In this week’s Torah portion, we read the following words about the first Jew ever to set out for the land we call Israel: “V’Avraham zakein ba bayamim” – “Abraham was old, advanced in years.” Torah scholars point out that the phrase is redundant – if he’s old, we already know he’s advanced in years. Why do we need both? My favorite rabbinic teaching about this phrase points out that the Hebrew, ba bayamim, doesn’t literally mean “advanced in years,” it means that Abraham had “come into his days.” That’s why it was necessary to say. We all grow old, but we don’t necessarily “come into our days.” Getting older does not have to mean getting better, or coming into our own.
With the Jewish year 5773 now underway, we can begin to look to this year’s observance of Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israeli Independence Day, which will arrive this spring. It will be Israel’s sixty-fifth birthday. Israel is zakein – it is getting older. But the question before every Jew – wherever he or she may live, whether we wish to be made to answer it or not – is: Is Israel ba bayamim? Is Israel coming into its days… coming into its own?
Any nation, in the years of its youth, has good cause to be preoccupied with matters of survival – with the mere matter of preserving the opportunity to grow old. America was certainly no exception. We sometimes forget that Washington, D.C. was occupied by the British in 1814, and the White House and the U.S. Capitol Building were largely destroyed. It was a time in which America’s long-term survival was still very much in question, even while the United States sought to expand into new territories.
These were the defining narratives of America’s youth. Only after this stage of America’s development had passed could a not-so-new country turn its attention more pointedly to the questions of what America’s survival should be about – and this would pave the way for an end to legal slavery before America reached the age of ninety. It was the kind of advancement that only happens in a nation no longer focused on mere survival, and the efforts to elevate America’s core values continue to this day, even as the country remains vigilant about defending itself from all threats.
As Israel approaches the age of sixty-five, the opportunity – the obligation – arises to shift the discussion more pointedly toward the questions of what Israel’s survival should be about. This doesn’t mean that Israel can ignore the very real threats that it faces from its neighbors. To pretend that the dangers to Israel and to Israeli citizens do not exist would be worse than foolish. But as a not-so-new country, possessing strength of its own and powerful support in the world, Israel is ready for ever bolder efforts to elevate its core values. A deepening of the timeless Jewish principles that Israel embodies – regarding economic justice, human rights, immigration, religious pluralism and peacemaking – will only serve to deepen the determination to defend Israel from anyone who would threaten its future.
Is Israel ba bayamim? Is Israel coming into its days… coming into its own? It is the Jewish people’s question to answer – now and forever.