Jerusalem: Nachamu, Nachamu…

Printable Version Email to a Friend

August 2, 1991 - We have just commemorated the saddest day in our history: Tisha B’Av, the day when the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. For almost 2000 years, several times a day we have prayed for the Peace of Jerusalem, for the Rebuilding of Jerusalem, and for the reestablishment of the Temple. We have also, year after year, read the haftarah following Tisha B’Av: ”Nachamu, nachamu ami…” “Be consoled, be consoled, my nation…” And by the grace of G-d, we have merited to see that consolation in our day: Jerusalem is again the Jewish capital, it is prospering, it is growing.

Likewise, the nations of the world have targeted Jerusalem since time immemorial. It has had the attention of the world since the beginning of the ancient city. The world has, inexplicably, been obsessed with the idea of wresting the city from the Jews, as if they had a foreboding that something earth-shaking would happen to them if Jerusalem remains in Jewish hands.

We meet the name of Jerusalem in ancient cuneiform documents as “Uru-Salima” – “City of Peace.” In the so-called Tel-el-Amarna tablets, found in Egypt over 100 years ago, the local Canaanite kings corresponded with the Pharaohs of Egypt about their political and military predicaments caused by the invasion of the Habirus (Hebrews). The king of Uru-Salima is among them. This refers to the time around 1400 B.C.E. After the city became King David’s and Solomon’s capital in about 1000 B.C.E., we find the dual form of the name Yerushalayim, which resulted from the fact that the city consisted of two parts; the Upper City, which held the Temple and the Royal Palace, and the Lower City, built on the ridge going down the Hinnom Valley, today called City of David.

Assyrian King Sanherib tried to capture the city in King Hezekia’s days, but his army was destroyed during the siege of Jerusalem. The Assyrian cuneiform tablets reluctantly, confirm the failure of this siege.

Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, after the Prophet Jeremiah had failed in persuading King Zedekiah to make peace with Babylonia, sacked and destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple in 589 B.C.E.

During the Seleucid (Greek-Syrian) period, again the Jewish Land was invaded, and Jerusalem and the Temple were again the target of a foreign, pagan kingdom. Only after the revolt by the Maccabees could Jerusalem and the Temple be reclaimed and cleansed.

In 63 B.C.E. the Roman army under Pomey came and violated the Temple. Step by step the Romans made their presence intolerable, and the Jews revolted in 66 C.E. to clear Jerusalem and the entire land of them. The war against Rome took almost 5 years. Only after the crack troops of Rome had been summoned did Vespasian – first a general under Nero, the Emperor himself – capture and destroy Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 C.E. Massada held out 3 more years, before the heroic defenders of the last independent outpost of Judea fell.

At the time the Roman Empire stretched from England and India, it covered the whole known world. Yet no other nation or city had revolted for religious reasons. No other city had held out against the combined night of Rome. Jerusalem was the most dangerous element in the Roman Empire; its spirit of independence, of religious opposition to Roman paganism, its superior intellectual might – all were a thorn in Rome’s side. And when finally Jerusalem was captured by Titus, the son of Vespasian, an astounding thing happened. For fifty years, Rome struck commemorative coins celebrating the capture of Judea; three Emporors – Vespasian, Titus, the Domitian – struck coins bearing the legend “Judea Capta” or “Judea Devicta.” These coins, of which I own a number, show a triumphant Roman soldier standing over a broken-down Jewish woman sitting under a palm tree. Mind you, for fifty long years, these coins were circulated in the Roman Empire, to publicize the fact that Jerusalem had been captured! This shows how important an event it was for Rome’s survival as a world power.

Yet a few years later, in 132 C.E., the Jewish State bounced right back again: revolting against the oppressive measures against Judaism by Emperor Hadrian, the Jews revolted under a mighty military leader, Shimon ben Kosiba, also known as Bar Kochba. He chased the Romans out of the entire Land, and Jews marched into Jerusalem again. Some believe that they immediately began the rebuilding of the Third Temple. Rome had to bring down their best troops from England to counter-attack. After three years, the main fortress of the Jewish heroes, Betar, fell – again, on Tisha B’Av, Hundreds of thousands of Jews were slaughtered and almost as many were deported to Rome. Hadrian renamed Jerusalem “Aelia Capitolina” and forbade Jews to enter the city. The ban did not keep Jews away for too long.

Under Constantine the Great, Rome, after considering both Judaism or Christianity as the State religion, opted for Christianity, because it was easier and less demanding. The Christians started building churches in Jerusalem, including the one which today is called the Aksa Mosque.

In 638 Khalif Omar captured Jerusalem. In his surrender treaty he called the city still by its Roman pagan name Aelia, since Jerusalem held no sanctity to either Mohammed or his Moslem successors. Jerusalem is not mentioned a single time in the Koran while Jerusalem and Zion are mentioned almost 1000 times in the Hebrew Bible. Omar demanded that all Jews must leave the city.

