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Rabbi Reuven Taragin Rabbanit Shani Taragin

APPRECIATING YOM YERUSHALAYIM
Why a Second Holiday?

ashem has blessed me with home, but also for the core of our reli- On Yom Yerushalayim, we reflect on
the great privilege of being gious identity. the full religious import of the State
Hable to spend my days of Israel – the completion of our
learning and davening at Yeshivat Jews maintained their identity in teshuva process that will fully repair
HaKotel, overlooking Har HaBayit. I dozens of different cultural milieus our relationship with Hashem and
am often asked about what this feels because they saw Yerushalayim not culminate in the eventual rebuilding
like. I would like to answer within the just as part of an illustrious past, but of the Beit Mikdash.
context of Yom Yerushalayim. as part of their immediate future.
This is what learning and davening
Having recently celebrated Yom When Natan Sharansky was con- daily opposite the Kotel is all about.
HaAtzmaut, which commemorates victed of treason against “Mother
the miraculous founding, survival, Russia,” he was asked by the court to You wake up every morning in full
and thriving of the State of Israel, sum up his defense arguments. Sha- view of Hashem’s benevolence to us
many wonder why we need a second ransky responded: “I have nothing to and the miracles He performed on
holiday just three weeks later. say to this court, but to the People of our behalf.
Israel and to my wife I say: Next year
I believe there are two answers to this in Jerusalem.” You wake up every morning to the
question. The first lies in a full appre- miraculous return of our people to
ciation of the 1967 salvation and the In contrast to say, the Parthenon in our past.
second in the full appreciation of the Greece, which was once an ancient
significance of Yerushalayim and the temple and is now just a tourist site, You wake up every morning to the
Kotel/Har HaBayit. Har HaBayit and the Kotel have fruition of Jewish history.
always remained holy sites that we
The 1967 Salvation sought to rebuild. Though less holy On Yom Yerushalayim, we celebrate
than Har HaBayit, the Kotel was not only Yerushalayim, the Kotel’s
Military experts see the 1967 victory never usurped by any other religion return to us and our return to it, but
as possibly the most miraculous one and remains a pristine remnant of the also what it symbolizes about us as
in modern history. Through a combi- past we envision in our future. the Jewish people. When celebrat-
nation of a number of amazing ‘coin- ing, let us make sure we reflect not
cidences,’ Israel went from digging In 1967, when we returned to the only on what Hashem did for us, but
tens of thousands of graves in public Kotel and the Kotel returned to us, we more importantly, on how we need
parks to vanquishing those threat- knew Hashem was inviting us to a full to respond by strengthening our rela-
ening to annihilate it in a matter of reinstatement of our relationship with
six days. It was a “veNahafoch hu” Him. tionship with Him and meriting the
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rivaled only by Purim. continuation of this glorious Geula
Thus the Chief Rabbinate sanctioned process.
Yerushalayim saying Hallel with a bracha.

In 1949, Israel’s Chief Rabbinate What We Yearn For 1 For a brief review of these miraculous
sanctioned saying Hallel on Yom coincidences, I highly recommend this
https://www.youtube.
video:
Mizrachi
HaAtzmaut without a bracha mainly Yom HaAtazmaut celebrates our self- com/watch?v=8i3uIz7hoYs&t=4s.
because (the Old City of) Yerusha- rule in our independent Jewish State.
layim was not included in The State Yom Yerushalayim is an important
of Israel. Throughout our exile, Jews and necessary complement to that,
davened not just for a return to Israel, because it focuses on the religious Rabbi Reuven Taragin is Educational
but LeShana HaBa’a BiYerushalayim. significance of our return and future Director of Mizrachi and Dean of the
They yearned not just for our national here. Yeshivat HaKotel Overseas Program

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