From Mandelbaum Gate to Chut Shel Chessed
Once the physical gate to Jerusalem, Chut shel Chessed now has turned the Mandelbaum Gate into the spiritual gate to Jerusalem!
For years, we watched in desperate envy and frustration as foreigners passed into the holy city unmolested while we could only stand at Mandelbaum Gate and watch.
Our nation is pursuing a dream. To some, our dream may seem trivial; to others, impossible to attain. Millions have worked towards it and thousands of years have passed, but we remain unabashed in our efforts to merit its fulfillment.
For two thousand years we have waited to come home. We have longed to gather in Eretz Yisroel, to rebuild our Third Temple, and to renew the close relationship with God that we once had.
The path to this goal has been paved with hardships. The monuments of our struggles and misery lie scattered throughout the world. They are found in nearly every country, from the remains of the Death Camps in Poland to Masada in Eretz Yisrael. Yet, despite our struggles, we persevere. From the story of Yosef and his brothers, we learn that before God gives us a test, He gives us the tools to overcome it. Like the night is the darkest right before dawn, oftentimes, the very article of our despair becomes a key to our salvation.
Today, we are plagued by an almost ironic taste of our redemption. We get so close to complete destruction and then, overnight, we can almost sense the beginning of our salvation. We can all but see the hand of our Creator guiding us. Who could have ever imagined the broken, bloodied souls limping out of Auschwitz, all the way to the holy city of Jerusalem?
Today, we are blessed to live in and visit the old city of Jerusalem. Nearly forty years ago, however, that was impossible. Today, the streets of Meah Shearim are full of commerce, shouting children, young families, and vibrant Yiddishkeit. Four decades ago, the area was a virtual war zone, located on the border between Israel and her hostile Arab neighbor. Where today schools and homes stand, one journalist described the area from 1948-1967 as “a ramshackle affair of corrugated tin checkpoints separated on each side by a wide, cobblestone expanse of street.” The bullet holes in the buildings testify to the violence that was an almost daily affair. For close to two decades, we suffered everything from kidnapping and beatings to sniper fire. But even more painful than the violence we endured was the knowledge that the Kotel, the last remnant of our Holy Temple, remained just beyond our reach.
Following the war of Independence, the entire Old City, including the Kotel, was under Jordanian control. The Arabs destroyed our synagogues, desecrated hundreds of our graves, and reduced the Old City into a crumbling, desolate village. Sewage ran down the main streets, and farm animals defecated on the stones upon which our holy sages had once walked.
Jerusalem was divided between East and West; old and new. Mandelbaum Gate was the only point of connection between the no man’s land that split the city. It was through this passage that people – Christian pilgrims, Western journalists, and Arabs, but no Jews – could cross into the Old City.
For years, we watched in desperate envy and frustration as foreigners passed into the holy city unmolested while we could only stand at Mandelbaum Gate and watch. We were so close to our enemy that we could see and speak to those Jordanian soldiers who refused to allow us entry. Every day we would see them stand on our holy ground while we remained powerless to remove them. At times the area was calm, at other times the soldiers would fire at us and our children.
Yet we never lost hope. People would climb onto the roofs of the highest buildings to watch the sun set over our holy city held hostage. All this came to an end, when, during the miraculous events of the Six Day War, Mandelbaum Gate was torn down. We were allowed to return to our city.
Now, fast forward to today; the Old City has been rebuilt and is a popular place to visit, spend time, and pray. Meah Shearim has developed into a gem of traditional Judaism. But where Mandelbaum Gate once stood as a dreary symbol of Jerusalem divided, something amazing is going on.
On the site of so much frustration and despair, a new flame is being kindled! Jewish men are discovering their roots. The sound of Torah learning emanates from a building which had once, on a very physical level, separated us from our roots.
In what can only be described as a miracle, Chut Shel Chessed Institutions was given the privilege of changing Mandelbaum Gate from a source of spiritual frustration to a fountain of spiritual growth.
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