Jerusalem Day

In 70 CE, Jerusalem was destroyed. The Temple was burned. The people of Israel were expelled from the Holy City. In 135, Jews were forbidden to settle in Jerusalem.

As Moshe (Moses) once said to his people: "And the Lord shall scatter thee among all peoples, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth" (Deut. 28:64)

But every man from the people of Israel, entering into marriage, at the wedding ceremony pronounced an oath: "Let my right hand forget me if I forget Jerusalem"

Wedding each new year, the Jews raised a toast: "To the next year in Jerusalem"

Although from all sides they heard that they were cursed, cursed forever, and never to return.

Centuries passed, forming into millennia. New nations arose and passed into oblivion. Empires were created and destroyed.

But at every Jewish wedding: "If I forget Jerusalem..." And every New Year: "To the next year in Jerusalem"

In 1967, Israeli tanks entered Jerusalem. Almost two thousand years had passed...

The paratroopers who came out to the Temple Mount cried. And they sang a song that Naomi Shemer had written just a month before:

"My holy city, the city of light. My golden Jerusalem..."