Unity and the Walls of Yerushalayim

by HaRav Dov Begon
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir

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

Always, and even more so during this period, we must work to 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, Yerushalayim and our Beit HaMikdash.

Yerushalayim'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. Yerushalayim's walls [Hebrew: 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 Yerushalayim” (Yishayahu 62:6). We must learn and teach, and bring awareness to the myriads of Klal Yisrael what Yerushalayim means for us and for all of mankind. Yerushalayim 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, that is: “Return mercifully to Your city Yerushalayim, 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” (Tehilim 29:11).

Looking forward to complete salvation,
With the Love of Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael,
Shabbat Shalom.