A hundred thousand people carrying Israeli flags are expected to take part in the traditional Jerusalem Day "Flag Dance" parade around the Old City on Sunday. The procession will be led by veterans of the battle for Jerusalem and victims of terrorism.
For 30 years, crowds have been marching and dancing in the streets of Jerusalem. This year, the dancing started on Saturday and went on all night, with people flocking to the Western Wall.
For the religious Zionist movement, Jerusalem Day is a celebration in every sense of the word, almost like Independence Day. Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews alike pray and wear their Sabbath clothes. The mythological Merkaz Harav Yeshiva – where the enterprise of settling Judea and Samaria began – will be hosting a huge party, and the prime minister is scheduled to speak there. Many of the yeshiva's graduates fought to liberate Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, including IDF Paratroopers Brigade commander Yoram Zamosh, who immediately after the Western Wall was liberated in June 1967 drove Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook and Rabbi David Cohen there in a jeep, knowing the symbolic power of bringing both these great spirits of Zionism together at the remaining wall of the Second Temple compound.
"Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her," said Isaiah the prophet (Isaiah 66:10), who predicted that after the terrible exile the Jewish people would rise again. Who could have thought when Jerusalem was razed that it would rise again like this? But the prophet gave us Divine instructions: When you return to Jerusalem, you must rejoice. In current terms, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put it: Don't be sourpusses.
There is strategic value in joy. Who rejoices in Jerusalem? The public, the people. The joy bubbles up from below; it does not come from the media or from the politically calculating.
"On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen, all the day and all the night," Isaiah said. The new watchmen over Jerusalem see themselves as rejoicing in its streets over their redemption. They fought in battles and under siege, were in exile from the Old City and returned to it. They have withstood terrible terrorist attacks, massive demonstrations that sought to divide the city, and attempts to bring PLO founder Yasser Arafat to the city. They will withstand any future attempt to harm the city.
And now who is joining these good people? The United States and President Donald Trump. Other countries are starting to "see that you are called by the name of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 28:10). This is why we should rejoice. Everyone is invited to join us in Jerusalem for the huge march and the boundless joy.
