Bamidbar 5756

This week we read the first portion in the fourth book of the Torah, which begins with the words, "The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying: Take a census of the whole congregation of Israelites, in their clans, by ancestral houses, according to the number of names, every male individually; from twenty years old and upward, everyone in Israel able to go to war. You and Aaron shall enroll them, company by company." In other words, we have here a book that will list the names of the families of Israel -- a sort of "national registry" -- or if you will, a kind of a "telephone book."

I am sure you are aware that Telephone books are very important when you want to contact someone and you don't have their number or address -- but they are not the most exciting reading in the words... Therefore you have to cull the text to find what it is that we can learn from the few short verses that come between continuing lists of names.

In the third chapter of Leviticus we read "Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Bring the tribe of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, so that they may assist him. They shall perform duties for him and for the whole congregation in front of the tent of meeting, doing service at the tabernacle; they shall be in charge of all the furnishings of the tent of meeting, and attend to the duties for the Israelites as they do service at the tabernacle." [3:5-8] Why the Levites? Some would say that it was because they were the family of Moses -- but that was not necessarily a virtue. After all, in the sixteenth chapter of this same book we shall read, "Now Korah son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, along with Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth--descendants of Reuben--took two hundred fifty Israelite men, leaders of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men, and they confronted Moses. They assembled against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, "You have gone too far! All the congregation are holy, everyone of them, and the Lord is among them. So why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?" We also know that the originator of the family, Levi, son of Ya'akov, had committed two great wrongs: in Genesis 37:19, "They said to one another, "Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams."" Our tradition tells us that the "they" who spoke to one another are Shim'on and Levi -- the same two who are also involved in the ,revenge for the rape of Ya'akov's daughter, Dinah. We read in Genesis 34:25-26, "On the third day, when they were still in pain, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and came against the city unawares, and killed all the males. They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went away." The commentators do not suggest that what was done was right, quite the contrary, even Jacob, in blessing his children could not forget the wrong done -- "Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords. May I never come into their council; may I not be joined to their company-- for in their anger they killed men, and at their whim they hamstrung oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel." And maybe this is why Simon became a tribe, and Levi did not.

However, while in combination with Shim'on Levi was volatile and dangerous, like Nitrate with Glycerin, separately each could be a good member of society, and Levi could even be a special blessing to all who came in contact with him. Thus we read, when the Israelites became intoxicated with the Golden calf, and Moses called, "Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me!" And all the sons of Levi gathered around him." And the commentators further tell us that Psalm 92:12-15, "The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God. In old age they still produce fruit; they are always green and full of sap, showing that the Lord is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him." allude to the Levites -- for they are the ones who are "planted in the house of the Lord."

What do we learn from all this? We learn that one can be rehabilitated from transgression and sin. That each of us is capable of returning to God and living in His shadow, in His house -- under the canopy of His love and protection. May we all take heed and prepare ourselves, through study and practice, to be His servants, His Levites.

Amen

Bamidbar 5757

This week we read the first Torah portion of the fourth book of the Khumash, which begins with the words, "The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying: Take a census of the whole congregation of Israelites, in their clans, by ancestral houses, according to the number of names, every male individually; from twenty years old and upward, everyone in Israel able to go to war. You and Aaron shall enroll them, company by company." In other words, we have here a book that will report to us the names of the families of Israel -- a sort of "national registry" -- or if you will, a kind of a "telephone book." While statisticians the world over never stop to tell us how very important such registries are, we are all aware that they are not the most exciting reading in the words... Therefore you have to cull the text to find what it is that we can learn from the few short verses that come between continuing lists of names.

This evening I want to take the very concept of record keeping and expand from it. What is the purpose of taking a census, or having a registry of names? After all, they did not have telephones in Bamidbar -- so why do they need telephone books? The answer, in my mind, has to do with the idea expressed so well by the American educator philosopher, George Santana, who said that a people who do not learn from their history are bound to repeat it. We keep records to draw lessons from the facts and the figures that they contain. Thus I have always been a history buff. I studied with relish and interest the unfolding story of the struggles of humanity to survive in a world that by nature makes humans almost unfit to survive -- let alone have dominion upon this earth...

