It’s Jerusalem, original shining city on the hill
Sometimes your enemies inadvertently reveal what is most important and valuable to you.
Pharaoh killed the male children born in his kingdom because he thought one would arise to threaten his power to rule. (About that he was correct.)
Haman and Hitler both saw the Jews as a threat to their evil rule. (As Hitler put it, the Jews are “the conscience of the world.”)
As for Hamas, you can find their reason for wanting to kill us is in the name they gave to their Oct. 7 pogrom — the Al-Aqsa Flood. Al-Aqsa, of course, is their mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem; the Temple Mount is the heart of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is the key to the entirety of the Holy Land. Take the heart and the land dies.
Jerusalem was not always the capital of Israel — it was not under King Saul and for the first seven years under King David (when the capital was Hebron). The name Yerushalayim does not appear in Torah except as an oblique reference to the city of Shalem (Breishit 14:18) — but it is mentioned almost 700 times in the Neviim and Ketuvim (and not once in the Quran).
• • •
This week’s parsha, Re’eh, speaks of the different occasions when Jews were required to make a pilgrimage to bring their offerings and prayers to Hashem.
For most of our history that was the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and yet Jerusalem is nowhere mentioned. Rather we find these words: “Ba Makom” or “Ha Makom” or “asher yivchar Hashem” (in the place or the place that Hashem will choose). That phrase is used 21 times in Torah, all in sefer Devarim, 16 of which appear in Re’eh.
Rambam suggests that the name was not explicitly stated so as to avoid inciting jealousy among the tribes who would desire that “the place that Hashem your G-d will choose” be in their allotted portion. Only after David Hamelech purchased the land and gave it its name did it establish itself as the one and only place of permanent kedusha, holiness.
Jerusalem possessed a kedusha that remains eternal, at least according to the Rambam, even if Kedushat Eretz Yisrael has been lost. That is because of the eternal presence of the Shechina, the Divine Presence.
Tosafot disagrees that the kedusha of Jerusalem remains once the Temple is destroyed — but all agree that once the Holy Temple is restored, the kedusha returns to both Jerusalem and the Holy Land. As a result, thereafter no other places are permitted for karbanot (sacrifices), avoda (Temple worship), and terumot and maasrot (priestly gifts and tithes).
In our Re’eh, when we read multiple times of “the place that Hashem will choose” it is usually in the context of sacrifices brought to Hashem on “His Mizbe’ach, the altar of Hashem“ (Devarim 12:27). And immediately Hashem grants us a blessing (Ibid 12:28):
Shmor, v’shamata et kol hadevarim haeleh asher anochi metzaveka, l’man yitav lecha u’levanecha acharecha ad olam, ki taaseh hatov v’hayashar b’enei Hashem Elokecha (safeguard and hearken to all these words that I command you, in order that it be well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the eyes of Hashem, your G-d).
What an extraordinarily powerful Bracha! Forever! For us and our children! This is the power of Kedushat Yerushalayim.
• • •
Which brings us to the title of this piece, Jerusalem as the “original shining city on the hill.” This is a term usually associated with President Ronald Reagan who, in 1989, used it to describe a vision of America, a prosperous and harmonious society open to all.
It actually predates Reagan by more than 350 years when John Winthrop referred to the Massachusetts Bay Colony of 1630 as an example to the world, highlighting the importance of unity, charity and Puritan religious devotion. But it goes back another 1000 years, to sefer Yirmiyahu chapter 30 verse 18: “Thus says Hashem: Behold! I am returning the captivity of the tents of Jacob and I will have mercy on his abode, and the city will be built upon its hill, and the palace will sit in its proper place.”
Virtually all commentators agree that the chapter and verse refer to the time of the Acharit Hayamim (the End of Days, the days of the Moshiach), with the “palace,” the Beit HaMikdash, and “the city to be built upon the hill” is Jerusalem.
The Hebrew words for “the city will be built upon its hill“ are “v’nivnita ir al te’la,” something recognizable to many of us because we say it every Friday night in the poetic prayer L’cha Dodi. Written by Rabbi Shlomo HaLevi Alkabetz (1505-1584), he calls out to a forlorn Jerusalem:
Lo teivoshi, v’lo tikalmi, mah tishtochachi u’mah tehemi (Feel not ashamed, be not humiliated. Why are you downcast? Why are you disconsolate?)
Bach yechesu aniyei ami, v’nivnita ir al te’la (in you will my peoples’ afflicted, find shelter, as the city is built upon its hill).
• • •
The first part of the stanza, “Feel not ashamed,” is taken from the prophet Yeshayahu (54:4) which we will read in a few weeks in the haftara for parshat Ki Tezeh. But the latter part of the stanza refers to “the city built upon its hill? from the prophet Yirmiyahu quoted above.
This is the power of a restored and rebuilt Jerusalem. Not only will it serve as a shelter for the downtrodden, what’s more the verse specifically says ,“Behold I am returning the captivity of the tents of Jacob and I will have mercy on his abodes.”
It’s actually more understandable in the original Hebrew, “Hineni shav shevut, Ohalei Yaakov, u’mishkenotav arachem (Behold, I Hashem am returning the captives and on the inhabitants of all the tents of Jacob I will have mercy).” The captives, not only the hostages, but all of us, the returnees, even outside the land of Israel! We will be returning home! Like a powerful magnet, the Shechina eternally present in Jerusalem, that city on the hill, will draw us back.
If you want to derive some nechama (comfort) in this time of travail, read that short chapter 30 of sefer Jeremiah. Not only will we return to Jerusalem, but those who seek to stop us, do us evil, destroy us, will themselves be destroyed. As the last three verses conclude:
Behold the storm of Hashem: a rage shall go forth, a tempest shall seek rest; it will rest upon the head of the wicked. Hashem’s burning wrath will not recede until He has accomplished it, and until He has upheld the plans of His heart; in the End of Days you will understand it. At that time — the word of Hashem — I will be G-d for all the families of Israel, and they will be a people for Me.
Shabbat Shalom.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
