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Amidah: Yom Yerushalayim: To Live at a Higher Level



On one occasion a man read in the presence of Rabbi Elazar, “Make known to Jerusalem her abominations (Ezekiel 16:2).” Rabbi Elazar said to him, ‘While you are investigating the abominations of Jerusalem, go and investigate the abominations of your own mother. Inquiries were made into his birth, and he was found to be illegitimate. (Megillah 25b)

 

Rabbi Elazar could hear from the way the man read a verse that he had a negative view of Jerusalem. The man recalled the mistakes and destruction. He unlovingly repeated Yechezkail’s criticisms. Rabbi Elazar immediately understood that the man was speaking from an impure source.

Jerusalem demanded and demands a higher standard of behavior. Mistakes are more blatant in God’s Holy City. When we pray that God rebuild Jerusalem, we commit ourselves to live at the high level demanded by the Holy City.

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