This week we celebrated the anniversaries of two events in recent history. Both were of the utmost importance to us Jews -- though they are quite different in character and in scope. They are also viewed quite differently by the rest of humanity. What am I refering to? On Thursday last we celebrated the fiftieth annivcersary of the Marshall Plan; The day before, we celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the riunification of Jerusalem, and the first time in two thousand years that Jerusalem was totally and exclusively under Jewish sovereignty in over twenty five hundred years. I am sure that I do not have to tell you how these two events are different -- but you may not be aware how they are the same.

The Marshall plan and the reunification of Jerusalem under Jewish sovereignty both happened as a result of a great victory of a nation, under God, in a just war waged under duress for the purpose of the survival of the Judeo-Christian ethics and civilization. We are all aware that the Second World War was just such a war. What most people forget is the purity of purpose that drove the American enterpise in that war. We did not want to gain land or assume hegemony over another people. We did not wage the war, nor did we have plans to follow our victory with economic gains and financial of material rewards. Quite the contrary! We began our involvement with the war (particularely in Europe) with a selfless and expensive attempt to arms the forces of good in their battle with the forces of evil. Still, the war was so long and so bloody that by the time the guns fell silent europe was totally devastated. As in the battles of the wild dogs of Africa, both victor and vanquished lay bleeding and in danger of death. The only nation to come out of the war standing on its feet, glorious in victory as it had been before it was attacked -- and maybe even more -- magnanimous to its allies and forgiving to its enemies. America was blessed with men of vision at its helm -- president Harry Truman and chief of joint staffs and later Secretary of State George Marshall. Under such men the nation agreed to help in the battle for peace and reparation in Europe even as we bore the brunt of the battle to defeat Naziism. The victory of the Allies, headed by the United States was so complete and so decisive that no one could deny it. The United States pledged its help to all nations that would become part of a community of peace and cooperation seeking nations. The American Marshall plan was twinned and matched by a European plan, called the Schumann plan -- and through this cooperative effort a Europe that lay exhausted and physically devastated by war was able to rehabilitate itself in a period of less than twenty years. New industries were built; new roads and rail lines stretched accross lands and boundries; old enemies became business partners and grew confident in each other's company to the point where old enmities were buried and forgotten.

The reunification of Jerusalem was also the result of a great victory -- it its own way and given the proper perspective maybe a greater victory than the Allies' victory in Europe. Israel, a Jewish nation not quite twenty years in existence, defeated the combines armies of three nations on three fronts, aided by expeditionary forces from at least five other nations. Standing on the precipice of extinction, unanswered by all the power brokers of the world, cheated of guarantees of help and pledges of support, Israel snatched an unheard of victory from the very mouth of defeat. With lightening speed, with technical vistuosity and human capabilities unequaled by any other military, a numerically inferior Israeli airforce annihilated the combined airforces of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, as well as some bases in Saudi-Arabia in the first three hours of the first day of b attle, thereby insuring the victory of the ground forces in the ensuing fierce and costly battles for the Sinai, the West Bank and the Golan.

...And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. How well I remember the end of that war! How well I recall the wonder of sight that came into focus when the din of battle and the smoke of the guns cleared. Suddenly and gloriously the barbed wire fences were torn down, the mines that separated Jews and Arabs in the Promised land accross no-man's-land were removed, and a people who had stared at one another over gunsights for close to two decades came face to face in peace. The Israeli nation, like that of the United States, stood selfless and humble in victory, willing to make an effort to help bring about peace and rehabilitate the wounds of war for both victor and vanquished.

