Well it IS Israel Independence day but it is NOT the 5th of Iyyar. If the 5th of Iyyar has qedusha, then does it make sense to say Hallel 2 days earlier? <br clear="all"><br>My position has pretty much always been the the 5th of Iiyar is like lag ba'omer. IOW a kind of a middle-of-the-road position between full Purim like frivolity and Tachanun-bearing Sefira suffering. Now I have re-examined my Centrist postion and I find that it now makes sense to me on another level...<br>
<br>The Mourning of Talmidei R. Akiva is related to the uprsiningn against Rome which extinguished the last embers of the 2nd Commonwealth. As such Sefira connotes an almost 9 Av Hurban mindset approaching the loss of a major chunk of the remnants of the hurban of 70 CE... In a sense efira is a hurban achar hurban,[like bishul achar bishul] not a full-fleged Hurban, but a mini one.<br>
<br>Now 5 Iyyar and 28 Iyyar [Yom yerushalayyim] are not complete ge'ulos [like Purim] but in a sense we are witnessing over time a rolling back of the damage done in 70/135 CE. In the span of about 70 years [roughly 66 to 135] things went downhill in stages, with 9 Av being a major watershed point. And - Lag ba'omer was the one bright spot in the 132-135 era, a break within that plague.<br>
<br>5 Iyyar & 28 Iyyar represent two NEW "breaks" given to us by HKBH. Not complete ge'ulah but a slight undoing [step by step, stage by stage] of the earlier events. It therefore makes sense to me to think of them as much more closely analogous to 33 omer. Two days representing a roll back of the damage.<br>
<br>AISI since only the complete G'eulah will merit full Hallel,and so therefore it is premature to do so NOW but it IS appropriate to pause from our Sefirah mourning to add 2 "modern" lag Ba'omer-like days to our repertoire and to appreciate HKBH's partial kindness<br>
<br>After all in the Seder we give appreciation fro 15 separate "ma'alos" In this ge'ulah we have at least 2. Maybe the UN vote in 1947 is a third. So in a span of 60+ years we are seeing a restoration of EY as a makkom torah. And soon, it will host the world's biggest roasted lamb/kid Bar-B-Q on the next 14th of Nissan, bimheira beiyameinu- <br>
<br>-- <br>Kol Tuv / Best Regards,<br>RabbiRichWolpoe@Gmail.com<br>see: <a href="http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/">http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/</a>