Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzma’ut: From Mourning to Thanksgiving

The Declaration of 5 Iyar 5708

On Friday afternoon, 14 May 1948, which was 5 Iyar 5708, David Ben-Gurion stood in the hall of the Tel Aviv Museum on Rothschild Boulevard and read the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel. The British Mandate was to end at midnight, and Shabbat was only hours away, so the ceremony was hurried. It lasted about half an hour and closed with Hatikvah. The members of the People’s Council signed the scroll, and the State of Israel came into being.

The Declaration grounds the State in Jewish history and in “the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country.” It promises that Israel will be “based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel,” that it will ensure “complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex,” and it extends “our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness.”¹ Its signers came from every part of the Jewish world, religious and secular. They avoided an argument over naming God by writing that they acted “placing our trust in the Rock of Israel,” Tzur Yisrael, a biblical title for Hashem (2 Samuel 23:3; Isaiah 30:29) that secular signers could read as they chose.

The next day the armies of five Arab states invaded. The War of Independence lasted into 1949 and cost about six thousand Jewish lives, roughly one percent of the Jewish population of the Land.

How the two days became law

In 1949 the Knesset passed the Independence Day Law, fixing 5 Iyar as a national holiday.² At first, memorial services for the fallen were held on Independence Day itself, and bereaved families asked for a separate day. In 1951 the government adopted 4 Iyar as a day of remembrance, and in 1963 the Knesset passed the Memorial Day for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars Law, which gave the day its legal form.³ The day was later expanded to remember civilian victims of terror as well. Its full official name is Yom HaZikaron leChalalei Ma’archot Yisrael ulNifge’ei Pe’ulot HaEivah, “Day of Remembrance for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars and the Victims of Hostile Acts.”

The fallen are counted from the beginnings of modern Jewish defense in the Land in 1860. By the mid-2020s the Ministry of Defense listed more than 25,000 names.⁴ Most Israelis know some of them personally.

When the days move

The Hebrew dates are 4 and 5 Iyar, but the law moves them so that neither day requires the desecration of Shabbat:⁵

• If 5 Iyar falls on Friday or Shabbat, both days move earlier. Independence Day falls on the Thursday before (4 or 3 Iyar), with Memorial Day on the Wednesday.
• If 5 Iyar falls on a Monday, both days move one day later, to Tuesday and Wednesday (5–6 Iyar). Otherwise the memorial siren and ceremonies would begin on Saturday night, and preparations would fall on Shabbat. This rule was added in 2004.
• Only when 5 Iyar falls on a Wednesday is it celebrated on its own date.

The days are not yom tov, so outside Israel there is no second day. See our calendar for the dates in a given year.

The sirens and the turning at sundown

Yom HaZikaron begins, like every Jewish day, at sundown. At 8:00 p.m. a one-minute siren sounds across the country, and a state ceremony is held at the Western Wall. At 11:00 the next morning a two-minute siren sounds. Traffic halts and people stand where they are. Then ceremonies begin in every military cemetery, where families gather at the graves. Radio stations play quiet songs, television shows the names and faces of the fallen, and places of entertainment are closed.

As the sun sets, the national ceremony on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem marks the change. The flag is raised from half-mast to the top of its pole, and in the ceremony of torches twelve citizens chosen for their service to the country each light a torch, one for each tribe of Israel. Within an hour the same people who stood weeping in the cemeteries are out in the streets.

Many Israelis feel the abruptness of this change, and some find it nearly unbearable. It was chosen on purpose. Independence was paid for by the fallen, and the celebration is meant to remember them. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).

The religious debate: Hallel, blessings, and the meaning of the State

Should Jews thank God in the synagogue for a state founded largely by secular people? Every stream of observant Judaism has had to answer, and the answers differ.

The Chief Rabbinate

In 1949 the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, under Chief Rabbis Yitzchak HaLevi Herzog and Ben-Zion Meir Chai Uziel, drew up an order of prayer for the evening of Yom HaAtzma’ut. It includes thanksgiving psalms, among them Psalms 107, 97 and 98, a single blast of the shofar, and a prayer that the great shofar of final redemption may be heard. In the morning the Rabbinate’s order calls for Hallel (Psalms 113–118), omits Tachanun, and reads the haftarah Isaiah 10:32–11:12. That is the haftarah of the last day of Pesach outside Israel, which describes the shoot from the stem of Yishai and the second ingathering of the exiles.⁶

The hardest question was whether to say Hallel with a blessing. A blessing (“who has sanctified us … to read the Hallel”) would declare the day a fixed, obligatory occasion of miraculous salvation, like Chanukah. In 1950–51 the Rabbinate ruled that Hallel be said without the blessing. Later, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, as Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, ruled that the blessing should be said. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi, held firmly that it should not, and other leading authorities agreed with him.⁷ Practice still varies. Many Religious Zionist congregations say Hallel with a blessing, many others say it without one, and some say it after the service. The custom of Benei Avraham’s own community is a matter for its leaders. The point here is that sincere, Torah-faithful scholars have disagreed on this question.

