Remember Jerusalem In poem, prayer and custom, Jews have recalled the memory of Jerusalem. Psalm 137 By the rivers of Babylon There we sat and also wept When we remembered Zion. On the willows within it We hung our lyres, Playing joyous music: Sing for us from Zion's song! Remembering Jerusalem, How can we sing the Lord's song Upon alien soil? Jeremiah mourns the downfall of Jerusalem If I forget you, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget its skill; Let my tongue adhere to my palate, If I fail to recall you, If I fail to elevate Jerusalem Above my foremost joy. Yehuda Halevi (11-12th cent.) My heart is in the East And I am in the faraway West. How can I savour food, How shall I render my vows, While Zion is still enchained by Edom And I am in the bonds of Arabia? How little would it mean to me To abandon all the bounty of Spain. How precious it would be to behold Even the dust of the Holy Temple That was destroyed! From the Prayer Book Plaster remnant depicting Temple Menorah But because of our sins We have been exiled from our land And sent far from our soil. May it be your will, O God ... That You once more be compassionate Upon us and upon your Sanctuary In your abundant mercy, And rebuild it soon And magnify its glory. From the Book of Lamentations How does the City sit solitary That was full of people! How she has become like a widow She that was great among the nations... In the days of her affliction And of her misery, Jerusalem remembers All the pleasant things That she had In the days of old. ... Customs JNF stamp recalls Zion Among the customs for recalling Jerusalem can be included: The breaking of a glass by the groom at his wedding. The inclusion of an unplastered part of a new house near its entrance. The attaching of a Mizrach sign on the wall to mark the direction of prayer towards Jerusalem. The rendering of a garment on seeing the ruins of Jerusalem.