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Cappy's avatar

You've got it all wrong.

The sentiment Rav Elyashiv expressed is still shared by most mainstream chareidim even today. They refrain from speaking about it in public forums such as the papers precisely because it can be misconstrued in the way you seem to be doing.

Most chareidim recognize that the miracles of the 6 day war are reasons to be happy and thank god for, but there are 2 issues that make it impossible to celebrate openly in the way you would like:

1. Unfortunately the way theses events are celebrated and recounted by the majority of Israeli's (and the way it is celebrated by the state and its institutions) is a story of the mighty IDF defeating our enemies, a story of the greatness of the Zionist enterprise etc. A typical story: one Israeli general was asked shortly after the 6 day war if he looks up to the heavens before he goes to war. his answer - no. I only look to the left and the right to see how many tanks I have. Can there be any bigger blaspheme? But this is a sentiment shared by a vast amount of Israelis and most of its elite class. Anyone with a shred of religious sensitivity cannot help but be disgusted by this. This makes it very difficult to celebrate in Israel the events of the 6 day war without being misconstrued as joining and supporting the way its celebrated . It would also cause much confusion amongst the simple masses of charedim who are unable to understand the complexity of our position.

2. Most dati leumi view the events of yom haatzmaut and yom yerushalayim as basically getting us most of the way there to the geula sheleima. Look - the country has been rebuilt, the economy is booming, look at the high-tech center, look at our powerful army, etc. etc.. Most charedim on the other hand view it very differently. While these things are positive developments, they are very very far from the geulah sheleima. We still have no Beis hamikdash, no Malchus, no Avodah, no Sanhedrin, no Kohen gadol, no meaningful rabbinic authority. Judaism is a shell of how its meant to look in practice in the holy land. When the messiah comes there will need to be an upheaval of biblical proportions to get us where we need to be. The country is run by a secular government by secular laws with a secular court system. The vast majority of Jews are openly antagonistic towards Judaism or know nothing about it. etc. etc. This is what makes it so hard for the charedim to celebrate jubulantly.

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