Six Day War – Israeli victory – Documentary – War of Redemption |
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 the Jewish Virtual Library. logo https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org Jewish Holidays: Yom Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Dayhttps://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/yom-yerushalayim-jerusalem-day
Yom Yerushalayim (
The liberation of Jerusalem in 1967 marked the first time in thousands of years that the entire city of Jerusalem, the holiest city in Judaism, was under Jewish sovereignty. The destruction of Jerusalem was a watershed event in Jewish history that began thousands of years of mourning for Jerusalem, so, it follows, that the reunification of Jerusalem should be a joyous celebration that begins the process of reversing thousands of years of destruction and exile. Jerusalem is central to the Jewish tradition. Jews face in the direction of Jerusalem and all of the prayer services are filled with references to Jerusalem.
The observance of Yom Yerushalayim outside of the city cannot compare to its celebration in reunited Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, thousands of people march around the city and walk through the liberated Old City, where Jews were denied access from 1948 to 1967 while it was under Jordanian control. The march ends at the Kotel (Western Wall), one of the ancient retaining walls surrounding the Temple Mount, Judaism‘s holiest site. Once everyone gets to the Kotel, there are speeches and concerts and celebratory dancing.
Rare in the Jewish liturgy, a festive Hallel is recited during the evening prayers. This practice is only done on the first night (and, outside of Israel, on the second night) of Passover and Yom Ha’atzmaut. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel declared that the holiday version of Pseuki d’Zimra and Hallel should be recited. According to the major religious Zionist halakhists (decisors of Jewish law), even those who do not recite the blessing over Hallel (psalms of praise) on Yom Ha’atzmaut should recite it on Yom Yerushalayim because the liberation and reunification over the entire city of Jerusalem is said to be of an even greater miracle than Jewish political sovereignty over part of the land of Israel.
Many religious leaders also hold that the mourning restrictions of 33 days of the omer are lifted on Yom Yerushalayim for those who observe them after Lag B’omer. …
… The Israeli government decreed in 2004 that each year on Jerusalem day a national memorial ceremony would be held to commemorate and acknowledge the desires and contributions of the Ethiopian Jewish community.
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Israel celebrates Jerusalem DayJerusalem, capital of Israel, divided during the 1948 War of Independence, was reunited in June 1967. On May 29 2022 (28 Iyyar 5782) Israel celebrates Jerusalem Day, marking the reunification of the nation’s capital.Type: Information Topic: About Israel Israel Experience Secondary topic: Facts about Israel History Publish Date: 29.05.2022  Western Wall-Rabin-Dayan-Narkis
Since the time of King David, except for the 19 years between 1948 and 1967, there has always been a Jewish presence in the ancient city of Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. From 1948 until 1967, the western part of the city was in Israeli hands, while the ancient, eastern part – apart from a small Israeli enclave on Mount Scopus – was under Jordanian control.
Jerusalem, divided during the 1948 War of Independence, was reunited in June 1967.
“Peace has now returned with our forces in control of all the city and its environs. You may rest assured that no harm whatsoever shall come to the places sacred to all religions. I have requested the Minister of Religious Affairs to get in touch with the religious leaders in the Old City in order to ensure regular contact between them and our forces, so as to make certain that the former may continue their spiritual activities unhindered.” – Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, June 7, 1967
King David made Jerusalem the capital of his kingdom and the religious center of the Jewish people in 1003 BCE. Some forty years later, his son Solomon built the Temple (the religious and national center of the people of Israel) and transformed the city into the prosperous capital of an empire extending from the Euphrates to Egypt.
Exiled by Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE, who conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple, the Jews were allowed to return and rebuild the city and the Temple some 50 years later by the Persian King Cyrus.
Alexander the Great conquered Jerusalem in 332 BCE. The later desecration of the Temple and attempts to suppress Jewish religious identity under the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV resulted in a revolt led by Judah Maccabbee, who rededicated the Temple (164 BCE) and re-established Jewish independence under the Hasmonean dynasty.
A century later, Pompey imposed Roman rule on Jerusalem. King Herod, installed as ruler of Judah by the Romans (37 – 4 BCE), established cultural institutions in Jerusalem, erected magnificent public buildings and refashioned the Temple into an edifice of splendor.
Jewish revolt against Rome broke out in 66 CE, as Roman rule after Herod’s death became increasingly oppressive. In 70 CE, Roman legions under Titus conquered the city and destroyed the Temple. Jewish independence was briefly restored during the Bar Kochba revolt (132-135), but again the Romans prevailed. Jews were forbidden to enter the city, renamed Aelia Capitolina.
After Byzantine conquest of the city (313), Jerusalem was transformed into a Christian center under Emperor Constantine, with the Church of the Holy Sepulcher the first of many grandiose structures built in the city.
Muslim armies invaded the country in 634, and four years later Caliph Omar captured Jerusalem. Only during the reign of Abdul Malik, who built the Dome of the Rock (691), did Jerusalem briefly become the seat of a caliph.
The Crusaders conquered Jerusalem in 1099, massacred its Jewish and Muslim inhabitants, and established the city as the capital of the Crusader Kingdom. Synagogues were destroyed, old churches were rebuilt and many mosques were turned into Christian shrines. Crusader rule over Jerusalem ended in 1187, when the city fell to Saladin.
In 1247 Jerusalem fell once more to Egypt, now ruled by the Mamluks, until the conquest by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. Suleiman the Magnificent rebuilt the city walls (1537). After his death, the central authorities in Constantinople took little interest in Jerusalem and the city declined.
Jerusalem began to thrive once more in the latter half of the 19th century. Growing numbers of Jews returning to their land, waning Ottoman power and revitalized European interest in the Holy Land led to renewed development of Jerusalem.
The British army led by General Allenby conquered Jerusalem in 1917. From 1922 to 1948, Jerusalem was the administrative seat of the British authorities in the Land of Israel (Palestine), which had been entrusted to Great Britain by the League of Nations.  Mandelbaum Gate 1964 GPOMoshe Pridan
Division and reunification Upon termination of the British Mandate on May 14, 1948, and in accordance with the UN resolution of November 29, 1947, Israel proclaimed its independence, with Jerusalem as its capital. Opposing its establishment, the Arab countries launched an all-out assault on the new state, resulting in the 1948-49 War of Independence. The armistice lines drawn at the end of the war divided Jerusalem into two, with Jordan occupying the Old City and areas to the north and south, and Israel retaining the western and southern parts of the city.
When the Six-Day War broke out in June 1967, Israel contacted Jordan through the U.N. as well as the American Embassy, and made it clear that if Jordan refrained from attacking Israel, Israel would not attack Jordan. Nevertheless, the Jordanians attacked west Jerusalem and occupied the former High Commissioner’s building. Following heavy fighting, the IDF recovered the compound and removed the Jordanian army from east Jerusalem, resulting in the reunification of the city.
From the IDF website:
After the liberation of the city by the IDF, the walls dividing the city were torn down. Three weeks later, the Knesset enacted legislation unifying the city and extending Israeli sovereignty over the eastern part of the city.
The reunification of the city was also a fundamental moment in the history of religious tolerance, opening the city of Jerusalem to worshippers of all faiths, permitting Jews to return to the Western Wall and other holy sites, and allowing Israeli Muslims and Christians to visit those sacred places in eastern Jerusalem from which they too had been barred since 1948.
One year later, in 1968, it was decided that the day marking the liberation and reunification of Jerusalem – 28 Iyar according to the Jewish lunar calendar – would be national holiday in Israel. On Jerusalem Day we celebrate the reunification of the city and the Jewish people’s connection with Jerusalem throughout the ages.
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From Mandelbaum Gate to Chut Shel ChessedAfter the miraculous events of the Six Day War (26-Iyar to 2-Sivan), Jews were allowed to return to their city. The Mandelbaum Gate, formerly the physical gate to Jerusalem, became Chut shel Chessed, the spiritual gate to Jerusalem.Rabbi Jacob Rupp | Posted on 25May2025 | https://breslev.com/259784/  From Mandelbaum Gate to Chut Shel Chessed
For years, we watched in desperate envy and frustration as foreigners passed into the holy city unmolested while we could only stand at Mandelbaum Gate and watch.
