Yom HaAtzmaut, Israeli Independence Day, was celebrated here yesterday. I went to the end of Memorial Day/Beginning of Independence Day ceremony for the religious at the Music school. Apparantly there were some politics over non-tzniusly dressed performers which caused the religious community to make their own ceremony.
It was a very nice ceremony and most of the music was not live, though probably not because of sefira. My kids all took part in the ceremony (except for the littlest who didn't want to). They first had a flag dance where all the kids in gan (before 1st grade) got flags and danced around for a couple minutes. Then my girls were part of a very cute dance that they had practiced for. There was a girls choir and then the boys choir. Then the fireworks happened and we left because it was too late for my kids. We had a festive prayer service, both at night and in the mornign which includes singing shir hamaalos to the tune of hatikva (That's written in the official machzor) .
During the day we went on a nice hike with 4 other families to Nachal Amud, which is between Tzfat and Meron and the kids got to play in the water and try to catch fish. We then returned home and had a delicious bbq with 2 of those families. We let the kids run through the sprinklers, even though all the women thought it was too cold.
I still don't get this whole first flowering of redemption thing and have not heard any good explanations. Everyone agrees that Mashiach still hasn't come. The process of redemption is a long process that started the day we were exiled. Every step along the way is another test, trial and tribulation. The process is supposed to build us into the nation that we need to be in order to merit the redemption. The fact that we're in Israel now seems to be the end of a long process rather then the beginning of a new process.
Would anyone say there was a first flowering of redemption for the Jews in Egypt? The redemption didn't happen until they actually left. When moshe came was that the first flowering? He was the mashiach!
In any case, I once again followed the wise words of hillel and didn't tifrosh from the tzibor.
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The Nevi'im talk about what Israel will be like at the time of redemption. Granted, we haven't yet reached it -- but some key milestones HAVE happened;
The desert is blooming for the first time in 2000 years.
There is a serious ingathering of the exiles.
We still have a way to go, but its good to see progress...right?
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