The Rabbinate’s Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel, composed by Rabbi Herzog and polished by S. Y. Agnon in 1948, calls the State reishit tzmichat ge’ulateinu (ראשית צמיחת גאולתנו), “the first flowering of our redemption.”⁸ The phrase is careful. It does not say the State is the redemption. It says the State is the first shoot of it, the word tzemach recalling the messianic “Branch” of Jeremiah 23:5 and Zechariah 3:8.

Rav Kook and Religious Zionism

The theological foundation for that phrase came largely from Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook (1865–1935), the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel under the Mandate. He died thirteen years before the State was founded. Rav Kook taught that the return of the Jewish people to the Land, even when led by pioneers who had abandoned observance, was part of a divine process of redemption unfolding in history. He believed the secular builders were carrying out a holy task whose meaning they did not yet know. The Talmud provides language for this kind of thinking. It says that even war can be “the beginning of redemption” (atchalta degeulah), and it calls the flowering of the Land’s mountains, “ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel” (Ezekiel 36:8), the clearest sign of the end.⁹ Rav Kook’s son, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, and the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva made this the heart of Religious Zionism. In that view Yom HaAtzma’ut is a true religious festival.

The Haredi view

Most Haredi communities make no change to their prayers on these days, and some actively oppose their observance. Their reasons deserve to be stated fairly. Many hold that redemption must come through Mashiach and through repentance, not through human political action. Some cite the Talmud’s “three oaths,” which they read as forbidding the Jewish people to take the Land by force before the appointed time (b. Ketubot 110b–111a).¹⁰ Others object to secular leadership, to the hurried founding of a state on a date during the Omer, or to adding festivals to the calendar. The Agudath Israel movement has historically taken part in Israel’s political life while giving the day no religious significance, while the Edah HaChareidis and similar groups reject the State altogether. Despite their disagreement, many Haredim honor the fallen and pray for the safety of Israel’s soldiers and citizens.

Customs of the two days

On Yom HaZikaron:

• Standing for both sirens.
• Visiting military cemeteries and memorials, with the Yizkor prayer and El Malei Rachamim.
• Lighting a memorial candle; schools hold ceremonies with readings, songs and the names of former students who fell.
• Some communities recite psalms and say Kaddish for the fallen. See also the Swords of Iron War Memorial Day.

On Yom HaAtzma’ut:

• The flag on balconies, cars and buildings, blue and white with the Star of David between two stripes recalling a tallit.
• The torch-lighting ceremony on Mount Herzl, an air-force flyover, and public concerts and fireworks.
• The mangal (barbecue), probably the most widely shared Israeli custom of the day: families in every park, on every beach and roadside.
• The Israel Prize, the state’s highest cultural honor, awarded in Jerusalem in fields from Torah scholarship to science and the arts.
• The International Bible Contest (Chidon HaTanakh), held since 1958, in which young people from Israel and the Diaspora compete in their knowledge of the Tanakh.
• In synagogues: festive evening prayers, Hallel in the morning, and for some the Prayer for the State and a festive meal. Because the days fall during the Omer, some Religious Zionist authorities permit haircuts, shaving and music on Yom HaAtzma’ut, and others do not.

Remembering the cost to others

Honesty and compassion require one more word. The war of 1948 also brought great suffering to the Arab residents of the Land. Some 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were driven from their homes, and many of their descendants remain refugees. Historians still debate the causes. In the following decades, roughly as many Jews left or were driven out of Arab countries, and most were absorbed in Israel. Many Arab Palestinians call 1948 the Nakba, “the catastrophe.” A pro-Israel heart does not need to deny anyone’s grief. The Torah commands love for the stranger (Leviticus 19:34), and the prophets saw a day when Israel would be “a blessing in the midst of the land” (Isaiah 19:24).

So the proper prayer on these days is the one the Psalmist taught:

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions’ sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the house of Hashem our God I will seek thy good.

The prophets of return

The Torah itself foresaw dispersion and return. After the curses of exile, Moshe promises:

That then Hashem thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither Hashem thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will Hashem thy God gather thee.

The same passage goes on to promise that Hashem will “circumcise thine heart” (Deuteronomy 30:6). The return to the Land and the return of the heart belong together in the Torah’s vision, even if they do not come at the same moment.

