by Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5TJT.com 53 years ago, something remarkable happened. It happened for the very first time in nearly two millennium. What was it? The Kosel and Har Habayis came back under Jewish control. Yerushalayim. 1967 was very special. The people of Eretz Yisroel defended her against attackers that wished to annihilate her at every border. It is special not because we captured the eastern half of yerushalayim. But because Hashem gave her back to use and freed her. It is a very essential difference. That reunification was the culmination of the tefilos of our bubbies and zeidies for two thousand years – something that our ancestors could only dream of. For the previous 19 years before 1867, we American Jews could only access the Kosel as Americans, flying to Amman, Jordan, on an American passport. After 1967, we could visit the Kosel once again through Eretz Yisroel. And the Jews of Eretz Yisroel could not visit at all. Yerushalayim was once as remote as the stars in the sky to the victims of the Crusades. To the victims of Rindfleish massacres, and to the victims of the Chmelnieki Massacres of tach vetat. Indeed, even to the victims of the pogroms of Europe and to the victims of Auschwitz and Treblinka, she was unimaginable. But now, we have her and we must feel that sense of hakaras hatov to Hashem yisarach that seems, of late, to be a bit lacking. We must continuously fulfill the words of the navi Yishayahu (62:1), “Lemaan tzion lo echesheh, ulemaan yerushalayim lo eshkot!” MASHIV HARUACH Rav Mordechai Gifter zt”l used to say that we must all focus on the fact that when Chazal enacted the addition of, “Mashiv haruach omorid hagashem” they did it to correlate with the weather of Eretz Yisroel instead of the individual patterns in all of the far flung places in which Klal Yisroel ended up. They did so in order that we would always remember her. Imagine a farmer in a far off land. He needs rain. He adds it in his prayers, but not for the location where he is located. The prayer for rain is for the needs of Eretz Yisroel! Why? So that Eretz Yisroel and Yerushalayim will never be forgotten. DOVID HAMELECH Dovid HaMelech said it best in Tehillim (137:5-6): “If I forget you, O Yerushalayim, let me forget my right hand. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you. If I do not set Yerushalayim at my highest aspirations of joy.” In these words, Dovid HaMelech is pointing out the two tell-tale signs of a stroke. He is essentially saying that he should have a stroke if he does not remember Yerushalayim. The world should dare not tell us to forget Yerushalayim in light of these words of King David. The Bible tells us that G-d has said, “Yerushalayim is the city where I have chosen to place My Name (Kings I 11:36).” Indeed, Yerushalayim is mentioned throughout TaNaCh some 650 times and not once, l’havdil in the Koran. SYNONYMOUS WITH THE JEWISH PEOPLE Indeed, Yerushalayim is actually synonymous with Klal Yisroel. The holy Navi Yishayahu says, “Be comforted, be comforted, My people – Nachamu Nachamu Ami (Yishayayhu 40:1-2) , speak unto the heart
