 Jerusalem, Yerushalayim, is much, much more than the capital of our land, of our state. Yerushalayim, Jerusalem, is really the heart, the beating heart of the Jewish people. Every Jew, wherever he lives, is really a citizen of Yerushalayim. There's a connection. There's an attachment. We celebrate the joys of Yerushalayim. We lament its suffering. Whatever celebration we celebrate, be it a wedding, any joyous occasion, our jewelry is diminished by the sirens of Jerusalem. As King David said, if I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning. Let my tongue cleave to my palate if I forget you. If I don't raise Jerusalem above all my celebrations. Even at the most fulfilling religious celebrations, such as the day-long Yom Kippur observance, or the Passover Seder, our last words are Lishonahabah Yerushalayim. Next year may we be Yerushalayim. As if to say, it was glorious, it was grand. There was a magnificent Yom Kippur, there was a magnificent Passover Seder, but there's something missing. Because it wasn't what it should be. It wasn't in Yerushalayim. It wasn't in Jerusalem. So tonight, I don't think we're going to come up with any arguments that are going to dissuade the UN. But I think it's important for us to feel what the Jewish tradition has to say about our connection to Yerushalayim. As we all know, the Judaism is a universal religion. In the general sense, its laws, its rules are applicable worldwide. But as we also know, there are many laws that are specific to the land of Israel. There are many laws that are specific to the city of Yerushalayim. And there are many that are specific to the base Hamigdash, to the holy temple, which was at its center. In the base of Hamigdash, in the holy temple, there was a rack. And this rack is called, in the Talmud, the Evan Shesea, the foundation stone. According to some scholars, this is the rack, which today is under the dome of the rack. And the Talmud says, the reason it is called the foundation stone, the Evan Shesea, because it was from that point that the world was established. Meaning, when God created the world, it began at that point. And from that point, it radiated outward. But this is where the beginning was. This is the point of contact between the divine, the spiritual, and the physical material world. From there, it expands. According to one rabbinic tradition, the earth, the soil from which the body of Adam was created, was taken from the site that was destined to become the holy temple in Yerushalayim. According to a rabbinic tradition, Adam was the first to offer sacrifices there. Likewise, in the story of Cain and Abel, who built their altars and offered sacrifices, we know the story. Those sacrifices were built on the site that was going to become the temple in Yerushalayim. When the Bible tells us that Noah, Noah, after the flood brought sacrifices, it was also at that same site. The great story of Abraham, the Akheda, when he took his son and with tremendous devotion, was willing to offer him as a sacrifice. The story identifies that as having taken place on Har HaMaria, Mount Moriah, which is the site of the temple. When Jacob, our patriarch, in flight from the land of Israel and his brothers' attempt to kill him, stayed over for a night and had a dream of a ladder that had its feet on the ground and its top reached the heaven. And angels were going up and down the ladder. According to a rabbinic tradition, that was on the site of the temple. So we see that our connection to Yerushalayim goes way, way, way back to the beginning of Jewish history and is identified with our patriarchs, our founding fathers. When the Jews were liberated from Egypt, we know they came to Mount Sinai, the divine presence came to rest, and the Torah was given in thunder and lightning and smoke and fire. So we would expect that that site, Mount Sinai, would become an eternal shrine. This should be the central place in Judaism. And surprisingly, it's not. There is no sanctity which attaches itself to that mountain in the Sinai Peninsula. But at that place, God told Moses that there is another place that I will choose, that I will designate, in the land of Israel. And that is the site of holiness. That is the site of sanctity. And if you look in the book of Duna Raname, where Moses reviews God's speaking to him, this phrase, HaMuakomashayiv HaHashem, the place that God will choose, that God will select, is repeated again and again and again. That in this place, there would be a permanent sanctuary. In this place, the Supreme Court, which was the authority for all the Jewish nation, would convene there. This would be the place where Jews would assemble three times a year as pilgrims. HaMuakomashayiv HaHashem, the place of God would choose. It was hundreds of years later that that place was identified by King David and the prophet Shmuel as being the city of Yushalayim. David made it his political capital, the capital of the regime. And interestingly, that King David and his descendants became the defenders of Yushalayim and they were given a very interesting privilege that in the Holy Temple, the protocol called for standing. No one was allowed to sit in the temple. It was too holy. There was only one exception. The kings of the House of David were given the honor to sit in the temple courtyard because they were considered the defenders of the city. King David purchased the site that the temple was going to be built on. There was a threshing floor that belonged to a man named Arnon. He