Chag Samach ! HAPPY YOM YERUSHALYIM!

JMM-uc ↓

Sun, May 17 2015, 7:17 am

48 years!! Wow

Sanguine ↓

Sun, May 17 2015, 7:51 am

Quote:

Plenty to Celebrate on JerusalemDay

Jerusalem Day celebrates the liberation of the eternal Jewish capital after two millennia under occupation - but there's much more to it.

IDF soldiers liberate the Kotel in 1967 Six Day War

Confusion again reigns today in many Jewish circles, particularly in Israel: Some of us joyfully celebrate a festive holiday, while others watch from the side, not sure what to make of it. Some recite the usual Tachanun penitential prayer and bemusedly ask, "What, another religious-Zionist holiday?" as their neighbors recite the joyous Hallel prayer instead.

A quick review of the miraculously historic events of this month 48 years ago may help clear up some of the confusion. A brief synopsis: As on Purim, Passover, and other holidays, our enemies set out to destroy us – literally – and G-d came to the rescue at the last moment.

And now, in detail:

The Jerusalem Municipality's readying of thousands of body bags sufficiently indicates the national mood in May 1967. Several Arab nations, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, were threatening loudly and repeatedly to wipe Israel off the map. On May 18, 1967, for instance, Cairo Radio announced, “The Zionist barrack in Palestine is about to collapse and be destroyed. Every one of the 100 million Arabs has been living for the past 19 years on one hope – to live to see the day Israel is liquidated… The sole method we shall apply against Israel is a total war which will result in the extermination of Zionist existence.”

Egypt had just begun moving its massive forces towards the Sinai Peninsula, closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, and ordered the UN peacekeeping forces to leave. Israel had no choice but to take its own self-defense initiative – and, in a three-hour surprise attack, shortly before 8 AM, succeeded in wiping out practically the entire Egyptian Air Force on the ground. Thus began the Six Day War.

As noted by Israeli historian Dr. Hagai Ben-Artzi, the fact that Israel's planes reached the many Egyptian airfields without being detected – only one (!) plane was shot down, and that was two full hours after the surprise began - could not have happened had not the following "coincidences" conjoined:

Top Egyptian and Iraqi commanders took part in an aerial survey over the Sinai that very morning (unbeknownst to Israel). For the sake of security, the Egyptian War Minister instructed all of his anti-aircraft units not to fire under any circumstances between the hours of 7:00 and 8:00 AM – the precise hour of the Israeli attack. (All the participants in the aerial tour were later put on military trial and demoted; some were imprisoned.)
For several days prior, the Egyptians dispatched four Mig-21's to patrol the Sinai skies, at half-hour intervals, from 4:30 AM until 8:30 AM. Their purpose was to detect in advance a feared Israeli attack. On that Monday morning, the Egyptian flights took place as usual – except for the 7:30 patrol! It turned out that the deputy commander of the missing formation "had been delayed at home for personal reasons…" – namely, a morale-raising party, with belly-dancers, food, and drink in abundance, held for the Egyptian pilots the night before. When he finally arrived, he found that he no longer had reason to show up…
Though the Egyptians did not detect the oncoming Israeli planes, the Jordanian army did – but when they tried to message their Egyptian colleagues, a mess-up in the code-words prevented the critical communication from getting through.
Only later, of course, did these miracles become known. The Six Day War continued in the meanwhile on two fronts, against Egypt and Syria. Israel asked Jordan - which then controlled Judea, Samaria, and most of the areas around Jerusalem, including the Old City - to stay out of the war. "We won't attack you if you don't attack us," came the message to Jordan.

Had this plea been heeded, and had events proceeded "naturally," Jerusalem would still be divided today, with no Jewish access to any of its holy sites. Similarly, Ramat Eshkol, Pisgat Ze'ev, Maaleh Adumim, Beit El, Elon Moreh, and many other dynamic Jewish communities that now thrive with Jews from all over the world – would not now exist…

The plea was not heeded, however. Instead, Jordan responded with a barrage against the Jews of Jerusalem – and the IDF took on a third front. The two critical developments that then followed were these:

1. Heroic battles in which the IDF captured important sites around Jerusalem (such as what became known as Ammunition Hill).

