Yerushalayim Shel Zahav (Jerusalem City of Gold)

Shel Zahav refers to the golden color of the Jerusalem stone which builders use to construct buildings and homes in the Holy City of Jerusalem. I went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2008 during the Week of Passover.  I shall never forget it. It was the experience of a lifetime.

How many times have we been discouraged and disheartened and you have brought us joy in our souls?  How many are the times when we have sought you and you were always there for us? How many times have we been lost and you have shown us the way home? O Lord of our lives and our eternal friend, keep us on the straight and narrow path that leads to eternal life, in heaven with you and your Son Jesus Christ 

Eternal life is to know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. We know the Hebrew term is “etz hayim,” referring to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. It is also found in the Book of Proverbs, where it is figuratively applied to "the Torah" (Proverbs 3:18) "the fruit of a righteous man" (Proverbs 11:30) "a desire fulfilled" (Proverbs 13:12) and "healing tongue" (Proverbs 15:4).

I have been to the Kotel, the Wall in Jerusalem during the week of the Passover celebration, where I placed six prayer notes in the Wall and prayed, and I was overcome by your holy presence, driven to my knees in tears of joy and thanksgiving.  I thank you for that unimaginable spiritual experience.

I cried along with many other pilgrims as we walked out of the darkened dome building of the Children's Memorial Hall in the Holocaust Museum.  We cried for the lost lives of one and a half million children who were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust during World War II.  We had to cry.  It was so painful.  And we cried for the six million souls who gave up their lives in the Holocaust.  We will never, never, never forget.

I sat on a small stone bench beneath the olive tree in the Garden of Gethsemane, and basked in the April sunlight under the 1500 year old olive tree with its ancient gnarled branches.  I have walked up the hill to the Mount of Beatitudes and looked over the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus walked on the water and saved your friend Peter from sinking into the depths of the Sea. 

There Jesus rested, while the billows rolled on the Sea and the disciples called out “Master save us,” and you calmed the Sea and saved them. I have been on a boat upon the Sea of Galilee and seen where you looked out over  the shore where the disciples were eating breakfast, and you came to them, just as you have come to me before in a dream.

 I walked where Jesus walked as he performed the miracle of turning water into wine, and the miracle of the dove descending down from the heavens following the baptism of Christ in the River Jordan. I stepped into the River Jordan where Jesus was baptized and where Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land. 

I have looked up and seen Mount Hermon in northern Galilee where the Bible tells us the oil of anointing poured down onto the beard of Aaron. I praise you O God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of Sarah and Rebecca and Rachel and Leah. I have walked where Jesus walked, seen what Jesus saw in Jerusalem and Nazareth and Galilee and Bethlehem of Judea. 

I have traveled through the desert of the Negev in southern Israel where Abraham and Sarah stopped to drink from the wells at Beersheva. I have looked up at the hill Carmel where Elijah brought down rain and fire and defeated the gods of Jezebel and Ahab. And in all these places where I have been honored and privileged to be I have witnessed your glory and majesty, and I have felt your holy presence within me. And I saw that it was good.

Thank you dear Lord, the creator of the universe, for all you have done. Baruch HaShem Adonai Eloheinu - Blessed are you, O Lord our God. Baruch HaShem - Blessed be the name of the Lord.  Amen.

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