This is where the two historical events diverge. Europe was ready for Truman and Marshall after V.E. day. The Arabs, the Moslems, the Communism vs. Capitalism challenge, and the European nations with their avarice for petro-dollars were not ready for the Israeli offer of the hand of peace and reconciliation on the seventh day of the six days war. With time the Arabs were radicalized and indoctrinated to hate the Jews and demand exlusive conditions that would make peace and cooperation between the Jewish state and its neighbors a mere illusion, a desert visual aparition no more real than the prophetic lamb and lion who dwell together. Israel is still a battle front, its citizens in constant danger. May we take note of the facts and the figures, may we always be aware of the difference between 'bemidbar' aparitions and cold realities -- and may we survive the desert madness, the danger of mistaking sand for water and dying of thirst in close proximity to a well of life-giving clear waters. Let us gird ourselves for the continuing battle for the survival of our people, our nation, and the heritage that has been maintained from the days of Abraham and Moses, and David, to Daivd (Ben-Gurion) and Moshe (Dayan). Am Yisrael Kha'y -- the People of Israel live -- and shall continue to live, for our hope has not been lost! Od lo avda tikvatenu! Amen

Bemidbar 5758

“Va’ydaber Adona’y el Moshe b’midbar Sinai b’ohel mo’ed — And the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they came out from the land of Egypt, saying, take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of names, every male by their polls;” [Num. 1:1,2] With these words, this Shabbat we begin reading the first section of the fourth book in the Torah – we call it Bamidbar, ‘in the desert’ in Hebrew – and its English name is numbers. You may ask, how are the two names related, and I will answer with a story:

Two men survive a plane crash in the middle of the Sahara desert. One looks around for a radio, or water or food in the wreck of the plane; the other sits down with pen and paper, writing and occupying himself with something ‘theoretical’ to total oblivion of all around him. Finally the ‘searcher’ succeeds in getting the attention of the other.

“Why don’t you help me find means for our survival?” he asks.

“Oh, but I am!” Replies the other. “You see, I am a statistician. I was figuring our chances of survival. I’m happy to tell you that they are 100%!”

“How do you figure that?” Asks the first.

“Assume we discover another plane...” replies the statistician...

Why do I tell you this story? Because very often people depend on the statisticians to tell us our chances. Of course, the statisticians take in all the pertinent facts, all the figures of unit numbers related to weight related to ability related to durability. Then they predict... Like the oracle at Delphi. There is a story that soon after Harry S. Truman became president. He asked if he could get some one armed statisticians to prepare his economic program for the post-war years.

“Why do you insist of one armed fellows?” He was asked. “Is it in an attempt to hire handicapped war veterans?”

“Nothing of the sort,” answered the new chief executive. “I’m just sick and tired of being told, ‘on the one hand...’”

It is interesting to note that we have a tradition in Judaism of not counting. Even when we count, we go about doing it in a manner that will not cause a chain reaction. We count parts, but not the whole. Sometimes, we count what is not, and deduce from it what is. It is considered imprudent to count, if not downright bad luck. The statisticians tell us that counting gives insight – but our sages say that counting incites negative forces.

Take for example Mr. Newt Gingrich, speaker of the Congress of the United States Congress. We Jews rarely agree with him, rarely heap praises upon him. The statisticians would say that our chances of making him a folk hero are somewhere between zero and a negative ten... And yet, touring Israel with a congressional delegation honoring the 50th anniversary of the modern Jewish state, he accused the Palestinian Authority of systematically inciting violence among its followers and harming the peace process. Interviewed on CNN from Jerusalem, Gingrich said, “No Palestinian official should talk about or threaten bloodshed, but yet it is a routine pattern in this region for the Palestinian Authority to, in effect, incite violence.” Several Palestinian leaders claimed Gingrich’s remarks were a provocation that could lead to violent repercussion in the Arab population – as if the PA ever needed to be provoked. Violence is its primary tool for applying pressure on Israel.

