Not quite on everyone’s radar as holidays go is Yom Yerushaliyim, Jerusalem Day. Because of the fact that Shavuot happens so soon after and people make such a big deal over Yom Ha’Atzmauot (Israeli Independence Day), Yom Yerushaliyim gets lost in the shuffle. This is particularly messed up because while there is a big debate over whether to celebrate Yom HaAtzmaut, everyone agrees that there is something about Yom Yerushaliyim.
Yom Yerushaliyim is the day that the Jews were able to return to Jerusalem in 1967 during the Six Day War after the Jordanians had expelled all of the Jews from Jerusalem back in 1948 during the War of Liberation. Not only were the Jews able to return to live, but for the first time in almost 2,000 years, Jews had sovereignty over their eternal capital. Given, political decisions on the part of the Israeli leadership have compromised that sovereignty in ways no other country would even consider allowing to happen, but that doesn’t take away from the importance of the day.
This year, and I’m pretty sure every year, Yom Yerushaliyim falls out right after these parshiot. In Behokutai toward the end, it discusses special laws dealing with property rights in Israel, which are unique to Israel. There, a distinction is drawn between the rest of the land and walled cities, which Yerushaliyim is one. Walled cities have a greater level of sanctity than any other parts of the land and have their own unique laws. Yerushaliyim, the capital of the Jews and the seat of the Holy Temple, has even greater sanctity attached to it, but this is mentioned elsewhere.
3,300 years ago, the Jews didn’t know what exactly the Judaism of their descendants would look like. They certainly didn’t see all of the events that would happen with all of the conquests in the land. And yet, even here there’s an allusion, or coincidence if you prefer, to the fact that Jews would always be connected to Israel and Yerushaliyim, and that the parshiot would always line up in such a way as to hint to the future of the Jews, which is always rooted in the past.
