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Torat HaMizrachi

Rabbi Doron Perez
The

of Creation

REMARKABLE DAYS THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY

he six days from June 5 to June to attack, their unexpected entry into The great Biblical prophets had pre-
10, 1967 are without parallel in the war precipitated the Jewish peo- dicted both the return to Israel and
Tthe story of human warfare. ple’s return to the holy and ancient the rebuilding of Jerusalem in scores
city of Jerusalem, the Kotel and the of ancient prophecies – an integral
The sensational speed and brevity Temple Mount for the first time in part of the Messianic drama and the
of the war, the sudden and startling almost 2,000 years. Jewish people’s historic mission. In
drastic twists, its seemingly super- six short days, they touched on the
natural features, the remarkable The sovereign return of the Jewish essence of their existence and caught
reunification of Jerusalem, and the people to Jerusalem was a spiritual a glimpse of the end of the story.
totally unforeseen new political real- and political seismic shift of epic
ity created both in the Middle East proportions. As the Chief of Staff, Yitzchak Rabin
and throughout the world, were all was given the honor of naming the
extraordinary. Here’s why. war. He captured the enormity of
Prior to 1967, who had ever heard of In 1948, so soon after the ovens these events in the name he chose.
Among the titles proposed were the
a full-scale war measured in days? of Auschwitz, a stateless, wander- War of the Daring, the War of Salva-
We had the Hundred Years’ War, ing people had founded a State and tion and the War of the Sons of Light.
the Eighty Years’ War, the Thirty had been restored to their historic Remarkably though, Rabin chose The
Years’ War, as well as wars measured national homeland. Evoking Yechez- Six-Day War, as it seemed to him to
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in years and months. Where in the kel’s dry bones’ prophecy, the col- evoke the six days of creation. 2
annals of human history had anyone lective physical body of the Jewish
heard of a major regional war involv- people had been resurrected. In 1967 It was the dawn of a new era.
ing multiple countries beginning and though, Israel would receive her soul.
ending in less than a week? She began to tap into her spiritual It totally transformed how the Jewish
people viewed themselves and shifted
Under imminent attack from six Arab destiny – Jerusalem. She was no something deep within their psyche.
armies and facing a threat of anni- longer just physically surviving but
hilation, Israeli army chaplains were spiritually thriving. Israel without In June of 1967, the country had
sent to public parks to prepare funeral Jerusalem is to the Jewish people around 2.5 millions Jews. A crippling
grounds for the expected death toll of like a body without a soul. Jerusalem economy, social challenges and mil-
as many as 100,000. without Israel is like a soul without a itary threats caused many to leave
body. Together, Israel and Jerusalem Israel. The joke of the time was, “Will
Incredibly, less than a week later, are one. Physical and spiritual, heaven the last one left at Lod Airport please
Israel had not only survived with less and earth, national and religious, turn off the lights.” Over these six
than 800 casualties but had almost secular and sacred, fate and destiny, days everything changed. Large waves
tripled in land size and returned to surviving and thriving, particular of aliyah began pouring in from all
many of its ancient historical and and universal are all woven into one over the world. For the first time, tens
Biblical lands. Incredibly, and after holistic whole. So much of what had Continued on page 4
multiple pleas to the Jordanians not been lost had now been reclaimed.

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