Those who are in the Diaspora turn their hearts towards the Land of Israel and pray, as it is written, "They prayed to you by way of their Land which you gave to their ancestors." (IKings 1:8)

Those who are in the Land of Israel turn their hearts towards Jerusalem and pray, as it is written, "They prayed to the Lord by way of the city which you have chosen." (ibid)

Those are in Jerusalem turn their hearts towards the Temple Mount and pray, "They prayed to towards this House." (ibid)

If they are standing in the north, they shall face south. If in the south, they shall face north. If in the east, they shall face west. If in the west, they shall face east.

All of Israel will thus be praying towards one place.

Tosefta Brachot 3

Discussion Idea: Integrate a discussion of the Midrash with a presentation of the establishment of the Kotel as an important site for Jewish gathering and worship. See the following site for some very interesting information concerning the Jewish tradition of praying towards the Holy of Holies and the Western Wall: http://mosaic.lk.net/g-wall.html

Sacrifice for the Sake of the Future

There is a story about a student of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai who left the Land of Israel to live outside of the Land and eventually returned to Israel with great wealth. The other students saw him and become jealous. When this became known to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, He took them out to a valley facing Mount Meron and prayed, "Valley, valley, fill yourself with gold Dinars!" The valley began to fill with gold Dinars.

He said to his students: "Here is gold, go and take it. But you should know that whoever takes now, he is taking from his portion in the world to come… " Shmot Rabba 42

Individual Expressions of Devotion to Israel

Rabbi Abba would kiss the stones of Acco. Rabbi Chanina would fix holes in the road. Rabbi Chiya Bar Gamda would roll in the dust of the land, as the Biblical verse states, "Your servants hold her stones dear, and have pity on her dust." (Ketubot 112a Pslam 102:15)

The Hope and the Dream (Paraphrase of Talmud Bavli - Makot 24a)

Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar Ben Azaria, Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Akiva were once going up to Jerusalem.

When they arrived at Mount Scopus, they tore their clothing.

When they reached the Temple Mount and saw a fox coming out of the destroyed "Holy of Holies," they began to cry, but Rabbi Akiva began to laugh and rejoice.

They said to him, "Why are you rejoicing?"

Rabbi Akiva answered, "Well, why are you crying?"

They said …"Foxes run in the Temple, and we should not cry?"

Rabbi Akiva said…(The Prophet Micah writes) "Because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field." (Micha 3) While the Prophet Zechariah says, " The day will come when the old men and old women will sit in the streets of Jerusalem…" (Zecharia 8)

"So, had I not seen the fulfillment of the first prophesy, I would have worried that the second prophesy would not come true. But now that I have seen that the first prophesy came true, I am sure that Zecharia's words will come true as well."

The Rabbis said, "Akiva you have comforted us, Akiva, you have comforted us."

From the Diaries of Jewish Visitors in Years Past

Ramban 1267 (Writing from Jerusalem to his family )

I am writing to you this letter from the Holy City of Jerusalem…what can I tell you about the country? Great is the misery, and great the devastation…There are about 2,000 inhabitants, including about 300 Christians, refugees who escaped the sword of the sultan, but there are no Jews. For after the arrival of the Moslems, the Jews fled and some were killed by the sword. There are no only two brothers, dyers…At their place, a Minyan of worshippers meets on the Shabbat. And we encouraged them and found a ruined house, built on pillars with a beautiful dome, and made it into a synagogue…and we volunteered to restore the building and they have already begun and sent to the city of Nablus for the Torah scrolls which had been in Jerusalem…For people regularly come to Jerusalem from Damascus and from Aleppo, and from all parts of the country, to see the Temple and weep over it.

(This synagogue became the seed from which today's Jewish Quarter grew)

Isaac Ben Yosef Ibn Chilo 1334

The Jewish community in Jerusalem, God be gracious to her, is quite numerous. It is composed of …families from all parts of the world…engaged in handicrafts…commerce…and they have fine shops. Some people are devoted to science, as medicine, astronomy and mathematics. But the greater number of their learned men are working day and night at the study of the holy Torah…maintained out of the coffers of the community.

