This year’s Yom Haatzmaut celebration commemorates the 71st anniversary of a marriage that has lasted more than 3,500 years. This may sound like a paradox — but it is the inescapable truth about the land of Israel and the Jews.

No marriage has lasted so long, been so deep in its commitment, and been so overwhelming in its love as the one between the Jews and their homeland. Yet no marriage has been so painful or so tragic, for the partners were forced apart by the Roman Empire nearly 2,000 years ago. They were not reunited for another 1,878 years. But for all those years, nothing — absolutely nothing — could emotionally separate the partners, even when they were thousands of miles away from each other. This marriage did not depend on where the partners were located, but rather where their souls dwelt.

For the marriage to continue, the Jews, metaphorically and unprecedentedly, lifted the land of Israel from its native soil and transformed it into a portable homeland, taking it with them to all four corners of the earth. Only in 1948 were the people and its land physically reunited.

But no marriage should be taken for granted. Not even after 3,000 years.

When a bridegroom offers his new wife a ring as a sign of commitment, he knows that this is only the first installment of an ongoing pledge. No marriage can endure if both partners do not constantly reinvest in their relationship. The moment a marriage is counted in years rather than marked by shared striving for new opportunities, it has come to an end. Only a mission — a common dream — can sustain a marriage, and only something greater than it will allow it to succeed. To paraphrase Aristotle, marriage is a single soul dwelling in two bodies. But a soul that has lost its purpose has lost itself.

Although we see today a clear change in Israeli society, and more and more Israelis searching for their Jewish religious roots, it cannot be denied that a significant part of the people of Israel are struggling to stay spiritually wed to their land. Rampant materialism, secularism, and religious fanaticism have eroded Israel’s sense of Jewish identity and the historical consciousness that gives meaning to its national existence. Sadly, large numbers of its people lack Jewish self-understanding and wonder why they should live in this country at all.

It is true that the wonderful Israeli soldiers are ready to sacrifice their lives for our country. But how long can this continue when Israel is nothing more than just a country? People are willing to die only for that by which they have lived. And human beings can live meaningful lives only when they know that there is something eternal worth dying for.

It is thus crucial to identify the element that has bound the two partners together for these thousands of years. And that element is, unequivocally, the mission to be “a light unto the nations,” as pronounced by God to the prophet Isaiah. The marriage was created to give birth to a wellspring of religious and moral teachings as taught by the Torah and Judaism, so that we will suffuse mankind with the knowledge that life is holy and that God awaits man’s response to His call in order to redeem His world.

This then is the task of the land and people of Israel: to elevate the human race so that it becomes a link between the divine and the earthly.

It is the rabbis who consecrate a marriage. But that is only part of their task. As pastors, their responsibility is to ensure the marriage’s success and tend to it if it flounders or stagnates. This is the task of Israel’s religious leadership today. It must transform the Jewish people by creating a spiritual longing for its unique mission, thereby restoring their marriage to its full potential after the long and difficult separation.

True religious leaders should not be “honored” or “well respected.” Rather, as women and men of truth, they should stir unprecedented awe among Israelis and all Jews. Simultaneously their towering personalities should draw people closer with their overflowing love.

The times demand unwavering religious and moral guidance. The religious leadership must extricate itself from the morass in which has become mired. In an unprecedented initiative, it must steer the ship of an inspiring, rejuvenated Judaism in full sail right into the heart of Israeli society, causing shock waves that will impact every aspect of life.

It can no longer be concerned just with the kashrut of our food, or with the question who is Jewish and who is not. Above all, it needs to inspire the kashrut of our souls.

Like the prophets of old, our religious leaders must generate a spiritual revolution, triggering an ethical-religious uproar that shakes the very foundations of the state. Only then will the Jewish people fully re-engage with its land. Only then can the Jewish people stay eternally married to its land. Only then will no third party, whether it is European antisemitism, BDS efforts, Muslim extremism, Jewish self-hate, or the deceitfulness of the UN dare to interfere in its matrimonial bond. This is Israel’s hope and future.

May God bless this eternal marriage!

Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo is the Founder and Dean of the David Cardozo Academy, as well as the author of 13 books and numerous articles in both English and Hebrew. Hailing from the Netherlands, Rabbi Cardozo is known for his original and often fearlessly controversial insights into Judaism.

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