was of the Jebusites, a Canaanite tribe. And King David bought the site with money and the Medrish tells us a fabulous thing. There were three places in the land of Israel where our claim is the strongest. If we assert a claim on the basis of conquest, so people could always argue, well, that's not fair. Can't steal it. But there were three locations that were purchased in the land of Israel. The first was purchased by Abraham. This was the city of Hebron where he purchased the Maara Samachpela, the cave which was the burial site of the patriarchs and the matriarchs. The second was a field in the city of Shchem. It was purchased by Jacob. And ultimately this became the burial place of Joseph. And the third was the site of the temple that was purchased by King David. So the Medrish says that these three locations, our title can't be disputed because we paid for them with cold hard cash. And the irony is that these are the three locations that today are the most contested. Jerusalem, Hebron, and Nablus, which of course is Shchem. So the irony is amazing. There were our claim the strongest. This is where it is most contested. And I think that this not only applies to these three specific locations, but it applies generally to our claims to land of Israel. King David began to lay the foundations for the building of the temple. But he was not allowed to complete the process. The Book of Chronicles tells us that God sent a message that because King David was a warrior, he was a man of war, and the temple is meant to be a place of peace, he would not be allowed to complete the construction. And it was carried out by his son, Shlomo King Solomon, who built the magnificent first temple which stood for 410 years. Now it's hard to imagine what the temple meant to every Jew. Nowadays, we have local synagogues. So every city has many synagogues. No one goes more than a few blocks to find the place of worship. But the institution of the synagogue did not exist yet. There were no local houses of worship. All there was was the one temple which was the place of worship for the entire Jewish people. This was it. If you wanted to pray, if you wanted to bring a sacrifice, this is where you came. And interestingly, the Torah itself created a very interesting institution which almost compelled people to spend significant chunks of time in Jerusalem. You know, when you raise craps in the lands of Israel, there are certain agricultural gifts that are given to the priests, the Levites. These are called Chuma and Maaseir. Chuma is a smaller portion, Maaseir is a full tithe, which is given to the Levites for the maintenance of the religious functionaries. But there was a second tithe called Maaseir Sheini. In addition to the first tithe that was given to the Levites, there was a second tithe. And what was done with it? To whom was it given? It was given to nobody. It was kept by the farmer. But there was one rule that could only be eaten in Ushalayim. And this meant that if a person raised a bumper crab, approximately 10% of it was reserved for consumption in Ushalayim. That means every family had to spend a significant amount of time there absorbing the spiritual atmosphere of Ushalayim. Visiting the temple, visiting the rabbinic scholars, interacting with other Jews who are also coming from all over the land of Israel. And enjoying its spiritual blights. Now historical revisionists, for reasons we're going to explain, would like to deny the Jewish connection to Ushalayim. But I'm going to tell you something which can't be denied. The name Ushalayim is mentioned in the Tanakh, in the Jewish Bible, over 650 times. Over 650 times. The city of Ushalayim is mentioned by name. Now there's another name for Ushalayim, which is called Sion. Also a reference to the temple to the city of Ushalayim. The name Sion is mentioned in additional 150 times. So we have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of references. This is not a footnote. This is not a marginal place. This is the very, very center of Jewish political life, Jewish economic life, and Jewish spiritual life throughout the biblical period. When the temple was destroyed, the first temple, the majority of Jews were exiled to Babylonia. The small remnant that remained behind shortly afterward fled to Egypt. And the land of Israel had been abandoned, but for a very short time, for 70 years. And after the 70 year Babylonian exile, the Persians had overthrown the Babylonians, and they gave permission to Jews to return. Not a large group, about 40,000 returned. And they rebuilt the temple, and the second temple stood for 420 years until the year 70 that it was destroyed by the Romans. So if you talk about the first temple, 410 years, and the second temple, 420 years, and the 70 years in between, you're talking about a 900 year span from the building of the first temple to the destruction of the second temple, where it was the focal point of Jewish life. In the year 135, there was an uprising against the Romans under Bar Cochva. And at that time, Jews were banished from the city of Yushalayim. This was the beginning of the Great Diaspora. And for the most part, our physical connection to Yushalayim was severed. Throughout the Middle Ages, there was no significant Jewish presence in Yushalayim. Only a handful of families living there. Although we do have reports of individuals coming as tourists in those pilgrims. Starting in 1517, when the Ottoman Empire took over Yushalayim, and continuing, rather, for