Yom Yerushalayim ~ May 19, 2023
Today we celebrate the fifty-sixth year of the reunification of Jerusalem. Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, brings back memories for many of us of watching General Moshe Dayan make his way with the chief rabbi of Israel to the Kotel, the Western Wall.
As proud Jews who recently celebrated Israel’s 75th Anniversary, we often find ourselves marveling at the current Jerusalem, unified and simply awe-inspiring. It truly is a “Jerusalem of Gold.” Needless to say, we marvel at the current Jerusalem, with all of its residential areas, shops, synagogues, yeshivot, universities and companies that call it home.
For those of us who have had the opportunity to visit Jerusalem and the Kotel, we understand their spiritual and hallowed role for the Jewish people around the globe. Standing back from the Western Wall’s Plaza, one can only imagine what it must have been like during Temple times. Gazing at the walkways that Jewish pilgrims stepped upon during King Solomon’s time, which have been uncovered by archeologists, guides one to appreciate those moments when the Kohanim performed the sacrificial worship in the Temple.
Jerusalem and the Kotel provide us with a hope that goes beyond the normal use of the word, no different than the Israeli national anthem of Hatikvah renews a similar hope. It is one of the opportunities for a true messianic age, most specifically for the Jewish people, but also for the people and religions that consider Jerusalem a holy city.
We all pray for the day when Elijah, the prophet, will herald the arrival of the Messiah and with that the rebuilding of Beit Hamikdash, the holy Temple in Jerusalem, where prayerful worship will once again take place, not only at the Kotel, but also on the actual site where King Solomon built the first Temple, in the city his father established as the capital of the Jewish people.
Yet, as we marvel at the current united Jerusalem, the history of the reunification seems quite distant and almost ancient past. It is, therefore, incumbent to retell the story. For the current history is as poignant as during the days of grandeur when King Solomon’s Temple stood in Jerusalem, then also the capital city of the Jewish people both politically and spiritually.
I was ten years old when the miracle of the Six Day War captured all of our attention and admiration for the Israeli army, and to this day the memory of witnessing the moment heightens my spiritual connection to Jerusalem. I recall the television newsclips of the shofar being blown for the first time in countless years at the Kotel, under Jewish governance. I vividly remember the stories of how soldiers captured not only the Temple mount and the city of David, but also other Jewish sites including cemeteries that had been desecrated by the Arab nations that governed the area (including using Jewish tombstones to make latrines.) There are many stories of heroism of Israeli soldiers, and their memories are as significant today as they were when Jerusalem was first reunited on this day in 1967. The reunification of Jerusalem was one of those moments that personally shaped my Jewish identity and spiritual reality. I know that I am not alone in that regard.
When my mother took me to purchase my first full size menorah for Chanukah in 1967, the one I chose illustrated the miracle of the capture of the Kotel and the first blowing of the shofar, which I still keep as part of our menorah collection.
The lyrics of the song Hakotel, so brilliantly express the historical truths of those who were witness and why we must celebrate Yom Yerushalayim and commemorate that historic day for the Jewish people:
A girl stood facing the Kotel
She drew her lips and chin close to it.
She said to me: “The shofar’s blasts are strong
But the silence is even stronger”.
She told me: “Zion, the Temple Mount
She was silent, about the reward and the right.
And what shone on her forehead at evening
Was the purple of royalty.
The kotel, moss and sadness.
The kotel, lead and blood.
There are people with a heart of stone,
There are stones with a human heart.
The paratrooper stood at the Kotel,
Of his whole division – the only one.
He told me: “that death has no image
But it has a diameter –
Nine millimeters only”.
He told me: “I’m not shedding tears”
And again lowered his glance.
“But my grandfather, God knows,
Is buried here, on the Mount of Olives”.
The mother of one of the infantry soldiers.
She told me: “The eyes of my son that are shining
And not the candles on the wall”.
She told me: “I’m not writing
Any note to hide between the cracks,
Because what I gave to the Kotel only last night
Is greater than any words or writing”.
The Kotel, moss and sadness.
The Kotel, lead and blood.
There are people with a heart of stone,
There are stones with a human heart.
Shabbat shalom and Yom Yershushalim Sa’meach