Our nation is pursuing a dream. To some, our dream may seem trivial; to others, impossible to attain. Millions have worked towards it and thousands of years have passed, but we remain unabashed in our efforts to merit its fulfillment.
For two thousand years we have waited to come home. We have longed to gather in Eretz Yisroel, to rebuild our Third Temple, and to renew the close relationship with God that we once had.
The path to this goal has been paved with hardships. The monuments of our struggles and misery lie scattered throughout the world. They are found in nearly every country, from the remains of the Death Camps in Poland to Masada in Eretz Yisrael. Yet, despite our struggles, we persevere. From the story of Yosef and his brothers, we learn that before God gives us a test, He gives us the tools to overcome it. Like the night is the darkest right before dawn, oftentimes, the very article of our despair becomes a key to our salvation.
Today, we are plagued by an almost ironic taste of our redemption. We get so close to complete destruction and then, overnight, we can almost sense the beginning of our salvation. We can all but see the hand of our Creator guiding us. Who could have ever imagined the broken, bloodied souls limping out of Auschwitz, all the way to the holy city of Jerusalem?
Today, we are blessed to live in and visit the old city of Jerusalem. Nearly forty years ago, however, that was impossible. Today, the streets of Meah Shearim are full of commerce, shouting children, young families, and vibrant Yiddishkeit. Four decades ago, the area was a virtual war zone, located on the border between Israel and her hostile Arab neighbor. Where today schools and homes stand, one journalist described the area from 1948-1967 as “a ramshackle affair of corrugated tin checkpoints separated on each side by a wide, cobblestone expanse of street.” The bullet holes in the buildings testify to the violence that was an almost daily affair. For close to two decades, we suffered everything from kidnapping and beatings to sniper fire. But even more painful than the violence we endured was the knowledge that the Kotel, the last remnant of our Holy Temple, remained just beyond our reach.
Following the war of Independence, the entire Old City, including the Kotel, was under Jordanian control. The Arabs destroyed our synagogues, desecrated hundreds of our graves, and reduced the Old City into a crumbling, desolate village. Sewage ran down the main streets, and farm animals defecated on the stones upon which our holy sages had once walked.
Jerusalem was divided between East and West; old and new. Mandelbaum Gate was the only point of connection between the no man’s land that split the city. It was through this passage that people – Christian pilgrims, Western journalists, and Arabs, but no Jews – could cross into the Old City.
For years, we watched in desperate envy and frustration as foreigners passed into the holy city unmolested while we could only stand at Mandelbaum Gate and watch. We were so close to our enemy that we could see and speak to those Jordanian soldiers who refused to allow us entry. Every day we would see them stand on our holy ground while we remained powerless to remove them. At times the area was calm, at other times the soldiers would fire at us and our children.
Yet we never lost hope. People would climb onto the roofs of the highest buildings to watch the sun set over our holy city held hostage. All this came to an end, when, during the miraculous events of the Six Day War (26-Iyar to 2-Sivan), Mandelbaum Gate was torn down. We were allowed to return to our city.
Now, fast forward to today; the Old City has been rebuilt and is a popular place to visit, spend time, and pray. Meah Shearim has developed into a gem of traditional Judaism. But where Mandelbaum Gate once stood as a dreary symbol of Jerusalem divided, something amazing is going on.
On the site of so much frustration and despair, a new flame is being kindled! Jewish men are discovering their roots. The sound of Torah learning emanates from a building which had once, on a very physical level, separated us from our roots.
In what can only be described as a miracle, Chut Shel Chessed Institutions was given the privilege of changing Mandelbaum Gate from a source of spiritual frustration to a fountain of spiritual growth.
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Go and Take Possession of the LandRabbi Arush gives an impassioned plea to live in Eretz Yisrael. There is no reason to be afraid. The more Jews who come, the greater the blessings will be. We are so close to building the Beit Hamikdash! Now, more than ever, is the time to come!Rabbi Shalom Arush | Posted on 06January2026 | https://breslev.com/4842746/  Go and Take Possession of the Land-by Rabbi Shalom Arush
Translated from Rabbi Arush’s feature article in the weekly Chut shel Chessed newsletter. The articles focus on his main message: “Loving others as yourself” and emuna.
And I am in ExileIn my latest trip to the diaspora, I visited many communities in France. I met Jews who felt very persecuted and frightened, the ground under their feet was unstable. This situation is shared by many Jews throughout the world. Antisemites have come to power in France. And in its neighbor, England, the change of government doesn’t bode well.
Every place I came to, I did my best to strengthen the people and teach them the perfect emuna (faith) that Hashem will do only good for us and will never abandon the Jewish People, and that we have no one to depend upon except our Father in Heaven. But at the same time, I called to them there, and I will continue to call to all Jews in the world, to immigrate to the Land of Israel.
This message is true for all of us: We, too, who are living in the Holy Land, must participate in the great effort to bring all Jews to Israel. And the effort on our part is mainly through our obligation to pray, as we wrote last week. We must know that an inseparable part of prayer for the Jewish People is the prayer for diaspora Jews, that Hashem should protect them wherever they are. Hashem should awaken them all to come on Aliyah to the Land of Israel, grant them the willingness and the ability to do so, and grant that there will be agreement of all family members to come to Israel. It is not for nothing that we pray three times a day in the Amidah about the ingathering of the exiles.
All of us must understand, on the one hand, the tremendous danger that is threatening Jews all over the world – both a material and a spiritual threat. Jewish institutions and shuls throughout the world are receiving the highest level of threats. On the other hand, we must understand the tremendous difficulty involved in coming on Aliyah. For many Jews this is an extremely difficult step to take. It is very hard to leave large and beautiful homes, jobs, good living conditions, household help, institutions, society, language, and a familiar culture – and to move to the Land of Israel and start life anew. For us, too, who live here, it can be difficult to find apartments and jobs; for diaspora Jews it is certainly hard, then. And therefore, we must help them with our prayers!
Love of the LandTherefore, the first thing to pray for is the desire to make Aliyah! On the one hand, we, in Israel, must pray that all Jews will have the desire to come on Aliyah, and we must pray for ourselves as well, that we will be able to appreciate the merit of living in the Land of Israel. And, on the other hand, the diaspora Jews should pray that they will long for the Land of Israel and will want, to the best of their ability, to make Aliyah.
Even someone who doesn’t see any chance of coming on Aliyah, even if he doesn’t see any way that he can make a living and purchase an apartment in Israel, and even if part of his family is totally against coming on Aliyah – still, in any case one can always want to! Who is preventing you from wanting? Who is preventing you from asking Hashem that you be given a strong and real will? True, it is forbidden to force things on other family members, and so one must pray that all family members, children included, will want to come on Aliyah.
Don’t confuse ability and desire. Under no circumstances should you stop wanting. For sure, sooner or later the desire will produce results, because the way a person wishes to go is the way that he is led. And the yearning for the Land of Israel is a positive thing, and has tremendous segulot, affecting both material and spiritual things. In the material – it is brought in Sefer Hamiddot: “Thanks to the yearning that a person yearns to come to Eretz Yisrael – by that yearning one receives an abundance of parnasah (livelihood).” 1
And, of course, the same thing is true about spiritual matters. There are countless sources for the fact that all the kedushah (holiness) and emuna (faith) and prayers open Divine Providence; good middot (traits) are rooted in the kedushah of the Land of Israel. Because the Land of Israel is not a physical place; rather, it is the only spiritual place that can provide the Jewish People with the ability to thrive spiritually.
Rabbi Nachman says: “Every person must ask from Hashem yitbarach (May He be blessed) that he feels yearning and longing for the Land of Israel. And, that all the tzaddikim should long for the Land of Israel, and this is a segula against anger and sadness… in other words, we ask for and long for the Land of Israel, and that way we are granted emuna…” 2
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Bender would encourage the avreichim (married students) to remember every minute that they are in the Land of Israel and to be happy to have that merit, and to think: “I am walking in the Land of Israel, I am learning, praying, doing mitzvot, busy with chessed (acts of loving kindness), eating and sleeping – in the Land of Israel.” And he even said, “You can test me on this: When you think about the Land of Israel at every free moment – you will experience a great spiritual illumination and great success in all your service of Hashem!”