2. A courageous and historic decision by the Israeli Government not to suffice with encircling the Holy City and neutralizing the military threat, but rather to burst through and capture the entire city.

At 10:00 AM on Wednesday morning, the third day of the war – the 28th of Iyar – the Israeli forces broke through the walls of the Old City, via both Dung Gate in the southeast part of the city, near the Jewish Quarter, and Lions Gate in the northeast, capturing the Moslem Quarter and the Temple Mount.

As Dr. Hagai Ben-Artzi wrote in his "Scroll of the Six Days": "At 10:30, the voice of Mota Gur, commander of the Paratroopers Brigade, could be heard declaring on every IDF radio receiver: 'The Temple Mount is in our hands. I repeat: The Temple Mount is in our hands!' It was a moment of unparalleled, sheer excitement for everyone who heard it. One thousand nine hundred years after the destruction of the Second Temple, the Nation of Israel was privileged, with G-d's help, to return to the Temple Mount and to liberate it. The mayor of the Arab city stood waiting for the troops on the Mount, and presented them with his writ of surrender."

It is important to note that though most Jews were thrilled in 1948 when the renewed State of Israel was established, for others the joy was greatly tempered by the lack of inclusion in its borders of the holy sites of Jerusalem – and particularly the Temple Mount.

In fact, just three weeks before the Six Day War, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, the head of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav Kook, appeared to be gripped by prophecy when he cried out to his students on Independence Day of that year, "Where is our Hevron!? Have we forgotten it? And where is our Shechem (Nablus)? Have we forgotten it!? And where is our Jericho? Have we forgotten it?! ... And where is all the rest of the Land of Israel? Where are all the pieces of G-d's Land? Do we have the right to give up even one millimeter? Heaven forbid!"

The continued longing for Jerusalem in the 19 years between ’48 and ’67 was expressed on another level by Naomi Shemer, in her famous song "Jerusalem of Gold." The original lyrics read, "The city that sits solitary, and in its midst - a wall... How the cisterns have dried, the market-place is empty, and no one frequents the Temple Mount, in the OldCity... Jerusalem of gold, and of bronze, and of light, Behold I am a violin for all your songs..."

Just a few months later, she was able to add these lyrics as the final stanza: "We have returned to the cisterns, To the market and to the market-place, A ram's horn (shofar) is heard on the Temple Mount, In the Old City." The song Jerusalem of Gold quickly became Israel's unofficial national anthem, sung in joy at every opportunity.

The grave-diggers around the country realized joyfully that their efforts just a few days earlier had largely been in vain.

Let us now all – yes, all of us! – recite Hallel and sing out in unison, "Happy Jerusalem Day!"

ROFL

Sun, May 17 2015, 8:38 am

Chag sameach from the US. Wish I was there celebrating with you all!

water_bear88 ↓

Sun, May 17 2015, 10:23 am

Chag sameach!

PinkFridge ↓

Sun, May 17 2015, 11:24 am

Water_bear, I can't open the youtube. Is this a link to the dancing at the Kosel and singing Yerushalayim Shel Zahav? It should be playing on big screens on every block. Teary Eyed

(Not sad tears)

↑ water_bear88

Sun, May 17 2015, 11:50 am

PinkFridge wrote:

Water_bear, I can't open the youtube. Is this a link to the dancing at the Kosel and singing Yerushalayim Shel Zahav? It should be playing on big screens on every block. Teary Eyed

(Not sad tears)

It's a post-6-Day-War song about a Chayal who's wondering at how amazing it is, after learning the words "על חומותייך ירושלים הפקדתי שומרים" for so many years in school, he now gets to be one of those shomrim. It's one of my favorite Yom Yerushalayim songs. Smile

↑ JMM-uc

Sun, May 17 2015, 12:00 pm

↑ Sanguine ↓

Sun, May 17 2015, 12:02 pm

I looked for live streaming of this year's Dancing and so far I only found last year. So I played it and found a surprise. The blond boy who turns around at 23 seconds is my son!!! (Ignore what they're yelling - that was last year - this year we have peace)

Teamster

Sun, May 17 2015, 12:16 pm

jpost has live streaming of something, but it's very unclear and I can't make out where it is.

