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Many of my fellow chareidim have expressed reservations about hakaras hatov to the State of Israel and the secular Zionists. "Yes, we should be grateful towards them for their material support and efforts," they say, "but we also have to recognize the tremendous destruction that these secularists have caused to Torah Judaism". To which I definitely agree. There needs to be a balance of hakaras hatov and hakaras hara.
We ought to be grateful to the secular Zionists who founded the State of Israel, and those who continue to run it. The State has provided a safe haven for millions of Jews since the end of World War II when there was a real possibility that they would be absorbed into the Soviet Union, protected its population from the surrounding hostile Arabs, and developed the country's infrastructure spectacularly with the help of Hashem. As much harm as the secularists have perpetrated against our religion, they have also done a great deal of good on the material plane, which in turn has led to incredible and unparalleled flourishing of the Torah in the form of Talmud Torahs, yeshivos, shuls, kollel families and essential non-spiritual institutions, such as the military, roads, homebuilding, electricity, and hospitals.
Sha’arei Tzedek Hospital
On the other hand, we can't ignore the unimaginable damage to Torah Judaism that secularists have done to themselves, their children, and the entire nation, ever since the Haskalah to this day, damage which supporting yeshivos does not come close to compensating for. We also cannot ignore the clear intentions of most of the secularist founders, which was to uproot the Torah. (We do not blame private individuals, whom the Chazon Ish has ruled are tinokos shenishbu, but the leaders and intellectuals who have promoted and continue to encourage secularism.)
However, I would like to provide more perspective as to why we should focus on the good more than the bad.
We know that our hakaras hatov is not limited to Jews. We are grateful to the United States and many other countries for providing a safe haven where our communities can flourish. We are grateful to our governments, our municipalities, our doctors, truck drivers, policemen, firemen, and sanitation workers. We are grateful to our non-Jewish neighbors, business partners, and coworkers.
But it goes further than that. Much further than that. We are not just grateful to those who are friendly towards us, but also to our enemies who have aided us in their own self interest. One of the most prominent manifestations of this is the Soviet Union.
Soviet gulag
We are used to thinking of the Soviet Union as a terrible enemy, and indeed it was, and brutally so, completely repressing the Jewish religion in all of its domains, executing and imprisoning thousands of Jews in gulags. But...that is not the entire picture. Not close. The Soviets were single biggest factor in the defeat of the Nazis in World World II. Without them, Hitler would ח”ו almost certainly have been victorious (ע”פ דרך הטבע). This is an under-appreciated fact in Western World World II education, that tends to emphasize the heroics of the Allies and D-Day. The reality is that Soviets soaked up the most World World II losses or any party, suffering 27 MILLION casualties, Allied losses were a fraction in comparison. And likewise, the vast majority of German casualties were on the Eastern Front, fighting the Soviet Union. Simply put, the Soviet Union won World World II.
And as relates to the Jewish nation, without the Soviets, there would have almost certainly been no Jewish survivors in Europe. We would have been lucky if Great Britain had been spared. Furthermore, without the struggle on the Eastern Front sucking up their manpower, the Nazis were on track to taking the entire Middle East, including Palestine. That fact is that our survival, and the very existence of the State of Israel, owes itself to the Soviet Union, with the miraculous help of Hashem. So let us all give three cheers for the Former Soviet Union! In fact, I was thinking of instituting a Former Soviet Union Appreciation Day preceding Yom Ha'atzmaut to express this hakaras hatov, but after some reflection, I felt that would be going a bit too far.
Battle of El Alamein, where the fate of Israel was decided
Therefore, the conclusion is obvious. If we need to be grateful for the aid of even avowed enemies like the Soviets, who had no intention of helping us, kal v'chomer we should feel that way about the secular Zionists, who may have desired to uproot the Torah, but instead, through the kindness of Hashem and inadvertently and against their will, ended up becoming the biggest material Torah supporters in a thousand years. Three cheers for them!
However, we cannot forget where our primary feelings of hakaras hatov should be, towards Hashem Himself, who redeemed us from Mitzrayim, drew us close and made us His nation, gave us His Holy Torah, delivered us from many terrible decrees for thousands of years, miraculously enabled us to return to the Holy Land, and continues to preserve and sustain us to this day. Baruch Hashem for His endless kindness, which He dispenses through even the most unlikely messengers. May we speedily merit the coming of Moshiach, Amen.
