1. At the end of our national and spiritual matter, as at the beginning, is Jerusalem. Jerusalem as an idea with a place behind it, and also: a place behind an idea.
During these months I study with my daughter at the Shmuel School. The prophet Samuel was the link between the period of the judges and the period of the monarchy. This is the book of our people's politics: the struggles between the tribes for recognition and the royal houses for power. After the change of government and David's ascension to the throne, the need arose to find a unifying capital, which is not in the possession of a particular tribe. Thus the City of David was founded with the conquest of Jerusalem, which became the capital of the United Kingdom.
Here is the historical formula that has accompanied us ever since: At first we are settlers throughout the country, and only after our consolidation comes Jerusalem. "Blessed be the Lord of Zion, for they shall be sloppy..." First Zion followed by Jerusalem. As in our time: the return to Jerusalem came after the establishment of the state. First the establishment of the national body, and then the spirit blows in us. The historical process operates in secret on the national spirit, and it is important to be aware of it, to be patient and not to delay the end.
The return to Jerusalem came after the establishment of the state. The establishment of the national body precedes the spirit. The historical process operates in secret on the national spirit, and it is important to be patient and not to delay the end
2. Our sages taught: In memory is the secret of redemption. If we remember where we came from, we will know where to return. People of all religions and nations bless their God for food, but only here have the sages created a special blessing: Thank God for the food You have given us, but don't forget to build Jerusalem! What is the connection between food, a universal need, and our capital? It seems that our sages wanted to instill in us the insight that just as an individual cannot live without bread, without food, so too the nation cannot survive without Jerusalem. Every time we blessed the food at the end of the meal, we remembered how much we missed Jerusalem. It is an action that after thousands of years becomes part of our identity, a component of our collective unconscious.
Jaffa Street in Jerusalem, Photo: Jonathan Zindel/Flash90
And when a couple marries, remember Jerusalem under their canopy. They broke a glass to declare that their joy was incomplete as long as our city was destroyed. Before breaking the glass, repeat the oath of the Babylonian exiles. When the city was first destroyed in the sixth century BCE, the Babylonians expelled the social elite, priests, Levites, and political and spiritual leadership. The Babylonian captors discovered that among the refugees were Levites who played in the temple orchestra.
"Sing to us from the Song of Zion," they demanded. But the exiles had already hung their violins on the willow trees and told their captors, "How can we sing the song of God on foreign land?!" There is no way we will sing, and "how" (Lamentations) we have reached such a terrible situation that our captors want to force us to play in front of them, and in general we are uninspired when we are not at home. In order to strengthen their commitment, they swore: "If I forget you, you will be sloppy – forget (be paralyzed) on my right, stick to my tongue (I will lose the ability to speak) if I do not remember (if I do not remember you), if I do not raise Yerushal Yam to the top of my joy." Since then we have been repeating the oath.
3. At the beginning of the 12th century, Rabbi Yehuda Halevi wrote a poem longing for our city in the depths of the Spanish Diaspora. Here is part of its famous opening: "Zion, won't you ask for the welfare of your prisoners, / Those who seek your well-being and they are the rest of your flocks?" Indeed, the Prisoners of Zion were in our various postcards, and Rahal asks Zion like a son his mother, if she still remembers us, if she is still interested in our well-being. Because, for our part, we never stopped remembering it and praying for its rebuilding. Then, like the Babylonian exiles, he pairs his poetry with the memory of the city: "To weep thy humility I am a jackal, and when I dream of the return of thy captivity, I am a violinist to thy songs." He tells us where his poetry-prophecy comes from: from the dream of the return to Zion.
Some 850 years later, ahead of Independence Day, the bad rumors about the Arab armies gathering against us reached a final war. That night, a young soldier named Shuli Natan took the Binyanei Ha'uma stage with a guitar and voiced Goli Zion. She sings a new hymn of longing for the captive city in her dream, with a wall at its heart that separated the Israeli part from the Jordanian-controlled part. She mentioned Rabbi Akiva's promise to his wife: One day, when I have the ability, I will make you a "Jerusalem of Gold." This jewel, engraved on Jerusalem, was adorned by wealthy women on their heads. But after the destruction, this promise also had national significance: We will not rest until we restore the destroyed city to its former glory.
Naomi Shemer, who wrote the poem, remembered Rihal and described the spring of her poetry on one continuum with the poets of Jerusalem throughout the generations: "I am not a violin for all your songs." Later she incorporated the oath of the Babylonian exiles: "If I forget you, Jerusalem is all gold." And so, in one evening, the citizens of Israel united in one song with the Babylonian exiles in the sixth century BCE and with the Spanish exiles in the 12th century CE. They remembered that they, too, were exiled from their city, even though they were so close to it beyond the wall.
4. About six months before our unification with our city, in December 1966, Shmuel Yosef Agnon received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Our first Nobel in Little Israel. He, too, remembered the oath of the Babylonian exiles, and at the award ceremony he raised Jerusalem to the forefront of his joy. He said to the world: "Out of a historical catastrophe that Titus, the Roman king, destroyed Jerusalem and exiled Israel from his land, I was born in one of the cities of the Diaspora. But, at all times, I always seemed to be born in Jerusalem." We happened to be born in the Diaspora of Europe or Yemen or North Africa and Persia. Just by chance, because of the disaster of destruction that led to our dispersal in the various exiles. There is no special significance to the existence of Jews in Berlin, Rome or New York. They live there by chance, because in the depths of our existence as a people, "I seemed to be born in Jerusalem."
Author S.Y. Agnon, Photo: Getty Images
Like the other poets of Zion, Agnon also related where the spring of his work and prophecy comes from: "In a dream, in a night vision, I saw myself standing with my Levite brothers in the Temple singing with them the songs of David, King of Israel." Remember the Levites who refused to sing on foreign soil? From the depth of this refusal, which obliged us to rebuild Jerusalem, Agnon grew to become a Hebrew writer in the Land of Israel and was privileged to see the rebirth of our people and the liberation of the Eternal City.
5. On the cradle of Italy's birth as a modern state in 1861 was Moshe Hess, a Jewish intellectual who had distanced himself from his people. Now, in the face of its resurrection, he sought a similar fate to us. Rome was not yet the capital; The church ruled it until 1870. Meanwhile, in 1862, Hess published Rome and Jerusalem, and at the beginning of the book prophesied: "With the liberation of the Eternal City on the banks of the Tiber (Rome), the liberation of the Eternal City on Mount Moriah will begin, and with the revival of Italy will begin the revival of Judah." And when Theodor Herzl came and said the code words "Zion" and "Jerusalem," the ground was ready like a spring that had been cocked for thousands of years, and now he was given the signal to break free and push the people home.
Wrong? We'll fix it! If you find a mistake in the article, please share with us