The declaration of the State of Israel filled hearts with terror and joy alike. I found myself, like every simple Jew, compelled to recite psalms. My attention was drawn to mizmor 22 "To the Conductor, on the morning star, a psalm of David," a chapter associated by the Sages with times of crisis.
"They will come and tell His righteousness to a born nation as He has made it" (Psalms 22, 32). Over half a century ago, certainly I took our verse to refer, first and foremost, to the present-tense "born," to a nation just now finding itself on its feet, at this moment undergoing the birth process, experiencing the pangs of emerging nationhood, the pangs of history - "a nation being born."
However, it now seems to me that we can speak not only of one understanding, but of three valid interpretations.
