Lee Diamond – Never lose Focus of Scopus
“If I forget Jerusalem
My strength will be lost”
Almost like Samson
Whose strength was in his long locks
But When he lost his crown of virility
He lost his strength
Jerusalem is symbol
Symbol of strength
Symbol of Jewish sovereignty
Sovereignty in Israel
Without it, we are lost
And fragile amongst the nations
We keep Israel above
Our greatest joy
We speak of her clearly
Never getting tongue tied
We face her
We make pilgrimage to her
We declare her under our “chuppah”
We long for her when separated
We close our Seder
And our fasting on Yom Kippur
By singing her praises
Yet there are some who would
Forget her
Washington or San Francisco are their focus
They deny Jerusalem and Israel as tribal
“We are a faith they claim”
“Not a nation, not a people”
‘Not a body”
“Just a soul ”
They call us “tribal”
They face toward spirituality
A spirit without a body
Is ethereal and lifeless.
Thus their bodies wither
Their tongues cleave to their palates
They loose all strength to express,
To act, to react
They are impotent Jews
Jews are body
Jerusalem and Israel contain us
They bear and bare our spirit
We soar as we climb to her
To the heights of Mt. Scopus
And To the shores of Tel Aviv
From the Western Wall
To the Sarona center in Tel Aviv
We climb higher and higher
Yes —-Tel Aviv too is lofty
Jewish souls need Jewish bodies
Jewish bodies need to “inter FACE”
From earthly Jerusalem
To heavenly Jerusalem
If we forget thee
O Israel
We loose all
And become as once before
the “Butt of the nations” (Leon Pinsker)
Never again like Samson
Shall we lose our handsome locks
our strength
And need to bring the house down
Upon us and the world with us
Israel is our inner and outer strength
Our strength comes from you —our fair Maiden
We dreamt of you
We faced you
We mourned you
We prayed toward you
We fought for you
We alighted to you
And now we live in you once again, Israel,
In Kfar Saba and Eilat, in Pardesia and Rishon LeTzion and in Yahud
Along with Jerusalem –our City of Ultimate Peace
Never loosing site and focus
Or Scopus
Or our cunning