The Importance of Connecting to the People of Israel

Selections from the Poetry of Yehuda Amichai

Songs of Zion the Beautiful-16

A song of lovers in Jerusalem: we are
included in most of the prophesies of wrath
and in almost all of the good messages

We are to be found on picture postcards
of our city. Perhaps we can't be seen
because we were sitting in a house
or too small:
the picture was taken from
a passing airplane

Tourists

Visits of condolences is all we get from them
They squat at the Holocaust Memorial,
They put on grave faces at the Wailing Wall
And they laugh beind the heavy curtains
In their hotels.
They have their pictures taken
Together with our famous dead
At Rachel's Tomb and Herzl's Tome
And on the top of Ammunition Hill.
They weep over out sweet boys
And lust over our tough girls
And hang up their underwear
To dry quickly
In cool, blue bathrooms.

Once I sat on the steps by a gate at David's Tower, I placed my two heavy baskets at my side. A group of tourists was standing around their guide and I became their target marker. "You see that man with the baskets? Just right of his head there's an arch from the Roman period. Just right of his head." "But he's moving, he's moving!" I said to myself: "redemption will come only if their guide tells them, " You see that arch from the Roman period? It's not important; but next to it, left and down a bit, there sits a man who's bought fruit and vegetables for his family."

Images of Jerusalem: Fact, Fantasy and Dreams

Mark Twain (The Innocents Abroad- 1867)

A fast walker could go outside the walls of Jerusalem and walk entirely around the city in any hour. I do not know how else to make one understand how small it is…The houses are generally two stories high, built strongly of masonry, whitewashed or plastered outside…It seems to me that all of the races and colors and tongues of the earth must be represented among the fourteen thousand souls that dwell in Jerusalem. Rags, wretchedness, poverty, and dirt…Jerusalem is mournful and dreary and lifeless. I would not desire to live here.

Theodore Herzl (describing 1902 Jerusalem in his novel Altneuland.)

The took the primitive little railway to Jerusalem. Here also the land was a picture of desolation and neglect. Before they reached the hills there was almost nothing but sand and marsh…In the distance were the bare hills of Judea, once clothed in forest…The slopes were mostly denuded of soil, with traces of cultivation only here and there…

"If this is our homeland," said Friedrich, depressed, "then it has been brought as low as we are."

"It is certainly horrible," Kingscourt agreed. "Abominable, in fact, but you could do something with it. A forestation now- half a million young firs. What this land wants is water and shade. It might have an undreamed of future!"

"And who is to bring water and shade?"

"You Jews, Dammit!"

Herzl jumps forward twenty years, describing the return of Friedrich and Kingscourt to the Jerusalem of his imagination:

Now they approached from the east, and by day. Once they had seen a gloomy picture of decay, lying on its hills. Now they say a city of rejuvenated splendor, of activity and industry. Once Jerusalem had been dead, now it was risen again…Jerusalem had become mighty and full of life…Modern suburbs had arisen, with a network of tramlines. The streets were broad and tree lined. There were homes and office buildings, many parks, boulevards, great educational institutes, emporia, some splendid public buildings and places of amusement. It was a cosmopolitan city of the twentieth century.

Two Poets Communicate over the Centuries (The dream verses reality?)

Yehuda Halevy (Died in Egypt on his way to the Land of Israel in 1141)

My heart is in the east
and I in the far off west-
How can I find an appetite for food?
How shall it be pleasing to me?
How shall I render my vows and my bonds
while Zion lies beneath the fetter of Edom
and I in Arab chains?
It would seem to me to be easy to leave all the
good of Spain, as the dust and destruction of the sanctuary has
become precious to my eyes.

Yehuda Amichai

Jerusalem 1967

1
This year I traveled a long way
to view the silence of my city.
A baby calms down when you rock it, a city calms down
from the distance. I dwelled in longing. I played the
hopscotch
of the four strict squares of Yehuda Halevy:
My heart. Myself. East. West.
I hear bells ringing in the religions of time,
but the wailing I heard inside me
has always been from my Judean desert.
Now that I've come back, I'm screaming again.
and at night, stars rise like the bubbles of the
drowned,
and every morning I scream the scream of a
newborn baby
at the tumult of houses and all this huge light.

The Land as a Reflection of Ourselves

They tell me:
Some say : "A land in which there will be no want." Deut 8
Others say: "A land which devours it's inhabitants" Num 13
I said to them,
It is similar to the sun - the righteous are healed by it and the evil are burned by it, And it is one in the same sun.
Thus with the Land of Israel- The Land is but a reflection of the character of the individual.

From a speech by SY Agnon

Further Sources:

For more sources specifically about Jerusalem see this very important resource- The Jerusalem Anthology by Reuven Hammer, published by the Jewish Publication Society.

For online Jewish sources focusing on sites and cities in Israel, see Ami Bouganim's growing collection. http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/moriya/sites.html