We have a general rule, that anyone who yearns for something holy – even if he doesn’t actually receive it – that holy thing begins to illuminate him and influence him! And therefore, even someone who is still in the diaspora, if he manages not to distract himself and every moment that he does remember he yearns for the holiness of the Land of Israel – he too will merit a “shot” of increasing emuna and tefilla, and will produce real chiddushei Torah (new insights in Torah) and in everything connected with serving Hashem.
The Land is Very, Very GoodTherefore, we must first of all pray for the will, but we must also pray for all the details and the details of the details, and ask Hashem to build for us millions of apartments that will be ready to receive all those millions of Jews, and that all of them – parents, children, and youths – will have communities, shuls, educational institutions, good sources of income, jobs, and vessels to absorb the material good and the spiritual good; and that all the immigrants will be received with love and joy and welcoming smiles. And when they arrive here, all of them will merit, together with all the residents of the Holy Land, to connect to the holiness of the Land of Israel, and that the light of emuna and tefilla will shine upon them and us to a greater extent and with greater power.
And it is clear as light that the Land of Israel is the safest place for Jews in the whole world.
The more Jews who live in the Land of Israel, the more the Land’s kedushah shines. This means that the holy emuna shines more, and that the tefilla shines more, and that we merit great, miracles that are above nature. Then, of course, the Jewish People are much better protected.
And that is the thing that brings the Geula (Redemption) closer the most, because “the main [cause of] galut (exile) is only lack of emuna”, and the Land of Israel and emuna, tefilla (prayer) and miracles are one thing, as brought in Likutei Moharan (Kitzur Likutei Moharan, 7): “Prayer and miracles and the Land of Israel are all one aspect and they all depend on one another… the main point of emuna, the aspect of tefilla, the aspect of miracles is only in the Land of Israel… and this is the way the Geula will come.”
It comes out that when we pray for the diaspora Jews to immigrate to Israel, we are actually praying for the complete Geula!
And that is what we see in parshat Devarim. Moshe bids farewell to the Jewish People before they enter the Land, because he is not going to enter it with them. He stands facing the Land of Israel and begins his final speech with a great rebuke of the people about the Sin of the Spies. He calls them to repair the sin of their forefathers who spurned the cherished land, and throughout the Torah he praises the Land and longs for it and prepares the Jewish people to live in it with emuna and connection to Hashem and His Torah.
The Sin of the Spies caused a weeping lasting through many generations. That means that all of us still need to correct this sin. And as they spurned the Land of Israel – we must fix that sin and yearn for and want that Land. We must pray and long for the kedushah of the Land of Israel and to do what we can to observe the mitzvah of living in the Land of Israel devotedly.
We see with our own eyes how Hashem is building and developing the Land, and how much blessing there is in the Land. Even better and more abundant natural resources will be discovered here. There will be tremendous abundance.
Therefore, there is no reason to be afraid, and all Jews should come on Aliyah to the Land of Israel. And the more Jews who come, the greater the blessing will be, and they will all live in abundance and in happiness. The Beit HaMikdash (Temple) will be built, and the Three Weeks will become a joyous time, Amen.
Editor’s Note: 1 Sefer HaMiddot, “Land of Israel”, second part, number 3 2 Likutei Moharan I, 155:3
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The Six-Day War (June 1967)Within the brief span of six days, the IDF overran the Sinai peninsula took the entire West Bank of the River Jordan and captured a great part of the Golan Heights. The culminating event was the capture of the Old City of Jerusalem.https://www.gov.il/en/pages/the-six-day-war-june-1967 Type: Information< Topic: About Israel Secondary topic: Facts about Israel Publish Date: 12.06.2002  Paratroopers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, June 1967© GPO/David Rubinger
The year 1967 began with confident predictions that it would not bring war. Nasser, it was argued in Israel, had learned the lesson of 1956 and would not start a war unless he was ready. In any case, his relations with Jordan were notoriously bad and a coalition between Nasser and King Hussein was out of the question.
In quick succession, events gave the lie to these predictions. A clash in the air, in which Syria – Russia’s closest ally in the Middle East – lost 13 planes, provided the opening signal. As a result of Soviet prodding, Nasser mobilized and sent 100,000 troops to Sinai. He demanded that the Secretary General of the United Nations withdraw UNEF forthwith, and – probably to his own surprise – succeeded immediately and the “firemen” departed. Then Nasser announced the closing of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping (May 23) – a clearcut casus belli. He ended by taunting Yitzhak Rabin, Israel’s Chief of Staff: “Let him come, I’m waiting.”
Meanwhile he succeeded in bringing about close coordination with the Syrian army. King Hussein, in an abrupt about-face, flew to Egypt and signed an agreement placing his forces under overall Egyptian comand. It was to cost him half his kingdom.
Israel, its reserves fully mobilized, its nerves taut to the snapping point, waited for three long weeks. The situation seemed the reverse of 1956; Israel was alone, against a powerful Arab coalition. The Big Powers, vague promises notwithstanding, did nothing to reopen the Straits and Israel decided to go it alone.
On 5 June 1967 a cluster of planes flying from Egypt to Israel was seen on King Hussein’s radar screen. Convinced by the Egyptians that the planes were theirs, he promptly gave the order to attack – in Jerusalem! In fact the planes were Israel’s, returning from their devastating attack against the Egyptian airforce, which surprisingly had been taken by surprise; after taunting Rabin, Egypt was not ready when he came.
Within the brief span of six days, the IDF overran the whole Sinai peninsula, up to the Suez Canal; took the entire West Bank of the River Jordan; and in the last days, without the benefit of surprise, captured a great part of the Golan Heights, including the dominant Mount Hermon – from then on “the eyes and ears of Israel”. The culminating event was the capture of the Old City of Jerusalem and the re-encounter with the place most revered by Jews, the Western (Wailing) Wall. The blowing of the shofar at the Western Wall reverberated throughout the world.
776 Israeli soldiers fell in the Six-Day War.
Whilst all branches of the service had performed well, the Air Force had, for the first time, played a decisive role: clearing the skies at the outset made all that followed possible. This was the War of the Air Force.
Diplomatic efforts to bring to an end the by-now 40 years of conflict, which predated the establishment of Israel by more than two decades, came to nought. In November 1967, after months of deliberations, the Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 242, calling for peace and recognition of the “right of every nation to live free from threat within secure and recognized boundaries”, in return for Israel’s withdrawal “from territories”, not “all the territories”, nor “the territories captured in the course of the recent hostilities”. However, the Arab League, in its session in the Sudan (1967) adopted a different resolution, the “Three No’s” of Khartoum: No peace, No negotiations, No recognition of Israel.
From “The Arab-Israeli Wars” by Netanel Lorch
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Hidden and revealed miraclesWhen future historians come to write of our era, they will write of all the miracles but they will also discover another hidden miracle.Daniel Pinner / 25May2025, 10:49 PM (GMT+3) / https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/408953 Paratroopers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, June 1967© GPO/David Rubinger
First a brief note on the name of this day. Too many people call this day Yom Yerushalayim, the Day of Jerusalem, or more idiomatically Jerusalem Day.
A terrible name! The appellation “Yom Yerushalayim” appears once in the Tanach:
“Remember, O Hashem, to the sons of Edom, יוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִַם, the Day of Jerusalem, when they said Destroy1 Destroy! To its very foundations!” (Psalms 137:7). Yom Yerushalayim is the day that Jerusalem was destroyed. The day that Israel liberated Jerusalem 57 years ago is far better called יוֹם חֵרוּת יְרוּשָׁלַיִם or יוֹם שִׁחְרוּר יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, Jerusalem Liberation Day.
