YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)
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YOM YERUSHALAYIM 5757
"Burst Forth and Sing Together, Ruins of Jerusalem"
by Harav Yehuda Amital
Summarized by Aviad Biller
Translated by Kaeren Fish
"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who
brings good news, who announces peace, who brings good
tidings, who announces salvation, he who says to Zion, 'Your
God reigns.' Hark! Your watchmen raise their voices, as one
they shout for joy; for every eye shall behold the Lord's
return to Zion. Burst forth and sing together, ruins of
Jerusalem, for God has comforted His nation, He has redeemed
Jerusalem. God has revealed His holy arm before all the
nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation
of our Lord." (Yishayahu 52:7-10)
The last two verses in the passage above - "Burst forth
and sing together..." and "God has revealed His holy arm..."
refer to two different things. The first verse refers to the
redemption of Jerusalem, while the second refers to the
salvation of Israel. Their juxtaposition in the text teaches
us that these two phenomena are interconnected. That a
connection exists between the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the
revival of Israel is not in itself a novel idea. What strikes
us about these verses is that they relate to the rebuilding of
Jerusalem as a phenomenon of universal scope; it is an event
of significance to all inhabitants of the world: "God has
revealed His holy arm... and ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH will
see...". Although these verses deal principally with the
rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple, leaving mention of the
salvation of Israel to the very end, their juxtaposition
nevertheless indicates that there is some measure of
similarity between these two processes, and that there is a
connection between the salvation of Israel in the universal
sense and the rebuilding of Jerusalem.
This connection also arises from a halakhic dispute in
the Gemara (Berakhot 49a) concerning the question of whether
it is possible to conclude the third blessing of Birkat Ha-
Mazon (the Grace after Meals) with the words "moshia Yisrael"
(Savior of Israel) instead of "boneh Yerushalayim" (He who
builds Jerusalem). The Gemara's conclusion is that actually
we could conclude with both, since the beginning of that
paragraph opens with the words, "Have mercy on ISRAEL Your
nation and on JERUSALEM Your city...", but the words "He who
builds Jerusalem" include within them the concept of the
salvation of Israel, as we learn from Tehillim 147:2 - "God
builds Jerusalem, He gathers the outcasts of Israel."
Therefore this wording is used.
We witnessed the connection between these two concepts -
the salvation of Israel and the rebuilding of Jerusalem -
quite clearly, with our own eyes, thirty years ago, during the
Six-Day War. We witnessed the sharp transition from "In the
evening, he lies down weeping" to "and joy comes in the
morning" (Tehillim 30:6). The transition from weeping to joy
usually takes a certain amount of time; in this case God's
salvation came in the blink of an eye. During those days of
waiting, after Nasser expelled the U.N. forces from the Sinai
and announced that he was going to push Israel into the sea,
there wasn't a nation in the world that was ready to help us.
Our Foreign Minister, in a desperate attempt to request
assistance, shuttled back and forth between Paris and London,
asking, "What about our guarantees? You promised!" No one
would answer, and newspapers around the world were already
carrying obituary notices for the young State of Israel.
It is difficult to describe in words and to properly
convey the depression which pervaded. Jews of the diaspora
sensed that another holocaust was about to take place, and
they sent telegrams to Israel imploring: "Send the children,
at the very least save them, so that some remnant of Israel
will be left!" Even those who firmly believed that Israel
would be victorious envisioned a scenario of thousands of
military and civilian casualties. Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem had
almost no bomb shelters and lay exposed to the enemy's aerial
bombings.
And then began the eruption of prayer more powerful than
anything we had ever experienced before. Tehillim and more
Tehillim and more Tehillim. Religious schools halted their
studies and for two weeks students came to school in the
morning and recited Tehillim until the afternoon. It should
be noted and emphasized, however, that the prayers were not
for Jerusalem. They were for salvation; we beseeched God that
he should not let our enemies totally destroy us. There were
no prayers that we should enter Jerusalem. On the contrary,
we prayed that Jordan wouldn't enter the war. The government
send messages to the King of Jordan via the U.S., to the
effect that we would leave them alone and they should leave us
alone.
I remember it as if it happened right now, how I was
walking in the street and heard on the radio that Israeli
planes had pre-empted the enemy's attack, and people had
started descending to the shelters. "In the evening, he lies
down weeping." A few hours later I called a friend who had
connections in high places, and asked him what was happening.