the next 300 years, we have Jews beginning to return. A small population, somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 people, living as a minority among Muslims and Christians. Starting in the mid-1800s, and accelerating in the early years of the 20th century, we have an influx of Jews returning. And by the 1920s, the Jews comprise a majority of Yushalayim. Now, again, the historical revisionists will not look at the entire span of history. They will ignore the 900 years during which Yushalayim was central to Jewish life. They'll focus on one of the later periods and say, well, the Jews weren't here. They weren't here in the Middle Ages. They weren't here during the time of the Crusades, and so on and so forth. But this is a trap we have to avoid. If you are relying on the historical record, you have to look at the historical record in total. Don't focus on a specific slice of history. Look at the entire span of history, and the Jewish connection is undeniable. But even when Jews were not physically present, we always were connected. In our daily prayers, three times a day, we pray, To Jerusalem, your city, return in mercy. We mourn for Yushalayim. There is a chapter in the Shulchanarach in the Code of Jewish Law which talks about the myriad of practices which are to remember Yushalayim and lament Yushalayim. If you go into a ritually observant Jewish home, you'll see that near the front door, there's a patch of wall which is left unpainted. This is to remember that we're missing Yushalayim. At a wedding, we break the glass. That's not simply to send a signal that the ceremony is over. The breaking of the glass is to put a damper on the celebration in remembrance of Yushalayim. There are mitzvahs, there are commandments which technically should not be performed because they only are operative during temple times. We observe them as a remembrance of Yushalayim. Whenever we eat a meal and we see the Burkatimazon, we pray for the restoration of Yushalayim. And thank God now that travel has become so relatively inexpensive and convenient, virtually every Jewish family has the opportunity to visit and savor the glories of Yushalayim. Let me tell you a story. Napoleon saw himself as the great liberator of the Jews, the emancipator of the Jews, granting them citizenship and political rights in France. And the story is told that once, a night, at this time of year, July, August, he passed by a synagogue in Paris and he heard wailing coming from the synagogue. And he asked one of his entourage, what is that sound? So his assistant told him that tonight is the night of Tisha Ba'ov, the night of the ninth of Av and that commemorates the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. So Napoleon is reported to have said, what? The temple was destroyed in Jerusalem? How is it possible that I wouldn't have heard of this? So the person says, well, it happened a long time ago. We're talking about something which happened 1500 years ago. And Napoleon said, 1500 years ago and they're still crying? If they're still mourning after 1500 years, I know that someday that temple will be built. If they can still lament its loss, that means they're going to return and it will be rebuilt someday. I'd like to talk about a few ideas about Yushalayim. And if you look at the handout, the first section begins with a quotation from Humanities which reviews some of the history. But let's talk about a very interesting thing, but the name Yushalayim, where does the name come from? There's a story in the Bible of Abraham having successfully waged a war in which he defeated four mighty kings in the defense of five smaller kings. And in the aftermath of this great battle, it says that Malchitzedek, the king of Shalem, came and brought bread and wine, which was the customary practice. When people came back, we were from the battlefield, you brought them refreshment. And this was produced by Malchitzedek, the king of Shalem. According to rabbinic tradition, Shalem is the city that today we call Yerushalayim. And this is one of the first references to that place. He blessed Abraham, he blessed God, and Abraham gave him a very, very nice donation. Masir, one-tenth of the spoils of battle. Keep that in mind. Malchitzedek is the king of Shalem. Later, we have the story of the Akheda. Abraham returns to that same place, Mount Moriah. He offers his son on the altar. And it says that Abraham gave a name to that place, that Abraham called the name of that place Hashem Yer'eh. Hashem Yer'eh means God will see. That this is the place from which God looks down and observes the world. Hashem Yer'eh. And the Torah adds in the editorial comment that nowadays we twist that a little bit and we don't say Hashem Yer'eh, but Hashem Yer'eh. This is the place where God is seen. That this is the place where on the one hand God sees us, and this is on the other hand the place that we see God, but Yer'eh. So the place has two names. One name is Shalem, and the other name is Yer'eh. So the measure says that God had a dilemma. God said, what should I call the place? What should I call the place? If I call it Shalem, like the righteous Malchitzedek did, then the righteous Abraham will have a grievance. Why don't I use the name that he gave the place? If I call it Yer'eh, which was the name that Abraham gave to the place, then the righteous Malchitzedek will have a grievance. Why don't we use his name? So God said, I'm going to combine the two names. Yer'eh, Shalem, is Yerushalayim. That