"My talk on Jerusalem" by Amnon Goldberg
"His Furnace is in Jerusalem" (Yeshaya 31)
The "Even Shesiyoh" - the Foundation Stone - from where the creation of the universe began, from which Odom Harishon (the First Man) was created, on which he and his sons offered the first sacrifices to the Creator, where Noach built his altar, on which Yitzchok Avinu (Isaac Our Father) was bound, on which Yaakov Avinu )Jacb Our Father) slept, from which the luchos (commandment tablets) were hewn, and on which the Temples of Shlomoh (Solomon) and Zerubovel (Zerubabel) were built. Its location: Jerusalem - a city consecrated to the pursuit of righteousness by the survivors of the Flood, who founded there a theocratic order as an outpost against idolatry.
All its early rulers bore the title tzedek - righteousness - in their names, from Malkitzedek (Shem ben Noach), Achitzedek, Amitzedek etc., up to the last, Adonitzedek at the time of Yehoshua's conquest:
"for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until her righteousness shines forth with a brilliance...." (Yeshaya 62). When the Roman emperor Hadrian boasted of his victories, R.Yochanan ben Zakkai humbled him by showing him the corpses of the original Amorite inhabitants of Jerusalem, each of which was 18 amos long (1 ama =18 inches, i.e. 27 feet)!
The plural ending of the very name Yerushalayim intimates at the existence of two Jerusalems, the Heavenly and the Earthly. In the Kabbalah, Jerusalem is considered to be a manifestation of the sefirah of Malchus, from whence all goodness flows to the world (Zohar II:157). "Jerusalem is surrounded by mountains to protect her from the forces of the sitra achra" (the Evil Forces, "Sefer Hatemunah"):
"And Hashem said to the Soton (Satan): The L-rd rebuke you O Soton...he who has chosen Jerusalem" (Zechariya 3) - `he who has chosen Jerusalem refers to the Soton, who feigns love for Jerusalem and the holy places, but davka (precisely) there attempts to lure the Jews away from their faith' (Godol (Great Rabbi) of Minsk). Jerusalem has more churches and mosques than any other city!
Although on seeing the Dome of the Rock we lament:
"O L-rd, the nations have come into Your inheritance and have defiled Your Holy Temple, they have turned Jerusalem in to heaps" (Tehillim-Psalms 79), in a sense we should be grateful that it is the guards of the Muslim Waqf who are currently in charge of the Har Habayis (Temple Mount), studiously protecting it not only from the avodah zoroh (idolatry) of the Notzrim (Christians), but also from the chillonim (Secular Jews) who would desecrate it with a cinema complex, a mixed swimming pool, a bordello, or a 'McDonalds Temple Mount' treif (non-Kosher) eatery, or worse, which would swiftly incur Divine wrath cf. the 400 parsa earthquake that resulted from trying to bring a swine into the Chatzros Hashem (Temple Courtyard) (Bava Kama 82). "The secular Zionists chose the right name for their movement: just as Zion is outside of Jerusalem, so is their movement, which contains not the slightest Torah, is outside the Jerusalem of the Jewish spirit" (Rogatchover Gaon, Tzafnas Paneach): "Gehennom has three entrances: one in the wilderness, a second in the sea, and a third in Jerusalem!" (Talmud- Eruvin 19).
In his book "The Dawn of Peace", Shimon Peres had the audacity to compare the Kosel Hama'arovi - the Western Wall, to the Berlin Wall, calling it a barrier against peace! Our Western Wall, drenched with millennia of tefillos (prayers), blood and tears: "the Shechinah is in the West, and Hashem promised Dovid that the Western Wall will never be destroyed" (Midrash Bamidbar Rabboh 11):
"Here He stands behind our Wall" (Shir Hashirim 2).
G-d sends earthquakes when he sees places of amusement and entertainment flourishing, while the Temple lies a heap of dust and ashes" (Talmud Yerushalmi Brochos 9). "A man should leave part of his house unpainted, leave out some food from his menu, and a woman leave off an ornament, in remembrance of Jerusalem" (Talmud Bava Basra 60).:
"Our Holy and beautiful House where our fathers praised You, is burned up with fire" (Yeshaya (Isaiah) 64). The destruction of the Bayis Rishon (First House i.e. Temple) took place in 422 BCE, not in 586 BCE as secular historians maintain. Even some dati (religious) scholars frequently err in this.
A case can be made for Jerusalem literally being at the centre of the world - the tabbur ha'aretz (Sanhedrin 37). Computer analysis has shown that by dividing the earth's land areas into increments, then averaging the sum of the distances from each increment to all the others, the geographical centre of the earth will be defined as being that point for which the average distance to all the other points is the smallest. The result: Jerusalem, future capital of the world, which is also referred to by Chazal as being "the heart of the world". Even her latitude is 32 degrees North, the same gematriya as lev - heart!
"All the world's winds blow through Jerusalem to bow before Hashem before going on their way" (R.Ovadiyah Bertinoro). In the work Ateres Zvi, a case is made for the colours black, red, white and green corresponding to the four cardinal points of the Beis Hamikdash, with this being reflected geographically by the Black Sea to the North of Jerusalem, the Red Sea to the South, the White Sea (as the Mediterranean was called by the early Bnei Noach) to the West, and the green of the Mesopotamian fertile crescent to the East.
