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Jerusalem (Yerushalayim)
Who Named Jerusalem?
Question:
As the name Jerusalem rolls off my tongue, my mind conjures images
of stone cobbled streets, upon which ancient prophets and kings once trod, and
more history than a thousand books could ever hold. I was wondering what the
name actually means and who made it up?
Response:
The word Jerusalem, or Yerushalayim in
Hebrew, is not mentioned in the Five Books of Moses and first appears in
the Book of Joshua.
At least, it's not mentioned in full in the Pentateuch—but
both halves are there. Let me explain:
Yerushalayim — more specifically, the Temple Mount
— was the very spot where Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac.
Look in the narrative there and you'll see that after he was
told by an angel of G‑d not to sacrifice his beloved son, it reads:
“And so Abraham named that place ‘G‑d will see,’ as it is
said to this day, ‘On the mountain, G‑d will be seen.’"
The Hebrew word for "will see" is yireh. That's the first half.
Now, what was the city called before
Abraham renamed it Yireh?
To discover this, we need to backtrack
a few chapters. After rescuing his relative, Lot, from captivity, we read how
Abraham was greeted by "Malchizedek
the king of Shalem," who greeted him with bread and wine.
An ancient tradition tells us that Malchizedek was actually
one and the same as Shem, son of Noah, and that Shalem was none
other than the very place that Abraham would eventually rename Yireh.
So Shalem is the second half: Yireh + Shalem = Yerushalayim.
So how did Shalem and Yireh get
together to become Yerushalayim?
The Midrash shares a beautiful
glimpse into the process:
Said
the Holy One, blessed be He, "If I
call the place Yireh like Abraham did, the righteous Shem will complain.
However if I refer to it as Shalem, the righteous Abraham will complain.
Rather, I will call it Yerushalayim, and that name will contain the way it was
called by both of them: Yireh Shalem."
On a deeper level, Yireh Shalem has an alternate meaning:
"Complete awe."
You see, on a soul level, Jerusalem is not just a patch of
hilly earth or a dot on a map. It is that special place within each and every
one of us where we are one with G‑d and deeply in tune with His presence.
Yireh Shalem (or Jerusalem) therefore means "complete
awe," a state where one is so in touch with G‑d as to be in constant
rapture.
Rabbi Menachem Posner
serves as staff editor for Chabad.org.
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