And now, having clarified the name of this day:
We have an ancient and well-established tradition of reading one chapter of Pirkei Avot (Chapters of the Fathers, or more idiomatically Ethics of the Fathers) each Shabbat from Pesach to Shavuot. Jerusalem Liberation Day falls on the 28th of Iyyar, and on the preceding Shabbat we invariably read chapter 5.
This includes an observation on miracles:
“Ten miracles were done for our ancestors in Egypt, and ten at the Red Sea” (Pirkei Avot 5:4).
It is intuitive that the ten miracles in Egypt were the Ten Plagues; yet all of the major commentators (the Rambam, Rabbi Ovadia of Bartenura, Rabbeinu Yonah of Gerona, Tosfot Yomtov, Tiferet Yisrael, among others) agree that the ten miracles in Egypt were not the ten plagues in and of themselves, but rather that in each case we were saved from the plagues.
Only thus did G-d demonstrate not only that He controls nature, but that He controls nature for the sake of the Jewish People.
Though Pirkei Avot does not specify which ten miracles were wrought at the Red Sea, various Midrashim (Tanchuma, Beshallach 10 and Mechilta de-Rabbi Yishmael, Beshallach 5 among others) enumerate them:
The Sea was split for them, and became a dome covering them; It was divided into ten channels, as G-d said to Moshe, “Stretch forth your hand over the sea and divide it” (Exodus 14:16); It became completely dry, so they would not even get their feet muddy, as it says, “…and the children of Israel walked on dry ground” (ibid 14:29); It became like thick, muddy clay, miring the Egyptians, as it says, “You trampled them in the sea with Your horses, with clay of mighty waters” (Habakkuk 3:15); The waters crumbled as it says, “You crumbled the sea with Your might” (Psalms 74:13); The waters became piles of rocks against which the Egyptians were smashed, as it says, “He smashed the sea serpents’ heads against the water” (ibid); The water was cut into pieces, as it says, “To He Who cut the sea into pieces” (ibid 136:13); The water was heaped into piles, as it says, “At the wind of Your nostrils the waters were heaped up” (Exodus 15:8); It became a solid wall, as it says, “The flowing waters stood erect like a solid wall” (ibid); Sweet water flowed out from the midst of the salt water for them, and the water froze, becoming like a glass jug, as it says, “The deep waters froze” (ibid).
So far, so easy to understand. G-d wrought ten miracles for our ancestors while they were yet in Egypt, and another ten at the Red Sea, and all were open, clear miracles which no observer could deny.
But Pirkei Avot continues: “Ten miracles were wrought for our forefathers in the Holy Temple:
No woman ever miscarried due to the aroma of the meat of the sacrifices; The meat of the sacrifices never rotted; No fly was ever seen in the place where the sacrificial meat was butchered; No nocturnal emission ever happened to the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) on Yom Kippur [which would have rendered him impure and unfit for Temple service]; The rains never extinguished the fire of the wood-pile on the Altar; The wind never disturbed the vertical column of smoke [arising from the Altar]; No disqualifying defect was ever found in the Omer or in the two Loaves [for Shavuot] or in the Showbread; Though the people were crowded together when they stood, they had sufficient space to prostrate themselves full-length on the ground; No snake or scorpion ever injured anyone in Jerusalem; And no one ever said to his fellow, The place is too small for me to overnight in Jerusalem” (5:5). In this list there is no single event that is miraculous in and of itself. The Jew who made the tri-annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem would not have gazed in awe at a pregnant woman not miscarrying from the aroma of the roasting meat of the sacrifices; no Jew would have been awestruck at seeing meat which had not rotted, or been overwhelmed at not seeing a fly around the meat-hooks set in the sides of the cedar-wood blocks on the eight stone benches to the north of the Altar or on the adjacent marble tables where the carcasses were flayed.
Similarly, the fact that the Kohen Gadol did not suffer a nocturnal emission on a specific Yom Kippur, or that the rain on any given Festival did not extinguish the fire of the wood-pile on the Altar, or that no disqualifying defect was found in the Omer or in the two Loaves or in the Showbread in a given year was not an open miracle. After all, how likely was it for any of these events to occur?
But after a total of 830 years (410 for the first Holy Temple and 420 for the second), the pattern would have become undeniable. For sure, the individual pilgrim who spent a week or two in Jerusalem without being bitten by a snake or stung by a scorpion would not have seen anything miraculous. But when no pilgrim – uncountable millions of Jews through those centuries – was ever harmed thus throughout 830 years of pilgrimages to Jerusalem, then the miracle becomes undeniable.
Just as the Ten Plagues and the Splitting of the Red Sea were physically impossible, so too the perfect functioning of all these systems of the Holy Temple without even a single mishap over 830 years was statistically impossible.
The fact that Pirkei Avot uses the identical phraseology – “ten miracles were wrought for our forefathers” – both for the open, revealed miracles in Egypt and at the Red Sea and also for the hidden, “mundane” miracles in the Holy Temple, suggests that the Mishnah places them on the same level, regards them as equally miraculous.
This year 5785 (2025) marks 58 years since the Six Day War, and Monday 28th Iyyar (26th May) is celebrated as Jerusalem Liberation Day, the day that the paratroopers liberated Jerusalem and restored it to Jewish sovereignty for the first time since the Roman general Pompey invaded Jerusalem in 63 B.C.E. and installed Hyrcanus as High Priest and vassal king of Rome.
In many ways the Six Day War straddles the boundary between hidden miracles and revealed miracles:
Israel was surrounded by a vast military coalition of Arab and Muslim states, whose stated purpose was to exterminate Israel and the Jews therein. Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Kuwait, Tunisia, Sudan, and Pakistan outnumbered, outgunned, and outmanned Israel on four borders. The sole neutral border was with the Mediterranean Sea, into which the Arab armies had vowed to push Israel.
Many of the individual battles which Israel won can be explained rationally: Israel enjoyed specific tactical advantages – shorter supply-lines, superior communications, a fortuitous wind in the Sinai Desert which raised a dust-storm at just the right moment, the rising sun dazzling the Egyptian soldiers on the morning of the first day of the war, the setting sun dazzling the Jordanian soldiers that evening, Egyptian soldiers who were unable to read the instructions for their missiles and were therefore unable to fire them…the list goes on.
But the statistical likelihood of all these events occurring by pure happenstance is vanishingly tiny.
Israel had zero margin for error. Hostile Jordanian forces stationed in the centre of Jerusalem (half of which was under illegal Jordanian occupation) and throughout Judea and Samaria, reinforced with Iraqi and Saudi divisions, were poised to sweep across Israel from east to west, to link-up with the Egyptian army, reinforced with Libyan, Algerian, and Tunisian divisions, preparing to invade from the south-west.
Meanwhile the Syrian Army, reinforced with Iraqi, Libyan, Yemeni, and Saudi divisions, was preparing to attack from the north and then sweep through the country to link-up with the other Arab forces in the Tel Aviv region.
Had any Arab army – any one at all – won even one single land battle, then Israel would have been destroyed. Israel had no strategic depth, no opportunity to recover from a single lost battle.
Under those circumstances, Israel’s very survival was precarious, to say the least.
The Israel Army made enormous mistakes during the Six Day War at every level, from the overall planning (or lack thereof) to general strategy to battlefield tactics, failures of command, breakdown of coordination between different units, breaches of discipline, and in several other areas. But all these errors were – again miraculously – not enough to lose Israel even a single battle, let alone the entire war.
And ultimately, Israel’s victory was so impressive, so overwhelming, so dazzling, that all those myriad mistakes became mere footnotes in the history books.
And when future historians will come to write of our era, they will discover another hidden miracle:
Throughout the decades since the Six Day War, every government of Israel has tried with all their might to get rid of those parts of Israel which the Army liberated during that war. On the 11th of Sivan 5727 (19th June 1967), just nine days after the war finished, Israel declared that she was willing to withdraw from the Golan Heights, the Sinai Desert (including the Gaza Strip), and Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”) in return for peace treaties, normalisation of relations with the Arab states, and guarantee of navigation through the Straits of Tiran.
The Arab response was expressed in the Khartoum Conference two months later: “No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it”.
