A 17th of Tammuz reflection on why one small city still matters to the world.

I write these words as the sun rises over Jerusalem.

The first light breaks across the hills of this extraordinary city, just as it has for thousands of years. Long before today’s headlines, before kingdoms rose and fell, before empires came and went, the sun rose over Jerusalem.

Today is the 17th of Tammuz, the day that marks the breaching of Jerusalem’s walls before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. It begins the Three Weeks of national mourning that culminate in Tisha B’Av.

As I fast, I find myself asking a simple question.

Why do Jews still fast for Jerusalem?

Why does the destruction of a city nearly two thousand years ago still shape Jewish life today?

History is full of cities that have been conquered and destroyed. Most have become little more than chapters in history books.

Yet Jerusalem is different.

It is one of the smallest and least geographically significant cities in the world. It has no great river, no oil, no natural harbour. Yet it has become the spiritual heart of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and remains the most contested city on earth.

Because Jerusalem is about far more than territory.

It represents identity.

It represents legitimacy.

It represents the question of what kind of society humanity wishes to build.

Jerusalem Is in Our DNA

To understand why Jews still fast for Jerusalem, one must first understand that Jerusalem has never left the Jewish people.

For almost two thousand years, Jews did not simply remember Jerusalem during times of crisis.

We remembered Jerusalem every single day.

At the end of every Passover Seder, after retelling the story of freedom from Egypt, Jews conclude:

“Next year in Jerusalem.”

Not next year in London.

Not next year in New York.

Not next year in safety or prosperity.

Next year in Jerusalem.

After every meal, in the Birkat Hamazon (Grace After Meals), Jews pray for God’s mercy on Israel and for the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

Three times every day, in the Amidah, Jews........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)