This week, I experienced two profound moments that crystallized for me what Jerusalem means to the Jewish people. First, I stood on a sidewalk in my neighborhood, paying respects to another young soldier who had fallen in Gaza while defending the Jewish people and the Jewish state: a reminder of the price we continue to pay for our existence. The next day, I found myself walking through the Old City of Jerusalem at night, eventually reaching the Western Wall, where I prayed in the cool evening breeze, feeling a deep serenity that only that sacred space can provide. As the 17th of Tammuz approaches, marking the day when enemy forces first breached Jerusalem’s protective walls and beginning the tragic three weeks that led to the Temple’s destruction, these contrasting experiences reminded me that Jerusalem represents the eternal thread connecting Jewish sacrifice, Jewish prayer, and Jewish hope across the millennia.
The significance of Jerusalem transcends its physical boundaries. From the moment Abraham bound Isaac on Mount Moriah to the day when Jewish exiles sat by Babylon’s rivers and wept, Jerusalem has been the spiritual center around which Jewish life revolves. Even in destruction, even in exile, even across centuries of separation, Jerusalem remains alive in Jewish consciousness. It is mentioned in our prayers, remembered at our celebrations, and mourned at our weddings, where we recall that our joy cannot be complete as long as the Temple lies in ruins.
But what is it about Jerusalem that makes it so central to Jewish identity? What transforms a city built of stone and mortar into the very soul of a people scattered across the globe?
The answer lies in understanding that Jerusalem is not merely a place, but a divine appointment, the meeting point between heaven and earth that God Himself chose as His earthly dwelling. The Hebrew Bible reveals this profound truth when King Solomon, dedicating the First Temple, acknowledged that even the heavens cannot contain God, yet He has chosen to place His name in this specific location.
This divine selection transforms Jerusalem from a human city into a sacred space where the finite touches the infinite.
The biblical verse that perhaps best captures Jerusalem’s unique spiritual status comes from the book of Psalms:
This verse illuminates the mystical reality that Jerusalem (Zion) is not merely a city that humans decided to make holy, but rather a place that God Himself selected as His earthly residence. The Hebrew word ivah, desired, suggests not just a rational choice, but a deep, almost passionate longing. God desires Jerusalem with an intensity that awakens a corresponding yearning in the Jewish people for their holy city.
God’s choosing of Jerusalem was not merely symbolic; it came with a divine command that made it the spiritual capital of the Jewish people. The Torah instructs us:
This commandment established Jerusalem as the place where Jews were required to worship, where the Temple would stand, and where the divine presence would dwell among us. King David, recognizing this spiritual reality, captured Jerusalem and made it his political capital as well, uniting the earthly and heavenly kingdoms in one city.
This divine choosing is reflected even in the very name itself. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis of Great Britain offers a profound insight: Jerusalem’s Hebrew name, Yerushalayim, is in the plural form, as if to say “Jerusalems.” This is no linguistic accident. Like mayim (water), shamayim (heaven), and chayim (life), certain Hebrew words exist only in the plural because they represent concepts that transcend finite boundaries. Water flows endlessly toward horizons we cannot see. The heavens stretch infinitely beyond our vision. Life continues eternally beyond our mortal existence. And Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people. Though there have been times when it seemed we would lose her forever, Jerusalem has always remained at the heart of Jewish consciousness, calling us back across the centuries until we returned to her ancient streets.
The divine desire for Jerusalem explains why the city occupies such a central place in Jewish consciousness. When Jews pray three times daily, we face Jerusalem. When we celebrate Passover, we conclude with “Next year in Jerusalem.” When we mourn, we remember that our grief is connected to Jerusalem’s destruction. When we rejoice, we temper our joy with the memory of Jerusalem’s absence from our lives during the long exile. The 17th of Tammuz reminds us that Jerusalem’s significance isn’t diminished by destruction: if anything, loss intensifies love, and exile deepens devotion.
Walking through Jerusalem this week, I was struck by how the city embodies the Jewish story itself. Like the Jewish people, Jerusalem has been conquered, destroyed, rebuilt, and renewed. Like the Jewish people, it has survived against impossible odds. Like the Jewish people, it represents the triumph of the spirit over the material, the eternal over the temporal. The walls that were breached on the 17th of Tammuz were rebuilt. The Temple that was destroyed was remembered, yearned for, and will be restored. The people who were exiled have returned.
As we approach the 17th of Tammuz and enter the three-week mourning period, we are called not just to remember destruction, but to recognize that Jerusalem’s significance lies precisely in its ability to transform tragedy into hope, exile into return, and mourning into joy. Jerusalem teaches us that some bonds are unbreakable, some loves are eternal, and some appointments with destiny transcend the vicissitudes of history.
The young soldier whose life I honored this week fell defending not just our physical existence, but our eternal connection to Jerusalem itself. Hamas deliberately named their attack “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” invoking the very Temple Mount where Abraham bound Isaac and where our Temples once stood. At the root of this conflict lies the same ancient hatred that breached Jerusalem’s walls on the 17th of Tammuz millennia ago. Our enemies understand what we sometimes forget: that Jerusalem is not merely real estate, but the beating heart of Jewish identity.
We have returned to Israel and to Jerusalem, yet we still fight and still mourn. The Temple remains unbuilt, our enemies still seek our destruction, and brave young soldiers continue to pay the ultimate price for our survival. But this is precisely the meaning of Yerushalayim in the plural; we live simultaneously in the Jerusalem of today’s reality and tomorrow’s redemption. In choosing Jerusalem as His dwelling place, God showed us that the sacred and the mundane can coexist, that the divine and the human can meet, and that even in our darkest moments, the light of redemption continues to shine from the eternal city that remains forever at the center of Jewish hearts.
