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Yom Yerushalayim Iyar 5778 • May 2018

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Yom Yerushalayim Iyar 5778 • May 2018 YOM YERUSHALAYIM IYAR 5778 • MAY 2018 ISRAEL EDITION SPECIAL EDITION FOR YOM YERUSHALAYIM (JERUSALEM DAY) “When a Jew visits Jerusalem for the first time, it is not the first time. It is a homecoming.” (Elie Wiesel) This edition is dedicated in memory of the soldiers who fell in defense of Yerushalayim CHICAGO SOUTHAFRICA CANADA Yom HaAtzmaut 70 LOSANGELES WITHMIZRACHIAROUNDTHEWORLD CANADA WithSeventyforintheUSAtheDayofInspirationintheUKandYomHaAtzmautlearningprogramsand celebrationsinAustraliaCanadaSouthAfricaandaroundtheworldMizrachireachedoverpeople! PERTH MELBOURNE PERTH SYDNEY UK UK KNESSETLAUNCH OFSEVENTYFOR UKSDAYOFINSPIRATION NEWYORK Rabbi Doron Perez Torat HaMizrachi Jerusalem: A Tale of Two Cities erusalem is not one city but two. multiplicity, difference. The reality of two This is the key to unlocking the creates complexity. mystery of the Jewish people’s J holiest city. The secret of Jerusalem’s The great challenge of the number two is duality reveals the essence of Judaism itself. whether the potential for difference will create division or unity. Theologically, Jerusalem is at the same time both heavenly and earthly – a physical Will the complexity of contrast at the heart and a spiritual reality, Divine and mundane, of life create contradiction or complete- transient and timeless. ness? Thesis and antithesis can remain irreconcilable opposites or they can fuse in Geopolitically, there is east Jerusalem and beautiful synthesis. west Jerusalem, an upper city and a lower one, a city divided territorially between Because Jerusalem is the epicenter of spir- A soldier and an ultra-Orthodox Jew near the two tribes: Judah (Leah’s child) and Benja- itual life it presents us with this challenge Western Wall min (Rachel’s child). Additionally, the city more sharply than anywhere else. Will the is located at the nexus of the western world heavenly and earthly cities be locked in Will it remain that way? and the Oriental East. eternal conflict or will they become one eternal city of peace and harmony? It depends on us. Philosophically, Jerusalem combines the national and the universal, the ethnic and This is the challenge our Sages see in a cryptic To ensure the city remains geopolitically .united, it must first be united from within “ ְ י רּו ׁשָ ל י ַ םִ ְּכ עִי רׁשֶ חֻ ְּב ה רָ ל ָ ּה :the ethical, the Jewish and the democratic verse in Psalms 122 Jerusalem is like a city that was joined The external political reality is a mirror – ַ י ְח ּדָ ו“ .and is a city of both truth and peace together itself. They say this alludes to two image of the internal spiritual one. The fis- Jerusalem has two primary names in Bib- cities, a heavenly one above and an earthly sures which form contrast and conflict ought lical literature – Tzion and Yerushalayim, one below (Ta’anit 5). And they maintain to be forged together as complementary Zion and Jerusalem. The name Yerusha- that the city has the power to transform us all forces creating a complete and united whole. ,engendering friendship– חֲ בֵ רִ י ם – layim itself consists of two words – Yireh into friends and Shalem. understanding and acceptance among all Jews May we merit the ultimate expression of (Jerusalem Talmud, Chagiga 3). spiritual wholeness – the rebuilding of the What is the essence of this duality? Temple – soon and speedily in our days. After the miraculous Six-Day War, and Rabbi Yehuda Loewe, the Maharal of through an extraordinary turn of events, the 1 Tiferet Yisrael 34 Prague, explains1 that two is unique Old City of Jerusalem, the Kotel and the because it is the first number that converts Temple Mount returned to Jewish sovereign the unitary into a multiple; a single into a control for the first time in almost two mil- Rabbi Doron Perez is Head of plural. One is uniform; two is the birth of lennia. A divided city was finally reunited. the Mizrachi World Movement Mizrachi World Movement Chairman Mr. Harvey Blitz Head Rabbi Doron Perez Editor-in-Chief Daniel Verbov [email protected] 54 King George Street, Jerusalem Creative Director Jonny Lipczer www.mizrachi.org Production Manager Meyer Sterman [email protected] Follow us Design Hadas Peretz, Estie Brauner Rabbanit Shani Taragin Double Yom Yerushalayim: Portion The Perfect Prelude to Shavuot om Yerushalayim and Shavuot Presence) in Yerushalayim is a perpetuation were separated and disconnected. Had we are one week apart and so easily of the revelation celebrated on Shavuot. succeeded then, it would have been a sit- associated with each other. On Indeed, the greatest days of celebration uation in which “two were holding on” to YShavuot in 1967, thousands of Jews flocked are associated with Yom Yerushalayim and Jerusalem, each one saying “it is