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Thursday, May 31, 2007

Yom Yerushalayim

Wednesday is Yom Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Day. It is 40 years since Jerusalem was liberated during the 6 Day War, and Isaeli paratroopers took control of the Old City, and the site of the Temple Mount and the Kotel. For 19 years Jews had been forbidden to pray at our most holy site – the place of the Temple. During those 19 years the Jordanians had destroyed Shuls, vandalized any holy relics they could find, and used the kotel as a urinal. Yom Yerushalayim reunited the city and allowed us to restore the holy sites to their former status.

They tell a story of R’ Aryeh Levine on the original Yom Yerushalayim:
As one group of soldiers embarked toward the Kotel, they suddenly noticed an elderly pious looking man, in traditional rabbinic garb, running, almost skipping through the war-torn streets. Later the world would realize that this ecstatic, older gentleman was the great Rabbi Aryeh Levine, known affectionately as the tzadik of Jerusalem. At that moment though, as the soldiers gazed at the flaming debris, and the war- torn streets, and realized the magnitude of their accomplishments, and saw this older, holy man literally running to the Western Wall, the soldiers thought he had to be the Messiah! After so many years the Jewish People had not only returned to the Land of Israel, but now, ancient Jerusalem, our eternal capital, was once again in our hands, it had to be that Mashiach had come. How else could you explain the miraculous events unfolding before their very eyes? In the midst of the miraculous victory, these soldiers were overwhelmed, in awe, appreciation and faith in G-d’s divine kindness.
We are still waiting for Mashiach. In the mean time we have to realize how lucky we are that we can go and pray at the kotel whenever we want, we can walk the streets of Yerushalayim without fear of Jordanian snipers, and Yerushalayim is restored as the sole capital of Israel for the first time since King Shlomo.

How can anyone not be moved to tears by these words:

Colonel Motta Gur announces on the army wireless: The Temple Mount is in our hands! I repeat, the Temple Mount is in our hands!

All forces, stop firing! This is the David Operations Room. All forces, stop firing! I repeat, all forces, stop firing! Over.

Commander eight-nine here, is this Motta (Gur) talking? Over.

[Inaudible response on the army wireless by Motta Gur.]

Uzi Narkiss: Motta, there isn’t anybody like you. You’re next to the Mosque of Omar.

Yossi Ronen: I’m driving fast through the Lion’s Gate all the way inside the Old City.

Command on the army wireless: Search the area, destroy all pockets of resistance and make sure to enter every single house, especially the holy places.

[Lt.- Col. Uzi Eilam blows the Shofar. Soldiers are singing ‘Jerusalem of Gold’.]

Uzi Narkiss: Tell me, where is the Western Wall? How do we get there?

Yossi Ronen: I’m walking right now down the steps towards the Western Wall. I’m not a religious man, I never have been, but this is the Western Wall and I’m touching the stones of the Western Wall.

You can hear the original radio transmission from the troops as they defeated the Jordanian army here: http://www.isracast.com/kotel.asx

Happy Yom Yerushalayim and may we merit to see the coming of Mashiach very soon.