Israeli governments ever since have pleaded, begged, cajoled Arab countries to take back the territories that they lost in the Six Day War. Successive Israeli governments (the present one no less than previous ones) have yearned to give away the Temple Mount – Judaism’s holiest site – to anyone who was willing to talk to them: the PLO, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UN, the Arab League, the European Union, Switzerland, the Vatican, the Organisation of Islamic Conference – anyone.
Decades of political chicanery, secret discussions, Israel’s most brilliant and experienced diplomats, negotiations, classified agreements, more secret discussions, Israeli government officials pleading with the USA to enforce some kind of agreement – and in spite of all these massive efforts by successive Israeli governments, the Temple Mount and the entire Old City of Jerusalem remains under Israeli sovereignty.
It is a miracle no less than the miracles which the Mishnah records were wrought for our forefathers in the Holy Temple that the Temple Mount is still under Israeli control and sovereignty. True, it does not seem miraculous that any one of the Israeli government’s attempts to give away the Temple Mount failed: after all, international diplomacy is a history filled with failures.
But the statistical likelihood that after well over half-a-century of non-stop appeals by the Israeli government to give away the Temple Mount not one foreign power would ever accept is vanishingly tiny.
The Six Day War was indisputably a series of miracles. And the aftermath – well over half-a-century – has been a series of miracles no less.
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Before the 1948 WarIsrael created a State under the noses of the British Mandate for Palestine before World War 220 Iyar: Mt. Scopus Hospital (1939)The Hadassah University Hospital and Medical Center was opened on Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem. The hospital, designed by renowned Bauhaus architect Erich Mendelssohn, opened as a modern, 300-bed academic medical facility.
What Was the Land of Israel Like Before 1948?Looking at the geographical and geopolitical landscape in the twenty-first century, the Land of Israel before 1948 is almost unrecognizable When we see modern-day Israel – an ultra-modern country of more than 9 million citizens…David Brummer 27February2020 12:00 am https://honestreporting.com/land-of-israel-before-1948/  Israel before 1948-The city of Jaffa around the year 1900 Looking at the geographical and geopolitical landscape in the twenty-first century, the Land of Israel before 1948 is almost unrecognizable
When we see modern-day Israel – an ultra-modern country of more than 9 million citizens – it is often difficult to conceptualize what the country was like before 1948. Looking at the skylines of many of Israel’s cities, with gleaming, shiny multi-story office blocks, apartment buildings – and increasingly skyscrapers (at least in Tel Aviv), the geographical landscape is utterly unrecognizable.
The changes and differences, however, do not end there. Before David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, announced Israel’s Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948, 600,000 Jews lived in the land. According to estimates, approximately one-fifth – or up to 120,000 Jews were living in Jerusalem – the newly-declared capital of the nascent state. Approximately 2,000 Jews lived within Jerusalem’s 500-year-old city walls – as they had done for legitimately centuries – certainly since the return from exile in Babylon in the 6th century BCE.
Outside of Jerusalem, Jews were widely dispersed across Mandate Palestine. Approximately half of the remaining 480,000 Jews living in the country – 244,000 people – lived in the Tel Aviv area. The city’s first Jewish neighborhood – Neve Tzedek – was only established in 1887, the result of a lottery of an initial 60 families; and a need for space in Jaffa, a majority Arab town at the time. Tel Aviv itself was established in 1909. Prior to the civil war between Palestine’s Jews and Arabs in 1947-48 and then the international conflict that followed Israel’s Declaration of Independence, the land was sparsely populated.
Israel Zangwill, a Jewish British novelist and playwright (and someone deeply involved in the women’s rights movement, wrote a series of articles early in his career, in which he described Palestine as “a wilderness… a stony desolation… a deserted home” and a land that had “gone to ruin.”
A popular view of the country at the time was that Palestine was a “land without a people, waiting for a people without a land.” That is not entirely accurate – as there were obviously people populating Palestine, but they were not organized in a way that even gave the impression of a functioning country. It was an administrative backwater of the rapidly crumbling Ottoman Empire, which ruled the region for 400 years and did barely anything to develop it. The Arabs in the Holy LandBut what of the local Arab population?
By the end of Ottoman rule, there were several thousand living in Jerusalem, and as for the rest – for the most part, they were widely dispersed – mostly in villages and small towns – throughout Judea and Samaria and the Galilee. During the Ottoman period, most lived as tenant farmers in a somewhat feudal system with landowners, but some lived in towns such as Gaza, Hebron, Haifa and elsewhere.
At the end of the 19th century there were stirrings of Arab nationalism, which included wealthier Palestinian Arabs urging Turkish authorities not to allow Jewish refugees and pioneers from settling in the country.
One of the most vexing questions – or issues – today, is the notion that somehow all Palestinian Arabs were unceremoniously expelled from their land – or at the very least denied appropriate remuneration for it. That is simply not the case. It was only in 1856 that the Ottomans had passed a law allowing foreigners to buy land in the empire under the tanzimat reforms, which were a belated and somewhat half-hearted attempt at permitting people to feel part of the state by giving them rights.
By 1881, the Ottomans began banning land purchases by Jews and Christians, also declaring that Jews were still permitted to immigrate to the Ottoman Empire – but with the exception of Palestine. As with so many functions of Turkish rule, official declarations made in Constantinople, were much diluted when it came to Palestine.
The legal path to Jewish acquisition of land in Palestine remained open, and the Yishuv made the most of the opportunity. Arabs were willing to sell to wealthy Jews – such as Moses Montefiore or Baron Edmond de Rothschild – often at inflated prices. The Jewish National Fund was also able to purchase large tracts of land from the Ottomans and much of this was utilized by an enduring legacy of the Second Aliyah (1904-1914); namely the kibbutz movement. The records for those who would wish to open their eyes to see them are clear.
Palestine’s main port was Jaffa, the major point of entry in the Land of Israel before 1948. In the late 1920s, the British developed Haifa as a deep-sea port, attempting to take advantage of the oil found in Persia prior to the outbreak of World War I.
It seems ironic now that the Arab Revolt between 1936-1939 – a violent nationalist Palestinian Arab uprising, in part to protest growing Jewish immigration – led to the development of Tel Aviv as a port. The use of Jaffa was considered too precarious, and an effort to effect systemic change in the country, not for the first time, backfired massively on those it was intended to help. Palestine’s Jews meanwhile, continued to build the infrastructure of a potential state, acquiring land, investing in water technology, continuing to develop the Hebrew language and attempting to create a civic society that would be essential in the future.
The civic society of the Jewish part of Mandate Palestine, known as the Yishuv, included functioning quasi-governmental institutions. The Yishuv’s position was complex – it had to grapple constantly with fluctuating fortunes with regard to the British and their attempts to play Palestinian Arabs and Jews against each other.
A crucial moment arrived in November 1917 with the Balfour Declaration; a hard-won acknowledgment, from an imperial superpower, of the Jews’ long historical connection to the Land of Israel and which, despite its (possibly deliberate) ambiguity, seemed to guarantee a homeland for the Jewish people. Other imperial powers also discussed the fate of Yishuv, particularly in April 1920 in the Italian town of San Remo. Britain, France, Italy and Japan convened to discuss the division of the land that had been held by the Ottoman Empire.
Palestinian Arabs were infuriated that as a result of this, the Jews would have a national home in Palestine. Their response – as was so often the case – and in a pattern that has repeated for more than a century – was to react with violence. The riots in Jaffa in 1921 began to see a more coordinated Jewish defense, manifested in the creation of the Haganah.
In 1922, the Yishuv was dealt a further blow as Winston Churchill, who had until then been seen as a friend to the Zionist cause, decided to redraw the map of the Middle East. He cleaved away the portion of Palestine that was east of the Jordan River and created the country of Transjordan (later known as just Jordan).
The Jewish state that the Yishuv thought it would receive at the Mandate’s end would now be 75% smaller than they had been led to think. It would shrink further still in the decades to come, although they could not have known it at the time. However, despite this massive setback, the overarching goal of achieving a state was still central to the Zionist cause. Ben-Gurion and others were pragmatic enough to understand what that would mean and what that would cost.
