What Lies Beneath the Beauty of Yerushalayim
The Lament for the Beauty of Yerushalayim
Megillas Eichah begins with a lament for the city of Yerushalayim, which has remained isolated and alone, like a widow who is shunned and withdrawn: איכה ישבה בדד העיר רבתי עם היתה כאלמנה.
The ensuing pesukim speak about at length about the former beauty of Yerushalayim, which has been laid to waste. The city that once teemed with people has become barren and lonely; no one comes there anymore. דרכי ציון אבילות מבלי באי מועד כל שעריה שוממין, the ways of Tzion are mourning for lack of festival pilgrims, all her gates are desolate.... One after another, these pesukim wax poetic about the great city of Yerushalayim, its former glory, and its current denigrated state.
During davening, too, we invoke Yerushalayim when we ask for the return to Yerushalayim and its rebuilding. Among Yidden, the holy city occupies a very important place—and we evoke the memories of its glory and its calamitous ruin.
Why Is Yerushalayim So Central?
One may wonder, is this the central aspect of the Churban?! Isn’t the צער השכינה and Its homelessness our chief lament?! It is a far greater Churban that the Ribbono shel Olam is in exile.... He no longer has a home among us! Yidden are in galus—enduring so much suffering, a direct result of the bitter galus. We’ve been deprived of the Avodah of the korbanos, and the Beis HaMikdash has been taken away—the essence of Yiddishkeit has been robbed from us.
Why, then, do we spend so much time lamenting the demise of a city? It is, after all, only the place where all this transpired. Of course, Yerushalayim has a special kedushah, and we hope desperately for its rebuilding—but is this what we cry over? The lost beauty of a city?! The חורבן בית המקדש entails far more bitter problems—we have lost far greater things than a beautiful city.
The Essence of Yerushalayim
There’s an important yesod here that we must internalize in order to appreciate the essence of Yerushalayim—and understanding this will enable us to properly mourn Yerushalayim; as Chazal tell us (Ta’anis 30b), one who mourns Yerushalayim will merit to see its rebuilding: Everything in this world can be found in עולם שנה נפש: the place in the world where it transpires, the time of the year it takes place, and the soul of the person who experiences it. Thus, just as there’s a Yerushalayim in the world, so too, there is a Yerushalayim in time and in nefesh—all of which contain the exalted kedushah of Yerushalayim.
The Holiness of Yerushalayim in Time and Place
The Mishnah (Keilim 1:6) enumerates the ten levels of holiness within the place of Eretz Yisrael. As a Yid makes his way from chutz l’Aretz to Eretz Yisrael, he steadily ascends the levels, until he approaches the Kodesh HaKodashim. With every step up in kedushah, new halachos come into effect.
The same applies to the holiness of Yerushalayim in time. There are times during the year that are each holier than the other. There are the weekdays, there’s Chodesh Elul, there are Rosh Hashanah, Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, and Yom Kippur. The more a person enters the Days of Awe, the closer he becomes to holiness—until he arrives at the “Yerushalayim” of time; the kirvas Elokim that everyone feels
