Heaven in Earth

One might think of the recent Yom HaZicharon (Israeli Memorial Day) and Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) as civil holidays with only a purely historical relationship to the calendar, much like America's Memorial Day or the Fourth of July. Parshat Emor comes to reveal that these "secular holidays" sprouted quite organically in light of the spiritual significance of the season.
Spring seems to pass in the blink of an eye in Eretz Yisrael. Same with autumn. The long winter is a period devoid of Torah holidays, while the summer is replete with all three Festivals, anchored by Pesach and Shemini Atzeret, and guided by Shavuot and the Days of Awe, as described in our parasha.
Why did Hashem choose to bunch the holidays so close together? Perhaps we can learn from nature. The bulk of her activity -- mating season and birth/hatching, flowering and ripening -- occurs during this season. The summer is a time of physical growth. Biologists note that even people grow more during this time. So the holidays, the time of spiritual growth, coincides with the time of physical activity.
What this suggests is that spiritual growth is somehow connected with involvement in the physical world. Our parasha reveals that, even for the hyper-spiritual Kohanim (priestly class), the commandments mainly relate to physical acts. Judaism is not a society of ascetics who abstain from sex, food, and music; indeed, those are some of the very avenues by which we sanctify ourselves. We must be careful that our spirituality does not lock itself into the Beit Knesset (synagogue) and Beit Midrash (study hall). This is especially true now that we have Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) -- a huge outlet for our creative energies -- in our hands. The view of spirituality and physicality as flip sides of the same cosmic coin is a central concept of Judaism.
This begins to explain the dual nature of the 49 days of the Omer between Pesach and Shavuot. Rooted in the agricultural cycle but discerned within the abstract soul architecture of the sefirot, our work during the Omer is actualized in the way we relate to our brother even as the panel board of our soul is being fine-tuned for relationship. This week's parasha presents the Omer: "[from Pesach] until the morrow of the seventh week [Shavuot] you shall count fifty days; and you shall offer a new meal-offering to Hashem." You yourself are that "new offering to Hashem." By Shavuot, the acts you do will reflect the sum of the daily spiritual growth you've attained during the Omer.
The day after Pesach is the first day of the Omer-suggesting a relationship between the time of our national freedom and the budding of nature. Perhaps this is why these new commemorative days of Medinat Yisrael (the State of Israel) "ended up" right after Pesach, the Festival of Spring.
We are taught that Pesach is not to celebrate freedom for its own sake, but rather freedom in order to receive the Torah on Shavuot and go on to fulfill it. Likewise we did not gain physical and political sovereignty over Eretz Yisrael for the first time in millennia merely in order to barbeque, shoot fireworks, and create an Israeli version of MTV.
Perhaps there are others who wait for Moshiach and the Temple to literally come down from the sky and signal the Redemption. But, just like in the story of Purim, Hashem's hand in the story of the creation of the State of Israel is hidden in the flow of events. A student of history must do statistical back flips to arrive at any other conclusion but that we are being called back home to actualize the Torah together on our land as a unified people.
The ba'al teshuva does not leave his job or college, and the land of his birth, for yeshiva as an end in itself. He leaves it to become himself through the Torah, that he may reflect back to the world in simple truth; to claim his G-d-given place in the world by building a nucleus of holiness, a new Jewish family within "a holy people, a nation of priests," wherein every man is a priest within the temple of his life.
The summer is a season of activity. Let us use this time to act with purity of heart, that the physical steps we take in the Holy Land may bring us to a place of holiness, even as we tread the soil, punch the keys, and change the diapers in the very physical land of our inheritance.
Bonus mini-dvar: The sefirah for Yom Ha'atzmaut, the day we get together and bond for the sake of our Land, is always Yesod sh'ba tiferet. Tiferet is associated with the Patriarch Ya'akov, so the sefirah starts the day with "Bonding in Israel." The activities of that day bring us to the night, as the sefirah moves into Malchut sh'ba tiferet, or "Sovereignty in Israel" as the conclusion to Israeli Independence Day. Coincidence? Additionally, There is an ancient tradition that the Redemption will be initiated through a Mashiach ben Yosef, followed by a Mashiach ben David. Yosef represents Yesod, and David represents Malchut.
Wow. Perhaps this miraculous non-coincidence can help some of us to decide regarding the bracha for Hallel on Yom Ha'atzmaut!