People at the State Department and in the American news media, both printed and broadcast, expressed shock at Gingrich’s comments. Interestingly, they did not express either shock or even surprise at a “double whammy” delivered last week by the administration in the appearance of President Clinton before the Arab American Association meeting – the first such appearance ever for a U.S. President – coupled with the repeated comment by Hillary Clinton that she expects the Palestinian State to come into being in the very near future, a most unfortunate statement for the wife of a U.S. President to make. Add to this the pressure applied by the administration upon Netanyahu to accept a “U.S. initiative” that dictates to Israel a pullback of 13% which it claims is detrimental to its security, and you see a pattern. Situation desparate if not fatal – can you assume we shall find a plane to get us out of the desert?

Mr. Gingrich, on the other hand, is one of the few top American leaders in recent years to state the obvious and courageously stand up for the only democracy in the Middle East. American officials ignore threats by Palestinians, apparently thinking them empty. While Gingrich defended Israel, the PA’s television station, PBC, carried an interview with Dr. Ahmed Tibi, a personal advisor to PA leader Yasser Arafat. Tibi said, “We are here to state that we are the owners of this land,” by which he meant all the land. “We are the rightful owners,” he added. “This is our history, and we will never bend.” On the same broadcast, scenes were shown from a “Nabka Rally” in Ramallah, (Nabka means disaster, which is what they call the creation of Israel), which included a chant from an unidentified leader and responses from a large crowd. The chant included these lines: “Palestine is Arab; Netanyahu Binyamin, Nazi, son of Satans; the entire land is Palestine.” During the chant, cameras focused on the burning of a model Jewish community village and a flaming Israeli flag. Other pictures showed a dais in Gaza occupied by Arafat and other PA leaders. Arafat himself joined in a chant: “All of Jerusalem is Arab; the entire land is Arab.” There were appeals to “martyrs” and “holy war” but the picture you got was of a population imflamed by a cabal of intransigent opponents to Israel’s very existence. If you take these and many similar statements at face value, it is clear that Israel’s enemies have no intention of making peace, but only war, until all of the land is rid of the Jews and the Palestinians occupy it and rejoice in a Judenrein Jerusalem, too. And what convincing evidence is there that we should not reach this conclusion? Do we assume to find a plane to get us out of the desert?

What other conclusion can be reached? Either Arafat and his supporters are lying to their fellow Palestinians about their intentions, or they are lying to Israel and the United States and they are using the so-called “peace process” to pick Israel’s pocket. Which is it? Look at the population on the .V. scree; listen to the venomous chant; can anyone doubt the incitement to violence against the Jews. An armed “police force” with assault rifles has been set up to prevent street crime in Gaza and the towns of Judea and Samariah?

Or is there another reason for the unease at Foggy Bottoms? Could the reason the State Department is upset by Gingrich’s remarks be that it blows the cover it has devised to hide the true intentions of Israel’s enemies. Is it possible that this is not at all about negotiations between ‘equals’ trying to work out a means by which they may coexist in the same land with mutual respect and guarantees of safety and security. Does State know the truth, that this is about one side’s determination to eradicate an entire people from the region by whatever means necessary, and is State secretly align itself with this goal. Is it about one side that makes its violent intentions plain. And is it about an American government that for the last two administrations has tried to force Israel into believing the unbelievable: that real peace is possible with people who want you dead and gone. Is Israel forced to negotiate the terms of its own suicide?

We read this Shabbat the portion of B’midbar — in a desert. Let us gird ourselves for the task of surviving. Let us forget the clown who continues to laugh even when his pants are on fire; let us turn away the statisticians who assume that we will always find a plane to fly us to safety, and let us count our friends, our true friends, those who will bravely face unpleasant truths, who will stand fast by our side even if this will cost votes or petro-dollars. The time in nigh, the task is nothing less than an affirmation of our very right to exist, to prosper and to continue our partnership with God in the advancement of civilization, bringing about His kingdom and sovereignty.

