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Tzur Yisrael

On May 13, 1948, a committee was convened to finalize the text of Israel’s Declaration of Independence. One of the sticking points was whether to include a mention of G-d in the Declaration. Some secularists insisted that the new State of Israel is a secular state and therefore, G-d should not be mentioned. Others, led by Rav Yehuda Leib Fishman (Maimon), insisted that G-d must be mentioned. A compromise was reached and the name Tzur Yisrael appears in the Declaration — מתוך בטחון בצור ישראל – with trust in the rock of Israel. Those who believe in G-d know that Tzur Yisrael refers to G-d and those who don’t want to understand it that way, can interpret it as the might of the Jewish people. 

However, unbeknownst to those present, Rav Fishman had a trick up his sleeve. When it came to sign his name, he signed it (second column second from bottom): בעז”ה יהודה ליב הכהן פישמן. By adding B’Ezrat HaShem, G-d got an explicit mention in the document.

Use of the word Tzur to refer to G-d is found throughout Tanach, and we use it throughout davening. Most notably, in Parashat Ha’azinu (Devarim 32), Tzur appears eight times, though some of those references are chol (secular), not kodesh. 

In fact, the ambiguity of the word tzur is explicitly noted in Ha’azinu when verse 31 makes a contrast between G-d referred to as tzureinu (Our Rock) and what other nations belief in referred to as tzuram – .כי לא כצורינו צורם 

Why is G-d described as Tzur? Rav Shamshon Refael Hirsch (1808-1888), suggests (Devarim 32:4) that Tzur connotes two ideas about our relationship with G-d:

a) An unwavering “solid rock” commitment. G-d is committed to the Jewish people to ensure that we will always survive, and we can rely on that like we can lean on a rock;

b) Just like a rock doesn’t change, G-d doesn’t change and our relationship with Him is the same, no matter what environment we find ourselves in.

Yet the Gemara, Berachot 10a, has an additional level of interpretation:

Rav Shimi bar Ukva said to Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi: Come and see that the attribute of the Holy One, Blessed be He, is not like the attribute of flesh and blood. The attribute of flesh and blood is such that he shapes a form on the wall for all to see, yet he cannot instill it with a spirit and soul, bowels and intestines. While the Holy One, Blessed be He, is not so, as G-d shapes one form within another form, a child in its mother’s womb, and instills it with spirit and soul, bowels and intestines. And this is the explanation of what Hannah said with regard to the birth of Samuel: ‘There is none holy like the Lord, for there is none like You, and there is no Rock like our G-d,’ (I Samuel 2:2). What is the meaning of there is no rock [tzur] like our G-d? There is no artist [tzayyar] like our G-d.

Why does the Gemara take the word Tzur out of context and refer to G-d as an artist? R. Simcha Zisel Broida (1912-2000) suggests that the Gemara is trying to convey the idea that G-d’s hashgacha (providence) works like a picture. When an artist starts to draw a picture, we don’t exactly know what the picture is going to look like until it is finished. The more detail there is, the less we know about the big picture. Similarly, we don’t understand the ways of G-d as they are happening. Sometimes it takes years, decades or centuries to figure out the big picture.

On the day of the founding of the State of Israel, nobody knew what the fate would be. The Arab nations immediately declared war on a one-day-old country that did not yet have a chance to assemble a formal military force. The signatories signed the document with a long-term vision of hope and optimism, but knowing full well that its effect may be fleeting. 

The use of the name Tzur Yisrael to describe G-d was most apropos. In addition to Him being the Rock that we rely on in difficult times, He is also the Artist who paints a picture that sometimes can only be understood from a distance. Nobody knew what He was painting a short three years after the conclusion of the Holocaust, but now that we have almost 80 years of perspective, we have a better picture of what the Tzur Yisrael was drawing. Rav Fishman’s signature serves as a simple and permanent reminder that the Tzur Yisrael is a reference to G-d’s ongoing providence in protecting our Land and our people.