Fifty-seven years ago, three words were
broadcast that changed the destiny of the Jewish people:
Har HaBayit
BeYadeinu (“The Temple Mount is in our hands”).
Those words, uttered during the dramatic
liberation of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War, did more than describe a military
achievement. They announced a spiritual and national turning point, one that
reverberates to this day in the heart of every Jew around the world. Rabbi Paul
Bloom tells us all about this momentous event.
The
Date That Was Always Destined
This week, we celebrate Yom Yerushalayim, 28 Iyar—a
day whose significance was known to Chazal and noted in the writings of
Rishonim centuries before 1967. In fact, the Tur (Orach Chaim 580) mentions
this day as the yahrzeit of Shmuel HaNavi, the prophet who laid the spiritual
foundations for Jerusalem's destiny. In Megillat Ta’anit it is marked as a
significant day long before modern history added a new chapter.
Nothing is coincidental in Jewish history.
That the reunification of Jerusalem happened on the yahrzeit of the very
prophet who instructed David HaMelech about the future location of the Beit
HaMikdash is no mere historical curiosity—it is the unfolding of divine
orchestration. Shmuel taught David where the House of God was to be built, and
it was David who conquered Yerushalayim and set the stage for his son Shlomo to
build the Mikdash.
A
Dream Reawakened
For two thousand years, Jerusalem was a dream.
A hope. A prayer. Generations of Jews faced its direction, cried over its
ruins, and longed for its rebuilding. Even King David, as he wrote in Tehillim,
stood outside its gates dreaming of a day he would see it whole and vibrant.
Then came 1967
In what can only be described as a miraculous
turn of events, Israeli forces—led by commanders who never imagined they’d set
foot in the Old City—found themselves standing at the Kotel, the Western Wall,
having retaken the heart of Yerushalayim. The spiritual and emotional power of
that moment cannot be overstated. In the words of the Gemara in Niddah:
"Ein ba’al hanes makir b’niso"
– *One in the midst of a miracle often doesn’t recognize it.*
Many didn’t realize it then, and still don’t
today. But the truth is, we were—and are—witnesses to a miracle of national
rebirth. Yerushalayim was not just a city reclaimed—it was the Jewish soul
reawakened.
A
New Jewish Identity
Before 1967, many Jews in the Diaspora
experienced their Jewish identity as something to hide or survive. But after
the Six-Day War, something shifted. Jewish pride surged. Even Jews who had been
distant from Torah and mitzvot felt a stirring. The return to Yerushalayim
became a symbol of resilience, of purpose, of connection.
Natan Sharansky recalls that for Soviet Jews,
their Jewishness had always meant persecution. Suddenly, after Yerushalayim was
reunited, it meant pride. Hope. Belonging.
This national pride ignited the Ba’al Teshuva
movement, brought waves of Aliyah, and inspired even secular Jews to reconnect
with their heritage. Jews in Rio, in Melbourne, in Johannesburg and Paris began
to walk with a different posture—because Yerushalayim was ours again. It gave
us all a center of gravity.
A
City of Connection
Yerushalayim is not just a capital city. It is
the ultimate makom hachibur—a place of connection. Between heaven and earth.
Between Jew and Jew. Between past and future. It is the place where Avraham
Avinu bound Yitzchak, where he named the location "Hashem Yir’eh"—the
first half of the word Yerushalayim. Later, Malki-Tzedek, called it
"Shalem." The Midrash teaches that Yerushalayim is the union of those
two names: Yir’eh and Shalem. Fear and wholeness. Vision and peace.
In this city, the Torah of Hashem and the
faith of Avraham combine. It is here that the nations will one day say:
"Ki
mitziyon teitzei Torah, u’dvar Hashem miYerushalayim"
“From Zion shall
come forth Torah, and the word of God from Jerusalem.”* (Yeshayahu 2:3)
Yerushalayim is the city where all of Israel
would gather three times a year, where tribes with different customs and
perspectives united in a common purpose. This is the power of Yerushalayim shel
matah—to give us a taste of Yerushalayim shel ma’alah.
A
War That Shouldn’t Have Happened
And yet, this miracle only unfolded because of
another inexplicable decision: King Hussein of Jordan, who could have remained
neutral, instead chose to enter a war already lost. Deceived by Nasser’s
propaganda, he attacked—and thus opened the path for the IDF to liberate East
Jerusalem, Yehudah, and Chevron.
Had he chosen differently, Yerushalayim might
still be divided. The Kotel might still be behind barbed wire. The Har HaBayit
might still be inaccessible.
But Hashem had other plans.
A
Day to Remember
This Monday, on 28 Iyar, we mark Yom
Yerushalayim. It is not just a day of military triumph. It is a day of divine
intervention, of national rebirth, of spiritual awakening.
We remember the miraculous victories, the
planes that flew untouched through skies thick with Soviet-made missiles. We
remember the fear of impending annihilation, just 22 years after the
Holocaust—and the utter, divine reversal of expectations.
And we remember the yahrzeit of Shmuel HaNavi,
who envisioned it all and gave David HaMelech the tools to begin this eternal
journey.
And just
as we saw great miracles during the Six Day War and the reclaiming of all of Jerusalem, we see great miracles in our
current battle with evil. We hope
and pray that our current battle will lead to something even greater
than what happened in 1967.
Yerushalayim Is Our Future
Let us never take Yerushalayim for granted.
Let us not be blind to the "nissim" unfolding in our time. Let us
recognize the spiritual power of this city, the dream of generations realized
in our own days.
Yerushalayim is not just history—it is destiny.
And it is calling to us still.
