Jerusalem:  Celebrating 40 Years as a United City
Sermon, May 18, 2007
Rabbi Bruce Kadden

For those of us too young to remember the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, the most important Jewish historical event in our life time is arguably the reunification of Jerusalem which took place during the Six-Day War 40 years ago this week.  After almost 20 years as a divided city, with Israelis denied access to the Western Wall and the other important religious sites in Jerusalem’s Old City as well as East Jerusalem, Jerusalem was again one.  The barriers dividing the city quickly came down and Jews –both secular and religious—streamed to the Wall

Military jeeps sped through the winding alleys of the Old City and awestruck soldiers stood at the wall, almost in disbelief at the remarkable turn of events.  One soldier described it thusly in the book The Seventh Day:  Soldiers’ Talk about the Six-Day War:

“When we broke through to the Old City, I climbed up to the Temple Mount, and later when I went to the Western Wall I saw officers and soldiers weeping as I watched them praying wordlessly.  Then I knew that they felt exactly as I did; they shared the same profound attachment to the Temple Mount on which the Temple stood, and the same love for the Wall at whose stones generations of Jews had wept.  Then, too, I realized that not only my ‘religious’ friends and I sensed the grandeur and the holiness but so did they, and with equal awareness and depth.  It was simpler for me to give vent to my feelings because I had my phylacteries [tefilin] in my belt and I carried the book of Psalms, composed by David, King of Jerusalem.

“As I wept at the Wall, my father, grandfather and great-grandfather joined me.  All of them had been born in the land of Israel, but they had needed permission to pray there.  When I hugged the stones of the Wall I felt the warmth of the Jewish hearts that had been inflamed by the Wall, whose ardor will endure forever….”

Those of us who have been fortunate enough to visit Jerusalem since 1967 have shared the feeling of the warmth of the Jewish hearts, the emotion of standing and praying at a place that has been at the core of Judaism for some 3000 years.  Now, 40 years after Jews were once again able to pray at the wall, it is important to reflect on the significance of Jerusalem to the Jewish people.

Jerusalem is called the city of David, for King David captured Jerusalem and established as the capital of his kingdom.  Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, in his address inaugurating the Jerusalem 3000 celebration in 1995, recalled the legend that when King David was about to dig the foundation for the Temple, the ground waters rose and threatened to flood and destroy Jerusalem, the land of Israel and the entire world.  The king cast into the turbulent waters a shard containing the Ineffable Name of God, and the waters immediately receded.  Since the days of King David, there has been a continuous Jewish presence in Jerusalem. 

For more than 3000 years Jews have lived there, slept there, worked there, prayed there, fought there, and dreamed there.  Jerusalem has known celebration and exaltation.  David’s son Solomon built the Beit HaMikdash, the first Temple, which served as the focal point of Jewish worship.  Sacrifices were offered daily, and three times a year, at Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot, Jews made pilgrimage to Jerusalem to observe these festivals as one people.  The building of the second Temple, the rededication of the Temple by the Hasmoneans, the building of Herod’s Temple all provided opportunities to celebrate.  With the founding of Israel in 1948, Jewish sovereignty returned to Jerusalem, albeit to only part of the city.  Nevertheless, Jerusalem was once again the capital of Israel and soon became home to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. 

But Jerusalem has also know despair and destruction, as enemies struck at the heart of the Jewish soul by attacking Jerusalem and, in 586 B.C.E. and 70 C.E., destroying the Temples.  For almost two millennia Jerusalem was home to a small, destitute, but tenacious Jewish community. 

Yet, Jerusalem was never forgotten:

“If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget her cunning.
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,
if I remember thee not,
if I set not Jerusalem above my greatest joy.”

These words of the Psalmist helped assure that Jerusalem would remain at the center of the Jewish world; synagogues were built so that they faced Jerusalem.  And Jews prayed daily, in the tefilah and in the Birkat Hamazon, the blessing after the meal, for the rebuilding of Jerusalem.  The tradition of breaking a glass at weddings served to remind Jews of Jerusalem, particularly the destruction of the Temple, and a small part of one’s house was often left unfinished to remind us that nothing is complete as long as Jerusalem lay in ruins.  And, of course, we end the Passover seder with the words, “Lashana haba’a birushalayim, next year in Jerusalem.”

As the Medieval Poet, Yehuda Halevi so eloquently put it:  “My heart is in the East, but I am in the West; How can I taste what I eat, and how can it be pleasing to me?”  For much of Jewish history, the hearts of Jews were in the East, though they lived elsewhere.  It served as a symbol, reminding us where we belonged, where our true home was.

The rabbis, reflecting on Jerusalem, wrote, “Ten portions of beauty came down to the world; nine for Jerusalem, and one for all the rest of the world.  Ten portions of Torah are in the world; nine in Jerusalem and one in the rest of the world.  Ten portions of suffering are in the world; nine in Jerusalem and one in the rest of the world.  Hyperbole, perhaps, but reflecting just how central Jerusalem permeated the Jewish conscience.

As we celebrate 40 years of a reunited Jerusalem, we express our gratitude for this wonderful blessing that we have witnessed, the reunification and rebuilding of Jerusalem.  As we say on Passover, dayeinu, it would have been enough, if this event were the only miracle we witness in our lifetime. 

Many of us have had the privilege of walking the streets of Jerusalem, of studying and praying in the city.  Others, God willing, will be able to experience this miracle at some point in their lives. 

Yitzhak Yasinowitz, in his poem To Jerusalem, reminds us that visiting Jerusalem, in its essence, returning home.

One does not travel to Jerusalem.
One returns.
One ascends
The road taken by generations,
The path of longing
on the way to redemption.
One brings rucksacks
stuffed with memories
to each mountain
and each hill.
In the cobbled white alleyways
one offers a blessing
for memories of the past
which have been renewed. 

One does not travel to Jerusalem.
One returns. 

May each of us have the opportunity to return home soon.

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