When I lived in Israel as a kid, there was Yom Ha-Zikaron (Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror), and then, the next day, Yom Ha-Atzma’ut (Independence Day). The transition, at least as I recall from back then, was harsh and immediate. The entire country went from the agony of cemeteries to barbecues and celebrations.

It made no sense.

Some thirty years ago (I believe that was when), Israelis began to address the need for a transitional period between the agony and the celebration. A new ceremony emerged, called a Tekes Ma’avar, A Ceremony of Transition, usually done by synagogue or neighborhood, which begins late in the afternoon of Memorial Day, with appropriate music and readings, and then moves slowly into a more celebratory mood as evening comes and Independence Day begins.

Year ago, there were only a few such ceremonies — now they’re ubiquitous.

To mark both Yom Ha-Zikaron and Yom Ha-Atzma’ut today, we’re sharing a conversation that I had with Justin Pines of JBS (Jewish Broadcasting Service) in New York a few weeks ago, in which we discussed what Israelis would be feeling today and tomorrow. (The brief Instagram video above was prepared by JBS and is a small portion of the video below.)

I’m grateful to Justin for the invitation to have this conversation, and for his gracious permission for us to share it here.

The Hebrew press on days like today is obviously all about both days—the costs of getting where we are and our hopes for what may still be.

YNet, Israel’s most-read Hebrew news website, ran something today that seemed worth sharing. It’s in Hebrew, and many of the graphics don’t translate even when you set your browser to do so (but some of the text will); still, you’ll get the basic idea if you click on the link to get to the “article.”

Here’s a Google-translated screenshot of the opening of the presentation:

If you scroll down, you’ll see the number of soldiers killed (the green bars) and the number of civilians murdered (the white bars) by hear. Scroll to the left and go all the way to 1948 and even earlier. It’s fascinating.

Remember: the screenshot below is a small portion of the graph. So go to the site and then scroll left to see more.

Keep in mind when you see the 1948 numbers that that was in a country of some 600,000 Jews, where today the number is closer to 8,000,000. This is the first year that Israel’s population on Independence Day has crossed the 10 million person mark.

Among other things, you’ll also find a graph of the single days (as opposed to years, above) with the greatest losses of soldiers (these numbers do no include civilians). Not surprisingly, October 7th was the worst single day in Israel’s history in that count. As you look at the other days on the graph, blue is 1948 War of Independence, brown is the Six Day War, and green is the Yom Kippur War.

This present war is shown in black … obviously not accidentally.

In what is an eerie coincidence, you’ll see that the deadliest day of the Yom Kippur War was also October 7 (1973), precisely fifty years to the day before October 7 (2023).

If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.

We mentioned earlier this week that we’re going to be presenting a few conversations with Israeli social and religious leaders who are advocating a different form of Jewishness in Israel, and in many cases, a new approach to our relationships with Arabs and Palestinians, even in the midst of this war.

In a couple of weeks, we’ll hear from Maoz Inon, an Israeli entrepreneur and peace activist, whose parents were killed in their safe room in Netiv Ha-Asarah on the morning of October 7th.

Maoz is a central figure in organizing the People’s Peace Summit, which will take place in Jerusalem on May 8 and 9 (information in the link above). Those who may happen to be here then and are interested can sign up on that website.

The following video is from their website, and will give you a sense of what some religious and political leaders, even in the midst of the war, are hoping Israelis can begin to think about.

Not everyone this will agree with their views, but regardless of one’s own positions, hearing them is important if we’re to understand the chorus of voices that make up Israel, which is the purpose of Israel from the Inside.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit danielgordis.substack.com/subscribe

Tonight's narrow and fragile bridge between Yom Ha-Zikaron and Yom Ha-Atzma'ut

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