↑ Sanguine ↓

Sun, May 17 2015, 12:20 pm

here's live http://www.ynetnews.com/articl......html

↑ Sanguine ↓

Sun, May 17 2015, 12:39 pm

try this

http://www.israelnationalnews......mqqko

↑ PinkFridge

Sun, May 17 2015, 12:58 pm

water_bear88 wrote:

Sounds beautiful.

↑ Sanguine ↓

Sun, May 17 2015, 2:36 pm

Quote:

Watch: Hundreds Pray at Western Wall on Jerusalem Day (click title for pictures too)
Major rabbis and popular Israeli singer hold special prayer session honoring Israel's sovereignty over the capital.

Hundreds Messed to the Western Wall (Kotel) on Sunday morning, for a festive prayer service being held in honor of Jerusalem Day.

Several rabbis attended the ceremony, including:

Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi, Rabbi David Lau; Chief Rabbis of Jerusalem, Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Rabbi Aryeh Stern; Rabbi Nahum Eliezer Rabinowitz, head of Maalei Adumim yeshiva; Rabbi Zalman Melamed, head of the Beit El Yeshiva; and leader of the Bnei Akiva movement Rabbi Haim Druckman.

The prayer was held under the direction of singer Yitzhak Meir.

abound ↓

Sun, May 17 2015, 3:03 pm

I love Yom Yerushalayim and all that it means.

As a side note....
The clip with the kids screaming Death to the Arabs and switching the words to the song yibaneh hamikdash is disgusting. Where are their parents???? Chinuch???
I always felt that I should take my kids on this parade, now I am glad that we never did.

↑ Sanguine ↓

Sun, May 17 2015, 3:34 pm

abound wrote:

Their parents aren't there. They go with school. I don't remember what was going on a year ago that the kids were so angry. But this year when the parade started the Arabs threw rocks, even wounding policemen. I'd rather my kid yell things than physically hurt people. The Arabs are randomly killing innocent Jews. I think the kids have a right to get frustrated and say things.They wouldn't hurt someone. So what should they do?

↑ abound ↓

Sun, May 17 2015, 3:43 pm

Sanguine wrote:

I should hope that they would take the high road and sing beautiful songs of longing and happiness. And I would never compare our kids to the Arabs. Seriously......At least they are not acting like Arabs......I should hope we have different expectations for them.
The kids should not be yelling if only so they would not be putting the soldiers and police force tasked with protecting them in more of a volatile situation than they are already.

↑ Sanguine ↓

Sun, May 17 2015, 3:59 pm

abound wrote:

Since I saw my son in the beginning that group might be from his school - Yeshivat HaShomron. Lots of singing "beautiful songs of longing and happiness". This is a school with a real neshama. Real love for Am Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael and Torat Yisrael (grades are secondary there), but realize that these kids live in the Shomron with daily rocks thrown at our cars (if we're lucky and it's not Molotov cocktails). The Arab problem really affects their daily life. I don't know what got them yelling there. That's not what they came to Yerushalayim to do. They came to celebrate Yom Yerushalayim.

etky ↓

Sun, May 17 2015, 5:11 pm

abound wrote:

I have no idea what went on today and who or what was yelled. My son's class was there too today (not him, he hates these things), and as Sanguine said, these kids have been through alot including a terrorist ploughing into and injuring their classmates as they waited at a bus stop on the way home from school just this past Thursday. Rock attacks are a regular occurrence. And let's not forget last summer's horrors. So if they started yelling when the Arabs threw rocks today well I certainly don't approve of it but I kind of get it.

↑ abound

Sun, May 17 2015, 11:55 pm

Sanguine wrote:

Okay, I understand that kids get riled up and see things in black and white. I understand that they (We) have all gone through a lot this year. Something must have instigated this. As adults, we have to teach them the correct way to act under all kinds of situations. They will be better people for it.

Oh, and Etky, I understand that this was last year. Hopefully this year the situation was happy. Bezrat Hashem next year we will all be able to go up bachdut and without any security.

May we be zoche to the Geulah Shleima!

imasoftov

Mon, May 18 2015, 4:16 am

I would say that there weren't enough responsible adults at the event, were it not that some of the adults are not responsible either.