Forty-Seven Years Ago A Great Miracle Happened There
Once you reach a certain age, and trust me, that age will come, you develop a heightened awareness of how things have changed in your lifetime. The time isn’t so far in front of you when you will catch yourself saying, “when I was a kid” or “back in the day.” Should you try to share the information, you may be met with an eager audience, or a blank stare.
Three things of note have changed in my lifetime. In 1972 I passed over the Berlin Wall from West Berlin to Communist East Berlin. It was an “Oz-like” experience in reverse. In the original film, Kansas is filmed in black and white and Oz in Technicolor. But in this case, I entered the checkpoint from Technicolor, modern, rebuilt West Berlin and exited into Soviet era black and white and gray. And now, The Berlin Wall is gone. Germany is unified. There is no Communism. And the era has passed to a footnote in history.
In 1967 Hong Kong belonged to Great Britain. Today, it belongs to China. In 1967 I visited Hong Kong, but as a US citizen, I couldn’t visit China. The US didn’t have diplomatic or trade relations with China. Today, Americans travel freely in China and the Communism of Chairman Mao is ancient history. All I could do back then was peer into Communist China from the Territory of Kowloon.
As a Jew, however, there is one significant event that stands out above all others. That would be the Reunification of Jerusalem during the Six Day War in June of 1967. On the second day of the war, Israeli forces gained control of the Western Wall of the Temple and the Temple Mount once again. It had been in Jordanian hands since 1948, and Jews had been unable to pray there. The single most recognizable image of the day is the iconic photograph of six Israeli paratroopers looking up, standing next to the massive stones of the Kotel.
In 1968, I had the opportunity to travel to Jerusalem. The Western Wall, the Kotel, had not yet been turned into a tourist plaza. Although the Old City didn’t look exactly “biblical” it certainly resembled a drawing from the Ottoman Period. Destruction and neglect were everywhere, yet there was quiet excitement in the air as we passed over the rubble of the wall that had separated East and West Jerusalem.
Although Yom Yerushalayim, which will be observed in Israel this Wednesday, May 28th, is not a religious holiday, it is certainly a day of religious and political significance to Jews all over the world. Jews have faced east to Jerusalem in prayer since time immemorial. We have yearned for a return to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is woven into our texts, our prayers, and repeatedly spoken of by our prophets and sages. “Next Year in Jerusalem” has always been the ending of our Passover Seder.
Throughout my thirty-year teaching career, I tell the story of Jerusalem as often as possible, to each class of students. My story always begins the same way. “When I was a little girl, I couldn’t visit Jerusalem or pray at the Western Wall.” I’m always met with an incredulous stare, as if I was talking about outer space. “But WHY?” Children always asked, “but why?” because they could not imagine the State of Israel without Jerusalem. In their minds, it had always been there and always would be. They have only known a world with Jerusalem as a holy, Jewish and accessible place.
We must safeguard Jerusalem, so that future generations will have access to her. We want to ensure that our children and our children’s children will never have to say, “When I was a kid, we used to be able to pray in Jerusalem, but no more.”
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Rose
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