Many of my fellow chareidim have expressed reservations about hakaras hatov to the State of Israel and the secular Zionists. "Yes, we should be grateful towards them for their material support and efforts," they say, "but we also have to recognize the tremendous destruction that these secularists have caused to Torah Judaism". To which I definitely agree. There needs to be a balance of hakaras hatov and hakaras hara.
We ought to be grateful to the secular Zionists who founded the State of Israel, and those who continue to run it. The State has provided a safe haven for millions of Jews since the end of World War II when there was a real possibility that they would be absorbed into the Soviet Union, protected its population from the surrounding hostile Arabs, and developed the country's infrastructure spectacularly with the help of Hashem. As much harm as the secularists have perpetrated against our religion, they have also done a great deal of good on the material plane, which in turn has led to incredible and unparalleled flourishing of the Torah in the form of Talmud Torahs, yeshivos, shuls, kollel families and essential non-spiritual institutions, such as the military, roads, homebuilding, electricity, and hospitals.
Sha’arei Tzedek Hospital
On the other hand, we can't ignore the unimaginable damage to Torah Judaism that secularists have done to themselves, their children, and the entire nation, ever since the Haskalah to this day, damage which supporting yeshivos does not come close to compensating for. We also cannot ignore the clear intentions of most of the secularist founders, which was to uproot the Torah. (We do not blame private individuals, whom the Chazon Ish has ruled are tinokos shenishbu, but the leaders and intellectuals who have promoted and continue to encourage secularism.)
However, I would like to provide more perspective as to why we should focus on the good more than the bad.
We know that our hakaras hatov is not limited to Jews. We are grateful to the United States and many other countries for providing a safe haven where our communities can flourish. We are grateful to our governments, our municipalities, our doctors, truck drivers, policemen, firemen, and sanitation workers. We are grateful to our non-Jewish neighbors, business partners, and coworkers.
But it goes further than that. Much further than that. We are not just grateful to those who are friendly towards us, but also to our enemies who have aided us in their own self interest. One of the most prominent manifestations of this is the Soviet Union.
Soviet gulag
We are used to thinking of the Soviet Union as a terrible enemy, and indeed it was, and brutally so, completely repressing the Jewish religion in all of its domains, executing and imprisoning thousands of Jews in gulags. But...that is not the entire picture. Not close. The Soviets were single biggest factor in the defeat of the Nazis in World World II. Without them, Hitler would ח”ו almost certainly have been victorious (ע”פ דרך הטבע). This is an under-appreciated fact in Western World World II education, that tends to emphasize the heroics of the Allies and D-Day. The reality is that Soviets soaked up the most World World II losses or any party, suffering 27 MILLION casualties, Allied losses were a fraction in comparison. And likewise, the vast majority of German casualties were on the Eastern Front, fighting the Soviet Union. Simply put, the Soviet Union won World World II.
And as relates to the Jewish nation, without the Soviets, there would have almost certainly been no Jewish survivors in Europe. We would have been lucky if Great Britain had been spared. Furthermore, without the struggle on the Eastern Front sucking up their manpower, the Nazis were on track to taking the entire Middle East, including Palestine. That fact is that our survival, and the very existence of the State of Israel, owes itself to the Soviet Union, with the miraculous help of Hashem. So let us all give three cheers for the Former Soviet Union! In fact, I was thinking of instituting a Former Soviet Union Appreciation Day preceding Yom Ha'atzmaut to express this hakaras hatov, but after some reflection, I felt that would be going a bit too far.
Battle of El Alamein, where the fate of Israel was decided
Therefore, the conclusion is obvious. If we need to be grateful for the aid of even avowed enemies like the Soviets, who had no intention of helping us, kal v'chomer we should feel that way about the secular Zionists, who may have desired to uproot the Torah, but instead, through the kindness of Hashem and inadvertently and against their will, ended up becoming the biggest material Torah supporters in a thousand years. Three cheers for them!
However, we cannot forget where our primary feelings of hakaras hatov should be, towards Hashem Himself, who redeemed us from Mitzrayim, drew us close and made us His nation, gave us His Holy Torah, delivered us from many terrible decrees for thousands of years, miraculously enabled us to return to the Holy Land, and continues to preserve and sustain us to this day. Baruch Hashem for His endless kindness, which He dispenses through even the most unlikely messengers. May we speedily merit the coming of Moshiach, Amen.
