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Yerushalayim Shel Ma’alah and Yerushalayim Shel Matah

By: Mrs. Avital Levy

Thoughts on Yom Yerushalayim by Mrs. Avital Levy

On the 28^th of Iyar, 1967, Yerushalayim was recaptured from the hands of the Jordanians by the IDF. And from all the memories of a difficult and fast-paced war, what we remember most is the famous announcement: “The Kotel is ours! Har Habayit is ours!”

Almost forty years have passed. We still celebrate Yom Yerushalayim, but it behooves us to examine what we should celebrate and how we should relate to this day.

In Vayikra 26:3 we read “va-olech etchem komimiyut” and the midrash explains “two levels (komot) like the height (koma) of Adam Harishon.” There are two levels in the geulah, built one on top of the other, just like Yershalayim shel ma’alah and Yerushalayim shel matah. When we celebrate Yom Yerushalayim we generally think about the building of Yerushalayim shel matah. But it appears that we tend to forget that Yerushalayim shel ma’alah is still destroyed.

We’ve all gotten so used to going to the Kotel that we somehow have forgotten our need for the Beit Hamikdash. We’re so happy with the completion of the first level of Eretz Yisrael that we are less focused on building the second level.

In fact, Rav Dessler writes: “One who really wants to mourn Yerushalayim must work on rebuilding it. And what caused its destruction? Sinat chinam and bittul Torah. Meaning that hatred and bittul Torah are themselves the actual destruction, because the destruction is really the spiritual destruction. Given that, what does it mean to rebuild Yerushalayim? Loving our fellow man and learning Torah. And once Yerushalayim is rebuilt, we will all live “under our grapevine.” But if we only mourn our grapevine, then that really isn’t mourning for Yerushalayim, it is really mourning for ourselves. And if we attempt to rebuild Yerushalayim without focusing on the spiritual aspect, then we’re only rebuilding ourselves and not really rebuilding Yerushalayim.”

The way for us to establish whether our happiness today is a true happiness for Yerushalayim is to make sure that we are striving to build both levels of the city. The first level is built physically, and the second is built spiritually, through love and Torah, as Rav Dessler tells us.

This is quite similar to the way we should strive to build our own homes. There are those who seek marriage for material or psychological reasons. Those are important and are the first level in the Jewish home. However, there is a second level, the spiritual level. And the one who adds that to his home will successfully build an everlasting home in which the Shechina will reside.

Building our national home is no different. It too needs two levels and we, as those given the task of adding the spiritual level, must continue to strive to rebuild Yerushalayim shel ma’alah, just as Yerushalayim shel matah has been rebuilt.

Here at SFW, we’re striving to work on our ahavat chinam through serious Torah study and to do our part to rebuild Yerushalayim shel ma’alah – as Rav Dessler outlined. We hope and pray that we shall soon see “va-olech etchem komimiyut” in completion and that “ki mitzion teitzey Torah u’dvar Hashem m’Yerushalayim.”