Page 30 - HaMizrachi YmYm 2020 FLIPv3

Mizrachi Shlichim

Sivan Rahav Meir and Yedidya Meir

The Torah, the Land

and Yom Yerushalayim

Three Reasons to Rejoice And third, and most importantly, we HaZikaron, Yom HaAtzmaut and
on Yom Yerushalayim are happy today because of the enor- Yom Yerushalayim, we hear repeat-
mity of our contemporary challenge. edly that Israel is our country. On the
irst of all, we are not just We won the lottery, and now, what do other hand, Parashat Behar says, “But
celebrating the liberation of we do with the winnings? Our mission the Land must not be sold beyond
FYerushalayim. We are also is to turn all this energy, all the weeks reclaim, for the Land is Mine; you are
celebrating Tel Aviv and Netanya. and longings and prayers of thou- but strangers resident with Me.” This
Anyone who was here during the sands of years, into tachles – purpose. phrase, “strangers resident” sounds
period before the Six-Day War can That the Yerushalayim of Heaven and familiar. Avraham Avinu also presents
verify that. The entire existence Yerushalayim of Earth will combine. himself as “a resident stranger among
of the young State of Israel was in That this place will indeed exemplify you.” And many years later, when we
danger in 1967. Our 19-year-old an alternative culture for the whole already had sovereignty, King David
State survived, grew several times, world. convenes the people for prayer in Jeru-
and returned to its biblical lands.
We are on our way. After the para- salem, saying, “For we are sojourners
Second, because the dream has been troopers entered the Old City in 1967, with You, mere transients like our
fulfilled. Elie Wiesel, Nobel laureate, Chana Zemer, Editor of the secu- fathers.”
once said that Yerushalayim connects lar, left-leaning newspaper “Davar,” Why not just say we own this Land?
us to one another in a way that is dif- wrote: “Redeemer. For 2,000 years, Why continue to always feel a little
ficult to explain. When a Jew visits 80 generations, Jews turned to the strange about it? Why didn’t Avraham
Yerushalayim for the first time, he East – Shacharit, Mincha and Arvit. Avinu and King David speak as confi-
says, “This is not the first time.” He For thousands of years, the national dently as the politicians do nowadays?
has returned home. A friend of mine, memory a Jew is born with, the same
an immigrant from Ethiopia, told way he is born with his organs, has not Many commentators explain that the
me years ago how every time she and blurred. All the verses are now being Land will be ours... if we deserve it.
her brothers saw a stork flying in the resurrected before our eyes.” Depending on our behavior. Like a safe
sky during their childhood in Addis We must never forget that our with a code, the Land of Israel has an
Ababa, they used to shout: “Stork, great-great-grandparents did not entry code. There is certain conduct
stork, how is Yerushalayim?” Natan imagine they would have to pay prop- it requires from us. Certainly, it is
Sharansky once told how when he and erty taxes in Yerushalayim, sit in traf- our place in the world, and there is no
his friends were accused of betraying fic there and quarrel and argue about doubt we need to fight those who try
“Mother Russia,” they were asked by the character of the city. We won. to erase that affinity. But it must be
the court to summarize their argu- with a sense of humility – of “I wish
ments. Sharansky responded, “I have we would be worthy,” rather than a
nothing to say to this court, but to Whose Land? powerful sense of “We deserve it.” Or
the people of Israel and my wife I say: as Rav Chanan Porat used to say, “We
next year in Yerushalayim.” We are We are used to hearing about “our shouldn’t talk about our right to the
living a 2,000-year-old prophecy that right to the Land.” In politicians’ Land. We should talk about our duty
is coming true day by day. speeches on Yom HaShoah, Yom to the Land.”

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