Three weeks before the outbreak of the Six Day War and the capture of Jerusalem from Jordanian rule, Shuli Natan sang the poem “Jerusalem of Gold” by Naomi Shemer at the Israeli Music Festival on May 15, 1967. The refrain is a reminder of our connection to the Holy City, “Jerusalem of gold, and of copper, and of light, behold, I am a violin for all your songs.”
How are we the violins of Jerusalem’s songs? A violin holds within it the ability to resonate human experience and the feelings in one’s soul. The timbre of its strings sonically conveys sadness, grief, exuberance, joy, lament, exaltation, awe, and celebration. Naomi Shemer understood that we are Jerusalem’s violins. Each one of us carries our own unique Jerusalem song, the subjective Jerusalem in our souls, a heavenly Jerusalem. We each feel, in our own way, the pain of its destruction and desecration, the joy of its rejuvenation, and the sadness of the turmoil surrounding the Holy City. The resonance of our soul connection to Jerusalem is like a violin, serenading a rich symphony of our people’s emotions.
On this Yom Yerushalayim let us listen to that symphony. One that contains the vast diversity of Jerusalem songs. The song of the Iraqi immigrant kicked out of Baghdad with no money, the Palestinian Arab with residency status and family in Hebron, the lone soldier from Philadelphia who made Aliyah, the teenage Israeli whose great-grandmother was born in Jerusalem during Ottoman rule, and the new convert to Judaism who is preparing for their first trip to Israel. Within these lives we can resonate to a sampling of the diversity of songs that Jerusalem inspires. On this Yom Yerushalayim, take a moment to commemorate the flourishing of this beautiful city. Join to share each other’s songs and work together to harmonize and improvise.
“If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill” (Psalm 137). Let our hands not forget the skill of playing the violin and playing Jerusalem’s songs as we continue to harmonize the symphonic fusion that is our Holy City.