How to Celebrate Yom Yerushalaim 5786 | Rabbi Menachem Mendel Blachman

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── Shiur Outline ──
(0:08) Yom Yerushalayim's Decline and Youth Celebration
(1:21) Diaspora vs Israel: Significance of Yom Yerushalayim
(2:51) Paris Visit: Ecclesia and Synagoga Encounter
(4:35) Supersessionism Explained Through Art
(6:12) Zionist Congress, Herzl, and Christian Opposition
(8:58) Catholic Recognition and Post‑1967 Shifts
(11:05) Theological Link Between Independence Day and Jerusalem Day

AI-Generated Summary (AI can be inaccurate. Check important information):

1. Theological significance — Rather than being a municipal local holiday, Yom Yerushalayim represents a profound theological shift in how the world perceives the eternity of the Jewish people and their covenant.
2. Refuting supersessionism — The return to Biblical heartlands (Judea and Samaria) and the reunification of Jerusalem shattered the Christian theological claim of "supersessionism," which argues the Church replaced Israel.
3. Mashiach ben Yosef — The external restoration of national symbols, including the land, language, and sovereignty, is the stage of Mashiach ben Yosef, as explained by Rav Kook.
4. Geulah in stages — The Jewish redemption unfolds kima kima (bit by bit), with the establishment of the State in 1948 forming the foundation and the victory in 1967 serving as its theological climax.
5. A national identity — The return to Jerusalem and the West Bank proved that Jews are not merely a religious group in the Golah (exile) but a sovereign nation with a living covenant.
6. Lasting covenant — The events of 1967 forced the world, and specifically the Catholic Church, to reconcile with the reality that lo yasur shevet miYehuda (the scepter shall not depart from Judah).
7. Day of Revelation — The speaker suggests viewing the day not just as "Jerusalem Day," but as Yom Gilui HaBrit (the Day of Covenantal Revelation), celebrating God's public confirmation of His promise to the children of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov.

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Hi,

this is ערב שבת קודש במדבר and especially it's ערב יום ירושלים.

I've already spoken about this in the past,

but I think it's so significant,

I think we should review this.

יום ירושלים has diminished into a municipal holiday.

I mean the fact of the matter is that here in Israel,

I don't know what it's like in the גולה,

but here in Israel the only people that actually celebrate this are the youth

of the דתי לאומי Judaism.

For other people it's a regular day of work.

They may say הלל in שול but then they run off.

I mean there's no,

it's not really a day that people are contemplating and thanking God for anything.

I repeat,

it's good for the adolescents.

You look carefully at who runs around Jerusalem on that day you'll see it's

usually high school children.

And obviously ישיבות are there but really as soon as they go to work,

they go out to the regular world,

somehow this dissipates.

I find that in חוץ לארץ it seems to be more significant.

Very interesting to see why,

but when it comes to ארץ ישראל it's a municipal holiday.

Like no one's celebrating it in Tel Aviv and no one even remembers it

in Haifa.

It's purely local.

And there's a terrible question as to why and I think something historically has

been misconstrued and has caused this what I think a very not positive reality.

But for whatever reason it be and I'm not going into the historical reality

somehow they chose to celebrate the tremendous victory and miracles of salvation and extension

of our borders and return to our נחלת אבות on כ"ח אייר,

the day of liberation of the כותל,

of ירושלים and not at the end of the war which was actually three

days later,

I mean the war in the Golan normally started then and this focused on

ירושלים,

which understandably why emotionally it's clearly understood,

but this has taken the focus of the day to a slightly myopic dimensions.

Let me tell you what I feel when I look at יום ירושלים and

I see it as an extension of יום העצמאות.

Years ago I was in Paris on י"ז בתמוז and I had to be

there for a day or two,

my in-laws live there.

I went to the Louvre the great museum and I decided to go through

the different Roman pavilion halls to see a bust of Titus,

I wanted to see what Titus and Vespasian looked like,

after all they're depicted in a certain way in the Talmud in גיטין they're

depicted differently totally by Josephus.

I'd like to see what they looked like.

I go there whatever I saw I saw,

then I sauntered into a hall and there was a bust a beautiful statue

actually a replica of something which is found on the facade of the great

cathedral in Strasbourg and it's a very famous piece of art,

it's called Ecclesia and Synagoga,

the Church and the Synagogue.

And it's literally a beautiful statue of two beautiful young ladies,

twins,

but one of them has a crown on her head a scepter and with

an orb and on the orb obviously the church she was depicting Mother Church

and her twin was blindfolded no crown obviously her her dress was torn and

she had a broken staff.

And this was Judea,

this was Synagoga.

I sat there for a long time contemplating that statue.

It really brought me to tears and then I did my research and I

learned about this.

