Mt. Herzl
“One thing is for sure – they haven’t died in vain.”
Letter Excerpts:
“Today I was up on Mt. Herzl where the graves of those that fell in the War of Independence are. What a pity that every now and then after some border skirmish they have to make use of this place. But one thing is for sure- they haven’t died
in vain.”who works in the
Heletz oil fields…”
— August 20, 1957
On Israel’s national Memorial Day, Mt. Herzl is where the official state ceremony takes place. All sectors of Israeli society are united through their participation.
“The Land of Israel
is acquired only
through suffering”
(Talmud Berachot 5)
” This is the only way left to our people – To stand on our own rights, to be ready to fight, even if for some of us this way leads to the gallows. For it is a law of history that
only with blood shall a country be redeemed.”
— Letter of Irgun fighter Dov Gruner to Menachem Begin shortly before he was hung by the British
Mt. Herzl
Mount Herzl is Israel’s national cemetery where Israel’s war casualties are buried. It is located only a stone’s throw from Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. The loss of those who perished in combat fighting for a Jewish State is commemorated on Remembrance Day, which was established in 1951 by then PM David Ben Gurion.
Mt. Herzl, the national cemetary of the fighters for the Jewish State.
While many view Israel today as some kind of “Goliath”, they were the huge underdog in every war. In the War of Independence in 1948, 6,000 Jews fell in a hard fought victory. Hundreds fell defending Israel from terrorist incursions during the 1956 Sinai Campaign. Before the war in 1967, mass graves were prepared for the imminent slaughter that was expected to take place. Israel won that war and captured the Kotel. Today, Jews routinely flock to the Kotel, but forget how many soldiers fell liberating it.
In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, thousands of soldiers fell defending Israel against an Arab surprise attack. The more recent Lebanese and Gaza Wars also accounted for numerous casualties. Terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians throughout the years have taken a huge toll in victims. According to the Israel Foreign Ministry, the number of Israel’s casualties of war stand at 23,816 as of 2020.
M’sirut Nefesh – Self-Sacrifice
The cornerstone of the Jewish state is self-sacrifice. It was not a U.N. vote in 1947 which created Israel, but the blood and fire of the Jewish fighters who fought the attacking Arabs. Previous to that, during Israel’s pre-state days, it was the self-sacrifice of the Jewish fighters who eventually chased the British out of the Holy Land.
The concept of self-sacrifice is expressed in a verse Jews say during the Passover seder: “Through your blood shall you live” (Ezekiel 16:6). That is, the Jewish nations survives “through their blood” – through the merit of self sacrifice. On Mount Herzl, we pay our respects to those heroic Jews who made the ultimate sacrifice, and in their merit (and “through their blood”), a Jewish State was born.