Jerusalem Day

28th of Iyar is also "Jerusalem Day" (acknowledged this year on May 12, 2010) as Jerusalem was liberated on this day in 1967.

From Song of Songs The voice of my Beloved! Behold it came suddenly to redeem me, as if leaping over mountains, skipping over hills. In His swiftness to redeem me, my Beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart. I thought I would be forever alone. But behold! He stands behind our wall, observing through the windows, peering through the lattices.

The Temple Mount is also called Mount Moriah. This is the spot where Abraham bound Isaac, and where Jacob dreamt of the ladder reaching to heaven. The Sages explain that the name "Moriah" is actually a play on words: "Moriah is the place from which instruction (horah) goes forth, from which the fears of heaven (yirah) goes forth; from which light (orah) goes forth."

The Holy Temple served the non-Jewish world as well. When King Solomon built the Temple, he specifically asked God to heed the prayer of the non-Jew who comes to the Temple Kings I 8:41-43. The Jewish prophet refers to the Temple as a "House for all nations" Isaiah 56:7. The Temple was the universal center of spirituality, a concentrated point where God-consciousness filtered down into the world.

In ancient times, the service in the Holy Temple during the week of Sukkot featured a total of 70 bull offerings. This, the Talmud explains, corresponds to each of the 70 nations of the world. In fact, the Talmud says that if the Romans (who destroyed the Temple) would have realized how much benefit they themselves were benefiting from the Temple, they never would have destroyed it!

More than just a symbol, as well as a mere national landmark, the Western Wall has a sacred tradition dating back to the beginnings of recorded history.

The Kotel (wall) serves as a permanent reminder of Hashem's presence.

The Wall is therefore a symbol of the Jewish People: Just as there have been many efforts to destroy the Wall - and yet it remains eternal, so too the Jewish People have outlived its enemies and remain eternal!

In the Torah, G-d assures us that the Jewish People will never be destroyed. In establishing the eternal covenant, God tells Abraham: "And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations, an eternal covenant, to be your God and the God of the descendants after you" Genesis 17:7.

Three times a day, for thousands of years, Jewish prayers from around the world have been directed toward the Western Wall. As Rabbi Judah HaLevy so poignantly said: "I am in the west, but my heart is in the east (Jerusalem)."

When the First and Second Temples were destroyed, and during the Bar Kochba revolt, Israel's heroes fought like lions for every stone of the Temple. They have served as the example of bravery for Jews ever since.

Like them, our soldiers in 1967 fought in holy trepidation to liberate the Western Wall and the Temple Mount.