In honor of Jerusalem Day, next Monday, the 28th of Iyar.
In May of 2014, Ramadan Shalah, the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization said:
What is the meaning of Jerusalem for us? Learn from the Jews, from that accursed entity [Israel]. They love Jerusalem not just as a military matter, but as a cultural one. They have a song in the Israeli entity that their army sings on June 7, when they conquered the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Haram al-Sharif [the Temple Mount, in the 1967 Six Day War]. “Jerusalem of gold. Jerusalem of bronze. Jerusalem of light”. Every Israeli child and every accursed Israeli soldier says this song in their heart.
There is a backstory to the title of this song which Naomi Shemer herself references in speaking of the song. It begins with the story of a man named Akiva.
Akiva, as a young man, did not know a word of Torah. He worked as a shepherd for “Ben Kalba Savua,” one of the richest men in Jerusalem. One day, Rachel, the daughter of Ben Kalba Savua, looked at Akiva and was extremely impressed by his modesty and his gentleness with her father’s flocks. She also noticed in him a tremendous potential for accomplishment in Torah, although his potential was at this point totally unrealized.
Rachel approached the Shepherd Akiva and suggested that they get married (also putting a condition that he devote his life to Torah study.) When her father found out about this, he was very upset, because he had envisioned a person with at least a basic knowledge of Torah as a husband for his daughter, rather than an ignorant shepherd.
When Akiva became engaged to Rachel and Kalba Savua heard about it, he took a vow prohibiting her from eating from his property. Despite this, she went ahead and married him.
In the winter they would sleep in a storehouse of straw, and he [Akiva] would gather strands of straw from her hair. He said to her: If I had the means I would present you with a Jerusalem of Gold. A precious ornament in those times with an image of Jerusalem on it.
Eventually, that dream did come true.
Here is a beautiful rendition of the song Jerusalem of Gold composed by Naomi Shemer.
I chose a version performed by chassidic singer Shulem, to symbolically portray, how indeed, like Ramadan Shalah said, this song and its words, have penetrated the hearts of every Jew- from the most secular to the most religious, for indeed, under all the façade, we are all one, brought together by the vision and majesty of the golden city.
Shabbat Shalom!
Upcoming Classes
Sunday at 10 am- postponed until after Shavuot
Monday at 4:30- To be a Jew
Tuesday at 1- Parsha Class
Thursday at 4:30- Judaism’s Life Changing Ideas