He told me, "There are no more Egyptian bombers, they've all
been destroyed. The danger of bombings has passed." We
continued listening and heard that the I.D.F. had already
reached Rafiah, and then El-Arish, and was pushing ahead. Can
there be any greater "joy in the morning" than this? "God has
revealed His holy arm... and all the ends of the earth will
see the salvation of our Lord."
Jerusalem was dragged into the war in a peculiar way,
after the Egyptians deceived their Jordanian brothers by
reporting that they were already close to Tel Aviv. The
Jordanians believed them and decided to join the "party" and
participate in the war. It is almost inconceivable that such
a scenario took place so recently. Could the Jordanians not
have clarified the accuracy of the reports? Weren't the Arab
leaders known for stretching the truth? Nevertheless, the
Jordanian army was led astray.
Thus events unfolded until, quite unexpectedly, we
conquered Jerusalem. After the fact, the commander of the
Jerusalem brigade admitted that not only had there not been
any operative plan to enter Jerusalem, but no such idea
existed among the military echelons at all. It never even
occurred to us to fight for Jerusalem, and all of a sudden
came this enormous "kiddush Hashem," and within a couple of
days we found ourselves inside Jerusalem.
The connection between the salvation of Israel and the
redemption of Jerusalem is obvious and well-known, but it was
only on the 28th of Iyar 5727 that we understood the
connection between the universal dimension of God's redemption
and the redemption of Jerusalem; the way in which "And all
ends of the earth will see the salvation of our Lord" is
joined to "Burst forth and sing together, ruins of Jerusalem."
We prayed and prayed endlessly, but I am not aware of a
single person who prayed that we would enter the Old City of
Jerusalem. We prayed for God's salvation, we prayed to be
saved. We did not pray - or even dream - about entering
Jerusalem.
Well, consciously and openly we did not pray for it, but
in our heart of hearts we all prayed. The author of the
"Tania" once asked why we say, "God, hear within my voice"
(Hashem shim'a BE-koli) rather than "God, hear my voice"
(Hashem shim'a ET koli). He explains: "You, O God, will hear
what is in my voice. You, Master of the Universe, will
understand my words in their most profound sense, and will
understand what it is that we are praying for in our heart of
hearts, even without knowing it ourselves." The Midrash says,
"Most people pray only for the land: 'Will it produce or not?'
All the prayers of Israel are only for the Beit HaMikdash: 'My
Lord, when will the Temple be rebuilt?'" (Bereishit Rabba
13:2). Jews may pray for all kinds of things, but in our
innermost hearts we are speaking only of Jerusalem. Thus we
did not pray for it openly, but in our hearts this was our
most sincere prayer.
Ten years after the establishment of the State, after we
had left Jerusalem and it seemed that the city had been
forgotten, the journal "Machanayim" of 1958 published the
findings of a survey which aimed to investigate whether
Jerusalem meant anything to the youth. The result was that
Jerusalem meant nothing to them. They went to the Rishon Le-
Zion (Sefaradi Chief Rabbi), Harav Nissim, to ask for his
reaction. He shook his head and agreed that, sorrowfully,
Jerusalem did not hold much meaning for the youth. They went
to the Nazir (Rav David HaCohen), who commented that it was
necessary to educate towards faith, since without fear of
heaven, the youth would not be able to appreciate Jerusalem.
They went to the famous orientalist Prof. Rivlin, who said:
"What can we do? For my children, Degania is holier than
Jerusalem." That was the overt situation, this was the
journalistic reality, only ten years after we lost Jerusalem.
Another nine years went by. The mood in Israel was
pessimistic, and a popular joke reminded whoever was last to
leave the Lod airport that he should please turn off the
lights. But the moment we returned to Jerusalem, the entire
nation was ignited with excitement. Secular youth - even
members of HaShomer HaTza'ir - jumped out of their tanks and
rejoiced: Jerusalem was in our hands! So how could we say
that Jerusalem meant nothing to the youth? Nine years earlier
the surveys had found that Jerusalem had been forgotten!
I remember meeting someone who at the time was chairman
of the society against religious coercion (today he's a
professor). I asked him, "Tell me honestly, when did you get
most excited: when we captured Sharm-a-Sheikh from Egypt - the
reason we went to war in the first place, or when we captured
Shekhem, or when we captured Jerusalem?" He answered, "I must
admit - I got most excited when we captured Jerusalem." I
know a certain professor of philosophy, a non-religious Jew,
who could find no way of explaining what he was feeling other
than in terms of religious emotion. If so, he said, we have
to seek its sources, since it seems that it contains something
beyond what we know.