This is actually the depiction of the Christian theology called supersessionism,

something which was elaborated in by Justin Martyr or Augustine of Hippo in his

book The City of God,

the idea that God had finished,

broken,

call it what you want,

the covenant with the children of אברהם יצחק ויעקב and now Mother...

church became the New Testament as the new covenant,

they're the new Israel.

And we only exist because we are to somehow be testimony to the veracity

of the of the Old Testament leading to the life of this fellow called

Jesus of Nazareth.

But we would no more be a nation,

we would be dispersed and therefore that is the story of our גלות as

a punishment for not accepting his divinity.

I looked at this and this is what I saw,

this is something which was a cornerstone of the church for years,

centuries and the foundation of Christian anti-semitism.

This is what חז"ל say דעתידים אומות העולם לומר אנו ישראל in the future

the nations of the world say we are the Jews.

This is actually a מדרש,

a פסוק in יחזקאל,

I'm not going in it at the moment but yet this has been foreseen

centuries before.

One has to understand that when the Zionist Congress specifically through Theodor Herzl who

wanted to renew our sense of Jewish nationalism and national identity that we're not

just a people and a religion but actually we are a kingdom and we

are a nation and we have a land and a language and so on

and so forth,

the greatest opposition to it was the Christian church.

For the Christian church believed that this can never be for theologically there's no

such thing,

literally saying סר שבט מיהודה the שבט of authority of מלכות is no more

by Judea and it moved to Christian church.

Well then on יום העצמאות God basically sent a very big message to the

world that לא יסור שבט מיהודה ומחוקק מבין רגליו that no,

we are a nation and we all of a sudden came out literally as

the phoenix out of the ashes and regained our national identity in our natural

country and would you believe it we even have our old language back again.

The external כלים of מלכות have returned to כלל ישראל.

Oh yes,

this is what רב קוק discusses in his מספד בירושלים of מלכות of משיח

בן יוסף.

The externalities of a national definition have been returned.

Oh yes,

we're still waiting for משיח בן דוד.

We still have to fill that national identity and those כלים of land,

culture,

history with our original culture of לדעת כי ה' הוא האלקים אין עוד מלבדו

this is what will happen ומלאה הארץ דעה את ה' כמים לים מכסים,

that's the next stage.

And we see it coming slowly but surely,

but first and foremost the great revolution telling the world that supersessionism is wrong,

God never left this covenant and we have always been his nation.

But that you should you know that the Catholic church did not recognize the

state of Israel.

Still remember when this Pope what was his name again,

Pius or Paul,

Paul,

Paul,

did not want to come into Jerusalem and and רב נסים the chief rabbi

was not willing to go meet him on the on the border between Jordan

and Israel because he didn't want to show recognition to supersessionism.

Yes,

and then and they claimed you know this isn't really a nation because we

don't have biblical Judea and Samaria.

We basically own the coastline which is basically ארץ הפלשתים or the Galilee.

And then came 1967 and within a short period of time we recovered

all of יהודה and שומרון.

Yes,

the war in the Golan continued further,

but that has security ramifications but not really theological ramifications.

Yes,

כ"ח אייר became basically the day of recapturing biblical Israel.

This created a major rupture in the church until finally John Paul,

what is his name,

the second,

was a good man,

he basically...

Convened his congress,

whatever they have over there,

and they redefined that they walked away from the extreme supersessionism and all of

a sudden the Jews are no more they are a nation which must be

represented recognized and they do have a covenant with God and the church no

more replaces us but rather is our twin and then they have a מחלוקת

is it two covenants for one for us one for them וכולי וכולי וכולי.

You know what this is?

In 1967 God said the Jews are a nation and my covenant is intact

and this is our land and this is our language and this is משיח

בן יוסף.

We displaced Catholic Christian theology and brought back the פסוק of לא יסור שבט

מיהודה ומחקק מבין רגליו.

This my friends is the theological importance of יום העצמאות leading to יום ירושלים.

It came in stages גאולתן של ישראל קמעא קמעא.

Yes it went in stages.

It started with the Holocaust and ended up with ה' אייר תש"ח and gave

to a great climax כ"ח באייר תשכ"ז.

Yes it's really worth celebrating.

It's worth taking out that flag.

It's worth saying הודו להשם כי טוב כי לעולם חסדו יאמרו גאולי השם because

this is a great day.

It's the day of remembering that we are a nation and God's covenant is

with us forever.

Have an impactful יום,

I wouldn't even call it יום ירושלים,

יום חידוש הברית,

יום גילוי הברית.

This is the great day,

it coincides obviously with יום ירושלים,

but actually it's much more than that.

It's not ירושלים.

It's not just יהודה ושומרון.

It's the day of לא יסור שבט מיהודה ומחקק מבין רגליו.

Have a great impactful holiday and a good שבת.