Bemidbar 5759

This week we read the first Torah portion of the fourth book of the Khumash, which begins with the words, "The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying: Take a census of the whole congregation of Israelites, in their clans, by ancestral houses, according to the number of names, every male individually; from twenty years old and upward, everyone in Israel able to go to war. You and Aaron shall enroll them, company by company." In other words, we have here a book that will report to us the names of the families of Israel -- a sort of "national registry."

This evening I want to take the very concept of record keeping and expound upon it. What is the purpose of taking a census, or having a registry of names? After all, they did not have telephones in Bamidbar -- so why did they need to keep a record of the names? The answer, I would think, is that we keep records to draw lessons from the facts and the figures that they contain. Thus I have always been a history buff. I studied with relish and interest the unfolding story of the struggles of humanity to survive in a world that by nature makes humans almost unfit to survive. To think that God told us to "have dominion upon this earth -- how incredible. It is like catching a cheetah by the tail. You are in for a ride, at the end of which you just may be the cheetah's snack...

Today, Friday, the twenty eighth of Iyar, we celebrate the anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem. We call it Yom Yerushala'yim. I am nothing if not a son of Jerusalem, my home town, the place of my roots, both physical and spiritual. Yerushalayim shel Zahav, Jerusalem of Gold, the source and fountainhead of countless poets -- living and dead, immortal one and all, some merely inspired and others God-driven and prophetic. Across the ages they speak the praise of the city in the hills, the Capital of Kings and the Chosen of God more than twenty five hundred years ago. I am sure that I do not have to tell you just how the liberation of that part of Jerusalem that was in "exile" affected all who were fortunate enough to witness it!

I grew up in a pre-state, unified city of God, where Judaism, Christianity and Islam shared in the blessing of synagogues, churches and mosques. Arab and Jew, Maronite, Copt, Armenian and catholic, coexisted for hundreds of years. No, they were not good friends, Moslems did not accept any deviation from their 'line,' the Quran; Christians did not trust one another -- and the Jews were third class citizens under any ruler...

In 1881, when my grandfather arrived at its gates, Jerusalem had a population of about 25,000 — more than half of whom were Jews. While there were a few settlements outside the walled city, most of the inhabitants still lived within the walls, much in the same way and, in fact, in the same homes that had been there for over four hundred years. The gates of the city were closed at night, and reopened at sunrise. The city grew with each wave of Jewish immigrants, and finally, at the end of the First World War became the administrative center of the British mandate territory.

Then came the U.N. partition plan, the Arabs began to riot, causing a rift in the city -- separating the "old" city from the "new," driving the Jews from their homes in the walled section of Jerusalem, while evacuating the Arab quarters of the city outside the walls. For nineteen years there was no contact between former neighbors, no commerce or neighborly friendships. The reunification of Jerusalem was the result of a great victory -- and of a miracle. Israel, a Jewish nation not quite twenty years in existence, defeated the combines armies of three nations who were aided by expeditionary forces from at least five other nations, on three fronts. Standing on the precipice of extinction, unanswered by all the power brokers of the world, cheated of guarantees of help and pledges of support, Israel snatched an unheard of victory from the very mouth of defeat. With lightening speed, with technical virtuosity and human capabilities unequaled by any other military, a numerically inferior Israeli air force annihilated the combined air forces of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, as well as some bases in Saudi-Arabia in the first three hours of the first day of battle, thereby insuring the victory of the ground forces in the ensuing fierce and costly battles for the Sinai, the West Bank and the Golan. We called that war "Milkhemet Sheshet ha'yamim" -- the Six Days War.

