Shabbat Parashat Tazria Metzora 5786

Parashat Hashavua: With Trust in the “Rock of Israel and its Savior”

This coming week we will celebrate the 78^th anniversary of the birth of the State of Israel. This Shabbat we will begin the Torah reading with the woman who “bore a male child” (Vayikra 12:2). The liberation of the Nation of Israel is compared to birth, as we see in Yeshayahu’s final prophecy of consolation (66:7-8). The navi speaks of a surprisingly quick birth, comparing to it a nation that was born at one time, as Zion bore her children.

Micha, a prophet of the same generation, also uses this parable to describe the establishment of a future independent Jewish State (5:1-3). Micha invokes hints to King David, speaking of the youth from Beit Lechem. He infers that the future liberation will have similarities to the emergence of David to leadership, referring to the return to the Land after great tribulations (see Radak ad loc.).

Let us quote the preamble of Israel’s Declaration of Independence: “In the Land of Israel the Jewish Nation has arisen, in the place where its spiritual, religious, and political image was forged, in which it lived as a robust kingdom and created national and universal cultural resources and enriched the world with the eternal Book of Books.” It ends off “… with trust in the Rock of Israel (Tzur Yisrael) and its savior, we hereby sign with our hands as testament of this declaration.”

There are varied interpretations of the term Tzur Yisrael. The religious signatories explained that it shows trust in Hashem, one of whose titles is Tzur Yisrael. In contrast, those who did not identify as religious explained that they were referring to their faith in the strength of the Jewish People. The fact that so many from such differing world views were able to agree on a joint text for the declaration enabled a united front at that critical juncture in Jewish history. The earliest use of Tzur referring to Hashem is in the Song of Ha’azinu – “The Rock whose actions are complete, for all of His paths are justice” (Devarim 32:4).

The person who especially used the title Tzur for Hashem was King David, as it appears ten times in Tehillim and the Songs of David in Shmuel, including “Tzur Yisrael” (Shmuel II, 23:3). Some of those who did not want Hashem’s Name to be in the Declaration of Independence were happy to have a term coined by David, the first man after the entry to the Land who succeeded in uniting all of the tribes. A connection was felt between the state of King David and the state led by David Ben Gurion. The birth mentioned in the beginning of our parasha connects to the birth of the nation that left slavery in Egypt, as described in the Haggada, and the birth described by the prophets of the ultimate liberation.

This Shabbat, when we recite Kabbalat Shabbat and decide to sing to the Tzur of our salvation (Tehillim 95:1), we should also pray that all of the prophecies about the ultimate salvation, which have begun to be fulfilled, will continue to proceed along the path to the process’s glorious conclusion. The more we unite and serve as people responsible for the welfare of our brethren, the greater the chance of an earlier liberation.

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