"The waters of the River Yarden surround Eretz Yisroel, half on the surface, and half underground" (Pirke de R.Eliezer 11). When preparing the foundations of the Temple, Dovid Hamelech (the King) accidentally penetrated the tehom (subterranean dephths), the ancient subterranean reservoirs from the days of the creation, and they threatened to flood Eretz Yisroel. To prevent this, he used the Divine Name, causing the waters to recede 16,000 amos too far. Dovid then composed the 15 Shir Hama'alos - the Songs of Ascent (Tehillims 120-134), which caused them to rise 15,000 amos, and remain at a depth of 1,000 (Sukkah 53). Among the other wonders of the deep shown to him by the fish, Yonah Hanovi (the prophet) was privileged to see the Even Shesiyoh from the tehom, and it was there that he made his inspiring prayer of teshuvah (Yonah 2). Archaeologists today are extremely desirous of using ground- penetrating radars and infrared thermography to see if the Ark of the Covenant is still in the underground labyrinth under the Temple Mount where Yoshiya Hamelech (King Josiah) hid it. Or maybe it really is under guard under the eyes of the Swiss Guard in the Vatican Cellars in Rome, as some sources maintain!
In halachah (Rabbinical Law) Jerusalem has a unique status: the laws of the eglah arufah - the Broken-Necked Heifer, and ir hanidachas - the Apostate City, can never apply to it; garbage dumps, smoking kilns, the breeding of fowl, and the planting of trees and gardens are all forbidden within it environs. "God purposely did not endow Jerusalem with fruits like the Ginossar or springs like Tiberias, so that pilgrims would not come to her for physical pleasures" (Pesochim 8). "10 measures of beauty descended on the world, and Jerusalem took nine of them" (Kiddushin 49). "Who never saw Herod's Temple never saw a beautiful building in his life... its blue, yellow and white marble appeared from a distance like the waves of the sea" (Talmud Bava Basra 4). Jerusalem was the m'sos kol ha'aretz - "the joy of the whole world", and unhappiness was not tolerated within her gates. Anyone with financial accounts to work out had to go outside the city to a large rock called the Kippah shel Cheshbonos - the Rock of Calculations (Midrash Shmos R. 52:5), in case they might depress him!
In all other cities, as their populations grow the significance and value of the individual decreases, reducing his worth and personal ability to effect society, which leads to friction, polarisation and animosity. Not so Jerusalem of old, where every Jew experienced a unique personal encounter with G-d, demonstrating to each and every man the uniqueness of his soul. The vast crowds of olei regel (thrice-yearly pilgrims coming to Jerusalem) did not detract from but rather enhanced this realisation of individuality, heightening one's self-esteem and lifting the spirits, fostering Jewish brotherhood and unity: k'ir shechubroh loh yachdov - "a city united together" (Tehillim 122). Even when packed into the Temple Courtyard, on prostration each pilgrim miraculously found that he had around him an open space of 4 amos to pray in privacy (Rashi, Avos 5:8).
People have no idea of the latent powers within Jerusalem waiting to ambuscade those who attempt to tamper with her kedushah (holiness). Just as flame burst from the midst of the Temple to destroy Sancherev's (the Assyrian Sancherib) host (Midrash Shocher Tov 22), so will the hordes of Gog and Magog be destroyed by the forces hidden within her sacred environs.
"Behold I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness that will send all the nations reeling.... I will make Jerusalem as a very heavy stone: all who would heave it away will surely be injured" (Zecharya 12). Had Rommel broken into Egypt and captured Palestine in 1942, Hitler had plans for a huge victory march on the Har Habayis (Temple Mount), like some garish Amolekite (descednants of Amalek granson of Esau) High Priest of Tummah (impurity). Field Marshall Montgomery vowed that "at all costs we will save Jerusalem from Rommell's grubby little hands"!
"In fire You O L-rd consumed her, and by fire you will in the future rebuild her" (Tisha B'Av Minchah Nachem prayer).
The apocalyptic tomes repeatedly refer to the Anti-Moshiach Armilus, whose throne will be in Gaza (Midrash Talpios), his slaying of the Moshiach ben Yosef (latter-day Midrash), and his short-lived conquest of Jerusalem.
Although kol odom sheyesh bo de'ah k'ilu nivneh Beis Hamikdash b'yomov - "Every man in whom there is knowledge, it is as if the Temple had been built in his days" (Brochos 33), we await with keen zeal the advent of the physical Third Temple. Jerusalem's name will then be changed to Hashem Shammah, "Hashem-is-There" (Yechezkel 48), and she will expand in size to reach up to Damascus, and be topographically elevated by a height of 3 parsaos.
"Today, whoever wants to can go up to Jerusalem. In the future not everyone will merit to: it will be by invitation only!" (Bava Basra 73).
There will be dramatic new valley formations (Zecharya 14), and a spring from under the Temple will form a vast river of living, healing waters that will flow to the Mediterranean and Dead Seas: "And he took me to the entrance of the Bayis and behold! Water was coming out from the eastern threshold ...he measured
1000 amos...the water came up to my ankles...he measured 1000 amos...up to my knees...a 1000 more.... up to my waist...another 1000...impossible to cross...a mighty flood...impassable! He said to me: these waters are going out to the plain and to the sea...a profusion of trees...abundant fish...they will heal the polluted sea.... whoever the waters reach will be healed and they will live (Yechezkel 47). Speedily and in our days! "