Yom Yerushalayim

Jewish Calendar

Yom Yerushalayim, or Jerusalem Day, is a day of celebration marking the establishment of Israeli control over the Old City of Jerusalem and renewed access to Jewish holy sites.

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The Heart of Jerusalem

TANAKH

Jerusalem holds profound spiritual and communal significance, serving as a center for pilgrimage, judgment, and prayer for peace. The Book of Psalms (Tehillim) includes songs of praise, laments, and prayers focusing on the significance of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem built up, a city knit together, to which tribes would make pilgrimage,
the tribes of the LORD,
—as was enjoined upon Israel—
to praise the name of the LORD. There the thrones of judgment stood,
thrones of the house of David. Pray for the well-being of Jerusalem;
“May those who love you be at peace. May there be well-being within your ramparts,
peace in your citadels.” For the sake of my kin and friends,
I pray for your well-being; for the sake of the house of the LORD our God,
I seek your good.

Psalms 122:3-9

Liturgical Changes for Modern Holidays

HALAKHAH

Yom Yerushalayim and Yom HaAtzma’ut are significant modern holidays that have led to specific liturgical changes in Jewish practice. Rabbi Eliezer Melamed’s contemporary halakhic work, Peninei Halakhah, details the omission of the Tachanun prayer on these days, reflecting their importance in Jewish life.

Today, ever since Hashem began to bring forth our redemption, Tachanun is not recited on Yom HaAtzma’ut (Israel’s Independence Day), and on the 28 of Iyar, Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Liberation Day), nor at Minchah before each of them.

Peninei Halakhah, Prayer 21:7:4

Joy and Tears for Jerusalem

COMMENTARY

The reunification of Jerusalem and the ability to pray at the Western Wall after the Six Day War evoked profound emotional and spiritual reactions among Israeli soldiers and the Jewish people. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks reflects on the intense religious emotion and historic significance of this event.

This characteristic – distress at violence and potential bloodshed even when undertaken in self-defence – has stayed with the Jewish people ever since. One of the most remarkable phenomena in modern history was the reaction of Israeli soldiers after the Six Day War in 1967. In the weeks preceding the war, few Jews anywhere in the world were unaware that Israel and its people faced terrifying danger. Troops – Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian – were massing on all its borders. Israel was surrounded by enemies who had sworn to drive its people into the sea…

Covenant and Conversation; Genesis; The Book of the Beginnings, Vayishlach, Physical Fear, Moral Distress 26

Jerusalem Through Ethiopian Eyes

HALAKHAH

The Ethiopian Jewish community has a unique historical and spiritual connection to Jerusalem, marked by their sacrifices and longing for the city. Rabbi Sharon Shalom explores the deep-rooted traditions and experiences of his community, particularly their commemoration of Jerusalem Day.

Once there was a Jew who made aliyah from Ethiopia. While he was traveling from Afula to Jerusalem, he asked, “Why should I go up to Jerusalem, if I already live in Jerusalem?” In the first days of the Ethiopian aliyah, the Ethiopian Jews did not distinguish between Eretz Yisrael and the city of Jerusalem. In their world, Jerusalem included the entire Land of Israel. The longings of the Ethiopian Jews for Jerusalem should be expressed through living in Jerusalem, or at least pilgrimage three times a year, as written in the Torah, and on Jerusalem Day…

From Sinai to Ethiopia, Shulhan haOrit; The Halakhah of Ethiopian Jewry, Then and Now, 1 Daily Practices 12:33

The Western Wall, 1971, Bernard Gotfryd photograph collection (Library of Congress)

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