Tal Friedman refused to bring a beacon on Independence Day, thus entering a very limited list of people who gave up the class.
Laughter aside - did Friedman understand something we do not yet, about the glorious ceremony that every Israeli wants to take part in?
On the first Independence Day of the country, hundreds of GDNA members climbed torches holding Herzl's grave in Jerusalem, raising beacons.
At first, only representatives of different localities were elected, but the protectionists won, and as early as 1960, half of the activists were veterans of the Zionist movement.
A year later, when Israel celebrated a bar mitzvah, 12 children born on the day of the establishment of the state were chosen for the ceremony, and later colonists, immigrants, immigrants, volunteers, schoolchildren, educators, war heroes and so on were chosen to light.
The flame lighters in the early decades of the ceremony were so unremarkable that today there is no proof of their existence on the Internet.
Wikipedia provides only partial data, and a perusal of the archives reveals that in those years public interest was negligible, and the newspaper did not always mention the highlights of the beacons.
When they wrote, it often highlighted that they were ordinary citizens with a private story that could provide inspiration.
Television must have been to blame for spoiling the traditional ceremony.
After all, in parallel with the rise of reality, in 2004 there were those who thought that it would be right to allow the public to vote for the last light on SMS.
It was a sporty ceremony, and the people chose Bali Ohana, but when Mickey Berkowitz was pushed out, a protest spread, and it was added as the 13th lighter.
In 2008, the selection of educator Yossi Sadeh was canceled, after a journalistic investigation opened a box of spawners with allegations of sexual assault, theft of equipment from IDF bases and a variety of suspicions that created pressure to cancel it. 2003.
And how did it happen that activist Alex Viznitzer lit a beacon in 2012, and was arrested two years later because of the corruption case of Yisrael Beiteinu, in which he was convicted of bribery?
Did anyone check what happened to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was selected in 2018 as a lighter of honor and was extradited to the U.S. this week for drug trafficking deals? Israel.
It is not by chance that we are suddenly talking and arguing more about the identity of the climbs.
The organizers of the ceremony are looking for a glow, are interested in ratings and choose accordingly.
The names are dripping into the media day after day, the minister greets, the moment of the news is documented and distributed on the networks, and it is easy to point to a drastic increase in the number of celebs who get to light up.
Rita, Idan Raichel, Shlomi Shabbat, Yehoram Gaon, Uri Melmillian, Zeev Revach, Lia Koenig, Lucy Aharish, Avihu Medina, Galia Rahav, Rami Levy, Tzipi Shavit - and these are only from the last seven years.
It does not take courage to be Tal Friedman, to say no to coming to Luba, and to give up an invitation to an event that is moving away from the consensus and creating a feeling of carnival from combo.
The beacon lighting ceremony on Mount Herzl is not meant to be a VIP reality nor a training machine for dubious practitioners.
He must re-emphasize the small and anonymous person who can provide inspiration to an entire nation.
Otherwise, for what the hell do we need the strange tradition of lighting fires and dancing on the tomb of the state contract?
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