A member of the Areivim e-mail list related the following story:
“A little early for Yom Haatzmaut but our rabbi (in a pesach shiur) mentioned a story of the Sadugerrer Rebbe. When he was in Vienna in 1938 the nazis made him put a Nazi flag on a pole. He decided then that if he ever made it to a Jewish state he would hoist a Jewish flag. Then next made him sweep the streets and he said that if he ever survived he would sweep the streets of a Jewish town.”
“He survived the war and moved to Tel Aviv. On yom haatzmaut he got up at 4am to sweep the street in Tel Aviv (he felt that it was not kavod for a rebbe to sweep streets in the middle of the day). He also hoisted an Israeli flag and attended a local yom haatzmaut minyan so he could dance. This was all described in a book many years ago.”
“Recently a book appeared on the sadugerrer rebbe. They brought the story with the sweeping of the street but "forgot" the story with the Israeli flag.”
Isn’t hagiography wonderful? It angers me when the RW goes out of their way to avoid any positive spin on the Jewish State.
I have another story to tell along these same lines. My wife's uncle, "Uncle Avaraham” survived the holocaust but not before his entire family, wife and children, parents and siblings... were wiped out. But though he personally escaped, he did not do so unscathed. He was one of the victims of the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele who did medical experiments on him and in the process was sterilized.
After the holocaust he came to Israel. He lived in Tel Aviv and became a very successful businessman. He was also a devout Gerrer Chasid and became very close to the Gerrer Rebbe. He was quite an honored man when he went to the rebbe... always commanding more time with him than most other Gerrer Chasidim.
But on Yom HaAtzmaut, he left the Gerrer Shteeble in Tel Aviv and Daven'd in the local Mizrachi Shul so that he could say Hallel on that day. He too understood the importance of the existence of a Jewish state.
There is a very strong point to be made here that should not be missed. Those like the sadugerrer rebbe and "Uncle Avrahom" understood what it means to have a Jewish state...far beyond any theological reasons. People like "Uncle Avrahom" and the sadugerrer rebbe who lived through the holocaust understand why Hakaras HaTov should be expressed in this way. They knew the value of the existence of a Jewish state and they expressed support for it in spite of the “nay sayers” who refused to do so for "religious" reasons or because of the evil they saw in them. Sure... many of these people were anti Torah and did some harm in that area. But that is by far over-ridden by the irrefutable fact that Israel was a haven for Jewish holocaust survivors when few other nations were.
And during the one of the most Horrific periods in Jewish history, the holocaust itself, all the nations of the world were not as good as they should have been to the Jewish people. From collaborating with the Nazis to just closing their borders to immigration the record is a sorry one. It is only a Jewish state that would have opened its doors completely and unequivocally. The sadugerrer rebbe knew this as did "Uncle Avrahom" and probably every other Jewish survivor who had the Zechus to make it through the war and come to a land that they could call their own.
Unfortunately this is not the case today. There are far too many people who look at the creation of the State of Israel as an abomination that is being run by a bunch or Reshaim... to be disparaged at every turn. Rarely do I hear from those quarters any good spoken about the state. That's because they have not experienced what life for a Jew can be if there was no state, borders are closed, and laws put in place to annihilate you and every single member of your family and your people. And torture you while you wait to die.
God forbid that we are ever put into a position to wish we had a State of our own. We have one now and we ought to recognize those who founded it and those who maintain it.
