Last Shabbos we walked the Old City of Jerusalem where there has been a Jewish presence since the time of our Temple. The Jews were all expelled from there in 1948, after a heroic battle against the Jordanians in the War of Independence. Following a heavy siege, the Jews assembled in a square in the Old City where they surrendered to the Arabs. After kicking them out, the Jordanians proceeded to flatten the Jewish Quarter of the Old City in the hopes of the Jews never returning.
As we reached the courtyard, I was moved to tears. Etched upon the wall was a prophecy of our prophet Zechariah uttered 2800 years ago (Zechariah 8:4-5): "Old men and old women will once again sit in the open places of Jerusalem, each one with his cane in his hand, because of their great age. The city's open places will also be full of boys and girls playing there."
Wow! We were witnessing a biblical prophecy unfold before our very eyes. We could barely pass through the quaint alleyways and beautiful streets without bumping into little kinderlach with yarmulkes and peyos, into young girls singing and dancing in the courtyards and side streets, whilst their chatty bubbehs and smiling zeides supervised them from a distance.
In another heartwarming experience, we were walking home late Friday night after an exhilarating Shabbos dinner on a rooftop overlooking the Western Wall, the Mount of Olives (oldest Jewish cemetery in the world) and most of Jerusalem, heading back to our hotel. It must’ve been close to 1:00 AM when we bumped into a young man and woman who asked us if we would like some mango juice. Seemed pretty random! Turns out that these two had just gotten married a day or two earlier and were still in the midst of their wedding celebrations.
"Yet again there shall be heard in this place...the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride." (Jeremiah 33:10-11)
Perhaps it was the generous l’chaims at dinner; perhaps it was the intoxicating view of all of Jewish History which surrounded us from that rooftop; or perhaps it was the novelty we sensed in meeting two apparent strangers on a Jerusalem Street corner just outside the city walls, celebrating their joy with us as brothers and sisters. Whatever the inspiration, we burst into spontaneous song and dance. The men locked arms with the groom; the women with the bride. For ten or fifteen minutes on that street corner in Jerusalem, our differences melted away as we celebrated with the young couple, expressing the joy of being in our homeland with our brethren. Indeed, last Friday Night at 1:00 AM, the sound of the groom and the sound of the bride rang loud and clear through the outskirts of Jerusalem as the prophecy promises!
The promise of rebuilding and Jewish renewal is everywhere to be seen in the Holy Land. Even on the graffiti on this stop sign in Tel Aviv! Have you ever seen graffiti this classy?! Look closely at the attached photo we snapped.....
We experienced both these prophecies fulfilled on a very sad day in the Jewish Calendar: the 17th of Tammuz is the day that the Romans breached the walls of Jerusalem as they prepared to burn her down entirely three weeks later in 69 CE. We still fast on this day and the three weeks between now and Tisha B'Av are days of mourning. Indeed, as part of our walking tour of the City, we actually walked over the fallen stones of the walls of Jerusalem that haven’t moved in the past 1946 years (they’re simply too heavy and they’re an archeological treasure).
The Talmud tells us the story of four sages who walked by the ruins of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem soon after its destruction. Three of them burst into bitter tears, but the fourth, Rabbi Akiva, burst out laughing. Seeing their astonishment at his irreverence, Rabbi Akiva explained to his companions: "Just as I see the fulfillment of the prophecies of destruction, so too am I assured of the prophecies of rebuilding". One prophecy fulfilled assures us that the rest will be fulfilled too.
The three rabbis responded to Rabbi Akiva: "Akiva you have comforted us; Akiva you have comforted us." May we experience the same. May the prophecies we witnessed with our own eyes and ears this last Shabbos inspire us all too, to say that just as these prophecies of rebuilding have been fulfilled, so too will all the other prophecies of Moshiach’s arrival and the era of world peace, harmony and G-dly revelation, be fulfilled speedily in our days too!