And there was evening and there was morning, the seventh day. How well I remember the end of that war! How well I recall the wonder of the sight that came into focus when the din of battle and the smoke of the guns cleared. Suddenly and gloriously the barbed wire fences were torn down, the mines that separated Jews and Arabs in the Promised land across no-man's-land were removed, and a people who had stared at one another over gun sights for close to two decades came face to face in peace. The Israeli nation, like that of the United States, stood selfless and humble in victory, willing to make an effort to help bring about peace and rehabilitate the wounds of war for both victor and vanquished.

May we take note of the facts and the figures, as they did Bemidbar. May we always be aware of the difference between 'bemidbar' apparitions and cold realities -- and may we survive the desert madness, the danger of mistaking sand for water and dying of thirst in close proximity to a well of life-giving clear waters. Let us gird ourselves for the continuing battle for the survival of our people, our nation, and the heritage that has been maintained from the days of Moshe, Moses, and David, to David (Ben-Gurion) and Moshe (Dayan). The vision of life’s promise is a memory of things yet to come, an eye fixed on the promise of tomorrow, giving us the energy and the will to live. Am Yisrael Kha'y -- the People of Israel live -- and shall continue to live, for our hope has not been lost! Od lo avda tikvatenu!

Amen

B’midbar 5760

This week we read the first portion in the fourth book of the Torah, which begins with the words, "Va’ydaber adona’y el moshe bemidbar Sinai b’ohel mo’ed b’ekhad lakhodesh hasheni bashana hashenit letzetam me’eretz mitzra’yim le’mor: se’u et rosh kol adat b’nei Yisrael lemishpekhotam... The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying: Take a census of the whole congregation of Israelites, in their clans..." [Num. 1:1,2] In Hebrew we call the book b’midbar, which means in the wilderness or the desert. The English name is “Numbers,” because the major subject of the book is a census of the People Israel that took place at the time of the narrative.

I remind you that counting was not a favorite thing of the Jewish people to do. We had superstitions about how counting brings about bad luck, and maybe even much more than that - it may be the portal to a diminished quantity of whatever it is that we count. Yet, a people must overcome their superstitions and move on, and a people must know just how much, how many, how great or how small is the size, weight, volume, of the matter at question.

One such measure is “two thousand years.” Oh, how well has this number been drummed into my consciousness in my youth. I was part of the renaissance of Jewish nationhood after “two thousand years.” We were speaking Hebrew as a national tongue, fighting for our lives, building Jewish towns, raising Jewish cows and chickens and dogs and cats - “two thousand years.” This phrase, it seems to me, was an expression of the fulfilment of “two thousand years” of yearning and hoping and persevering in the face of untold pain and suffering.

Somehow, in my mind at the time, and even today, with the good perspective of hindsight, it is all connected to Jerusalem. On the ninth of Av in the Jewish calendar, (also a counting - of time, in this case) we would read the Book of Lamentation : “How lonely sits the city, that was full of people! she has become like a widow! She that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, has become a vassal! She weeps bitterly in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. Judah has gone into exile because of affliction, and because of great servitude; she dwells among the nations, she finds no rest; all her pursuers overtook her in the midst of her distress.” [Lam. 1:1-3] We would sing in a minor key a dirge: “Al naharot bavel, sham yashavnu gam bakhinu bezokhrenu et Tzion - By the Rivers of Babylon, there we sat, yea we wept, when we remembered Zion.” {Psalms 137:1] Our sages, in the Talmud, again and again mentioned the City made capital of our nation by kind David. “ It was taught in a Baraitha in the name of R. Akiba: ‘Thine, oh Lord, is the greatness’: this refers to the cleaving of the Red Sea. ‘And the power’: this refers to the smiting of the first-born. ‘And the glory’: this refers to the giving of the Torah. ‘And the victory’: this refers to Jerusalem. ‘And the majesty’: this refers to the Temple.” [berakhot 58a] and again, “Our Rabbis taught, He who has not witnessed the rejoicing at the place of the Water-Drawing has never seen rejoicing in his life. He who has not seen Jerusalem in her splendour, has never seen a desirable city in his life. He who has not seen the Temple in its full construction has never seen a glorious building in his life.” [Sukah 51b] For ages we recited the words, at the end of the Seder, “Leshana haba’a bYrushala’yim” - next year may we celebrate in Jerusalem. And yet, when pilgrims came to Jerusalem before the beginning of Zionism, they were likely to be disappointed. One, my own grandfather, wrote, “Was this the City of David? I thought to myself. “For out of Zion shall come the teaching, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” [Is. 2:3] The words of the ancient Prophet rung in my ears, as I looked around me at the filth and the squalor. Could God speak from a place such as this? Where was the beauty that the Talmud spoke of? Where was the glory that generations of Jews believed in with complete faith? There I was, a young patriot, the champion of Judea reborn walking through narrow streets reeking with the smell of garbage, animal waste and raw sewage, past donkeys and camels, down steps and tunnels, humbled and shaken as though I had descended into Dante’s Inferno. The walls of buildings closed in on me. Where was the sky? Where was the sun? Could this be Jerusalem, my eternal city, my hope of rebirth and healing?”

