It must be because of a course
I took with Heschel sometime in the 60’s:
Some twenty or so years ago
I was strolling in Jerusalem’s Emek Refaim
when two young girls — maybe 10 or 11 —
walked by just (stam) chattering.
I don’t remember if they were talking about new shoes
or a movie they had just seen,
but they were only (stam) chattering in Hebrew.
But I was (radically) amazed.
It was only a few decades before that
the (delusional) Eliezer Ben Yehuda
thought that it was as possible
as any historical Jewish miracle.
(And no less when Herzl [another madman?] wrote
“Today I founded the Jewish state”
fifty years before Independence Day #1).
And no less than the prophet Zechariah:
כֹּה אָמַר יְיָ צְבָ-אוֹת עֹד יֵשְׁבוּ זְקֵנִים וּזְקֵנוֹת בִּרְחֹבוֹת יְרֽוּשָׁלָיִם
וְאִישׁ מִשְׁעַנְתּוֹ בְּיָדוֹ מֵרֹב יָמִים: וּרְחֹבוֹת הָעִיר יִמָּלְאוּ יְלָדִים וִֽילָדוֹת מְשַׂחֲקִים בִּרְחֹבֹתֶיהָ:
Thus said the Lord of Hosts:
There shall yet be old men and women in the squares of Jerusalem,
Each with staff in hand because of their great age.
And the squares of the city shall be crowded
with boys and girls playing in the squares.
All this may be the meaning of the Talmudic sages
that two Jerusalems simultaneously exist:
a יְרוּשָׁלַיִם שֶׁל מַעֲלָה/a Yerushalayim shel Ma’alah —
a Jerusalem in Heaven
and a יְרוּשָׁלַיִם שֶׁל מַטָה/a Yerushalayim shel Mata —
a Jerusalem down here
(so soon after the destruction of the Temple
maybe they couldn’t conceive of
a יִשְׂרָאֵל שֶׁל מַעֲלָה/a Yisrael shel Ma’alah — a Heavenly Israel
and a יִשְׂרָאֵל שֶׁל מַטָה/a Yisrael shel Mata — the Israel as we know it,
with all its past and present challenges).
But I believe that is how we should live
a life of double vision
when we think of and speak of Israel,
and when we walk in the streets
past the ice cream stands
with their שׁוֹקוֹלד וַנִיל תּוּת/shokolad vanil tut flavors,
and when we lie down and when we rise up.
How many times have we read or heard
“Titus (the Crusaders, the Blood Libelers, Chmelnitzky, Hitler)
liegen tief in dr’erd — lie deep in their graves,
and we are here!”
So, Happy Birthday, Israel! — יוֹם הוּלֶדֶת שָׂמֵחַ!
מַזָּל טוֹב/Mazal Tov!
כֹּל הַכָּבוֹד/Kol HaKavod!
Danny Siegel, an alumnus of the JTS-Columbia undergraduate Joint Program, is a poet and lecturer on philanthropy, Tzedakah, and Jewish values. He founded the Ziv Tzedakah Fund, and is the author of 29 books.
