Ethiopian Sigd Made Official Israeli Holiday

From Ethiopian Sigd Made Official Israeli Holiday:

The Knesset decided to formally add the Ethiopian Sigd holiday to the list of state holidays, and will be holding an annual state ceremony for it during the Hebrew month of Heshvan, which usually falls in October or November. Sigd is a traditional Ethiopian day of fasting, dedicated to prayers for the rebuilding of the Temple and giving thanks for the right to return to the Holy Land.

Jerusalem Day: Monday, June 2

Monday, June 2 is Yom Yerushalayim, also known as Jerusalem Day - the anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem where Jews were denied access to their Holiest city from 1948-1967. Yom Yerushalayim is a holiday celebrating the reunification of the Jewish Holy City of Jerusalem in the hands of its rightful owners, the Jewish people.

In 1948, no Palestinian state was invaded or destroyed to make way for the establishment of Israel. From biblical times, when this territory was the state of the Jews, to its occupation by the British army at the end of World War I, Palestine never existed as a distinct political entity.

In May 1948, Jordan invaded the eastern part of Jerusalem, drove out all Jews from the Old City and divided the city. A wall was erected dividing Jordanian-occupied east Jerusalem from Israeli west Jerusalem. The eastern side of Jerusalem held the Temple Mount, the Western Wall, ancient synagogues and other Jewish holy sites.

In violation of the 1949 Armistice Agreement, Jordan denied Israelis access to the Temple Wall and to the cemetery on the Mount of Olives, where Jews have been burying their dead for 2,500 years. Jordan actually went further and desecrated Jewish holy places. King Hussein permitted the construction of a road to the Intercontinental Hotel across the Mount of Olives cemetery. Hundreds of Jewish graves were destroyed by a highway that could have easily been built elsewhere. The gravestones, honoring the memory of rabbis and sages, were used by the engineer corps of the Jordanian Arab Legion as pavement and latrines in army camps. The ancient Jewish Quarter of the Old City was ravaged, 58 Jerusalem synagogues - some centuries old - were destroyed or ruined, others were turned into stables and chicken coops. Slum dwellings were built abutting the Western Wall.

Palestine was always part of one empire after another. You can read who really owns Palestine and land acquisition in Palestine for a detailed history of the region. Yes, region. Palestine was never a country. Palestine is a manufactured entity. Excerpted from Israel HighWay:

For 19 years, from the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 until the Six Day War in 1967, Jerusalem was a city divided by barbed wire and dangerous "no-man’s land" running roughly north to south separating the Jewish people from the Old City of Jerusalem. The Old City, the City of David, was the cornerstone of 2,000 years of Jewish longing for Zion. The long-held dream of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel was finally achieved, but the heart of the land was at once visibly close and miles away.

When Israel was born in 1948, its citizens and armed forces were unable to defend the Old City, and it fell to the Jordanian Legion. Jews were cut off from their holiest sites in Jerusalem, including the Kotel (Western Wall), the City of David just outside the Old City Walls, Mt. Scopus and the ancient Mount of Olives cemetery.

Throughout this time the Jewish character of the Old City was systematically destroyed by the Jordanian government. Thousands of Jewish residents of east Jerusalem and the Old City were driven from their homes. Fifty-eight Jerusalem synagogues, including some that were hundreds of years old, were destroyed or ruined and others were turned into barns for animals or public bathrooms. The entire Jewish Quarter was destroyed, houses were built immediately adjacent to the Kotel and all access to the ancient city was completely denied to Jews. Then suddenly, in the middle of the Six Day War, Israel found itself, unexpectedly, in control of the Old City.

With the news that Israel had taken control of the Old City and east Jerusalem, Israelis from all over the country began flocking to the Kotel to celebrate their young country’s miraculous victory. With Israeli sovereignty in all of Jerusalem, the holy sites of the world’s three great monotheistic faiths were opened to all, as they had never been under centuries of Muslim rule.

Once called the "Wailing Wall", the Western Wall of the Temple Mount is referred to in Hebrew as the "Kotel", the "Wall." The Western Wall Plaza has been opened since 1967 to all people as a place of prayer and study. On the right side of the women's area of Western Wall Plaza is Barclay's Gate, named for an American tourist who "found" it in 1848.

Here is a picture of Jewish women praying at the Western Wall in 1848 during the reign of the Ottoman Turks.




One cannot deny the history, the beauty, the radiant spirituality of the Jewish Holy City of Jerusalem. Not even Muslims.

Yom HaZikaron - Israeli Memorial Day

Remembering fallen Israeli soldiers. Tuesday, May 6, 2008 (2nd of Iyyar, 5768) is Israeli Memorial Day or literally, Israel Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day. It is an Israeli national holiday.

Yom HaZikaron always precedes the next day's celebrations of Israel Independence Day, Yom Ha-Atzma'ut, the anniversary of the Proclamation of the State of Israel in 1948.

Yom HaZikaron honors veterans and fallen military personnel of the Israel Defense Forces and other Israeli security services who lost their lives in the struggle that led to the establishment of the State of Israel and for all military personnel who were killed while in active duty in Israel's armed forces. Yom Hazikaron also commemorates civilians murdered by acts of Muslim terrorism.

Magash Hakesef (The Silver Platter), a poem written by Nathan Alterman during the 1948 War of Independence, was during the 1950s and '60s the most common reading for Yom Hazikaron ceremonies. However, as Chaim Weizmann (First President of the State of Israel) put it: "A state is not presented on a silver platter."

