Originally posted 5/30/08, 3:25 PM.
As Yom Yerushalayim approaches and amongst the storm of controversy that currently surrounds our most holy city, I have begun to wonder how much of my feelings and motivations in regard to Yerushalayim are affected by the lack of access to our holy sites by the Arabs prior to 1967. Of course, there is a desire for Jewish sovereignty over Jewish land and especially over this city -- but is that desire for sovereignty the essential deep motivation for not letting Yerushalayim out of our control. How much are we still affected by the pre-1967 barring of Jews from going to the Kotel? Is our reluctance to even discuss giving away any part of Yerushalayim solely motivated by our feelings of Jewish nationalism and our desire for Jewish sovereignty over our holy sites or does it also reflect our lack of trust in others to not bar us from our holy sites, ensure that we are not barred or even simply to treat our holy sites without respect.
I guess one could ask what difference does it make what the motivation is for a strong stand in regard to Yerushalayim. I am also not sure. It may reflect our attitude to the galut in general. Do we desire Eretz Yisrael because we need a haven from being subjected to the whims of others which is our status within the galut? Or is our desire for our own country with our own sovereignty so we can simply express ourselves? One difference that may arise from a contemplation of this issue may surface in how we act towards the sites of other religions in Yerushalayim. If we wish a unified Yerushalayim because we are concerned about how another will treat our sites, there is a greater call for us to treat the sites of others with respect. But if our desire is simply to express ourselves, we may find these other sites on our land a circumvention of our own spirit. Of course, there most likely will be no practical distinciton in this regard based upon motivation. There are many other reasons to maintain a certain position even simple political good will. Yet, at least on a theoretical level. it may be interesting to consider how much we are affected by our perception of what has transpired in the last 60 years.
Rabbi Ben Hecht
3 comments:
To my mind, Yom Yerushalayim is inextricably linked to kiruv inflating from a phenomenon of ones and twos to an entire movement. Ohr Samayach was founded three years later, and from it, R' Noach Weinberg left and built Aish haTorah. HaMivtar (Brovinder's) was launched in '74. Etc... The Y-m experience is a critical part of many people's journey back to observance. The admittedly short-lived religious euphoria "Har Habayit beyadeinu!" gave kiruv the critical mass to get going.
So, while Har haBayis isn't necessarily all that much in our hands, with pieces of Solomon's Temple being bulldozed out of existence, the religious awakening is still with us.
-micha
A most interesting idea. I wonder, though, what created this euphoria: the very fact that Yerushalayim was in Jewish hands or the fact that we had access to our holy sites, the Har HaBayit, once again? Or was it both? Perhaps the initial euphoria was fed by the fact that we were denied access for many years and now again had access -- but then the cry of Har Habayit b'yadeinu took over and the euphoria of the Bayit being in Jewish hands took over. There is not doubt that the kiruv movement was further fed by the fact that the kotel was transformed into a momentous site. And how much of kiruv was fed by this majesty of the kotel as it was enriched after Israeli sovereignty over it -- and I don't just mean the work of R. Meir Shuster.
Rabbi Ben Hecht
The Six Day War was a Chanakah-esque defeat of "the many in the few", lightning quickly. So far beyond the norms of warfare that only man's ability to choose to be blind could hide G-d's Hand in the victory. The feeling that one was living through event of biblical magnitude was inescapable.
Early one Friday afternoon I was climbing up the stairs that make up the last "street" of the Jewish Quarter before one turns to the real staircase down to the kotel. I was passed by flocks of preschoolers, tinoqos shel beis rabbim, running down the other way. School let out for the weekend.
"וּרְחֹבוֹת הָעִיר יִמָּלְאוּ, יְלָדִים וִילָדוֹת, מְשַׂחֲקִים, בִּרְחֹבֹתֶיהָ.
And the avenues of the city will be full; boys and girls playing in the avenues." - Zechariah 8:5
How can one not be moved?
Yes, part of it is the availability of the kotel as a spiritual center. But much is simply the sheer feeling of living a prophecy fulfilled.
-micha
PS: For this reason I can understand the Neturei Karta's position more readily than Agudah's. It's one thing to recognize that the event has import, but ascribe it negative import. But to sit in someone's apartment overlooking Har haBayis and think one is living under just yet another government... That I find unimaginable.
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