On Israel’s Independence Day, people sing, barbecue, wave flags, and speak about miracles. All of that belongs. A nation should know how to celebrate its survival. Still, celebration can make people sentimental, and sentiment can make them soft in the wrong places. Independence is not a mood. It is a burden. It is a condition that has to be carried by people strong enough to carry it.

That is why Hatikva still matters.

Many anthems are built around triumph. Hatikva is built around endurance. Its emotional center is not victory. It is persistence. “Our hope is not yet lost, the hope that is two-thousand years old, to be a free nation in our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem.” Those lines are beautiful because they are restrained. They do not beg. They do not boast. They state a national direction that survived exile, humiliation, massacre, and statelessness. They also define the assignment. A free people in its land must be able to remain free in its land. (main.knesset.gov.il)

That last line is where people often stop thinking. They hear “free” and imagine release. They hear “our land” and imagine arrival. History has been much less romantic. To be a free people in your land means that when danger comes, you do not wait for someone else to solve it. You build an army. You build intelligence. You build families that know what they are serving. You build citizens who understand that freedom without readiness is decoration.

The Jewish story should have........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)