the name that God gave to the place is the combination of the two names. The name that Abraham gave, Yer'eh, and the name that Malchitzedek gave, which is Shalem. What is the significance of this fact? There's a lovely commentary that is given in the safer Meshachochmo. And he says the following, the word Shalem means perfection. What Malchitzedek was trying to do, his mission was to bring people to virtue, honesty and compassion, to develop exemplary traits of personality and character. That's the idea of Shalem. And it's interesting to note that Malchitzedek, the very name, means my king is righteous, sedek, just. And that's what he was trying to do. He was a warrior on behalf of justice and virtue. And that's certainly a very worthy cause. Abraham revealed that there's another dimension to life. Yes, of course it should be just and honest. And Yerushalayim is called the Yer'hatsedek, the city of virtue. But there's something else, which is a connection to God, a relationship with God, with the divine. That's Yer'eh. This is the place where God sees us, and this is the place where we behold him. Each picture of Yushalayim is incomplete. If Yushalayim is only perceived as the city of virtue, of honesty, of decency, of morality, that's certainly a very wonderful thing, but it's an incomplete picture. If we see Yushalayim simply as the religious shrine, a place where a person can connect to the divine, that's also a wonderful thing, but incomplete. God said that the full name of Yushalayim is Yerushalayim. Now I want to point out another interesting thing about the name. If you look in the Tanakh, in a written, printed version of the Bible, you'll discover that the word Yushalayim is always, almost always, there are four exceptions, out of the 650 something odd times. Yushalayim is spelled with a missing letter. When we write Yushalayim, we write it in the Hebrew letters Yud, Reish, Vav, Shin, Lamid, Yud, and then that Yud, which is the next to the last letter, is always missing, again only four exceptions, but in over 645 of the times it's missing that letter, meaning that if you would read it without the vowels, you could easily read it Yerushalayim, which is really reminiscent of Malchizedek, who called it Shalayim. Somehow we are mindful of the fact there's an extra Yud there and it becomes Yerushalayim. What's the significance to this? There's an amazing comment by one of the medieval biblical commentators in the Bacha'i, it says like this, another in Hebrew, there are certain words that when you have two of something, the plural ends with the suffix Ayim. For example, if you have a Yad, which is a hand, two hands are Yadayim. You have a foot, which is a regal, two feet are Raghalayim. Yerushalayim is also a plural word. The singular is Yerushalayim, which is the way it's written, but it's very Yerushalayim because it's plural. In what sense is this plural? So there's a rabbinic tradition that there is an earthly Yerushalayim and there's a heavenly Yerushalayim. There's a Yerushalayim Shalmatah, or Yerushalayim below, and there's a Yerushalayim above. And our earthly Yerushalayim corresponds to the heavenly Yerushalayim. Each one is a Yerushalayim. Together the two are Yerushalayim. And it says in Psalms, Yerushalayim habinuya, Yerushalayim rebuilt, ke'ir shukhubra loyachtav, like a city which is joined together. Now we see this verse and we think, oh, we understand what this verse means. Because we know there's the new city, there's the old city, there was a time that the two were severed in 1948, in 1967, they were reunited. Ah, that's the meaning of this biblical prophecy, that rebuilt Yerushalayim like a city which is joined together. But the Talmud says there's another dimension to this, that Yerushalayim is an earthly city, but it's connected to a heavenly city above. This is the two halves that are joined, the lower Yerushalayim and the upper Yerushalayim. And as we said, Yerushalayim is the site of the temple for all time. The Torah says that for many, many hundreds of years, there was a portable sanctuary called the Mishkan. And the Mishkan moved from place to place. For 40 years, the Jews wandered in the desert and traveled with them. When they came into Eretz Yisrael, the land of Israel, for 14 years, it was in the city of Gilgol. For another 369 years, it was in a city called Shiloh. Then it went to a city of Nov and Givon. Between the two, it was there 57 years. Also it wandered. But the Torah says that there's a special mitzvah to identify the final and permanent home for the temple. And the Torah says, you shall seek God's dwelling place and come to that place and build a permanent home. That's Yerushalayim. Once Yerushalayim was designated, it can't be moved anywhere else. Now let's think about this for a moment. Now you may know in Jewish history, there was a time, the issue was raised in the second Zionist Congress, that why are the Jews so insistent on returning to Israel? There was an option on the table and offer that the Jews could be relocated to Uganda and establish a Jewish homeland there. And there would be no objections. In Israel, you have the Arabs and the Palestinians and everyone is vying for the same piece of land. Give it up! We'll find you a place which is abandoned, empty. No one will contest your claim. And it's all yours. And it'll be wonderful. And there were some of the secular Zionists who thought, you know, this is a good idea. Like, why not? It was as important to have a Jewish homeland. This