Yet, Jews lived there again in subsequent centuries. In 1099, new disaster befell Jerusalem: that army of murders and adventurers, called the Crusaders, captured the city from the Moslems. They promptly butchered every Jew inside the city as their first act as conquerors! It may be conjectured that one reason for the Church’s refusal to recognize the Jewish rule over Jerusalem in our days is a latent fear that Jews might take revenge for the crimes which Christians carried out against Jews while they ruled over Jerusalem. Although we would be fully justified to consider such revenge, it is very far from Jews to harbor such sentiments. But we cannot be surprised that Christians judge others by what their own character would dictate.

Hundreds of years of Moslem rule over Jerusalem followed, when Jews were treated as second-class citizens with constant harassment and suffering. Only when General Allenby of Britain entered Jerusalem through the Jaffa Gate in 1917, and Herbert Samuel, a British Jew, was installed as the first High Commissioner over Palestine, did Jews again see hope for regaining their old capital. And this is what happened in 1967, a mere 24 years ago.

And so the history of Jerusalem over the past thousands of years had been a single trail of attempts to wrest the city from us!

Those who coined the phrase “Judea Capta” are long gone, and so are the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Seleucids. Only we are back. If you want to see a marvelous sight underscoring this lesson in history, then go to Rome and visit the famous Titus arch, raised 1900 years ago near Forum Romanum, which holds carvings showing the Menorah and implements of the Temple being carried into Rome. And you will find written in chalk across those carvings: Am Yisrael Chai - (The Jewish nation survives).

Today Israel is again facing those who, by hook or by crook, want Jerusalem out of Jewish hands: the U.N., the P.L.O., the Pope, some in Washington. No wonder that Israel must stand 100% firm on maintaining our right to the undivided capital city. The world may not understand that the meaning of all of our 3000 years of history – of triumphs and of sufferings – have had one aim and one aim only: to see Jerusalem as he Jewish capital, for the fulfillment of the hundreds of prophecies which can only be fulfilled in our holy city. And that is the message of Shabbat Nachamu!

I, myself, had a remarkable experience relating to this “consolation.” Some years ago, when the excavations near the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount started, I climbed one very early morning up the steps leading to the Hulda Gate. Just as I looked at the enormous blocks – some twice as big as those at the Western Wall – a small fox came out from one of the crevices of the steps. Just as suddenly as he had appeared, he disappeared. I was startled as never before. I, of course, instantaneously thought of the famous story related at the end of the Tractate Makkot, page 24: Rabbi Akiba and his colleagues were visiting the ruins of the Temple, when they saw a fox appear from the Temple Mount. While the rabbis cried, Rabbi Akiba laughed with happiness: “Now I have firm faith in the rebuilding of the Temple. Since I see the prophecy of the destruction fulfilled, I also know that the prophecies of its rebuilding will be fulfilled.” Upon hearing Rabbi Akiva’s words, the rabbis exclaimed, ”nichamtani” - you have consoled us!” and now, I too, was witness to that fateful fox! It seemed to have come to give a new message of consolation!

The Husseinis: Mufti, Arafat, Feisal

Among Arabs, certain families stand for specific dreams and ambitions. No matter which member of that family you think of, their aim is the same. This fact is important in assessing what the Husseini family’s aims are. Their most well-known and infamous member was the Mufti Haj Amin el-Husseini, who instigated the “intifada” of 1936, in which thousands of Britons and Jews were murdered. In 1941 he was in Baghdad to support Ali Rashid, the Iraqi Nazi, in his revolt against Britain and her allies. The revolt was put down with the help of Jews from Palestine. Among them was Yakov Meridor, one of Menachem Begin’s closest collaborators and recent Cabinet Minister. Mufti el-Husseini then escaped to Berlin where he was Hitler’s honored guest for some years. He met frequently with Hitler and egged the German arch-anti-Semite on to kill as many Jews as possible. He himself visited several extermination camps where Jews were gassed.

Few know that Arafat’s full name is Mohammed bder Rauf Arafat al-Kudwa el_Husseini. He is a member of the infamous Mufti’s family! This explains his ferocious, undimmed plan to eliminate all Jews from Israel, by deportation or outright murder. That is exactly what his forebear wanted, too.

And now, a third el-Husseini, Feisal el-Husseini, is giving Israel big worries. Looking a bit more sophisticated than the unsavory Arafat, he has managed to make untold TV appearances. Under Israel’s unparalleled, one-sided democratic freedom, Feisal el-Husseini has been allowed to travel abroad, where he is now carrying on his own diplomacy in mobilizing the support of French and Swedish Government personalities in pressing for his participation in forthcoming peace talks, although he is a resident of East Jerusalem. Considering the dangerous common heritage of all el-Husseinis, Israel is fully justified in resisting this man’s presence. Israel must, by all means, eradicate any possible notion that Jerusalem’s fate is in the balance or is even going to be “negotiated” in any future peace talks.

[ HOME ] [ BIOGRAPHY ] [ ARTICLES ] [ BOOKS ] [ LECTURES ]
[ CONTACT US ] [ ORDER FORM ]
[ MISSING ITEMS FROM THE COLLECTION ]