These Days, In Our Times - Rabbi Dr. Sholom Gold

If I had to cite just one gemara which best depicts the essence of Yom haAtzmaut together with Yom Yerushalayim as we experience them in our times, I would look to that well known passage we find in Yoma (69b): “Why were they called Anshei Kenesset haG’dolah, Men of a ‘Great’ Assembly? Because they restored the crown of G-d’s glorious sovereignty to its original splendor.”

The gemara goes on to explain what is meant: Moshe spoke of G-d as being ‘haKeil haGadol haGibbor veHanora, the great, powerful and awesome G-d.’ (Devarim 10:17) Then Yirmiyah came, prophesying the destruction of the destruction by the Babylonians of the first Bet haMikdash by saying ‘Heathens have come raucously screaming in the Beit haMikdash, so where, then, is His awesomeness? Yirmiyahu prayed unto haKeil haGadolhaGibbor and refrained from referring to G-d as being ‘nora’, awesome. (32:18)

Then Daniel came, saw how heathens are enslaving G-d’s children in Babylonian exile for seventy years and he wondered ‘Where is your powerfulness?’ and he prayed saying haKeil haGadol veHanora (9:4) eliminating any reference to G-d’s attribute of Gibbor, His powerfulness.

Finally, when the members of Anshei Kenesset haG’dolah formulated the words of the Shmoneh Esrei’s opening berachah they restored the entire string of attributes which Moshe originally used. They restored the full glory of G-d in the words of the Shemoneh Esrei that has ever since been uttered by uncountable throngs of Jews from their time on. Therefore, they are referred to as the Men of the ‘Great’ Assembly.< br/> The one question which begs to be asked is: Why, couldn’t Yirmiyahu or Daniel do the same? Why did this restoration have to wait for these men whose spiritual level was no more intense than that of Yirmiyahu or Daniel?

I submit that the one reason that would explain their inability to do so was because of the historical environment in which these two lived as opposed to the milieu of Anshei Kenesset haG’dolah. Yirmiyahu forsaw and witnessed the very first act of destruction and dispersion of the Jewish people by Babylon. Daniel lived the daily experience of being enslaved under the thumb of Babylon. Anshei Kenesset haG’dolah, beginning with the eneration f Ezra and Nechemiah, led the restoration of the Jewish population in Eretz Yirsrael and the rebuilding of a Beit haMikdash. From there onward, it is all a familiar chronicle of restoration.

Our generation has lived through these periods of history as described by this passé in Yoma. Much like Yirmiyahu, we were witness to the unspeakable destruction of the Holocaust. We saw the enslavement in one form or another of our Jewish people to the nations of the world, whether it be behind the Iron curtain or under the oppressive sword of the nations of Islam where many hundreds of thousands of Jews lived for millennia. And we all saw the miraculous restoration of our people to its biblical homeland, Eretz Yisrael.

On these days of Yom haAtzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim when we festively recite the words of Moshe Rabbeinu “heKeil haGadol haGibbor ve-haNora” let the last six decades of Jewish history flash through your minds and be thankful for these two days, in our times.

Baruch…shehechayanu, ve-ki’yemanu ve-higi’anu lazeman hazeh.

[Editor’s Note: Compare similar statements in versions presented in Yerushalmi Berachot 7, end of halachah 3; also Yerushalmi Megillah 3, end of halachah 7.]