Page 24 - HaMizrachi #10 Yom Yerushalayim - Shavuot 5779
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SHAinVJUeruTsaNleImGHT Sivan Rahav-Meir
No social media campaign
trumpeted this event. It had the Torah, and some – especially the Photo: Eyal Ben Yaish/Ma’ale HaYetzira
no spokesperson, no formal youth – just singing and dancing.
organization. But I was privileged York alone just to be here for these
to be there, and here’s what I saw: People bringing huge quantities of moments. The women standing
food, drink and candies throughout next to me, flushed with excitement,
Thousands of people in the center the night to the security people told me they were part of a WIZO
of Jerusalem learning Torah in the deployed around the city. When we delegation from Mexico, Panama and
middle of the night in lectures, offer something to the two military Peru.
seminars and hevruta study pairs, police soldiers from the Druze town of
or reciting the traditional Shavuot Daliat El-Karmel standing on Shivtei I went up to the roof of Aish HaTorah,
Tikkun. A father and his son, long Yisrael Street, they refuse, because overlooking the Kotel, with a group
after midnight, sitting in an empty they already have far more than they of students from the Nefesh Yehudi
synagogue studying the Book of can eat! project. For the first time in their lives
Samuel together. they were hearing the verses of Hallel
Arriving at the Kotel: The myriad sung at such a location and at such a
At 4:00 am, tens of thousands of minyanim, the cacophony of prayer time. And the Book of Ruth. And the
people spilling out of the city’s styles and liturgical hymns and Ten Commandments.
neighborhoods and alleys, making accents. I ask every person I meet
their way on foot to the Kotel. Some where they are from. They came from And I marveled at the way these
of them comfortable, mainstream southern Israel, the Golan Heights, masses later left the place so quietly.
types, with eyes half-closed (like me); Gush Etzion, the Tel-Aviv area, the
some smoking cigarettes because it’s a Gaza periphery. I had no idea so The next morning, I read the
holiday that permits lighting fire from many make the effort to make this newspaper, and all I find is a summary
a pre-existing flame. Some Hassidim pilgrimage to Jerusalem. of the traffic jams and the number of
with towels over their shoulders visitors to Israel’s national parks over
because they went to dip in the And then I realize that this is not just the holiday.
mikveh (ritual bath) before receiving an Israeli story at all. We are part of
something bigger. By my estimate, And that’s why I wrote this.
thousands of Jews flew from New
Sivan Rahav-Meir is a popular Israeli
journalist, broadcaster and author of
#Parasha sivanrahavmeir@gmail.com
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