The Rapid Development of Israel Before 1948The Land of Israel before 1948 was a curious mixture of ancient, slow-moving and traditional ways of life and also a place bursting with pioneering spirit. During the early 20th century, a period when the ossifying Ottoman Empire was still dominant, Jewish immigration and land purchases were increasingly changing a seemingly forgotten place. Jewish immigrants rapidly reinvigorated a land that had barely seen any infrastructure or modernization during a 400-year rule.
The physical landscape changed as advancements in water technology – which continued apace during the British Mandate period – particularly, irrigation and the ability to use even brackish water for agriculture, showed that even in the desert, human life could be sustained.
In addition, small towns began to grow into cities and new neighborhoods began to spill out from existing conurbations. In that atmosphere, the Hebrew language developed further, used in books, newspapers, radio and theater – a continued resuscitation from the dead. Political organizations were also critical, as the levers of the state – before there was even a state – were exercised on a daily basis. They created the building blocks of the thriving, modern state of Israel that we see today.
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Image Credit: Israel before 1948
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Divided Jerusalem (1948-1967)https://www.gov.il/en/pages/divided-jerusalem-1948-1967 Type: Information Topic: About Israel Secondary topic: Israel in Maps Publish Date: 07.11.2021
On November 30, 1948, following the cessation of the battle between the two armies in Jerusalem, two officers – Lt. Col. Moshe Dayan of the Israeli army and Lt. Col. Abdallah A-Tal of the Jordanian army – drew in thick wax pencils an inaccurate cease-fire line on a map of Jerusalem. This line, including the No Man’s Land between the two sides, was later included in the Israel-Jordan Armistice Agreement of 3 April 1949. The City Line divided Jerusalem between Israel (in the western part) and Jordan (in the eastern part, including the Old City and the Temple Mount) for 19 years, until The Six Day War in June 1967 when Israel re-united the city.
During these 19 years, the Jordanian army placed snipers on the City Line and initiated frequent shooting incidents at citizens and other targets on the Israeli side of the city, making life in the near-by Israeli neighborhoods almost unbearable. In addition, the Jordanians breached their commitment (in the Armistice Agreement) to allow free access of Jews to the holy sites, mainly to the Western Wall and to the cemetery on the Mount of Olives. They also desecrated Jewish holy sites.
 Map Divided Jerusalem (1948-1967)
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The City That Doesn’t Forget Her Children28-Iyar: Yom Yerushalayim: I put my hand on the stones but the tears that flowed were not mine. They were the tears of all Israel, tears that scorched and burned the heavy gray stone. A MUST READ!!Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis | Posted on 06June2024 | https://breslev.com/1073929/  The City That Doesn’t Forget Her Children-by Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis
Of all the Arab armies, Jordan’s Arab Legion was the best trained and fiercest. Moreover, the border with Jordan was the most difficult to defend, so it was no surprise that, when King Hussein’s army first attacked, the Israeli military was convinced that the shots were just tokens to accommodate Nasser, and that Hussein would not risk war. But Jordan kept pounding away, its artillery and bullets raining upon Jerusalem. Still, Israel requested the UN Truce Supervision Office to convey to Jordan assurances of peace. But it was all to no avail, and Israel had no choice but to open a second front. The Jordanians possessed hundreds of Patton tanks, and tens of thousands of Legionnaires, powerful warriors, equipped with the most sophisticated weapons, who were prepared to fight to the end. The battles were fierce and savage, made all the more complicated by orders given to Israeli paratroopers to avoid damaging the many sites in the Old City. Many brave young men were injured or lost their lives – the sacrifice was great, but so were the miracles.
The Holy City was not prepared for battle. There were hardly any bomb shelters to protect the civilian population. Shells fell and did not explode, and many that fell and did explode caused no injury. A shell landed on Shaarei Tzedek Hospital’s baby nursery. Fearing the worst, nurses rushed in to save the infants, but miraculously, they were all unharmed. A shell penetrated the roof of the Mirrer Yeshivah but did not explode. Over the centuries, Jerusalem was ravaged and sacked many times, but G-d made a promise that the Wall, the remnant of the Holy Temple, would stand eternally and bear witness to the homecoming of our people. And now, almost two thousand year later, the moment had come. I have read countless reports from journalists and soldiers who participated in the battle for Jerusalem, and all their stories had one focus – “the Wall”.
Moshe Amirav, a paratrooper, describes the first minutes at the Wall: “Forward! Forward! Hurriedly, we pushed our way through the Magreb Gate, and suddenly we stopped, thunderstruck. There it was, before our eyes! Gray and massive, silent, and restrained. The Western Wall!
“Slowly, slowly, I began to approach the Wall in fear and trembling, like a pious cantor going to the lectern to lead the prayers. I approached it as the messenger of my father and my grandfather, of my great-grandfather and of all the generations in all the exiles who had never merited seeing it – and so they had sent me to represent them. Somebody recited the festive blessing, ‘Blessed are You, Oh L-rd our G-d, King of the Universe, Who has kept us alive and maintained us and brought us to this time.’ I put my hand on the stones and wept, but the tears that started to flow were not my tears. They were the tears of all Israel, tears of hope and prayer, tears of Hassidic tunes, tears of Jewish dances, tears that scorched and burned the heavy gray stone.”
And who can forget the photograph of our soldiers standing in awe – just looking up at the Wall? And who can forget the report of the IDF radio announcer: “…Suddenly, we recognized the familiar voice of the commander of the paratroops brigade, Colonel Mordechai ‘Motta’ Gur, giving orders to the battalion commanders to occupy the Old City: ‘Attention, all battalion commanders! We are sitting on the mountain range that looks down on the Old City, and are about to enter it. The Old City of Jerusalem that all generations have been dreaming about and striving toward. We will be the first to enter it.’
“With us on the roof,” the announcer continued, “was General Shlomo Goren, at that time, the Chief Rabbi of the Israeli Army. Rabbi Goren informed Gur over the walkie-talkie that he was on his way to meet him so as to be among the first to enter the Old City. As far as I remember, we were the only ones in the whole area running without helmets or weapons. Goren was armed only with a shofar and a prayer book and we carried only a tape recorder and a knapsack filled with batteries and rolls of recording tape.
“We ran, while trying to stay as close as we could to the Old City Wall to our right, but exposed to the sniper fire coming from the Mount of Olives on our left. As we ran, we passed two lines of paratroopers who were progressing carefully toward the Lions Gate. Goren was determined to get to the head of the line as quickly as possible. At the top of the street leading to the Lions Gate, we passed a still-smoking Jordanian bus. We stopped only at the Gate itself, which was blocked by an Israeli Sherman tank that had gotten stuck in the entrance. We climbed over the tank and entered into the Old City.
“Now the excitement reached its peak. Goren did not stop blowing the shofar and reciting prayers. His enthusiasm infected the soldiers, and from every direction came cries of ‘Amen!’”
The shofar was sounded in Jerusalem and its call reached Jewish hearts in the four corners of the world. The effect was magical. Our people because spiritually rejuvenated. Even those who had never believed, those who were hardened agnostics, felt something in their hearts. The Wall called them, and despite themselves, they felt a need to respond, to touch its stones, to place a note with a prayer in its crevices, to pour out their hearts and cry.
My husband and I made a decision. We knew that no matter what, we too had to be there, and so we took our four small children and traveled to Jerusalem. The city was congested with people – there wasn’t a hotel room to be had. For a moment, I panicked, but then my husband reminded me of the teaching of our Talmud: In Jerusalem, no one ever complained of discomfort, in the City of G-d, every man had a place, everyone was welcome.
It was Friday, Erev Shabbat, when we arrived, and there was no time to lose – the Sabbath Queen was quickly approaching and the entire city was readying herself for the arrival of the royal guest. Everywhere, stores were closing and public transportation was coming to a halt. As the siren was sounded, a stillness descended on the Holy City.