It is not surprising that Zionism found a home in the sea shore, in the valley of Jezrael and in the green hills of Galilee. Jerusalem was a place of dreams, or promise - in dwelled in the heart, not on earth. And yet, while we were in the desert, in exile and in danger of extinction, Jerusalem began to return to life. The city was, from the late middle ages, a town with a Jewish majority, and it was our fate that Jerusalem waited to complete and unfold. My grandfather made his home there, and he fell in love with it. He raised his children and there and worked to make it the capital of a Jewish nation. His life became the embodiment of the “returning exile” of the Sepharadic song of Jerusalem: From the top of Mount Scopus, I bow down to you, I salute you Jerusalem. For a thousand generations I have yearned for you, to be worthy to see you. Jerusalem, show your happy face to your son. Jerusalem, I shall rebuild your ruins.”

My grandfather died long before the State of Israel came into being, and it fell to me, third generation in the city, to fight in my own small way the battle for keeping Jerusalem as part of the Jewish state. How we suffered, how we clutched on to its rocks with clenched fists, fighting with meagre arms and insufficient ammunition doled out to inexperienced citizen soldiers aged nine to ninety. How we prayed for a miracle that would allow us to be victorious in the face to a superior enemy equipped and supplied by seven sovereign Arab nations. And how we mourned when that miracle took place, but the Jewel in the crown, the old city and Temple Mount were beyond our reach when the din of battle died down!

In the desert of Sinai another counting was done, in May of 1967. In was a counting of the chariots of war of the army of Egypt. Equipped by Russia, supported by the communist and non-aligned nations, they counted their men, and they counted the days before they would redress the “shame of 1948.” The planned and schemed and made their purpose known. All the while we sat in the concert hall in Jerusalem and heard the words of yet another poet yearning for eternal Jerusalem. “Yerushala’yim shel zahav, Jerusalem of gold, and copper and light. For all your melodies I am the harp.” Naomi Shemer, this generation’s heir of David, Jeremiah, Yehuda Halevi and Eben Gabirol, wrote, “in the caves in the rock the winds howl, and no one visits Temple Mount in the Old City.” The whole nation knew the words of her song almost before its premier performance, and a week later it became a national hymn, sang my young recruits and fathers and grandfathers called up to reserve duty and sent up to reclaim our glory, and our honor, and our national heritage. “We have returned to the water-wells, to the market place and the city square. A shofar is heard on Temple Mount in the Old City; And in the caves in the rocks, a thousand suns sparkle bright - and once again we travel to the dead sea by way of Jericho.”

Days of desert, time of accounting, time of yearning, sounds of war. Never has it been easy to be a Jews – nor has it been anything less than a Godly tribulation on the way from slavery to the freedom of the spirit in a world that is consecrated to His glory and His blessing of peace and prosperity that flows from Jerusalem. Happy Yom Yerushala’yim.