Yom Yerushalayim 5785: Im Eshkachech Yerushalayim - If I forget you, Jerusalem

 

 

(A massive Israeli flag was unfurled in the Kotel Plaza by hundreds of people 

who came to pray as Jerusalem Day began this evening)

Yom Yerushalayim 5785 

An Israeli national holiday commemorating the reunification of Jerusalem and the establishment of Israeli control over the Old City in June 1967. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel declared Jerusalem Day a minor religious holiday to thank G-d for victory in the Six-Day War and for answering the 2,000-year-old prayer of “Next Year in Jerusalem”.

 

Im Eshkachech Yerushalayim - "If I forget you, Jerusalem"

by Yossi Azulay 

 

 

 

אִם-אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלִָם

תִּשְׁכַּח יְמִינִי

תִּדְבַּק-לְשׁוֹנִי לְחִכִּי

אִם-לֹא אֶזְכְּרֵכִי

אִם-לֹא אַעֲלֶה אֶת-יְרוּשָׁלִַם

עַל רֹאשׁ שִׂמְחָתִי

Im eshkachech Yerushalayim

Tishkach yemini

Tid'bak leshoni lechiki

Im-lo ezkereichi

Im-lo a'aleh et Yerushalayim

al rosh simchati

If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

let my right hand forget [its skill].

Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth

if I do not remember you,

if I do not elevate Jerusalem

above my highest joy.

Tehillim (Psalms) 137:5–6