Every year on the 5th day of the Jewish month Iyar, the people of Israel celebrate their independence. Yom HaAtzmaut is an amazing and beautiful experience to behold. All of the problems our country faces every day, the terrorism, the middle east peace process and the mundane setbacks of normal life are all put on hold for one wonderful night where the entire country comes together to celebrate the fact that, through all the wars and adversity, all the anti-semitism and every other obstacle that is determined to destroy us, WE ARE STILL HERE! And boy do we celebrate in style.
However, even though we dedicate the entire 5th of Iyar to celebrating our independence, the 4th of Iyar is dedicated to the remembrance of our brave soldiers who fell in battle and cowardly attacks. On Yom HaZikaron, we light a memorial candle and the central town air raid sirens cry out across the whole country as we all remember our beloved people who fell in the name of our beautiful country. Every year when that horn cries out, I find myself imagining the scenes of war and those final moments of those men's young lives. I see guns firing, mortars dropping and the men who we honour, fall.
I am always left with a feeling of terrible sorrow, followed by a feeling of terrible anger. Why did these men have to die? And the answer always comes the following night. These men did not die in vain, they died to give us the freedom to go out and celebrate our country. They died so that our children could grow up as Jews, safe and away from harm. They died so that never again would we ever let the world bring upon us another holocaust. The heroes of our nation are honoured on Yom HaZikaron, and celebrated on Yom HaAtzmaut.
We drink, we have concerts, we laugh, we sing and we show everybody that we are alive and that we are not going anywhere! Last night, a group of about 10 of us all went off to the central park in Raanana. We drank... Lots! And then off we went to the amphitheatre where established musicians played a concert for free in honour of this glorious day. It is an experience you can never have enough of, its something that no matter how many times you see it, its always amazing. Fireworks lighting up the sky, everybody putting their political and religious opinions aside just to be one great nation for one night.
And when we are all together, across the whole of Israel, celebrating our independence and honouring the brave soldiers and innocent civilians who died for us to have this freedom, there is no mightier nation in the world!
No comments:
Post a Comment