Men's Club

AND THEY DANCED

 

On November 29, 1947 UN General Assembly Resolution 181 was passed, dividing the British Mandate into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. On May 14, 1948 David Ben-Gurion gave proclamation to the declaration of independence and the establishment of the state of Israel. As the final vote was tallied and the news spread around the world, film clips show the Jewish people taking to the streets, and with exhilarated joy locking arms and dancing in circles, in celebration of the creation of the state of Israel. An  impartial observer may express a sense of curiosity to the reaction of dancing, when the state of Israel was surrounded by hostile Arab nations openly announcing the intent to annihilate the state of Israel. The  Jewish people were outnumbered and out gunned, but prevailed in the War of Independence.

 

To satisfy the impartial observer’s curiosity, let us take a glimpse in the rear view mirror of history. The Jewish people had to endure the Egyptian exile for 400 plus years, the destruction of two temples, the ensuing Babylonian exile for 70 years, albeit to their own sin from turning away from the Lord’s ways. Subjected to persecutions in the form of expulsion from Spain during the Spanish Inquisition, the Pogroms  in Russia, in more modern times the Holocaust during World War II, and currently a renewed wave of  Anti-Semitism. So is it really a wonder that the Jewish people took to the streets in the form of dance to celebrate the taste of freedom in their own homeland.

 

However, there is a deeper significance to the establishment of the state of Israel, which can be traced back to ancient biblical times. The Lord entered into an everlasting covenant with Abraham, giving him and the generations of his seed, a perpetual inheritance to the land of his sojourning. Events in history tend to come full circle. The establishment of the state of Israel signified a return of the Jewish people to their inheritance and a renewal of the covenant. Even today, as we celebrate Weddings, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs with the traditional dance called the Horah to the song of Hava Nagila, we rush to join the dance circle by breaking into the dance procession and locking arms with a profound sense of joy. This act is one of reinvigoration and rejuvenation as an expression of gratitude to the Lord for the blessings the Lord has bestowed upon us, and the freedoms we enjoy today in our own homeland.

 

And so they danced!

 

Marty