Yom Yerushalyim

Today, June 1, 2011, is Yom Yerushalyim—Jerusalem Day.

Today is the day we celebrate the liberation of Jerusalem forty-four years ago, during the 1967 Six-day War.

Today is the day we sing for the Holy City of G-d’s dwelling.

Our City.

It is a day of joy. It is a day to remember how our beloved was returned to us forty-four years ago.

It is a day to pray.

It is a day to sing, L’Shana Haba’a B’Yerushalyim Habenuya” (next year in Jerusalem the rebuilt).

It is a day to note how important Jerusalem is to our religion.

Jerusalem—it is a name mentioned in our Holy Texts more than six hundred times.

Jerusalem—it is a name we repeat in prayer perhaps a dozen times each day.

Jerusalem—it is a name which brings light and joy to the Jewish nation.

But this year of celebration is different.  This is the year that Abu Mazen (President, the Palestinian Authority) says he will go to the United Nations to claim statehood for himself, and to claim Jerusalem for himself. This is the year the Arab says he will begin his third Intifada, to wrest Jerusalem and this Holy Land from the reviled Jew.

This is the year we see the nations of the world spit out their venomous impatience with the ‘intransigent Jew’.

It is the year we are told, “There is no peace because of you!”

This is the year the Arab will tell our Beautiful heroine, Jerusalem, that she must cut herself in half. “Here,” the Arab says as the nations look on approvingly, “Take this knife. Cut, and there will be joy.”

This is the year we learn which of our leaders want to hand over our Beautiful heroine to a rapist.

This is the year we could learn that, if we refuse to stand with the G-d of Israel,  the enemies of Israel could celebrate their triumph of Evil over Good.

It could be a year when Evil dances with joy in our Holy Jerusalem.

This is also the year the G-d of Israel will test our leaders.

Do we know where are our leaders?

Do our leaders know our G-d is watching?

Do our leaders truly know what today is?

Do we know?