business, Land of Israel that the burdens and culture. politics to academia, the rabbinate challenges of our time in exile will be to finance; and only at YU do they like a fleeting dream kachalom( ya’uf). The Israel year is a pivotal and transformative moment in a student’s have university-wide support and There is no shortage of challenges life. Our Israel staff strives to nurture encouragement to meet the challenges facing the Jewish nation in general and enrich that experience by facing the Jewish people while and our young men and women in providing students with support and fulfilling their roles in bringing about particular. Yet Baruch Hashem, our guidance throughout their year(s) in the redemption. students are returning to Israel in large Israel. The faculty at our member yeshivot numbers, whether to study Torah for and seminaries play a vital role in a year or more, to serve in the IDF or At Yeshiva University in New York, educating our students. It is with great sherut leumi, or to join the thousands a student can continue on his or her pride that we present a collection of of YU alumni who have made aliyah. path of Torah growth while at the articles from our Israeli community Their commitment to strengthening same time studying at one of the of teachers. These articles provide us Am Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael is often premier research universities in the with a glimpse into the scholarship an outgrowth of the Torat Yisrael world. Our top-notch roshei yeshiva that our students are exposed to. and rich experiences they have been and excellent college faculty combine Furthermore, they provide us with the introduced to at one of the many to offer students opportunities unique flavor of Torat Eretz Yisrael, yeshivot and seminaries on the S. that are available only at Yeshiva which we hope will deepen and enrich Daniel Abraham Israel program. University. Nowhere but here can a young man or woman participate your celebration of Yom Haatzmaut The program is a formal arrangement with hundreds of fellow students in and your connection to Eretz Yisrael. between Yeshiva University and more THE YESHIVA UNIVERSITY MAGEN DAVID S. DANIEL ABRAHAM ISRAEL PROGRAM th annual ADOM and KEDMA STUDENT ORGANIZATION Yeshiva University Invites you to the 6 IN ISRAEL INVITES ALL SEMINARY STUDENTS TO 3 on 3 Songs of Hope Basketball Women's Choir Competition Benefiting Underprivileged Tournament Women in Israel th Date: Thursday, September 24 Gan Hapaamon, Jerusalem January 23, 2016 With the participation of Tamir Motz"sh Parshat Beshalach Goodman of Hapoel Jerusalem Doors open at 7:30pm • Great fun • Steep competition Presented by Yeshiva University and Kedma • No cost SPRING 2016 at the Ramada Hotel Jerusalem For more information contact Nikki: To register, go to DRIVE www.tinyurl.com/YU-3on3-2015 058-543-4690, [email protected] Register by September 20 Students - 45 NIS by Jan. 19th, 60 NIS after Choir Members, Madrichot - 25 NIS , Non students - 70 NIS For more info contact Rabbi Jonathan Cohen Yeshiva University Monday, February 1 Admissions Coordinator Men’s Hours 2:30-6:00PM • Women’s Hours 6:30PM-10:30PM 054-227-2850 Yeshiva University in Israel [email protected] You must bring a valid form of ID (Drivers license or passport, student id’s are not valid) and weigh at least 110 pounds to be able to donate blood Yeshiva University S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program 40 Duvdevani St, Jerusalem 96428 • 02.531.3020 • [email protected] 4 Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • The Benjamin and Rose Berger CJF Torah To-Go Series • Yom Haatzmaut 5776 Eretz Yisroel: The Prism of God retz Yisroel is undeniably beautiful, yet its beauty is difficult to pinpoint. It has Rabbi Nissim Abrin Emountains, valleys, beautiful beaches, Rebbe, Yeshivat Ohr Yerushalayim bodies of water, and a sun-dried desert; but what makes it uniquely beautiful remains a mystery. The Swiss Alps, the Great Barrier Reef, and the of his beauty. What emerges is that connoisseurs. Its message is wasted on Amazon Jungle all possess beauty that beauty was both a challenge and an the masses if beauty is not utilized as a rivals that of tiny Eretz Yisroel, but asset for Yosef, and that it could either tool of allure. cause his downfall or be employed in when compared aesthetically to other Yosef possessed external beauty, and his service of Hashem. notable places, somehow Eretz Yisroel to ensure that his beauty wouldn’t stands apart. What is the secret to the The ambivalence of Yosef’s external lead him astray, Yaakov made Yosef’s unmatched beauty of Eretz Yisroel? beauty accentuates two distinct unique mission clear to him early The secret of Eretz Yisroel’s beauty is attitudes toward beauty in general. in his development. The Torah encrypted in the name “Tzion,” one External attractiveness is often used relates that Yaakov had a special of the monikers used by the Prophets as a means for the pursuit of vanity, love for Yosef, because he imparted to describe it. The numerical value and can serve as a distraction from the to Yosef the Torah that he learned of “Tzion” is 156, which is the same meaningful interior that lies within. A at the Yeshiva of Shem and Ever. numerical