On the 28th of Iyar we discovered that the mystical is
rational, that the hidden is revealed. We discovered that
what had appeared to be scientifically-proven journalistic
"fact" had no connection to Jerusalem, and was in fact an
enormous falsehood.
Jerusalem is not revealed without effort on our part.
The Midrash Sifri teaches, "Should we then wait until a
prophet tells us so? No - and the proof is that it says, 'You
shall seek His dwelling' - first seek, then the prophet will
come." The Gemara brings a proof from the words of King
David: "Remember, O God, in David's favor all his suffering,
how he promised to God and swore to the mighty One of Ya'akov:
I will not come into the shade of my home nor climb onto my
bed, nor give sleep to my eyes or rest to my eyelids, until I
find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One
of Ya'akov" (Tehillim 132:1-5). King David suffered and swore
that he would not sleep until he found a dwelling place for
God. And here we merited to receive Jerusalem almost
unconsciously, without any military plans, without speaking of
it, without mentioning it in our prayers.
Speaking from the perspective of Shir haShirim, all of
Zionism came about only for the sake of Jerusalem. In the
early days of Zionism, when the chances of our getting Eretz
Yisrael were looking slim and even Herzl was beginning to feel
pessimistic, Uganda was examined as an alternative. The
Zionist Congress voted against this possibility. Who was
prepared to accept Uganda? The Mizrachi movement, the
religious Zionists. And why? Because they knew that their
connection with Jerusalem would remain, even in Uganda. The
religious representatives said, "We pray three times each day
towards Jerusalem, so we're not afraid of forgetting her."
The secular representatives, on the other hand, knew that if
they were not in close proximity to Jerusalem they would lose
their connection with Jerusalem and, thereby, all ties to
Judaism. This is the inner reason why it was specifically the
secular Zionists who were opposed to the Uganda plan.
This was truly a case of "O God, hear within my voice."
We were really praying for Jerusalem, even if openly this
wasn't apparent. "Jerusalem has mountains all around her"
(Tehillim 125:2) - from afar we could not see her. But thirty
years ago we beheld not only this earthly Jerusalem, hiding
behind its walls, but we also revealed the Jerusalem that was
hidden within the hearts of Israel.
In Shir Ha-Shirim (1:5) we read that the nations of the
world are called "daughters of Jerusalem." Rashi (there)
quotes Chazal's explanation for this appellation: "Because
Jerusalem is destined to become a metropolis for all of them,
as Yechezkel prophesied: 'And I will give them to you as
daughters,' like 'Ekron and her daughters.'" All the great
powers will be daughters, provinces of Jerusalem. Paris,
London, New York, Washington, Moscow - all will be provinces
of Jerusalem, the capital. Israel speaks to the nations of
the world from a situation of degradation: "Black am I, yet
beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem." The nations of the
world taunt us: "You are black! Where is your radiance? You
are filthy!" And from this very degradation and lowliness,
Knesset Yisrael answers the nations: "O daughters of
Jerusalem...". We speak with pride. And when the nations
taunt us, we answer: "I have made you swear, O daughters of
Jerusalem... do not awaken or arouse love until it so wishes"
- do not taunt me, wait for redemption to arrive by natural
means. Don't make too much trouble for me. And with what
expression does Knesset Yisrael approach the nations?
"Daughters of Jerusalem!" You are provinces of Jerusalem,
because Jerusalem will be a metropolis, a capital city, for
the entire world. For the word of God will come forth from
Jerusalem and truth and peace will reign.
The Gemara (Yerushalmi, Chagiga 2b) recounts the story of
Yehuda ben Tabai, who went to Alexandria. They sent him the
following letter: "From the great Jerusalem to the little
Alexandria...". It's not just a concept in Shir Ha-Shirim;
it's a reality. Alexandria was a huge city, and what was
Jerusalem at the time? Nevertheless, that is what they wrote
in the letter: From the great Jerusalem to the little
Alexandria...
