Eternal Jerusalem *
I stand at the Kotel, the Wailing Wall. I read secret books and hundreds of thousands of names. Names from Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Dachau. Mothers crying about their children,
There is also the businessman standing in tears. Yeshayahu stands next to me,
There is no time, no clock, no early or later.
The return to Zion is unprecedented, The creation of the State of Israel is a surprise and a shock. It is a breach in a world where people do not want to be surprised. And therefore Israel irritates.
The Egyptian, the Babylonian and the Persian conquered the world with much noise, pomp and splendor and disappeared. Others came and held their torch high and burned out.
The Jew never left Israel. He was driven out against his will.
Yerushalayim.
It is only the Jews who keep on praying for its rebuilding, for two thousand years and no other nation.
It is only the Jews who mourn for two thousand years for its destruction and no other nation.
It is only the Jews who fast and sit on the floor for two thousand years on the day the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and no other nation.
It is only the Jews who for two thousand years break a glass under their marriage canopy out of sorrow for Jerusalem and no other nation.
It is only the Jews who for two thousand years build a house and leave one part of the wall unplastered because of the loss of their Temple and no other nation.
It is only the Jews whose women do not wear all their jewelry at once out of reverence for the destruction of Jerusalem and no other nation.
It is only the Jews who cover their dead with the dust of Israel when they bring their dear ones to their last resting-place outside the land of Israel and no other nation.
Is not every Jewish house in exile a piece of Israel on foreign ground? Like a portable homeland?
This is the history, the reality and the future of Israel.
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*Inspired by the writings of Avraham Joshua Heschel and Mark Twain
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