Page 4 - HaMizrachi #10 Yom Yerushalayim - Shavuot 5779

The moment diversity is born it has as, “The city which joins Jerusalem on events, a divided city would finally be
the remarkable ability to transform High – the heavenly city – with the reunited.
the blandness of uniformity into the Jerusalem below, the earthly city, must
richness of unity. To convert sameness be a city which transforms all of the I believe that to ensure that the city
into wholeness. Jewish people into friends (‫) ֲח ֵבִרים‬.” remains geopolitically united, it
must first and foremost be internally
Will the complexity of contrast at the The Torah is one Torah, a united. The spiritual fault lines and
heart of life itself create irreconcilable complementary whole aimed at fissures which create contrast and
contradictions or different yet simultaneously synthesizing our conflict ought to be forged together to
complementary experiences? Will relationship with G-d and with our complement each other and cultivate
there be conflict or completeness? fellow human beings. One without completeness.
Thesis and antithesis can remain polar the other is incomplete. We ought to
opposites or they can merge to create have an equal commitment to both Both the Torah and Jerusalem
a beautiful synthesis. Can two become the Written and the Oral Torah – combine the earthly and the heavenly,
one again or will they remain locked in to Biblical and Talmudic study, to the particular and the universal, the
eternal divisiveness? understanding both the broad context national and the religious, the ethnic
and meaning of Jewish life as well and the ethical, and the values of truth
Jerusalem is the lodestar of spiritual as the detailed implementation of and peace. Indeed, the wholeness of
life and therefore presents us with this halacha and Jewish Law. One without the Torah is inherently linked to the
challenge more than anywhere else. the other creates divisiveness and unity and holiness of Jerusalem.
Will the multifaceted city be divided tension.
against itself or will it become one May we merit the ultimate expression
glorious and unified whole? If we focus only on our relationship of spiritual wholeness, the rebuilding
with G-d and not with our fellow of the Temple, soon and speedily in
Will the heavenly and earthly cities Jews and other people (or vice versa), our days.
be locked in an endless conflict of we miss the mark. If we only study
irreconcilable truths or will they Tanach and not Talmud and Jewish 1 The prohibition to commit the Oral Torah
become one eternal city of peace and Law, (or vice versa), we do not grasp to writing appears in Gittin (60b). Based on
completeness? the fullness of Jewish life. Inevitably, the Talmud (Temurah 14b), the Rambam
diversity becomes partial and divisive explains the extenuating harsh, historical
OUR TASK instead of harmonious. We should circumstances which left the Sages no choice
strive to bring all disparate aspects but to begin committing it to writing lest
Our Sages, basing themselves on a together, creating a ‫ ּת ֹוָרה ְּת ִמי ָמה‬, one it be forgotten (Introduction to Mishneh
cryptic verse in Psalms (122:3), charge whole and wholesome Torah. Torah).
us to take up this challenge of making
the Holy City one complete whole: THE LESSON OF THE SIX-DAY WAR 2 Tiferet Yisrael 34.

‫ ְיר ּו ׁ ָש ַל ִים ְּכ ִעיר ׁ ֶש ֻח ְּבָר ּה ָל ּה ַי ְח ָ ּדיו‬, “Jerusalem During the miraculous Six-Day War, Rabbi Doron Perez is the Chief Executive of
is like a city that was joined together and through an extraordinary turn of World Mizrachi
within itself.” Our Sages interpret this

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