Recently, in the US, I attended an event with a large Jewish crowd. After the stars had come out, a group of 20 or so men gathered in a side room to pray Maariv, the evening service. As the gathering prepared to pray a few of the men asked if anyone knew which direction to face to pray toward Jerusalem.
Jewish laws of prayer include a directive to face Jerusalem when praying. Some used compass applications on their phones, which instantly told them to turn 180 degrees to face Jerusalem. We all shifted direction and began to pray.
As I witnessed the delay in starting the prayers so we could all be sure to face Jerusalem, I’m embarrassed to admit I had two consecutive reactions. I’m ashamed that my first reaction was cynical. I scoffed at these people’s prioritizing Jerusalem in their prayers while simultaneously rejecting Jerusalem as a place to live.
After 2,000 years, God has finally answered the prayers of millions of Jews and allowed them to return to their homeland. These US Jews finally have the opportunity to return to Jerusalem, yet while praying for the return to and the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and while facing Jerusalem in prayer, they refuse to take advantage of their answered prayers.
I imagined a two-way conversation with God, in which these Jews recite the words: “Sound the great shofar for our freedom, raise a banner to gather our exiles, and bring us together from the four corners of the earth,”and God responds, “I did!”
The Jews continue to pray, “Return in mercy to Your city, Jerusalem, and dwell in it as You have promised. Rebuild it soon, in our days, as an everlasting structure,” and God responds, “I did!” Then the Jews finished their prayers and returned to their homes in America.
THEN, MY “better angels” took over my thoughts. Instead of cynicism, I looked at these Jews with wonder and admiration. It is easy for me to face Jerusalem when I pray, everyday. I commute to Jerusalem office every morning. My bus drives over Mount Scopus and gives everyone the same view Rabbi Akiva and the rabbis had of the Temple Mount when they saw foxes running out of the most sacred spot in Judaism.
My familiarity with Israel’s ancient capital allows me to almost “feel” the sacred city of the Jewish people. My brothers and sisters don’t have that daily injection of “Jerusalem juice.” As for millions of Jews before them, Jerusalem is a city in their imagination, not a city one lives in. Yet, they still made sure to find the direction to face toward Jerusalem. I was awed by their dedication to Jerusalem.
The Talmud says: “One who stands in prayer outside the Land of Israel should direct his heart toward the Land of Israel… and if he is standing in the Land of Israel, he should direct his heart toward Jerusalem… and if he is standing in Jerusalem, he should direct his heart toward the Kodesh Hakodashim (“Holy of Holies,” the most sacred location in Judaism).”
Around 1000 BCE, King David moved his kingdom from Hebron and established Jerusalem as the capital of the united Kingdom of Israel. He brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, making it the religious and political center of the Jewish people. David’s strategic choice unified the tribes, strengthened his rule, and laid the foundation for Jerusalem’s enduring significance as the spiritual heart of the Jewish people, later solidified by his son Solomon’s construction of the First Temple.
While the city of Jerusalem is named throughout the Tanach (Bible) it is only alluded to in the Five Books of Moses. In his philosophical work, Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides suggests three reasons why God omitted the name Jerusalem from the Five Books of Moses. The first of the three reasons he listed was to prevent other nations from claiming Jerusalem as their own sacred city, avoiding potential conflicts or idolatry. With the city’s name being omitted, the only way that non-Jews can know that Jerusalem is unique is through Jewish tradition.
The central focus of Jerusalem to Jewish tradition and ritual is expressed in several different ways. As mentioned, Jews face Jerusalem three times a day when they pray – and they pray for a rebuilt Jerusalem each time they pray. Jews end off their two most special nights of the year, the conclusion of Yom Kippur and the Passover Seder with the words “Next year in Jerusalem!”
A glass is broken under wedding canopy to remind attendees that our joy can never be complete until the Jewish people rebuild Jerusalem and return to the land of Israel, and Jews spend three weeks a year mourning the Temple’s destruction. Jewish law even mandated leaving a seat empty at meals and leaving a small section of every house unfinished as signs of mourning over the Temple’s destruction and absence.
Remembering, pining for reconstruction of the Temple isn't a passive memory
REMEMBERING THE Temple and pining for its reconstruction isn’t passive memory for the Jewish people, they are progressive acts of tradition meant to move the Jewish people forward to a renaissance in their own homeland. Many Jews look at today’s State of Israel and conclude that the Jewish renaissance has already begun.
In contrast to the Jewish long-standing connection to Jerusalem, the Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian claim to Jerusalem pales.
Arabs never established a state in the region called Palestine, therefore they couldn’t name Jerusalem a capital of their state. While Muslims consider Jerusalem their third most holy site, that isn’t a consensus view. Many Muslim scholars maintain that Jerusalem isn’t a holy site in Islam.
For many years, Jews constituted the majority of Jerusalem’s population. In 1905, two-thirds of Jerusalem’s residents were Jewish.
The Jewish people’s connection to Jerusalem wasn’t weakened by close to 2,000 years of exile from their capital city. It was the ritual of active memory of facing Jerusalem when praying, mourning the destruction of the Temple, and ending our most special nights by expressing the hope to be celebrating “Next year in Jerusalem!” that has maintained a strong connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem.
The group of American Jews being so careful to figure out the direction to face Jerusalem while they prayed weren’t just being careful about a prayer requirement, they were keeping their connection to Jerusalem.
The writer is a Zionist educator at institutions around the world. He recently published his book Zionism Today.