“Unity and the Walls of Jerusalem”

by HaRav Dov Begon
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir

“The Three Weeks” begin with 17 Tamuz, when the walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Romans, and end with Tisha Be’Av, when the Temple was burnt down -- may it be speedily rebuilt!

Always, especially during this period, we must rectify the sins that brought about the destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the Temple. Our sages taught us that due to groundless hatred we were exiled from our land, and through groundless love, we will rebuild our land, Jerusalem, and our Temple.

Jerusalem’s destruction, which began with the breaching of the walls serves to allude to us of the approach taken by the Romans, and our enemies today are no different. Jerusalem’s walls [chomot] symbolize national unity, as in our sages’ words that the Jews going up to the Land of Israel from Babylonia “did not go up ‘en masse [Hebrew: bechoma] to Eretz Yisrael,” as one man, with one heart.

Our enemies’ ambition, even today, is to breach the walls and create a rift with the Jewish People, causing divisiveness among us.

Right now we must make every effort to unify the nation and to give one another moral support. We must set out together to defend Jerusalem and the state of Israel. “I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem” (Isaiah 62:6). We must learn and teach, and bring to the awareness of myriads of the House of Israel what Jerusalem means for us and for all of mankind. Jerusalem is the light of the world. It is the heart of the nation and the heart of the world. We do not divide up the heart, it is impossible to concede it. For thousands of years, we have prayed to return to it. We have shed rivers of tears and sacrificed rivers of blood, and those blood and tears have not, and do not, fall in vain. The day is not far off when our prayer will be fulfilled: “Return mercifully to Your city Jerusalem, dwell in it as You said you would. Rebuild it soon as an eternal edifice.” Through this, we will merit to see with our own eyes how “G-d gives strength to His people and blesses them with peace” (Psalm 29:11).

Looking forward to salvation,
Shabbat Shalom.