Genuine dialogue between ourselves and the nations of the
world can only take place when we truly regard ourselves as
the center, and them as the provinces. Today people travel to
universities in London, Paris, and New York, to study biology,
medicine, physics and chemistry. But the time will come when
the world will recognize that science has not actually
succeeded in solving the real problems. There is still
distress, and people are still suffering. Until the world
recognizes that "From Zion shall Torah come forth, and the
word of God from Jerusalem," until they all declare "Let us
walk in its ways" (Yishayahu 2:3) - there is no genuine value
to all the scientific achievements. One hole is plugged up -
and another opens. Human longevity is extended - and the AIDS
virus flourishes. Eventually they will come from London, from
Paris, from New York - to Jerusalem, because this is the true
metropolis. What does it help that we develop all kinds of
ways to prolong human life when each day thousands of people
are killed? We hear on the radio shocking reports about mass
murders going on in Bosnia, Chechnya and Rwanda; and in other
countries, the daily toll of road casualties and crime victims
is frighteningly large. Is this such an achievement? Can
Paris and New York truly be called great achievements?
Only when "Many nations will go and say: Let us go and
ascend to the Lord's mountain, to the house of the God of
Ya'akov, and He will teach us of His ways and we will walk in
His path, for from Zion shall Torah come forth, and the word
of God from Jerusalem" (Yishayahu 2:3) - only then will all
this take on meaning. That is what they seek. This isn't
rhetoric - it's the real metropolis. Christianity and Islam
look for all kinds of signs of the past in Jerusalem; they
point to places where the founders of their respective faiths
lived and walked. What's behind this is the quest for a hold
on Jerusalem, born of the knowledge that ultimately the center
of everything is here, in Jerusalem. They speak about the
past, but in reality they are gearing themselves for the
future, knowing that in the future this will be the center,
the metropolis of the entire world.
"And eternity is Jerusalem" - we are the generation of
eternity. Sometimes I feel heartsore for anyone who did not
experience the emotions of the Six-Day War. We cannot speak
of the redemption of Jerusalem as something separate from the
salvation of God's "revealing His holy arm." We say in the
Kedusha: "Come forth from Your place, our King, and rule over
us, for we await You. When will You reign in Zion? Soon, in
our days, forever You will dwell and be magnified and
sanctified within Jerusalem, Your city, for all eternity..."
In the Rambam's version, the word "Amen" is added before "You
will dwell." In accordance with the Rambam's version, the
Yememites say, "When will You reign in Zion? Soon, in our
days, forever, amen. May you dwell and be magnified and
sanctified within Jerusalem, Your city..." (Ashkenazi
communities, who do not add the word "Amen," join the phrases
together - "You shall dwell forever...") According to the
Rambam, these are two separate concepts: the sovereignty of
Zion, and God's sovereignty in Jerusalem. We, the Ashkenazim,
have always said, "We don't want an 'amen' in between. We
want to join these two concepts together." Until 1967, I
always had the feeling that the Yemenites were right, that we
had indeed merited sovereignty, but without Jerusalem. Today
we can wholeheartedly recite the whole phrase with no 'amen'
in the middle: "Soon, in our days, forever You will dwell."
It is one single berakha - there is no sovereignty without
Jerusalem.
We need to guard Jerusalem as our most precious
possession, because Jerusalem unites all of Israel.
"Jerusalem rebuilt [is] like a city which is united together:"
it makes all of Israel into brothers. We can bring the
eternity of Jerusalem into the sphere of the present.
When we speak of Jerusalem, let us remember that
Jerusalem is of universal import - just as the victory in the
Six-Day War had worldwide significance. Long after the battle
was won, the world was still discussing the victory, because
there was a universal element to it. Therefore Jerusalem,
too, is something universal. "For God has chosen Zion, He has
desired it for His own dwelling place" (Tehillim 132:13). Let
us act wisely in protecting the eternity of Jerusalem; let us
not turn the city into just another detail, of little
importance. When we speak of Yom Yerushalayim, let us keep in
mind its dimension of "God has revealed His holy arm, in the
eyes of all the nations."
Rav Unterman, of blessed memory, during his tenure as
Chief Rabbi, ruled that we should not recite a berakha on
Hallel of Yom Ha-Atzma'ut, but we should do so on Yom
Yerushalayim - not because of Jerusalem, but because of the
great salvation which took place on that day, the great
kiddush Hashem which in some small measure helped make up for
the enormous chillul Hashem that was the Holocaust. And he
ruled thus specifically against the backdrop of the fear of a
second holocaust which everyone felt was about to take place.
On this day, we became aware of the thread which runs through
and joins the two verses into a single unity: "Burst forth and
sing together, ruins of Jerusalem, for God has comforted His
people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. God has revealed His holy
arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the
earth will see the salvation of our Lord."
(This sicha was delivered on Yom Yerushalayim 5755.)
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