Here is a translation of Magash Hakesef (The Silver Platter), by Natan Alterman:

The earth grows still.
The lurid sky slowly pales over smoking borders.
Heartsick but still living, a people stand by
To great the uniqueness
Of the miracle. Readied, they wait beneath the moon,
Wrapped in awesome joy before the light. - - Then soon,
A girl and boy step forward,
And slowly walk before the waiting nation;
In work clothes and heavy-shod
They climb
In stillness.
Wearing still the dress of battle, the grime
Of aching day and fired night
Unwashed, weary until death, not knowing rest,
But wearing youth like dewdrops in their hair.
- - Silently the two approach
And stand.
Are they of the quick or of the dead?
Through wondering tears, the people stare.
"Who are you, the silent two?"
And they reply: "We are the silver platter
Upon which the Jewish State was served to you."
And speaking, fall in shadow at the nation's feet.
Let the rest in Israel's chronicles be told.

As AJ6 puts it, "maybe Yom HaZikaron, the Day of Remembrance, is the wrong name. Because more than remembering these people, we owe these people. We owe them for a homeland, a secure place for our people. A place where there is no shame in being Jewish. They have given the Jewish people a future. This day should be a day of thanks, a tribute. They died so that we can live! They all died in service of the State of Israel. They died al kiddush Hashem, for the Jewish people. Their resting place is in the shade of the Divine wings, close to God and their memories will be with us always."

Today in Jewish History - Iyar 28

Sponsored by Aish.com:

In 1967, Israeli paratroopers completed their capture of the Old City of Jerusalem, restoring Jewish control of the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site. Soldiers danced, sang and cried at the Western Wall, the site of Jewish prayers for centuries. A plaza was cleared in front of the Wall, and one week later, tens of thousands of Jews swarmed to the site on the holiday of Shavuot. Iyar 28 is celebrated today as Yom Yerushalayim, commemorating the reunification of the Holy City, which has stood as the capital of the Jewish nation for 3,000 years.

Yom Yerushalayim - Jerusalem Day

Since the legitimate and sovereign nation of Israel was restored in 1948, four new holidays have been added to the Jewish national calendar – Yom HaShoah v' HaGevurah (Holocaust Heroes and Martyrs' Day), Yom Ha-Zikaron (Memorial Day), Yom Ha-Aatzmaut (Independence Day), and Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day).

Yom Yerushalayim is a holiday celebrating the reunification of the Jewish Holy City of Jerusalem in the hands of its rightful owners, the Jewish people, and May 16th, 2007 will be the 40th Anniversary of the unification of the Jewish Holy City of Jerusalem.

In 1948, no Palestinian state was invaded or destroyed to make way for the establishment of Israel. From biblical times, when this territory was the state of the Jews, to its occupation by the British army at the end of World War I, Palestine never existed as a distinct political entity. Palestine was always part of one empire after another. You can read who really owns Palestine and land acquisition in Palestine for a detailed history of the region.

Yes, I said region. Palestine was never a country. Palestine is a manufactured entity.

Excerpted from Israel HighWay:

For 19 years, from the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 until the Six Day War in 1967, Jerusalem was a city divided by barbed wire and dangerous "no-man’s land" running roughly north to south separating the Jewish people from the Old City of Jerusalem. The Old City, the City of David, was the cornerstone of 2,000 years of Jewish longing for Zion. The long-held dream of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel was finally achieved, but the heart of the land was at once visibly close and miles away.

When Israel was born in 1948, its citizens and armed forces were unable to defend the Old City, and it fell to the Jordanian Legion. Jews were cut off from their holiest sites in Jerusalem, including the Kotel (Western Wall), the City of David just outside the Old City Walls, Mt. Scopus and the ancient Mount of Olives cemetery.

Throughout this time the Jewish character of the Old City was systematically destroyed by the Jordanian government. Thousands of Jewish residents of east Jerusalem and the Old City were driven from their homes. Fifty-eight Jerusalem synagogues, including some that were hundreds of years old, were destroyed or ruined and others were turned into barns for animals or public bathrooms. The entire Jewish Quarter was destroyed, houses were built immediately adjacent to the Kotel and all access to the ancient city was completely denied to Jews. Then suddenly, in the middle of the Six Day War, Israel found itself, unexpectedly, in control of the Old City.

With the news that Israel had taken control of the Old City and east Jerusalem, Israelis from all over the country began flocking to the Kotel to celebrate their young country’s miraculous victory. With Israeli sovereignty in all of Jerusalem, the holy sites of the world’s three great monotheistic faiths were opened to all, as they had never been under centuries of Muslim rule.

Now, 40 years later, many Israelis don’t know an Israel without a united Jerusalem offering free access to the Kotel and the important cultural and historic sites in the Old City.

Once called the "Wailing Wall", the Western Wall of the Temple Mount is referred to in Hebrew as the "Kotel", the "Wall." The Western Wall Plaza has been opened since 1967 to all people as a place of prayer and study.

On the right side of the women's area of Western Wall Plaza is Barclay's Gate, named for an American tourist who "found" it in 1848. Here is a picture of Jewish women praying at the Western Wall in 1848 during the reign of the Ottoman Turks.

One cannot deny the history, the beauty, the radiant spirituality of this Jewish Holy place.

Source(s): http://www.aish.com/seminars/tunneltours/westernwall.asp