In honor of Yom Haatzmaut. By popa–RETRACTED

Now I’ll say something nice.

People have a tendency to take things which they feel connected to, and associate them with something else which they feel much more connected to. I don’t know why–perhaps it is because we want to imagine it is all part of a cohesive whole, or perhaps we think it will lend importance and meaning to first thing.

For example, Americans like to imagine that baseball is American. That apple pie, and barbeques and hot dogs are American. That there is somehow some patriotic meaning to rooting for the Yankees. They are taking the pastime they like and giving it importance or meaning by attaching it their feelings of being American. (Note well the sign on Yankee stadium today standing united with the Red Sox–baseball=american.)

And when we do that, we choose something which we feel very emotionally connected to, and which is very important, and probably uniting, and that is the idea to which we attach our smaller stuff.

So I might not agree with the Dati Leumi interpretation of the state of Israel as an event of and object of religious significance. As much as I am glad that it exists, and as much as I related emotionally to the state. But I note well that when the dati (and even many non-religious) want to choose something important to which to attach their feelings about the state of Israel–they choose yidishkeit. And that is something I recognize them for.