{"id":17240,"date":"2024-06-23T12:57:34","date_gmt":"2024-06-23T09:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/?p=17240"},"modified":"2024-06-23T12:57:34","modified_gmt":"2024-06-23T09:57:34","slug":"jerusalem-is-the-jewish-spiritual-national-hotspot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/jerusalem-is-the-jewish-spiritual-national-hotspot\/","title":{"rendered":"Jerusalem is the Jewish spiritual, national hotspot"},"content":{"rendered":"

In that spirit, when we sing \u201cJerusalem of Gold,\u201d some thank God, some praise the IDF, others get Zionist goosebumps, but all rally around Jerusalem.<\/h3>\n

Tomorrow is Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day. Unfortunately, in pre-October 7 Israel, this newest Jewish holiday exacerbated one of our oldest divisions. Zealots, so blinded by national pride that they disrespected others, kept clashing with cosmopolitans so blinded by universalism that they couldn\u2019t recognize their enemies. Today, with so many precious soldiers fighting for unity, no one, left or right, should dare desecrate this holiday. With much of the \u201ccivilized world\u201d questioning our rights to our homeland \u2013 and our forever-capital \u2013 let\u2019s revive Jerusalem Day\u2019s original spirit. Celebrate the Jewish people\u2019s unity \u2013 recalling Jerusalem\u2019s reunification during the June 1967 Six Day War. Reaffirm the Jews\u2019 deep roots in our homeland. And honor the too many who sacrificed so much to fight for Jerusalem, make it to Jerusalem, and rebuild Jerusalem, Israel, and the Jewish people.<\/p>\n

Making Jerusalem Day \u201cPolarization Day\u201d would be like making Christmas \u201cGrinchfest.\u201d We should appreciate the transcendent power of that moment when Motta Gur, the paratrooper commander \u2013 leading reservists! \u2013 proclaimed, \u201cThe Temple Mount is in our hands.\u201d Jews Left to Right, religious and non-religious, rejoiced \u2013 with much of the then-more-civilized world.<\/p>\n

In 1968, leading Reform theologian Rabbi Eugene Borowitz recalled \u201cthat when Old Jerusalem was captured and was somehow, to use that marvelous word, \u2018ours,\u2019 it hit us with an impact which we couldn\u2019t imagine\u2026 suddenly we realized the depths of roots we had in a very specific place.\u201d The small, loud group of \u201cliberal\u201d rabbis now rejecting our particular rootedness, meaning Zionism, clearly don\u2019t understand Judaism.<\/p>\n

Recalling American Jews\u2019 pre-1967 somnolence, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel quipped that by so taking the Tel Aviv Hilton for granted, we forgot Tel Hai, where the one-armed warrior Josef Trumpeldor lived the Zionist value that, if necessary, it\u2019s good to die for your country. Heschel challenged American Jews to find greater meaning and Jewish identification through Israel, appreciating Zionism as \u201can ongoing spiritual revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that spirit, when we sing \u201cJerusalem of Gold,\u201d some thank God, some praise the IDF, others get Zionist goosebumps, but all rally around Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

This is not some passing infatuation. Jews\u2019 love for Jerusalem began in 1,000 BCE. Everyone, skeptics and believers alike, should visit Ir David, The City of David, glittering with archaeological gems. There you witness the Jews\u2019 millennial-strong ties to this land, mocking the \u201csettler-colonialist\u201d libel.<\/p>\n

Walk Pilgrimage Road, the path Jews \u2013 including a charismatic rabbi named Jesus \u2013 followed to the Temple, especially during the Three Walking\/Pilgrimage holidays of Sukkot, Passover, and Shavuot; the latter begins next Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n

I RECENTLY toured Ir David with an educator friend who has seen every major tourist site in Israel, repeatedly. Encountering charred embers, probably from Jerusalem\u2019s destruction in 70 CE, so jazzed him, that he Facetimed his daughter to share the moment. When my kids toured there, you could feel the profound biblical education that Israel\u2019s Religious Zionist world provides and the geographic sense that military service instills as they relived biblical verses, battles, and moments. They learned them in school \u2013 and felt them in Ir David, where it happened.<\/p>\n

Mastering our story and rejecting our \u201cburn baby burn\u201d enemies honors our many heroes who sacrificed for Jerusalem \u2013 then and right now. We\u2019re about \u201clearn people learn!\u201d<\/p>\n

Before hitting the City of David excavations and the Western Wall, visit the newly renovated, mind-blowing, soul-stretching Tower of David Jerusalem Museum. Every inch of that citadel breathes old-new, that classically Jerusalem and Zionist dance integrating yesterday with today, while dreaming about better tomorrows.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t have the few hours this reborn museum, archaeological gold mine, and national treasure deserves, just visit the first gallery. Honoring Yehuda Amichai\u2019s poem, \u201cOn the shores of eternity,\u201d traces Jerusalem\u2019s 4,000-year history, creatively and substantively. This fun, technologically sophisticated exhibit divides Jerusalem\u2019s epic story into 12 easily digestible and inspiring parts. Each section pivots around a key artifact, including a 2,600-year-old ancient Hebrew seal \u2013 in case you doubted that Jews put the \u201cin\u201d in indigenous and returned to our land. Throughout, interactive animation links Jerusalem\u2019s turning points with world events. The exhibits ends with a letter that Israel\u2019s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, wrote in June 1948 about breaking the siege of Jerusalem \u2013 because we can never forsake it.<\/p>\n

During the $50 million renovation, spearheaded by the Clore Israel Foundation, beneath this exhibit\u2019s massive Crusader Hall, they uncovered Hasmonean \u2013 Maccabean \u2013 fortifications from 2,300 years ago, now viewed through a glass floor. Solidarity missions, which should devote more time, can also arrange half-hour pre-Kotel (Western Wall) tours just to taste our past in David\u2019s Citadel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span>
Jerusalem<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Apparently, some solidarity missions to Israel are skipping Jerusalem. This Jerusalem Day, may we all vow not to forsake thee, old-new Jerusalem, especially during wartime. We need visits to Jerusalem now, more than ever, renewing our bonds while revitalizing our Zionist narrative.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve learned it all \u201cdepends on the context.\u201d Imagine Israel trips highlighting Masada, marking Roman brutality; Yad Vashem, commemorating Nazi mass murder; and the Nova concert site, exposing Hamas\u2019s evil. By the time you visit the Kotel, it becomes the Wailing Wall, another Jewish trauma zone.<\/p>\n

Instead, see Jerusalem\u2019s glorious history in David\u2019s Tower. Feel the City of David\u2019s archaeological layers. Then, the Kotel will symbolize Jerusalem\u2019s everlasting appeal and Israel\u2019s rebirth, not just two destroyed Temples.<\/p>\n

You will then live Amichai\u2019s poem, experiencing Jerusalem as \u201ca port city on the shore of eternity.\u201d Wandering between these sites, you will see \u201cthe commerce and the gates and the golden domes.\u201d And you\u2019ll remember how Jerusalem functions as the Jews\u2019 hotspot, accessing our best national and spiritual selves.<\/p>\n

Published by Jerusalem Post<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In that spirit, when we sing \u201cJerusalem of Gold,\u201d some thank God, some praise the IDF, others get Zionist goosebumps, but all rally around Jerusalem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","topics-identity","library-op-ed","library-publications"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17243,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17240\/revisions\/17243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}