Q:
Should we celebrate July 4th?
A:
We hang out a flag from this synagogue July the Fourth. You walk down Ocean Parkway, you see no flags. Here we hang the flag.
America is a very big bracha. Even with all its troubles it’s a big bracha. America is like a big ice cream pie. Such freedom, such opportunity to make a living. And therefore it’s like a person who is given a big birthday cake with a lot of dressing and ice cream on top of it and as he’s putting his face into it he’s getting smeared with the ice cream, so he says, “What a bother this is! Oh, how messy it is.” He’s complaining.
So Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, “What can I do for you, my friend? America is such a big cake of happiness. I want you to appreciate what I’m giving you.”
So yes, I say that the flag is a symbol of all the privileges that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us in this country and therefore it’s not a bad idea, even though you never did it before, on the fourth of July just to hang out a flag. At least l’hachis the reshaim, the liberals, you should do it; to show the goyim that we do appreciate what Hashem gave us. I say buy flags and hang them out. No matter how frum you are, buy flags and hang them out.
But to celebrate it more than that, no. If we have leisure time we spend it in the beis medrash, not driving on highways. Even for the gentiles it’s not healthy. You know how many gentiles would remain alive if there wasn’t a Fourth of July? This Fourth of July at least five hundred goyim will be killed on the roads. At least five hundred! Besides those who will stab each other in the taverns. Or shoot each other. Suppose they abolished the Fourth of July—now, I’m not for that; the Fourth of July is a good thing. But it’s a misfortune for those people who are not able to use it. And who is not able to use it? All of them.
But you should utilize it by packing up lunch and going out all day to the beis medrash. Tell your wife that you’ll be home in the evening for supper.
July 1983
Reb Dovid Miller, shlita, shares with us a July 4th memory of the Rav zatzal:
This is a clear memory I have from fifty years ago, at the bicentennial. I feel privileged to have the zechus of sharing these words of the Rav, zichrono levrocha, with the next generation for the semiquincentennial.
It was the Fourth of July, 1976, the year of America’s bicentennial. It was a hot, steamy Sunday and there were lots of goings-on in town. Many of the world’s tall sailing ships had been assembled in New York harbor for the event. Many people were planning to go visit them.
We had just completed the 10:30 Gemara shiur, and as we were leaving the Rav turned to a group of us, and he said thoughtfully:
“Rabbosai, the best way to spend the Fourth of July is to sit and learn Torah. If America will become a home for Torah, it will be a big zechus for America. That’s how to spend the day, instead of going to see some silly ships.”
