Guest Post: SEE YOU IN JERUSALEM
(These words, spoken like a prophet, were written yesterday by my friend Yitzchok Mayer Malek, on a day of celebration marred by violence in the Holy City and Land. They were originally posted on the Secret Jerusalem website yet removed by its editors, likely because they were deemed incendiary. But they are not; they deserve to be broadcast, and I am doing that here, with his permission. ~THinc.)
Dear World,
You’re invited to come to Jerusalem and sing to the creator of the world together with us. Enjoy Jerusalem’s beauty. Taste its wonderful delicacies both physical and spiritual. Please continue to grace us with the tremendous opportunity to host you. We all know how to determine the true host, it’s the one who invites you, greets and welcomes you. That is why the Western Wall is open to prayer for everyone, because we are the hosts, and we welcome the world.
Unfortunately that is not the case with certain places in Jerusalem that we are not the current hosts of. While it is true our relationship has encountered some rough terrain and our nation as a whole has been misplaced twice from our true love, never have we left her, a remnant of us has always remained inside of her. Please respect our process. Though it may seem that this is our third marriage together, don’t be fooled, never have we divorced and never have we married another woman. We were with Jerusalem before you. She is ours. She chooses us and we choose her. Just because others have tried to take her away from us in the past does not mean we have ever given up on her. Others are trying to take her away from us again today. Know this well, we will never give up on Jerusalem.
She is our right hand. She’s even more than that. If you love your wife, and your wife loves you, no matter how hard others may try to kiss her without success, never will you fall prey to their sick suggestion to cut her in half. We will never divide Jerusalem.
Even if others think they have had her in the past, never has she shared her jewels with them. She laid a barren wasteland till we returned to her as a nation. Worse, she was pillaged by her kidnappers. She wouldn’t bear fruit to them, she was loyal the whole time. You can’t share parts of your wife, it just doesn’t work, no matter how hard everyone tries. Would you like to see an example of what happens when we share her with others? Look at the Temple Mount now. It’s a battlefield. Some may call changing the status quo incitement. Incitement for what? War? There’s already a war taking place, the status quo must be changed for the sake of peace. And anyone who does not recognize that there are human beings living in our midst must wake up and give the proper love and attention needed to the decent among those who identify as Palestinians.
You may think this is a political post. It’s not. I have very little interest in corrupt systems. This is about family. My traceable family tree back to King David. It’s best the world recognizes and respects that the nation of Israel is married to Jerusalem. Soon we will host again like in the days of Solomon when the Temple Mount was a house of prayer for all nations. Only the true secure host can invite the world to join. The kidnappers are insecure and won’t let her see the light of day. That is why you can get currently be arrested for praying on the Temple Mount.
Fear not, you will never have any of her and definitely not all of her. Jerusalem will always be ours and we will fix our relationship with her to the point when we will build a house of prayer for all nations yet again in her heart and the world will dance together hand in hand inside of her in admission and recognition that the creator is one and therefore all of humanity, creator, and the entire universe are one. We will forgive your iniquity and you will enjoy our home while respecting the boundaries around our bedroom. You will never again try to displace us or wipe us out for you will learn to care for your own offspring and wish them a bright future unlike the vanished nations who have tried to destroy us. If you truly love all of humanity you will urge those declaring our destruction to change their corrupt ways because we wish for them to join us and not disappear like Ancient Egypt, the Philistines, the Assyrian Empire, Babylonian Empire, Persian Empire, Greek Empire, Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Crusaders, Spanish Empire, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and all others who have sworn to end our existence.
We fear not for we trust in the One creator who has kept his/her word to us and bought us back to the land of our fathers speaking our mother tongue after a two thousand year exile. Disney couldn’t make up a better story and we have the Bible, oral tradition, and archeology as our proof. We were mourning our first Temple and repenting our mistakes before religion was even a concept, definitely long before the birth of Islam and Christianity. Please have some respect. Our very tradition of the ingathering of our exiles, returning to our homeland as a nation, and rebuilding Jerusalem after two thousand years, has taken place thanks to the creator’s word. All this took place three years after losing one third of our nation in the holocaust mind you. It is the very same eschatology that includes us rebuilding the Third Temple house of prayer for all nations. When the surrounding countries of Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan outnumbered us both in infantry and artillery attacked us from all sides in 1967, it was the creator who paved the way for our victory. It is definitely not us and it never has been.
I strongly suggest you choose to take a part in the unification of the world with all nations harmonizing with each other in recognition that we are all created in the creator’s image and that we are all one. This is the will of the creator and we have learned the hard way to abide. There are some things we just don’t have a choice about. I mean this for unity, wholeness, and acceptance of every single creation, no matter their faith or lack thereof.
May we all be blessed to deeply understand, know, and experience that we don’t need to agree with each other in order to love one another.
May we realize that we need opposites in order to create something new. Nothing new comes from everyone agreeing.
May all of the opposing forces come together to create a new peace, the like of which the world has never tasted before.
True peace can only begin inside.
May we find that true peace inside of each of our own opposing forces, body and soul.
May we witness the true coming together and peace between the opposing forces of man and woman.
May man and woman come together again and unite humanity in the making of the best creation of all, children.
May true peace flow fourth from our personal selves, relationships, families, and friendships creating a domino effect of peace in our communities, states, countries and continents.
May we realize there are enough resources in this world to feed every individual abundantly.
May the need for greed be healed through mercy and compassion.
May we beat our swords into plowshares and know war no more.
May we realize that our health is in our hands and all we need to do is strengthen our immune system.
May we realize that nature contains a medicine for every ailment.
May we make peace with nature and the ecosystem and become one with the earth while we are alive, making the need for death and disintegration back into the earth obsolete.
May we witness our children dancing hand in hand together in the house of prayer for all nations and grab their hands in order to have them let us join the greatest circle that has ever existed. See you in Jerusalem.
Sincerely, Yitzchok Mayer Malek 28 Iyar, May 10 5781, 2021 Jerusalem Day Jerusalem
