Jerusalem in Judaism

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Jerusalem
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Main article: Religious significance of Jerusalem

Jerusalem has been the holiest city in Judaism and the spiritual homeland of the Jewish people since the 10th century BCE.[1] Jerusalem has long been embedded into Jewish religious consciousness. Jews have always studied and personalized the struggle by King David to capture Jerusalem and his desire to build the Jewish temple there, as described in the Book of Samuel and the Book of Psalms. Many of King David's yearnings about Jerusalem have been adapted into popular prayers and songs.

Contents

[edit] Jerusalem in the Tanakh

Jerusalem appears in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) 669 times and Zion (which usually means Jerusalem, sometimes the Land of Israel) appears 154 times. The first section, the Torah, only mentions Moriah, the mountain range believed to be the location of the binding of Isaac and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and in later parts of the Tanakh the city is written explicitly. The text sacred to Judaism. In Judaism it is considered the Written Law, the basis for the Oral Law (Mishnah, Talmud and Shulkhan Arukh) studied, practiced and treasured by Jews and Judaism for three millennia (list of Jewish prayers and blessings). The Talmud elaborates in great depth the Jewish connection with the city.

For example, the book of Psalms, which has been frequently recited and memorized by Jews for centuries, says:

  • "By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion." (Psalms 137:1)
  • "For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning . If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof; O daughter of Babylon, that art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that repayeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." (Psalms 137:3-9) (King James Version, with italics for words not in the original Hebrew)
  • "O God, the nations have entered into your inheritance, they have defiled the sanctuary of your holiness, they have turned Jerusalem into heaps of rubble...they have shed their blood like water round Jerusalem..." (Psalms 79:1-3);
  • "...O Jerusalem, the built up Jerusalem is like a city that is united together...Pray for the peace of Jerusalem..." (Psalms 122:2-6);
  • "Jerusalem is surrounded by mountains as God surrounds his people forever" (Psalms 125:3);
  • "The builder of Jerusalem is God, the outcast of Israel he will gather in...Praise God O Jerusalem, laud your God O Zion." (Psalms 147:2-12)

[edit] Jerusalem and the Jewish religious calendar

Jews worship at the Western Wall, Jerusalem
Jews worship at the Western Wall, Jerusalem

Two major Jewish festivals observed by most Jews conclude with the words: "Next Year in Jerusalem" ("l'shanah haba'ah birushalayim") or "Next Year in the Rebuilt Jerusalem" ("l'shanah haba'ah birushalayim hab'nuyah"):

  • At the conclusion of the Passover Seder on each night, participants break out into joyous, repetitious singing of "Next Year in Jerusalem".
  • The holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, also concludes the synagogue service with the Affirmation of Faith, a final great blast of the Shofar and exclamation and singing of "Next Year in [Rebuilt] Jerusalem".

Each of these days has an associated holy text, the Hagada for Pesach (Passover) and the Machzor for Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), which stresses the desire to return to Jerusalem.

In Temple times, the three major festivals in Judaism, Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot – the Shalosh Regalim, (the "three foot" festivals), were observed by all Jews making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, as commanded by the Torah. In Jerusalem they would participate in festivities and ritual worship. After the destruction of the temple, the synagogue service was formulated as a substitute.

The Counting of the Omer is a verbal counting of each of the 49 days between the Jewish holidays of Passover and Shavuot. This mitzvah derives from the Torah commandment to count 49 days beginning from the day on which the Omer, a measure of barley, was offered in the Temple in Jerusalem, up until the day before an offering of wheat was brought to the Temple on Shavuot.

The Temple in Jerusalem also played the main role during the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services.

The eight day festival of Hanukkah celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem after its desecration under Antiochus IV.

The Torah commands that once every seven years, Jews from all over the world, men, women and children, are to be assembled in the Temple courtyard in to hear select portions of the Torah read by the king. This is called Hakhel.

Today, with over a quarter million Jews practicing Orthodox Judaism living in Jerusalem, the Jewish festivals come to life in the Old and New Cities. The Western Wall, as well as synagogues throughout the city, host tens of thousands of fervent worshippers and celebrants.

The destruction of the Second Temple is mourned by Jews for almost 2,000 years.
The destruction of the Second Temple is mourned by Jews for almost 2,000 years.

The saddest day on the Jewish religious calendar is the Ninth of Av, when Jews traditionally spend the day mourning over the loss of their two Holy Temples and the destruction of Jerusalem. In accordance with Jewish mourning custom, hundreds of people come to the Western Wall, site of the former Temples, throughout the night and day of this 24-hour fast to sit on the ground and cry over the destruction.

Besides the Ninth of Av, two minor, dawn to dusk fast days also commemorate aspects of the destruction of Jerusalem. On the Tenth of Tevet, Jews mourn the time when Babylonia laid siege to the First Temple. On the Seventeenth of Tammuz, the mourning recalls the day that the army of Rome broke through the outer walls of the Second Temple.

