Medinat Yisrael

War of Independence - 1948

Rabbi Avraham Sternhartz, a leading figure in the Breslov community in Kremenchug and Uman and later in Eretz Yisrael, lived through the turbulent years of early Zionism, culminating in the War of Independence in 1948 and the stablishment of the State of Israel. He once told his disciple, Rabbi Gedaliah Kenig, "The medinah (secular state) is the klippah (husk) that precedes the fruit – but it is also a shemirah (protection) on the fruit.”

In a similar vein, Reb Gedaliah once explained to his disciples that despite the problems created by secular Zionism, we must appreciate that because of the existence of the medinah, tens of thousands of Jews put on Tefillin, keep Shabbos, etc.