will be speared from anti-Semitism. We'll have a land of our own. But why does it have to be in that particular contested spot? We could go to Africa and live there. And it makes a lot of sense. Very much to their surprise, there was a great pushback. They said, no, we're not interested in going to Uganda. This is our home. This is our place. And so it is with Yushalayim. There are probably a lot of people that are saying, why are you so insistent on Yushalayim? Tell them that it's okay. We want to have a capital? We're going to be here. This is where the Palestinians, where the Arabs have declared this to be their holy city. This is one of the Jewish capital. As they say in Yiddish, gizunterheid, go ahead, sign, Tel Aviv, over there, Haifa, wherever you want. You can have your own capital. Just not here, not in Yushalayim. We have to understand, it's important for us to know, that once Yushalayim was designated, it can't be replaced. It's not okay. It doesn't work out here. We'll go there. You know, Washington, D.C., or Ottawa, could move. The United States would discover, oh, Washington, D.C. is not central. It's all the way in the East Coast. It would be much better if we had the capital in the middle of the country. Let's move it to St. Louis. It would be possible. It would be difficult. There would be no theoretical objection to that. It's not even in the Constitution that the United States capital should be in Washington, D.C. Or if Canada would say, well, Ottawa, we should have our capital all the way in the East, let's move it somewhere in the middle of Saskatchewan or Alberta. It's possible to do, but not in Yushalayim. Yushalayim is our heart. It's our core. Once it was designated, it's a permanent designation. It can't be changed. Now, one of the great things about Yushalayim was that it was the center authority for Jewish law. There was a Supreme Court, the Bayes-Dinhagodal, which convened. Its offices were on the Temple site. And all disputes in Jewish law and practice were settled here. That means there never was an unresolved question in Jewish law. Now, we all know that in every synagogue, there are points of contention, you know. The story is told that there was one Sabbath in a certain synagogue there was a question as to whether a certain prayer should be said. So these people said, no, we don't say it on this Sabbath. Others said, we do say it on this Sabbath. And they were arguing back and forth. So a guest overheard this argument. So he asked his friend, well, what's the custom over here? What is the general practice? Every year, this Sabbath comes along. Why are they arguing? So his friend said, that's the custom. The custom is that they argue. And in Jewish life, this is often the case. That our custom is to argue. We're litigous, contentious people. We're strong minded. We have opinions of our own. And we often disagree. Accordingly, there are variants of practice. And sometimes it causes a situation where Jews just can't get along with each other simply because of differences in standards of religious observance. But this is not the way it was meant to be. This is a consequence of the fact that Yushalayim was destroyed. But in Yushalayim, there was this central authority that bathed in Haggadol. And it issued rulings that were binding for the entire Jewish nation. Instead of there being dozens of different versions of Torah, there was one Torah for everyone. This was the force that unified and united the nation. Yushalayim is the gateway of prayer. And we know that Jacob, when he had that dream of the latter, and the angels are going up and down, they're going up and going through the gate into heaven, coming out of the gate of heaven, coming down the ladder, he woke up and he said that, behold, God is in this place. And I didn't know. I had no idea. This is nothing but the gate of heaven and the title of stock. Yushalayim is the gate of heaven. The Bible tells us that when King Salomon built the base of Migdash, when he built the temple, he composed a very, very beautiful, elaborate prayer for the dedication. And in this prayer, he reiterates again and again and again that the role of the temple is not only for people that visit the temple. People will pray towards the land of Israel, towards the city of Yushalayim, towards this temple, wherever they are. Yushalayim is called Tal Piot. There's a neighbor in Mount Anushalayim called Tal Piot, but it's called Tal Piot. And the Talmud says that the meaning of the word Tal Piot is tail, it is the elevation, shakal pios ponumlot, which all mouths turn. This is also the unity of the Jewish people. If you live in the far north, then you pray towards the south. If you live in the far south, you pray towards the north. If you are as we are, west of Yushalayim, you pray towards the east. If you're in China, you pray towards the west. Everyone turns to Yushalayim three times a day. This is the gateway of prayer. This is where all prayers ascend and it's from Yushalayim that all prayers are answered. And it's also the focus of our aspirations. Judaism is a messianic religion. It's a religion which is not only focused on the here and now, it also is a vision of the future, a vision of a better world that will be ushered in by the true Mashiach. And the true Mashiach will liberate us from oppression. He will gather the exiles. He'll bring us back there. It's Israel. A lot of people are uncomfortable with the concept because they're well entrenched in exile. But this