Suddenly, scores of people spilled into the streets. They came from every direction: young and old, men and women, Israelis and tourists, students and soldiers, pious Chassidim in long black coats and westernized Jews in business suits. They spoke in many tongues, espoused many ideas, and wondrously, they all merged into one. All of them were rushing, running to the same place, to the Wall.
We too, melted into the crowd. We didn’t know our way, but we followed the others. My heart beat faster and I clutched my children’s hands. I saw tears in my husband’s eyes. We were in Jerusalem.
We made our way through the dark alleyways. My son tugged at my sleeve. “Ima,” he asked, “how did our soldiers do it? How did they liberate the city? How did they get through these gates, these alleys?”
“Jerusalem’s time has come,” I answered, “and G-d Himself opened the gates.”
Then suddenly, without warning, the Wall was before us, more majestic than I could ever have imagined. We could not speak; there were only tears. For two thousand years we had waited for this moment. Our ancestors had prayed for this day. What would they not have given to stand here, even for a fleeting second, and yet they were denied the privilege. How strange that our generation, which was unworthy and wanting in faith, was the one to stand here in the presence of sanctity.
I looked up at the Heavens and searched for my grandfather. Surely the angels had gathered his ashes from Auschwitz and brought them as an offering to this very spot.
“Zeide, Zeide,” I cried into the night, “please walk with me, for here I cannot stand alone.”
All around us, people were praying and our voices became one with theirs. I poured out my soul. I looked up at the greenery sprouting from the crevices. Strange, I thought to myself, how these little branches grow without being watered. But then I saw the people around me and I understood from whence the branches received their nourishment. They were watered by the tears of a nations that had been waiting for two thousand years.
Walking back to our hotel we met a young soldier who had been among those who liberated Jerusalem. He told us about his best friend who had fallen on the Temple Mount on the very spot where once, long ago, the Alter had stood.
“I ran to my friend,” he told us. “I tried to help him, but it was too late. I broke down and wept, and as I cried, I heard an eerie sound. It was the braying of a donkey echoing in the night. The donkey actually seemed to sob with me, crying in pain as if imploring to be allowed to carry Messiah into the Holy City.”
Never before in the annals of mankind did a war last only six days.
Coincidence? Or was the seventh day begging to come? – The seventh day that is all Sabbath, the day that is Mashiach.
For a very brief moment, it appeared as if our people might just understand and be prepared to respond to this awesome challenge. But all too soon, the magic of the moment evaporated, and once again, we failed the test.
We reverted to our old ways – we congratulated ourselves on our success and came to take all those miracles for granted. Those of us who lived it have forgotten, and those were not yet born were never touched by it.
The fundamental law of Jewish survival stipulates that we cannot assimilate or become “like all the other nations of the world.” This law holds true not only in the countries of our exile, but in Israel as well. G-d did not bring us back to our ancient land so that we might become like all other nations and convert Jerusalem into New York, Parish, or London.
Just consider the tragedy that has befallen us. To live in the Land of the Patriarchs and yet spurn their legacy; to speak Hebrew impeccably, and yet not know how to pray; to live in the Land of G-d, and yet lack faith in Him.
We have failed the test.
But even if we failed the test, even if we forgot G-d, He does not forget us. His covenant and love are eternal and He will continue to call us. If we are blind to His miracles, He will find other ways to awaken us. So it is that since those heady days of the Six Day War, we have suffered many painful wake-up calls, but sadly, we have remained impervious to all. Nevertheless, G-d continues to call.
Many of us have heard the call, many are committed and live genuine Torah Jewish lives, but there are still so, so many who have yet to hear the call.
As we enter the final stages of our history, we have a choice – to stand straight and tall, to embrace with open arms and loving hearts our G-d-given covenant and sing His praise, or to continue to be blind and obdurate and delude ourselves into believing that we can live our lives without Him. But even as we stumble through the darkness, He will be holding our hand. He will not let go. He will not forget us. He will not forsake us. So let us return to Him with willing hearts, with love. Let us pass our test.
*** From “Life is a Test” by the author, rights are reserved for publishing “Bina”.
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“It always has been Arab Muslim Orthodoxy that “Palestine” actually is the entire country of Israel, not merely Judea and Samaria. All PLO terror aimed is to drive the Jews out of Tel Aviv, Haifa, Ra’anana, and other cities, towns, and villages in pre-1967 Israel and “into the [Mediterranean] sea.”This is what it means to be ‘Pushed into the Sea’
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Kyle Orton’s BlogArab Statements of Exterminationist Intent Before the 1967 WarBy Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 19 June 2024 https://kyleorton.co.uk/2024/06/19/arab-statements-of-exterminationist-intent-before-the-1967-war/  Jersalem Temple Mount Liberation-7June1967 Soldiers watching the Temple Mount | Photo: GPO
Israel pre-emptively struck against the Arab armies massing on her borders on 5 June 1967 and routed them by 10 June. The intention of the Arab States in 1967 had been plainly expressed over nearly twenty years. After the pan-Arab invasion had failed to destroy the Jewish State in 1948, Arab leaders—speaking directly and through their State-run media—made clear that they intended to wage another war that would succeed in eliminating Israel. As the Arab armies moved into position in May 1967, the Arab governments openly proclaimed that this was that long-awaited war.
Below is a far-from-exhaustive compilation of Arab statements in the lead-up to the Six-Day War:
In September 1953, after a false report that Adolf Hitler was still alive and living in Brazil, one of the Egypt’s State-owned newspapers, Al-Musawar, asked various public figures what they would want to say to the Führer. A number of the responses were negative. One was very notably positive: “I congratulate you with all my heart, because, though you appear to have been defeated, you were the real victor. … There will be no peace until Germany is restored to what it was … As for the past, I think you made some mistakes, such as opening too many fronts or Ribbentrop’s short-sightedness in the face of Britain’s old man diplomacy. But you are forgiven on account of your faith in your country and people. That you have become immortal in Germany is reason enough for pride. And we should not be surprised to see you again in Germany, or a new Hitler in your place.” The author of this statement was Anwar al-Sadat,[1] the man who a year earlier had read out the proclamation of the “Free Officers’ revolution” that toppled the Egyptian monarchy.
July 1959, Nasser: “We want a decisive battle in order to annihilate that germ, Israel. All the Arabs want a decisive battle.”[3]
2 February 1960, Radio Cairo: “We are getting ready for the decisive battle, and, at the right moment, we will strike with power and with speed. All our coming battles with Israel will be battles of life or death.”
10 March 1960, Radio Damascus: “The Arabs are determined that Israel shall be uprooted from their midst at any price.”
30 March 1960, “The Voice of the Arabs” transnational show on Radio Cairo: “The guarantee for peace in the Middle East lies in our weapons, in the strength of our own army, and we shall impose the peace, O Israel. We shall impose the peace on the day we will drive you into the expanse of the sea.”
15 September 1960, Jordan’s broadsheet Falastin: “In all frankness, we want to eliminate Israel … and care not when Israel protests that we contemplate war and jeopardise her security … because this is exactly our aim.”
29 April 1961, Egypt’s Al-Gomhuria, declared: “Today, it is in our power to defeat Israel. … The day will yet come when we shall … purge our country [i.e., the ‘Arab nation’] of the very existence of Israel.”
15 May 1961, Radio Amman: “There is no doubt that our war with Israel is imminent. … We will strengthen our forces and liquidate Israel completely so that she will disappear from the face of the earth.”
16 June 1961, Radio Amman: “We see in Israel a plague that should be utterly rooted out.”
12 July 1961, Radio Amman: “The establishment of peace in the area will be made possible only through the liquidation of the enemy State.”
17 August 1961, Nasser: “We will act to realise Arab solidarity and the closing of the ranks that will eventually put an end to Israel. …We will liquidate her.”
23 December 1962, Nasser: “We feel that the soil of Palestine is the soil of Egypt and of the whole Arab world. Why do we mobilise? Because we feel that the land is part of our land, and are ready to sacrifice ourselves for it.”
