What do we call this state, when we pray for its survival?
Even when I was anti-Zionist, the words still caught my ear and made me think:
ראשית צמיחת גאולתנו
Not yet the final liberation from the idolatrous world of hierarchy, empire, and colonialism…
Not even the full blossoming of that liberation, a bright dawn after the longest night…
Just the very beginning, the start of it all.
Here’s to the past 76 years, in which the story of that beginning has unfolded around us and through us.
Here’s to the next 76 years; may they bring us the full bloom of a new day, may they bring us the peace and justice promised to us by our prophets, may they finally bring us all home, to Zion.
Here’s to good dreams that should never – will never – die.
לחיים