אִֽם־אֶשְׁכָּחֵ֥ךְ יְֽרוּשָׁלָ֗͏ִם תִּשְׁכַּ֥ח יְמִינִֽי׃
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill (Psalm 137:5).
Today is Yom Yerushalayim, one of the four contemporary Jewish holidays (in addition to Yom HaShoa, Yom HaZikaron, and Yom Ha’Atzmaut). Today, we celebrate the anniversary of the liberation and unification of the city of Jerusalem after almost two thousand years without Jewish sovereignty in our holiest city. Today is the day for gratitude for the generation that made this unification possible, and perhaps more importantly, for us to dream of how even the smallest of ways can help the efforts to keep the peace we dream about in our sacred Jerusalem and throughout our Homeland.
Jerusalem is my favorite city in the entire world. My husband and I shared our first date in an adorable restaurant called Tmol Shilshom, a sweet spot with book-covered walls tucked away on a windy street off the main roads of the central city with the best dairy meals you can imagine. My parents came to visit and we hiked the hills of the city (pictured below) to enjoy the sweetest views known to humankind. My roommate and I sat behind our apartment just outside the Old City and quietly harmonized with the boys singing in the heder next door and even the nuns in their chapel across the plaza. We bought fruit and pastries in the Arab marketplace by our house and prayed at the Western Wall at least once a week. I may be from San Francisco, but I left my heart in Jerusalem.
This Yom Yerushalayim, we pray for peace speedily and in our days. We pray for the return of our beloved hostages, whose faces we see every night when we close our eyes and every morning just before we wake. We pray that no child in our holy land will know war or pain. We pray for the wisdom of Jewish democratic leaders who can pave the way for a bright and peaceful new chapter for our People Israel.
— Cantor Emma Lutz
Join Cantor Emma and Rabbi Yoshi in Jerusalem this Hanukkah. For more information, visit our website.
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