The familiar chapter of Tehillim (126), "Shir Ha-ma'alot," traditionally sung prior to birkat ha-mazon on Shabbat and festivals, describes the emotion felt "when God restores the fortunes of Zion," the return of the Jewish people to Jerusalem. David writes that at that moment "hayinu ke-cholmim" - we were like dreamers. So surreal an event this is, Benei Yisrael's long-awaited return to its sacred city, that it can be compared only to the products of one's imagination. The Aramaic Targum, however, translates this expression - "hayinu ke-cholmim" - differently, associating it with the Hebrew term for the recovery from illness: "hachlama." (In modern Hebrew, "get well soon" is often expressed as "hachlama mehira.") Meaning, at this momentous occasion in Jewish history, we feel like we have recovered from a long, painful, seemingly terminal illness, the illness of exile.
The "return to Zion" of the 28th of Iyar, Yom Yerushalayim, 5727, undoubtedly featured both these elements. Standing at the brink of the destruction, the Jewish people experienced a triumph deemed less than possible by virtually any reasonable estimation. We sighed a breath of relief as if having recovered from a prolonged illness, and celebrated a victory and the fulfillment of a two-millennia-old dream that seemed too miraculous to be anything but a dream.
In the second half of this chapter, however, the Psalm undergoes a puzzling shift: "Restore our fortunes, God, like watercourses in the Negev. They who sow in tears shall reap with songs of joy. Though he goes along weeping, carrying the seed-bag, he shall come back with songs of joy, carrying his sheaves.
What happened? Haven't "the fortunes" already been restored? Why do we once again pray for the return to Zion?
Radak explains that here we recount the feelings of longings we felt before the return. The "sowing" spoken of refers to the mitzvot observed throughout the exile under bitterly difficult conditions, which sowed the seeds of the long-awaited redemption.
Many years later, however, Amos Chakham, in his "Da'at Mikra" commentary on Tehillim, offered an interpretation possible only by someone living after the founding of the Jewish State. Even after our return to Eretz Yisrael and Yerushalayim, there remains much for which to pray. Equipped with a knowledge of the 20th century, we can understand the final verses of this Psalm as referring not to the tearful seeds sown in exile, but to the blood and tears shed over the course of the process of "shivat Tzion." We turn to the Almighty and ask that we will soon reap the benefits of our labor and toil, that the process of redemption will soon reach completion.
Thirty-four years after the reunification of Jerusalem and restoration of Jewish sovereignty over our Biblical territories of Judea and Samaria, we still "go along weeping, carrying the seed-bag." Like the Psalmist centuries ago, we have woken from our dream to the grim reality of the seeds yet to be sowed and the tears waiting to be shed. The two sections of the Psalm combine into a single chapter in Sefer Tehillim; we celebrate and yearn, we offer thanks as well as prayer. May we soon "carry the sheaves" and realize the ultimate fulfillment of our dream, the return of the Shekhina to a safe, secure, and undisputed Yerushalayim.
Courtesy of Yeshivat Har Etzion - www.etzion.org.il