May 26th

On Wednesday, we celebrated Yom Yerushalayim, commemorating our victory in a war that began with our enemies threatening to wipe the Jewish state off the map and ended with the reunification of Jerusalem.  It is truly a modern miracle that in a matter of days, we went from bracing for a second Sho’ah to celebrating with shofar blasts at the Western Wall.  This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of that miraculous victory, 50 years of a reunified Jerusalem.

This week is also the final week of counting the Omer, the 49 days from Pesach to Shavuot, 49 days of preparing to receive the Torah at Sinai on Shavuot, day 50.  According to the Chinukh, one of the reasons we count the days from Pesach to Shavuot is to remind us that God brought us out of Egypt only for the sake of giving us the Torah and establishing a covenant with us.  On Pesach, we were freed from slavery, and on Shavuot, 50 days later, we received the Torah.  We count the days in between to remember that God has performed miracles for us, saved us, and chosen us from among all the peoples, not because we’re inherently more special than anyone else, but only in order for us to fulfill the Torah.

Similarly, I would suggest, God reunited Jerusalem and brought us back to the Kotel, only for the sake of the Torah.  Our worthiness of that miracle corresponds to the degree to which we have brought Torah and Mitzvot to the Holy City.  Fifty years after the reunification of Jerusalem, we have much to celebrate in that department, as today the city is filled with kol Torah, the voice of Torah, with numerous yeshivot attracting Jews from around the world.  We have truly seen the fulfillment of the verse “Ki Mitzion Tetzei Torah, udvar Hashem Mirushalayim.  For Torah will go forth from Zion, and the word of Hashem from Jerusalem,” as students who have spent a year or a few years drinking in the city’s Torah, return to their home communities, bringing with them the light of the Torah that they have learned.

May the light of Torah continue to shine forth from the holy city of Jerusalem, and may all her inhabitants dwell in peace and security.

Chag Sameach!

Rabbi Garth Silberstein