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If I forget thee, O Jerusalem
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem.
May my right hand forget its skill.
May my tongue cling to my palate,
If I do not remember you,
If I do not bring up Jerusalem at the beginning of my joy. (Psalms 137:5-6)
O Jerusalem, the Psalmist who lamented the agony of our banishments from your comforting embrace, implored we never forget you and your spirited glory. We did not forget you.
O Jerusalem, your sacred name has graced our Bible over six hundred times, and our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob sojourned on your holy mountain. We did not forget you.
O Jerusalem, chosen by King David to be the city of God’s Holy Presence, you have been besieged and conquered time and again, but we kept our promise to you. We did not forget you.
O Jerusalem, the divine destiny of our souls, we are one with you as we have ached for you and we have loved you, and we have been drawn to you for eternity and longer. We did not forget you.
O Jerusalem, resplendent jewel of our people, twice destroyed, when the painful wind of exile scattered us even to the furthest reaches of the earth, you never left our hearts. We did not forget you.
O Jerusalem, when we were in the depths of our despair, when all hope was lost, we still turned our faces toward you as we always have, and we cried out to Heaven. We did not forget you.
O Jerusalem, when any other nation would have surrendered its memory of you had they endured even a moment of how we have suffered, we would not. We did not forget you.
O Jerusalem, for thousands of years and more, we shed millions of tears and more, in sadness and in joy, as we longed for our full redemption with you. We did not forget you.
O Jerusalem, after two millennia, we again had our Land of Israel and were then miraculously reunited with all of you and with your ancient Temple stones. We did not forget you.
O Jerusalem, as our prophet Zechariah declared to you, “Sing and Rejoice, O Daughter of Zion,” for we have come home to you and we will never leave you again. We did not forget you.
We will never forget you.
