There were so many great articles and posts for Yom Haatzmaut (I will link to a few at the end of this post)... I did not write one because I just was not inspired this year. Sure, I celebrated with the traditional 2 barbecues (night and day), davening, flag on the car, and had a wonderful (relaxing) day - but I just was not inspired about it this year. So I did not write anything about it..

but here are a few "random", unconnected, thoughts I had over the course of Yom Haatzmaut...

1. People make all sorts of excuses to not celebrate. I find the issue of pushing off the celebrations of Yom Haatzmaut to be completely insignificant and irrelevant. Purim has a wide range of dates on when it can be pushed off to and celebrated upon, and nobody bats an eyelash. should we say Purim is clearly not important because it sometimes gets pushed off from the original date? no? Why should that argument be more relevant in the case of Yom Haatzmaut than it is regarding Purim?

And regarding hallel - if the entire country of Israel (the religious parts of it), can say Hallel with a bracha in shul on the first night of Pesach, as per the minhag eretz yisrael which most people here seem to follow, than why is saying hallel, even with a bracha, not justified for Yom Haatzmaut (by day at least, if not also by night)?

Those who don't want to say it, need not say it. But the arguments offered often do not work. Just admit the truth and say you dont want to say it because you don't hold of the day. If you are arguing about nidche, dont - just admit you dont hold of the day. Most of the halachic "arguments" against are pretty weak. They dont work nearly as well as just saying you don't hold any significance of the day.

2. People who do "hold of" the day, also don't need to all celebrate the same way. When growing up in the US, I don't remember celebrating Yom Haatzmaut or July 4th in any special way. We were not parade people and did not really do anything special (besides for maybe a barbecue, if it worked out).. Not everybody wants to do the standard things, play along with the standard methods of celebration. Maybe some feel good about the day but don't want to barbecue or hike or say hallel. that's fine. We live in a free world, and other people do not have to celebrate the same way as me, the same way as you, or the same way as whatever is common.

3. I find it interesting how many seemingly "regular" [Haredi litvishe] people, even if not particularly zionist but definitely never seem to be anti-zionist, suddenly on Yom Haatzmaut become almost rabidly anti-zionist, adopting the narrative of Satmar or other anti-zionist groups, rather than the standard Haredi litvishe narrative of ambivalence and non-zionism (rather than anti). Instead of just saying they don't care, aren't interested, this is for them and not us, etc. they talk against with a lot of venom and hatred.

4. I also find it interesting how many closet zionists there seems to be. People who dont want to be seen publicly as celebrating or identifying with the day, but in private they do.

5. I dont think Haredim really have the right to claim to be anti-zionists on Yom Haatzmaut, when they participate in the government on various levels. For example, in a city like Bet Shemesh, the mayor and his entire coalition is Haredi. They may not call themselves Zionists, but, practically, aren't they? They are actively working to build up the country. They may not hang flags, they may not say hallel, they may not take the day off from school and kollel, but in practice and in daily life, they are actually fairly zionistic, even if they do not admit it.

6. Even the most anti-zionist groups are relatively (and "relatively" is an important word here) zionistic. Instead of protesting on the 5th of Iyyar, they protested on the 6th of Iyyar, the day the Rabbanut pushed Yom Haatzmaut off to. Meaning, they accept the authority of the Rabbanut to make such a decision.

7. some youth (from Bnei Akiva, I think) decorated the neighborhood in blue and white for Yom Haatzmaut. It was very nice. Now that Yom Haatzmaut is over, I hope they clean it all up. Just like I hope charity organizations clean up after their promotions (they generally do, but not always), and that politicians clean up their messes (they almost never do)..

8. it is always upsetting to see or hear of incidents, let alone to be the victim, about people, usually kids, stealing flags off of people's personal property - either off of cars or hanging from windows or porches. Less upsetting about the disrespect for the flag, more upsetting about the lack of morals, the lack in the educational system, where kids think it is ok to do this. And, again, I am not talking about people or kids associated with Satmar, but kids from normal haredi-litvishe families.

Yom Haatzmaut links:

1. the "censored" section from Sefer Hatodaah, about Yom Haatzmaut
2. the end of Israel's fairy-tale era (William Kolbrenner on Haaretz)
3. where the PM is just another bereaved brother
4. all its perfect imperfections - why I love Israel
5. (not Yom Haatzmaut relaated, but..) Haredi yeshiva opens, with 2 years of service in IDF cyber defense unit
6. when our rabbis are wrong
7. the last of the founding generation, captured on film
8. Benji Lovitt's annual roundup for Yom haatzmaut - 66 reasons he loves Israel
9. #Israel66.. we didn't come here for the shopping
10. when the Eida Chareidis praised God for the liberation of Israel and when charedim prayed  for the State
11. why this Yom Haatzmaut is different from all other Yom Haatzmauts (Facebook post)