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 Ascending in Holiness – to Yerushalayim Yom Yerushalayim – Rabbi Eliezer Shenvald
 

On the night that we commemorate Yom Yerushalayim, we will assemble in synagogues to thank and praise G-d for the wonders and miracles that He performed for us "in those days in this season" - during the Six Day War in its entirety, and especially in the liberating of Jerusalem and our holiest place. "Halleluyah! Praise the name of G-d, praise Him O servants of G-d, who stand in the house of G-d, in the courtyards of the house of our Lord. Halleluyah! For G-d is good, sing to His name for it is pleasant." (Tehillim 135:1-3) "Halleluyah! Give thanks to G-d for He is good, and His kindness is eternal. Who will tell G-d's mighty acts, proclaim all His praise?" (Tehillim 106:1-2)
Even though I was a child in the days of the Six Day War, and forty-nine years have passed since then, I remember it like yesterday. The military parade on the 19th Yom HaAtzmaut (תשכ"ז-1967) and the whispering between the neighborhood's adults about an unusual occurrence on the parade's presidential platform. The reason became known later – at that moment the nation's leaders were informed that the Egyptian army was crossing the Suez Canal and entering Sinai, which could only mean a declaration of war against Israel. Afterwards the "waiting period" - the tense days when my father was called up for duty, and the atmosphere of apprehension about the potential outcome of a war against all the Arab countries, about three decades after the Holocaust.

The breaking out of the war, the sirens, the thunder of cannons from east of the city (Safed, my childhood town) which bombarded Rosh Pinnah and even reached the valley east of the city. The air battles we witnessed between our planes and Syrian planes, and the hours of waiting and sleeping in bomb shelters. But more than anything else, I will never forget the unparalleled elation in the neighborhood shelter when we heard over the transistor radios: "The Temple Mount is in our hands!" The rejoicing was spontaneous, vocal and shared by all: Israeli-born "tzabbarim" and Holocaust survivors, religious and secular, Ashkenazim and Sefardim. Soon after my father returned from the war, the whole family including my grandfather travelled to Jerusalem, to the Kotel, to Rachel's tomb and to The Cave of Machpelah. The joy and excitement were tremendous, the euphoria of victory incomprehensible.
In those days there was no need to debate over the character and significance of Yom Yerushalayim as the joy was spontaneous. The questions arose as the years passed and the emotions subsided.
No pretense will be made that any words can express the importance and significance of Jerusalem for the Jewish world, for the Jewish faith and for the State of Israel. Let us touch on one point which reflects the essence of the integration between the Divine world and the secular world.

The essence of the Jewish world is the integration between the holy and the secular. Judaism acts as a model for integration and sets up a structured order. Holiness and secularity are like a two-story building, where the level of secularity is built first, and afterwards the level of holiness. "They construct in secularity and afterwards sanctify it." (Me'ilah 14a) "Meaning, when they construct or repair the Mikdash, they purchase materials with secular (unsanctified) money or take all which was needed on faith, and after the construction was finished they sanctified it. (Rashi) The ascent from building the mundane level to building the holy level is in the spirit of "Ma'alin beKodesh ve ain moridin" - we must go up (progress) in holiness and not descend (regress). (Shabbat 22a)  When the second story is built, it gives the first story its value, and both of them become one building which cannot be divided.
Similarly, man was created first physically and only afterwards the spirit of life was breathed into him: "And G-d formed the man of dust from the earth, and He breathed into his nostrils a spirit of life. (Bereshis 2:7)

The process of the building and redemption of Am Israel is built on a two-story model: "I am the G-d your Lord who took you out of the land of Egypt from being their slaves, and broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk kommemiut (upright)." (Vayikra 26:13) The doubling in the word kommemiut (from the root komah – stature or level) is given the meaning of two stories: Rabbi Meir says, two hundred cubits, twice the height of the First Man." (Babba Bathra 75a) "Kommemiut – two komot (stories). (Rashbam)

The two-story model is a foundation in the Torah of Rav Kook ztz"l: "As the body and the soul together are a complete level, physical and spiritual, and so the resurrection of the dead complements the physical and makes it eternal, therefore it was established in the observance of His laws that G-d makes us walk "kommemiut", two stories…" (Olat Ra'ayah vol. 1 p. 242) In the entire course of life, the mundane awakens first and afterwards the Divine must awaken, to complete the rebirth of the mundane, to refine it and to rescue it from ugliness and waste…woe is to Divinity if it will say: "Since the mundane emerged at the beginning of the world, it trespassed my boundary. Therefore I will only know to fight against it, to destroy that which it will build…" (Ma'amarei HaRa'ayah p.404) The second story is built out of the first story; it doesn't stand alone. But from the moment it is built, it comprises the level of content of the entire building, without which the structure loses its value.
So it is with Eretz Israel and Jerusalem. Eretz Israel is the first floor, and above it is the level of the holiness of Jerusalem: "There are ten levels of holiness. Eretz Israel is the most sanctified of all the countries… inside the wall (of Jerusalem) is most sanctified of them all…" (Mishna Kelim 6,1) The circles increase in holiness from outside to inside, to the inner point of holiness.

Moving from the Diaspora to Eretz Israel is called "Aliyah" (going up) but so is moving from Eretz Israel to Jerusalem: "One can force his family to move up to Eretz Israel, but he cannot force them to leave. One can force his family to move up to Jerusalem, but he cannot force them to leave." (Mishna Ketubot 13, 11 paraphrased according to Kehati) And the reason: we must go up in holiness and not descend.

In all the generations, the conquest and sanctification of Eretz Israel preceded the conquest and sanctification of Jerusalem. Yehoshua conquered Eretz Israel but not Jerusalem. "And B'nei Yehuda could not drive out the Yivusi who dwelled in Jerusalem." (Yehoshua 15:63) Jerusalem was conquered hundreds of years later by David. (II Shmuel ch.5) On the other hand, David is criticized when he conquers foreign territory before he conquers Jerusalem: "And if you ask, why did David conquer Aram Naharayim and Aram Tzuba, where the mitzvot of Eretz Israel are not observed? They said that David acted not according to the Torah! The Torah says that after Eretz Israel has been conquered, you will be permitted to conquer foreign lands. He didn't do this but went and conquered Aram Naharayim and Aram Tzuba. The Yivusi which was close to Jerusalem he didn't expel. G-d said to him: Near your own palace you didn't expel, how do you go and conquer Aram Naharayim and Aram Tzuba? (Sifri Parshat Eikev piskah 15)

Furthermore, the location of Jerusalem "the place which G-d will choose" wasn't revealed at all when they entered the land of Israel, only later in the days of David. Jerusalem is the spiritual and moral level of the Kodesh. It comes at a later stage, when the infrastructure of the first story is ready.

Also in our latest redemption, the conquest of the land in תש"ח (1948) preceded the conquest of Jerusalem in תשכ"ז (1967). On the calendar as well, every year we commemorate Yom HaAtzmaut before Yom Yerushalayim. "Ma'alin beKodesh le Yerushalayim" – we ascend in holiness to Jerusalem.