Jeremiah foresaw an ingathering so great that it would eclipse the Exodus: “it shall no more be said, Hashem liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, Hashem liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them” (Jeremiah 16:14–15). He added that Hashem would send “many fishers” and then “many hunters” (16:16). Some Jewish and Christian readers since the twentieth century have heard in the fishers the Zionist call and in the hunters the persecutions that drove Jews out of Europe. That is a reading of history, not the verse’s stated meaning, but it is a sobering one.

Ezekiel promised: “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land” (Ezekiel 36:24). He spoke of the mountains of Israel bearing fruit again (36:8), of dry bones standing up as an army (37:10), and of two sticks joined into one nation “in the land upon the mountains of Israel” (37:22). In Ezekiel the physical return comes first and spiritual renewal follows: “A new heart also will I give you” (36:26).

Amos closed his book with this:

And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith Hashem thy God.

Isaiah asked:

Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.

Many have connected this verse with 14 May 1948, when a state was declared in a single afternoon. This is a homiletical application, and a moving one, not the plain sense of the verse. But note that Isaiah speaks of a birth without labor pains (66:7), and Israel’s birth came with great travail. The calendar itself sets Memorial Day before Independence Day. The fuller fulfillment Isaiah describes, a birth without pain, still lies ahead.

Psalm 126 belongs to these days: “When Hashem turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing” (126:1–2). It is sung before the Grace after Meals on festive days, and many sing it at the Yom HaAtzma’ut table.

The Messianic witness

“Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”

After his resurrection, Yeshua spent forty days teaching his disciples “of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). Their last question to him was a Jewish question:

Master, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

Yeshua did not correct the hope itself. He did not tell them that the kingdom had become spiritual, or that Israel had been replaced. He corrected only their wish to know when. That is exactly the right posture for Yom HaAtzma’ut: deep gratitude for what Hashem has done, firm hope in what He has promised, and complete refusal to set dates.

“Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled”

Yeshua foretold the destruction of 70 CE and the exile that followed: “they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21:24). The word “until” implies an end to the treading down. That verse is taken up more fully in our article on Yom Yerushalayim.

“The gifts and calling of God are without repentance”

Paul taught that Israel’s partial hardening was temporary, “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved” (Romans 11:25–26), and that “as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Romans 11:28–29). Hashem has not withdrawn Israel’s calling or Israel’s Land. When Messianic believers celebrate Yom HaAtzma’ut, they are not adding a political opinion to their faith. They are rejoicing that Hashem keeps His covenant.

“Blessed is he that cometh”

Yeshua also told Jerusalem, “Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of Hashem” (Matthew 23:39, quoting Psalm 118:26). That verse is part of the Hallel recited on Yom HaAtzma’ut. Every time Israel sings baruch haba beshem Hashem, it sings, without knowing it, the welcome that Yeshua said would precede his return.

The prophetic horizon: a first flowering, not the harvest

Benei Avraham shares the Chief Rabbinate’s careful phrase. The State of Israel is not the Kingdom of Mashiach. It is a nation of flesh and blood, with achievements and failings like every nation, and its policies should be judged by the Torah’s standards of justice and mercy. But the regathering of millions of Jews to the Land after nearly two thousand years, the revival of Hebrew, the rebuilt cities and the planted vineyards of Amos 9:14 are not accidents. They are Hashem’s faithfulness to His word, and many believers see in them a real step toward the redemption.

How long the way still is, no one knows. The Sages warned against calculating the end (b. Sanhedrin 97b), and Yeshua said that the day and hour are known to the Father alone (Mark 13:32).¹¹ What we do know is the destination. Israel will be fully gathered, its heart will be circumcised, Mashiach ben David will reign from Jerusalem, and the nations will come up to worship Hashem (Zechariah 14:16). The first flowering gives hope that the full harvest will come.

Keeping the days

These are not yom tov, and there are no prohibitions of work. General suggestions:

• On the eve and day of Yom HaZikaron: light a memorial candle; observe a moment of silence at the hours of the sirens; read Psalm 23 or Psalm 121 and pray for bereaved families; learn the story of one of the fallen.
• At the turning: mark the move from mourning to joy with a blessing over wine or a short reading of Psalm 126.
• On Yom HaAtzma’ut: fly the flag; share a festive meal or a barbecue with friends; read Deuteronomy 30, Ezekiel 37 and Amos 9; sing Hallel or psalms of thanksgiving; recite the Prayer for the State.
• Pray for peace: for Israel’s soldiers and citizens, for its Arab neighbors, and for all who live in the Land (Psalm 122:6–9).
• Give: support a cause that strengthens Israel’s people, cares for the bereaved, or helps new immigrants (see Yom HaAliyah).

Mourn with those who mourn, rejoice with those who rejoice (Romans 12:15), and give thanks to the Rock of Israel, who has kept His word.