The words used when Jews console any mourner during the customary Seven Days of Mourning are:

"May God comfort you among all the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem"

[edit] Jerusalem and prayer

Opposite the Western Wall in Jerusalem, at the Western Wall Plaza, stands the large Aish HaTorah yeshiva building used for Torah study and prayers.
Opposite the Western Wall in Jerusalem, at the Western Wall Plaza, stands the large Aish HaTorah yeshiva building used for Torah study and prayers.

The daily prayers, recited by religious Jews three times a day over the last two thousand years, mention Jerusalem and its functions multiple times. Some examples from the siddur and the amidah are:

(Addressing God): "And to Jerusalem, your city, may you return in compassion, and may you rest within it, as you have spoke. May you rebuild it soon in our days as an eternal structure, and may you speedily establish the throne of (King) David within it. Blessed are you God, the builder of Jerusalem...May our eyes behold Your return to Zion in compassion. Blessed are you God, who restores his presence to Zion."

Additionally when partaking of a daily meal with bread, the following is part of the required "Grace After Meals" which must be recited:

"Have mercy Lord our God, on Israel your people, on Jerusalem your city, on Zion the resting place of your glory, on the monarchy of (King David) your anointed, and on the great and holy (Temple) house upon which your name is called...Rebuild Jerusalem, the holy city, soon in our days. Blessed are you God who rebuilds Jerusalem in his mercy, amen."

After partaking of a light meal, the thanksgiving blessing states:

"...Have mercy, Lord, our God, on Israel, your people; on Jerusalem, your city; and on Zion, the resting place of your glory; upon your altar, and upon your temple. Rebuild Jerusalem, the city of holiness, speedily in our days. Bring us up into it and gladden us in its rebuilding and let us eat from its fruit and be satisfied with its goodness and bless you upon it in holiness and purity. For you, God, are good and do good to all and we thank you for the land and for the nourishment..."

A model of the Second Jewish Temple
A model of the Second Jewish Temple

When the Jews were exiled, first by the Babylonian Empire about 2,500 years ago and then by the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago, the great rabbis and scholars of the mishnah and Talmud instituted the policy that each synagogue should replicate the original Jewish temple. Moreover, it should be constructed in such a way that all prayers in the siddur (prayer book) would be recited while facing Jerusalem, as that was where the ancient temple stood and that location was the only permissible place for the sacrificial offerings.

Thus synagogues in Europe face south, synagogues in North America face east, synagogues in countries to the south of Israel, such as Yemen or South Africa, face north, and synagogues in countries to the east of Israel, such as India or Thailand, face west. Even when a Jew prays privately, he faces Jerusalem, as mandated by Jewish law compiled by the rabbis in the Shulchan Aruch. In Jerusalem itself, he should face the direction of the Western Wall in the Old City, and when he is standing at the Western Wall, he turns slightly to the left to face the location of the Holy of Holies (which is currently covered by the Dome of the Rock. (Compare qibla, liturgical east.)

[edit] Customs in remembrance of Jerusalem

In some circles, a tiny amount of ash is touched to the forehead of a Jewish groom before he goes to stand beneath the bridal canopy. This symbolically reminds him not to allow his own rejoicing to be "greater" than the ongoing need to recall Jerusalem's destruction. The well-known custom of the groom breaking a glass with the heel of his shoe after the wedding ceremony is also related to the subject of mourning for Jerusalem. The groom recites the sentence from Psalms, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning." (Psalms 137:5). The translation given is from the KJV, the italicized words are not present in the Hebrew. All traditional Jewish commentators, however, agree with this translation; it was common in Biblical Hebrew to not explicitly express any possible negative consequence.

Another ancient custom is to leave a patch of interior wall opposite the door to one's home unpainted, as a remembrance of the destruction (zecher lechurban), of the Temples and city of Jerusalem.

[edit] Western Wall in Jerusalem

The Western Wall (kotel hama'aravi), in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem, is the holiest site in modern Judaism. This is because it is the closest point to the original site of the Holy of Holies which is currently accessible to Jews. Until 1967, it was generally considered to be the only surviving remnant of the Second Temple from the era of the Roman conquests; there are said to be esoteric texts in Midrash that mention God's promise to keep this one remnant of the outer temple wall standing as a memorial and reminder of the past. Hence also the name "Wailing Wall", used by non-Jews due to the fact that many Jews would traditionally cry when they came before it.

However, the capture of Eastern Jerusalem in the Six-Day War revealed that the retaining wall of the Temple Mount in fact survived in all places.

Prayer at the Western Wall
Prayer at the Western Wall

[edit] Rabbis and Jerusalem

The Talmud records that the rabbinical leader Yohanan ben Zakkai (c. 70 C.E.) urged a peaceful surrender, in order to save Jerusalem from destruction, but was not heeded as the city was under the control of the Zealots. An early expression of the Jewish desire to "return to Zion" is the journey of Yehuda Halevi, who died in about 1140. Jewish legend relates that as he came near Jerusalem, overpowered by the sight of the Holy City, he sang his most beautiful elegy, the celebrated "Zionide" Tzion ha-lo Tish'ali and that at that instant he was ridden down and killed by an Arab.