3 March 1963, Jordan’s Falastin: “It would appear, on the face of it, that the concentration of the Jews in the Occupied Region [i.e., Israel], militates in favour of Zionism. In our view, however, in the long run it will favour the Arab nation. … Why? Because this will turn Israel into one huge, worldwide grave for this whole Jewish concentration. And the day draws near for those who await it.”
21 March 1963, Egypt’s Al-Gomhuria carried an official government statement: “The noose around Israel’s neck is tightening gradually.” On the same day, Hassan Ibrahim, a member of the Egyptian Presidential Council, said: “Egypt has rocket bases capable of destroying Israel within a short time, and panic reigns in that country.”
2 April 1963, Nasser: “Israel emerged because the Arab world was weak and divided … but unity will mean triumph and the liquidation of Israel.”
4 April 1963, Egyptian State newspaper, Al-Akhbar: “The liquidation of Israel will not be realised through a declaration of war against Israel by Arab States, but Arab unity and inter-Arab understanding will serve as a hangman’s rope for Israel.”
19 August 1963, Syria’s Defence Minister General Abdullah Ziadeh: “The Syrian Army stands as a mountain to crush Israel and demolish her. This army knows how to crush its enemies.”
22 February 1964, Nasser: “The possibilities of the future will be war with Israel. It is we who will dictate the time; it is we who will dictate the place.”
12 April 1964, Jordan’s King Husayn: “Jordan, with its Left and Right Bank, is the ideal jumping ground to liberate the usurped homeland.”
27 July 1964, president of Ba’thist-led Iraq, Abd al-Salam Arif: “A war with Israel is inevitable. There is no escaping that war.”
30 October 1964, Chief of Staff in Ba’thist Syria, Salah Jadid: “Our army will be satisfied with nothing less than the disappearance of Israel.”<
16 September 1965, Nasser: “The war with Israel is an inevitable thing. … The Arabs waited seventy-five years until they succeeded in chasing out the Crusaders.” It has always been a common theme in Arab perceptions that Israel will perish as the Crusader States did.
13 March 1966, Syria’s daily Al-Ba’th newspaper: “The revolutionary forces in the Arab homeland, and the Ba’th at their head, preach a genuine Arab Palestine liberation … Our problem will only be solved by an armed struggle to … put an end to the Zionist presence. The Arab people demands armed struggle, and day-by-day incessant confrontation, through a total war of liberation”.
22 May 1966, Syria’s president Nureddin al-Atassi told troops during an inspection: “We want a full-scale popular war of liberation … to destroy the Zionist enemy.”
24 May 1966, Syria’s Defence Minister Hafez al-Asad: “We shall never call for, nor accept peace [with Israel]. We shall only accept war. … We have resolved to drench this land with our blood, to oust you, aggressors, and throw you into the sea for good.”
18 August 1966, Radio Damascus: “Syria has resolved to pursue its way, and continue preparing itself to bring about the liberation by way of popular revolutionary war. Our last punitive operations were … [a] warning the bandit State that the hour of liberation is drawing nigh, and the Arab masses are tired of waiting. … [Syria] is convinced of victory, because all the Arab masses are behind her, tensed for action. Behind Syria, too, stand her friends in the socialist camp.”
17 May 1967, “The Voice of the Arabs” on Radio Cairo: “Egypt with all her resources—human, economic, and scientific—is prepared to plunge into a total war that will be the end of Israel.”[6]
25 May 1967, Radio Cairo: “The firm resolve of the Arab people is to wipe Israel off the map.” On the same day, Nasser himself added: “If we have succeeded in restoring the situation to what it was before 1956 [by reoccupying the Sinai], then there is no doubt that God will help us and enable us to restore the situation to what it was before 1948 [when there was no Israel].”
30 May 1967, Radio Cairo: “In the light of the blockade of the Gulf of Aqaba, two possibilities are open to Israel, each one of them soaked in blood. Either she will die from strangulation of the Arab military and economic blockade, or she will die in the hail of bullets of the Arab forces surrounding her in the south, the north, and the east.”
1 June 1967, Iraq’s president Arif: “My sons, this day is the day of the battle and of revenge for your brothers who fell in 1948. … With the help of God we will meet together in Tel Aviv and Haifa.”
2 June 1967, founder of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Ahmad al-Shuqayri: “We shall destroy Israel and its inhabitants and as for the survivors—if there are any—the boats are ready to deport them!”[7]
5 June 1967, “The Voice of the Arabs” on Radio Cairo: “Destroy them and lay them waste and liberate Palestine. Your hour has come. Woe to you Israel. The Arab nation has come to wipe out your people and to settle the account. This is your end, Israel. All the Arabs must take revenge for 1948. This is a moment of historic importance to our Arab people and to the holy war. Conquer the land.” NOTES
[1] Bernard Lewis (1986), Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice, p. 161.
[2] Semites and Anti-Semites, pp. 204-05.
[3] In 1959, Nasser was technically president of the “United Arab Republic” that combined Egypt and Syria.
[4] Ronen Bergman (2018), Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations, pp. 108-19.
[5] Syria had been a very unstable polity since March 1949, when a military coup felled the government that had presided over the failure to destroy Israel at birth. There were two more military coups that year, in August and December, the latter resulting in a restoration of civilian governance, but it soon devolved into autocracy under Adib al-Shishakli. Another military coup in February 1954 removed Al-Shishakli and another brief period of constitutional rule followed, led by the elderly Hashim al-Atassi, who was soon shunted aside. Shukri al-Quwatli, a Nasserite, became president in September 1955, took Syria decisively into the Soviet camp, and in February 1958 took Syria into the so-called “United Arab Republic” (UAR), theoretically a union of Egypt and Syria that was in reality more an occupation of the former by the latter. The UAR was dissolved in September 1961 by yet another military coup in Syria. Nazim al-Qudsi’s new Western-oriented government did not last long. The March 1963 coup brought the Ba’th Party to power and returned Syria to the Soviet camp, where it would remain for the rest of the Cold War. The February 1966 coup directed by Chief of Staff Salah Jadid saw the Alawi faction of Ba’thists seize control. Al-Atassi was of Sunni origins and it was precisely for that reason he was made the formal president during Jadid’s de facto reign. Al-Atassi was the face of the regime to a Sunni-majority population that regarded Alawis as infidels. Hafez al-Asad prevailed in the November 1970 “corrective coup”, which settled the intra-Alawi contest within the Ba’th Party and established the dynasty that still rules Syria.
[6] George Mikes (1969), The Prophet Motive: Israel Today and Tomorrow, pp. 79.
[7] Ephraim Kam (1974), Husayn Poteah Be’milhama (Husayn Opens War), pp. 284-8, quoted in: Michael Oren (2002), Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East, p. 132.
[8] Oren, Six Days of War, pp. 130-32.
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Yasser Arafat and the Six Day War
One example: this day (May 5) in 1967, Fatah terrorists shelled the peaceful farming community of Kibbutz Manara as part of its ongoing cross-border terror campaign targeting Israeli civilians. In fact, between April and early May 1967, Fatah carried out more than a dozen attacks: planting mines and explosives, ambushing vehicles, and shelling border communities along Israel’s frontiers with Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. On May 5, the violence escalated sharply. Palestinian terrorists fired mortars and rockets into Kibbutz Manara, a quiet farming community in northern Israel. Families huddled in shelters as shells rained down on homes, fields, and children playing outside. This was not random. It was part of a calculated strategy of provocation and attrition — designed to bleed Israel psychologically and drag the Arab states into full-scale war. Meanwhile, the famous Egyptian military build-up in Sinai and the closure of the Straits of Tiran casus belli for war did not begin until mid-May. Fatah’s terror wave came first. These constant raids created an atmosphere of unbearable tension. Israelis faced daily threats of mines on roads, ambushes on buses, and shelling of kibbutzim — long before Nasser made his dramatic moves. The terror played a significant role in maintaining constant tension and pushing the entire region toward the breaking point. When the Six Day War erupted in June, it was not an Israeli war of choice. It was the culmination of months of escalating Arab aggression — beginning with Arafat’s terror campaign in the spring of 1967.  Captain Allen-tweet-6May2026-Yasser Arafat and the Six Day War
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