We say in the
Zemirot of Shabbat, in the Zemer 'Tzur Mishelo': "May the Temple be
rebuilt, and the City of Zion once again be filled".
Ha-Rav Meshulam
David Ha-Levi Soloveitchik, who served as Rosh Yeshivat Brisk in Yerushalayim,
explained that this sentence means that the destruction of Yerushalayim is not
only the destruction of the city and the Beit Ha-Mikdash, but also the
expulsion of the Jews from the city.
This is seen in the prayer "Nachem" recited on Tisha Be-Av in
the Shemoneh Esrei: "She [Yerushalayim] is in
mourning because she is without her children, her homes have been
destroyed". We therefore
request in this Shabbat song "May the Temple be rebuilt", i.e. may
the Temple, city and its walls be rebuilt, "and the city of Zion once
again be filled", i.e. may her children return and the city of Zion once
again be filled by the return of Jews to our Land.
His brother,
Ha-Rav Meir Ha-Levi Soloveitchik, who served as Rosh Yeshiva in another
Yeshivat Brisk in Yerushalayim, explains this request in a similar manner,
based on the verses in Yechezkel (36:33-38): "On the day that I will have cleansed you from all your
iniquities, and I will resettle the cities, and the ruins shall be built up… I
will multiply them, the men, like the flocks appointed for the holy offerings,
like the flocks of Yerushalayim on its festivals, so will these cities now laid
waste be filled with flocks of men".
The Prophet clearly explains to us that two things will happen at the
time of the Geula: the building of what was destroyed and the filling of the
cities with the Jewish People. We
therefore say in the Zemer: "May the Temple be rebuilt" and "the
City of Zion once again be filled" (Zemirot Shabbat – Brisk, p. 51).