He was followed by Nahmanides, the Ramban, who, in 1267 emigrated to the land of Israel, and came for a short stay to live in Jerusalem. He wrote that he found barely ten Jews, as it had been desolated by the Crusades, nevertheless, together they built a synagogue that is the oldest that still stands to this day, known as the Ramban Synagogue.

Both Elijah ben Solomon (d. 1797) known as the Vilna Gaon, and Israel ben Eliezer (d. 1760) known as the Ba'al Shem Tov instructed and sent small successive waves of their disciples to settle in Jerusalem then under Turkish Ottoman rule. They created a Jewish religious infrastructure that remains the core of the Haredi Jewish community in Jerusalem to this day.

[edit] Creation of the State of Israel

The British Mandate of Palestine authorities created the new offices of "Chief Rabbi" in 1921 for both Ashkenazi Jews and Sephardic Jews with central offices in Jerusalem. Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (d. 1935) moved to Jerusalem to set up this office, associated with the "Religious Zionist" Mafdal group, becoming the first modern Chief Rabbi together with Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yaakov Meir. The official structure housing the Chief Rabbinate was completed in 1958 and is known as Heichal Shlomo.

In contrast, the Haredi Jews of Jerusalem formed the anti-Zionist Edah HaChareidis, an umbrella organization for all Haredi Jews, who were not Zionists and fiercely opposed the activities of the (Religious) Zionist movement. The first Chief Rabbi of the Edah HaChareidis was Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld. The Edah has both Ashkenazi and Sefardi branches, though the Ashkenazi branch is the more famous one. Several groups formerly aligned with the Edah gradually broke away from it; these include the Hasidic movements Belz and Ger.

Jerusalem is also home to a number of the world's largest yeshivos (Talmudical and Rabbinical schools), and has become the undisputed capital of Jewish scholarly, religious and spiritual life for most of world Jewry. Examples of major yeshivos in Jerusalem are the Mir yeshiva and the Brisk yeshiva.

Major Hasidic dynasties headquartered in Jerusalem include Toldos Aharon, Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok, Dushinsky, Ger, Belz, Breslov, Karlin-Stolin, and Rachmastrivka. Most of these groups have a membership ranging from circa one thousand to tens of thousands. There are also several smaller groups, not mentioned here.

Reconstruction of the Temple of Solomon according with the Biblical description

A coin issued by the rebels in the year 68. Obverse: "Shekel Israel, year 3". Reverse: "Jerusalem the Holy"

The Old City in the early 1900s. The two domes in the Jewish Quarter, (lower part of the photo), are of the Hurba and Tiferes Yisrael synagogues.

Interior of the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem

[edit] References

  1. ^ Since the 10th century BCE:
    • "Israel was first forged into a unified nation from Jerusalem some three thousand years ago, when King David seized the crown and united the twelve tribes from this city... For a thousand years Jerusalem was the seat of Jewish sovereignty, the household site of kings, the location of its legislative councils and courts. In exile, the Jewish nation came to be identified with the city that had been the site of its ancient capital. Jews, wherever they were, prayed for its restoration." Roger Friedland, Richard D. Hecht. To Rule Jerusalem, University of California Press, 2000, p. 8. ISBN 0520220927
    • "The Jewish bond to Jerusalem was never broken. For three millennia, Jerusalem has been the center of the Jewish faith, retaining its symbolic value throughout the generations." Jerusalem- the Holy City, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, February 23, 2003. Accessed March 24, 2007.
    • "The centrality of Jerusalem to Judaism is so strong that even secular Jews express their devotion and attachment to the city and cannot conceive of a modern State of Israel without it... For Jews Jerusalem is sacred simply because it exists... Though Jerusalem's sacred character goes back three millennia...". Leslie J. Hoppe. The Holy City:Jerusalem in the theology of the Old Testament, Liturgical Press, 2000, p. 6. ISBN 0814650813
    • "Ever since King David made Jerusalem the capital of Israel 3,000 years ago, the city has played a central role in Jewish existence." Mitchell Geoffrey Bard, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Middle East Conflict, Alpha Books, 2002, p. 330. ISBN 0028644107
    • "For Jews the city has been the pre-eminent focus of their spiritual, cultural, and national life throughout three millennia." Yossi Feintuch, U.S. Policy on Jerusalem, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1987, p. 1. ISBN 0313257000
    • "Jerusalem became the center of the Jewish people some 3,000 years ago" Moshe Maʻoz, Sari Nusseibeh, Jerusalem: Points of Friction - And Beyond, Brill Academic Publishers, 2000, p. 1. ISBN 9041188436
    • "The Jewish people are inextricably bound to the city of Jerusalem. No other city has played such a dominant role in the history, politics, culture, religion, national life and consciousness of a people as has Jerusalem in the life of Jewry and Judaism. Since King David established the city as the capital of the Jewish state circa 1000 BCE, it has served as the symbol and most profound expression of the Jewish people's identity as a nation." Basic Facts you should know: Jerusalem, Anti-Defamation League, 2007. Accessed March 28, 2007.
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