is what the role of Mashiach is. And on the sheet, there are a number of biblical quotations that are worth reading, just to give you an idea. And these are just samples. If you read the books of the prophets of Isaiah and Jeremiah, you have again and again and again such poetic, such lofty expression of the heartfelt feelings of the Jewish people. Take one verse. And it shall come to pass on that day that a great chauffeur shall be sounded. And those lost in the land of Assyria and those exiled in the land of Egypt shall come and they shall bow before the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem. A vision of all Jews coming together returning to the holy city and bowing in submission before God. And this is what we pray for. This is what we yearn for, for the return to you shall I am. By the way, we've seen much of it happen already. If you think about the years since 1948, how many Jews from so many countries have returned and come back? If you think back to the mass immigration of Ethiopian Jews, of Russian Jews, thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of coming in, we're the last holdouts, the exiles of North America. But someday we'll also return. And in the book of Zechariah, we have such a beautiful vision. Start from verse 4, So said the Lord of hosts, old men and women shall yet sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of old age. Now you think about these tough frontier towns. These aren't places for old people. These are places only for the most robust and mighty warriors. An old person isn't going to find himself in a war zone. But the time is going to come that Jerusalem won't be a war zone. Jerusalem will be a city of peace. It will be a city of love. And we're going to have old people, people with their canes sitting on the benches in Jerusalem. And the streets of the city should be filled with boys and girls playing in the streets. And of course anybody who's had the pleasure of visiting Ushalayim knows that this is the case today already. Even the pre-Messianic times, Ushalayim is not a war zone. Ushalayim is a vibrant living city with old people, with young people. It's the center of scholarship today, virtually every young man and young lady who's finished a Jewish high school turns to Israel in general, and Ushalayim specifically, for that extra bit of inspiration in the year or two following graduation. And there are prophecies which tell us that in the Messianic age, the vision is not parochial. It isn't just that Ushalayim will be our place, but rather when the Jewish people achieve their destiny, all mankind will share. And in the book of Zechariah, it says, there will yet be a time that peoples in the inhabitants of many cities shall come, and the inhabitants of one shall go to another and say, let us go pray before the Lord and to entreat the Lord of hosts, I too will go. And many peoples in powerful nations shall come to entreat the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to pray before the Lord. And of course the magnificent prophecy of Ushayim. And it shall be in the end of days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be firmly established at the top of the mountains and it shall be raised above the hills and all the nations shall stream to it. And many people shall go and they shall say, come, let us go up to the Lord's mount to the house of the God of Jacob and let him teach us of his ways and we will go in his paths for out of Zion shall the Torah come forth and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge between the nations and we prove many peoples and we shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations should not lift the sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. And of course, this is our dream. Our dream is not that Ushalayim should be a beacon of light for us. Our dream is that Ushalayim should be the beacon of light for all mankind. And this is our prayer. As Judaism is a universal religion in the sense that it isn't just our thing and everyone else is condemned to eternal damnation. As Judaism believes that our mission, the mission of the Jewish people is to bring all mankind to truth, to virtue, to morality, to a real connection to God. And therefore, when we pray for Ushalayim, we pray for the return, it's not just our thing. With Ushalayim, we hope and pray should be the capital and the beacon for all mankind all humanity. What can one say about Ushalayim? Books and books and books have been written and filled with the praises of Jerusalem and every Jew, every Jew feels it deep in his heart. But we touched on a few points tonight. And of course, this is the time of year that we're very mindful of all this. The three weeks that began this past Sunday will culminate three Sundays. This is the period where all Jews mourn for the loss of the temple, for the loss of Ushalayim. We hope and pray that we should be able to return and Ushalayim should fulfill its promise. And all those who wish to deny Ushalayim and take it away and steal it, corrupt it for their own nefarious purposes should fail. And Ushalayim should be what it's meant to be. As Malki said it, Shalayim, the city of virtue, the city of truth, the city of honesty, of decency, of morality. And as Avril Movinu said at Yere, the city where God sees us and we can see God. Because if these two visions of Ushalayim shall blend into one, Shalayim plus Yere, the common Ushalayim, that'll be the fulfillment of the Jewish mission on this earth.