entirely to see and pray by the Kotel for the first Shavuot: mine.” Jerusalem would have turned into time since the reunification of Jerusalem, a source of divisiveness, a cause of quarrel setting the precedent for the custom that Go forth and look, daughters of Zion, and argument… And Jerusalem was… continues today. upon King Solomon adorned with the given to the entire people of Israel… crown his mother made him on the day of Jerusalem comes to increase peace in There are numerous parallels between these his wedding and on the day of his heart’s the world. Therefore, only now (1967), two dates, and many messages to be learned. joy. (Song of Songs 3:11)… on the day when we have all entered through a single Perhaps the most obvious connection is of his wedding – this is the Giving of the gate… only now, when we are all united, that Shavuot is the day the Torah was given Torah… on the day of his heart’s joy – this when a national unity government stands on Mount Sinai and would continue to refers to the building of the holy Temple… at the helm, when our fighting army is a emanate from Yerushalayim – “For Torah (Ta’anit 26b) unified army… when all of our brothers in comes forth from Zion and the word of the Diaspora stand behind us with a single God from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3). Though Perhaps the most timely – and timeless heart, only now have we merited this great the Torah was given on Mount Sinai, our – message to be learned as we celebrate event: He who restores His Shechina to Sages associate Mount Moriah – the Temple these holidays is the message of achdut Zion has restored Jerusalem to us!… As Mount in Jerusalem and where the Binding (unity). When the Jews received the Torah, long as we continue to be united, all of of Isaac took place – with Mount Sinai.1 they were unified, “as one people with Jerusalem will continue to be ours…” one heart.” Similar solidarity is meant to There are also numerous parallels between be realized in Yerushalayim, the one city 1 See Midrash Tehillim Psalm 68 for one example. the narratives of these two events (e.g. three not divided among the tribes; the city that 2 Genesis 22:1-19 and Exodus 19:10-24. days preparation, prostration, sacrifice, brings us together as friends.3 3 Jerusalem Talmud, Chagiga 3, 6. morning, seeing and fearing).2 4 Mo’adei HaReayah, pp. 480-48. Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Neria 4 suggests this is why Maimonides states that the three sections Yerushalayim was reunified in 1967 and not Rabbanit Shani Taragin is of holiness surrounding the Beit HaMik- given to us in 1948: Co-Director of Education at dash in Yerushalayim are modeled after RZA-Mizrachi USA and a senior the Children of Israel’s three encamp- “In 1948, the Palmach broke through Zion educator in various women’s ments by Mount Sinai. This implies that Gate, and the Etzel soldiers were about to higher educational institutions the manifestation of the Shechina (Divine break through the Damascus Gate. We in Israel Festive prayers at the Western Wall 4 Rabbi Reuven Taragin Double Why We Sing “Next Year Portion in Jerusalem” (L’Shana Haba’a B’Yerushalayim) e open the Pesach Seder by which to offer sacrifices. Yerushalayim expressing our hope that was a city that revolved around the House next year we will be in Eretz of God; a model of how sacred and sec- WYisrael. We close the Seder by expressing ular are meant to connect. It showed the hope that next year we will celebrate how the spiritual is meant to be engulfed in Jerusalem. by and inspire city life and how city life is meant to connect with and revolve Our yearning for Eretz Yisrael is very around a spiritual core. understandable. The first mission God gives Abraham, the first Jew, is to move The various mishkans were framed by there. It is the land promised to his curtains. Yerushalayim was bordered by descendants and it is the destination of walls. Each wall passed brought one to an the Jewish people from the moment they area of increased holiness that emanated left Egypt through the end of their wan- from the Holy of Holies and permeated derings in the desert. each sector of the city. For this reason, as opposed to the temporary sanctity of The Wall Yerushalayim, on the other hand, is never the places in which the Mishkan resided, mentioned explicitly in the Torah. So why Yerushalayim (and possibly its sanctity) is independent Jewish State, but it was not does our tradition focus on our return to permanent and eternal. the model we had been praying for. We Yerushalayim, often instead of the broader had returned to Eretz Yisrael, but we kept Eretz Yisrael? Why do we sing L’Shana Unfortunately though, we were unwor- praying for Yerushalayim. Haba’a B’Yerushalayim and not L’Shana thy of this holiness and Yerushalayim was Haba’a B’Ar’ah D’Yisrael? destroyed.
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