Page 14 - Hamizrachi #30 USA 2021 Yom Yerushalayim - Shavuot

TORAT MIZRACHI MIZRACHI SCHOLARS-IN-RESIDENCE

Sivan Rahav Meir and Yedidya Meir

Why Are We So Happy About Yerushalayim?

On 28 Iyar 5727 (1967), during the lottery, and now, what do we do with the restrained in comparison to the next
th
Six-Day War, Jerusalem was united under jackpot? Our assignment is to transform report, of Haaretz’s correspondents on
Israeli rule. Israeli paratroopers defeated all this energy – all the oaths and the the ground: “Anyone who saw Jerusalem
the Jordanian Legion and, visibly moved, yearnings and the prayers of thousands of in its joy yesterday, could perhaps imag-
reached the Kotel, the Western Wall. years… into practicalities. ine the joy of ancient Jerusalem, at the
Since so many years have passed, it is So that we can connect Heavenly Jeru- time of the pilgrimage on the Three Foot
perhaps worthwhile to remind ourselves salem with earthly Jerusalem. Festivals. And in the tumult of emotion,
So that this place will indeed herald an
what is so joyful about this day: alternative culture for the entire world. suddenly the concept of the Beit HaMik-
Our great great-grandparents never tangible. ‘Now we can build the Temple.’
dash became something much more
We’re on the way
First of all, we are not only celebrat-
ing the liberation of Yerushalayim.
That was a yearning that emanated from
We are also celebrating the success
taxes in Yerushalayim, that we would
1 Tel Aviv. Anyone who was here imagined that we would pay municipal the heart. Yesterday, people were very
serious about what they said. A university
of
during the tense waiting period before stand in traffic on its streets, or even professor said it. A high school student
the Six-Day War knows very well that debate and argue about what character said it. Many said it, and davka non-re-
the existence of the entire young State the city should have. We have that merit! ligious people. One who did not witness
of Israel was in danger. Our 19-year-old Jerusalem and its joy yesterday has never
country was saved, gained in size, and Prophecies in the Headlines seen what joy really is.”
th
many Biblical areas were returned. 28 Iyar, the day the Old City was liberat- Chana Zemer, the Editor of the Davar
ed. In order to understand, it’s sometimes newspaper, wrote in her publication that
The realization of the dream. An best to step back a moment, to what the the day after the paratroopers entered
Ethiopian immigrant told me archives say. the Kotel area: “The Redeemer had come
some years ago how every time The day after Jerusalem was united, the to Zion. For 2,000 years, 80 generations,
2 he and her siblings saw a stork Haaretz newspaper quoted the proph- Jews turned East – Shacharit, Mincha,
s
in the skies above their home in Addis ecy of Yeshayahu in large letters on its Ma’ariv. Thousands of years did not blur
Ababa, they would shout up: “Stork, front page: ןויצ תבשוי ינורו ילהצ – “Exult the national memory, with which a Jew
stork, how is Yerushalayim doing?” and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion.” is born just as he is born with all of his
Natan Sharansky told us about how In the editorial, they wrote: “There are limbs. All the verses are now coming
when he was accused with his friends no words to express the emotions bub- alive before our very eyes.”
of treason against “Mother Russia,” the bling in our hearts at this moment. The A short lesson on the media, on per-
court asked them to sum up their argu- Old City of Jerusalem is ours. Its gates spective, and on Yerushalayim.
ments. Sharansky said: “I have nothing to are open, and the Western Wall will no
say to this court, but to the Jewish people longer stand silent and abandoned. The “We were like dreamers”
and to my wife I say: םילשוריב האבה הנשל! glory of the past will not be observed I think this is one of the most moving
- “Next Year in Jerusalem!” from afar, but from now on it will be part testimonies about the liberation of the
We are living in a 2,000-year-old of the new State and disseminate its light Kotel. Rabbi She’ar Yishuv Cohen, the
prophecy coming true every day! upon the building of a Jewish society that late Chief Rabbi of Haifa, recalled: “A
is a link in the long chain of generations few days after the victory, on the first
Most importantly, we are happy of a people in its Land. The entire Jewish Shavuot after the liberation, I was very
today due to the enormity of our people, in Israel and in the Diaspora, fortunate to walk down to the Kotel with
contemporary challenge. For the lauds the IDF for restoring the glory of the masses alongside the unforgettable
h
3 uge opportunity we have davka yesteryear.” Jerusalem tzaddik, Rabbi Aryeh Levin,
in our generation. We have won the These moving sentiments are who was happy to see me and warmly

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