Yom Haatzmaut 1967 and Divided JerusalemI wasn't born yet in 1967, but I do have a pretty large collection of memorabilia relating to the Six Day War. I have all of the issues of Life, Time and Newsweek magazines, as well as most of the issues of The Jerusalem Post from the period shortly before, during, and after the war. As a result, the Six Day War is an event that resonates deeply with me.
Whenever I think about the liberation of Jerusalem, I also think about Yom Haatzmaut 1967. On Yom Haatzmaut (Independence Day) 1967, a day before Nasser demanded that the UN withdraw from the Egypt-Israel border, precipitating the events that led to the Six Day War, Naomi Shemer's song Yerushalayim Shel Zahav (Jerusalem of Gold) was released and first performed. Its lyrics, particularly that "the city square is empty, nobody goes up to the Temple Mount in the Old City," soon sounded prophetic.
Also on Yom Haatzmaut 1967, in a lecture to his students, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook lamented the loss of Jerusalem, Hebron and Jericho. Those words too would, weeks later, sound prophetic.
I don't subscribe to the ideology of R. Tzvi Yehuda Kook's disciples, and I'm generally a rationalist and (try to be) a pragmatist. But a big part of me believes that Naomi Shemer's release of Yerushalayim Shel Zahav and R. Kook's speech were both divinely inspired.
posted on 5/25/2006
