My Israeli Dream Come True
My favorite holiday of the whole year isn’t Passover or Rosh Hashana or Succot or Chanukah or any of the other biggies.
My favorite holiday is Jerusalem Day.* And this is why…
I first celebrated Jerusalem Day during my first visit to Israel in 1992. I found my way to downtown Jerusalem from the Baalot Teshuva seminary where I was studying, and discovered Jaffa Road flooded by a sea of 10s of 1000s of religious Israeli teenagers dancing with Israeli flags.
And I knew at that moment that THAT was what I wanted.
I still hadn’t met my husband. I still wasn’t even religious.
But I saw those kids, and I think that in my heart I prayed my first honest-to-goodness prayer: “Hashem, THIS is what I want. I want to have children like these children. Proud to be Jews. Proud to be Israeli. Idealistic. Strong. Religious, just like these kids. Please God!”
So for the next few years, I attended the Jerusalem Day celebrations. First on my own. And then with my boyfriend, Joshua. And then with my husband, Joshua. And then with my husband, Joshua, and a baby…
And every year as I joined those crowds of dancing teenagers, I was filled with that same unspoken prayer that lit afire every ounce of my being.
Please God, please God.
And yesterday, 19 years after those dancing teenagers first filled me with such intense yearning, I celebrated with my own 6 Israeli children in those crowds.
I celebrated with a flag in my hand, with tears in my eyes, and with intense gratitude to Hashem in my heart for my answered prayer.
My life.
Because with its frustrations. And with its challenges. And with its ups and downs, I know that my life is my own Israeli dream come true.
Here is a 3-minute Aish.com Jerusalem Day video featuring my favorite song, Jerusalem of Gold.
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In 1967, with the invasion of Arab armies on all fronts, the government ordered the digging of mass graves. They were expecting another Holocaust. But, in fact, Hashem sent us a completely unexpected and miraculous victory. In this video, you can see the dramatic events of the end of completion of the 6 Day War. You can hear Rabbi Shlomo Goren’s emotional declaration, “The Temple Mount is in our Hands!” and his announcement that “At this moment, I am going down to the Western Wall! At this moment, I am touching the Western Wall!” as well as his blessing on the Temple Mount: “Blessed are you, our Lord, Master of the Universe, who comforts Zion and builds Jerusalem.”
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couldnt that tank just blow up the mosque right then and there?? haval…how moving- thanks CJ