Jerusalem Day: 50 years ago Jerusalem returned to the Jewish People…

During the Six Day War in 1967, Israeli troops captured the eastern part of the divided city of Jerusalem and repatriated the Holy City and the Temple mount to Jewish sovereignty.

Fifty years ago we liberated the city from the Jordanians… but this was a liberation we had waited for, for almost 2000 years.

Over 3,000 years ago, King David bought the land from the Jebusites which would be the site of the Holy Temple which his son Solomon would build.

From that point forward, Jerusalem would become the capital city of Israel and the center of our spiritual life. This was the place we would come three times a year to reconnect with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

A succession of conquering empires took control of the city, beginning with the Babylonians, then the Persians, followed by the Greeks and then the Romans.

The Jewish revolt against Roman spiritual oppression began “The Jewish War.” The Romans eventually won the war, which climaxed in the destruction of the second temple in the year 70 CE. That was the beginning of the current 2000-year Roman exile of the Jewish people from their land.

After emptying the city of Jews and razing it to the ground, the Romans built a colony on the ruins and named it Aelia Capitolina so that the Jewish connection to Jerusalem would be forgotten.

A while ago I visited the Old City of Jerusalem and my friend Seth Clyman who works at the Aish HaTorah World Center. From the roof of the building you have a commanding view of the Western Wall and the Temple Mount.

Recently there have been excavations done at the western edge of the Western Wall plaza that cannot be seen from ground level. However from the roof of the Aish building, you can see the main street (the primary Cardo) of the Roman city (there is a secondary excavated Cardo to the west that has been reconstructed and that you can visit and actually shop in local stores)

Click on the picture to the right and you’ll see how the Romans laid the paving stones on an angle on the main street so that their chariot wheels would not get stuck in the cracks between the stones!

It was a great day of reconnecting and I was struck by the contrast of the Roman heroic efforts to destroy the Jewish People’s connection to their Holy City and their Land… and the miraculous return of our people to Jerusalem and the Land of Israel after almost 2000 years.

When we celebrate “Jerusalem Day” we should appreciate that it is another step in a long relentless trek toward our ultimate redemption and the rebuilding of the Temple.