Happy holiday, Jews. On Monday, we will mark Jerusalem Day. Contrary to the common labeling, this day does not belong only to us, the Jerusalemites. "Jerusalem Liberation Day" – yes, that is the precise name – is the holiday of all Jews in Israel and around the world. We tend to focus on this day on the city's demography and security, sovereignty, culture, construction, and economy.
Jerusalem has many "fronts," but in one battle we are negligent – the battle for consciousness. The question "why Jerusalem?" both for ourselves and for our enemies, is an essential question even before we deal with the "how" and "in what way," with the "do" and "don't do."
Jerusalem is Zion, the wellspring of Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people. And Zionism is a rod from the stem of Judaism. A Jewish state without Jerusalem is a crippled state. A Jewish state with Jerusalem is a complete state many times over. For the same reason that we did not establish a state in Uganda, but in the Land of Israel, we did not set our capital in Tel Aviv or Haifa, but in Jerusalem. Every people has genetic material flowing in their veins, and Jerusalem is the genetic material flowing in our veins.
We owe it so much, for the prayers and longings and yearning for it are what accompanied and strengthened our unity throughout two thousand years of exile, and more than we preserved Jerusalem, Jerusalem preserved us. Without it, where would we have ended up? It was the destination and the longing, and the yearning, and the nostalgia, and it was and remains the glue that unites Jews around the world.
Reaching back to David and Solomon
Anyone who wants to feel Jerusalem and understand needs to reach back to King David, who purchased Mount Moriah (the Temple Mount) from Araunah the Jebusite, and to his son Solomon, who built the Temple there. If we do not visit at least once the City of David of our time at the foot of the Temple Mount and from there ascend to the Western Wall, and then to the Temple Mount, we will not truly know how to explain to ourselves why Jerusalem is and what our story is here.
The destruction of the two Temples, the first by Nebuchadnezzar and the second by the Romans, changed the reality in the Land of Israel and in Jerusalem, but brought about an unceasing longing for the city and its rebuilding. The sanctity of the city and the memory of its glory were woven into almost every religious holiday and ceremony that Jews maintained throughout the world in daily prayers, at funerals, at circumcisions, at bar mitzvahs, in the blessing after meals and even at weddings – "If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill" – in all these and more Jerusalem was present in an intense emotional connection, never to be forgotten.
In 1966, Shmuel Yosef Agnon explained, in a speech upon receiving the Nobel Prize, that due to a historical catastrophe (the destruction of Jerusalem), he was born in one of the exile towns, but always saw himself as a person who was born in Jerusalem. Even in the nine original versions of "Hatikvah," Jerusalem is mentioned eight times, and alongside it was present another anthem – "Next year in rebuilt Jerusalem" – four words that welded together the diaspora of Israel throughout the exile and the architects of Zionism, the Jewish national liberation movement.
So when you walk today and tomorrow in the streets of Jerusalem and wave Israel's flags in it – remember that this city, even before many other important things, and despite its complexity and complications, is the embodiment of Jewish justice, the foundation for our right and claim to this land, our home. And whoever returns and liberates his home is not a conqueror. Happy Jerusalem holiday.
