The 175th Anniversary at the Mount of Olives

Yesterday a meeting took place at the Mount of Olives with LDS apostles and Jewish leaders to commemorate the 175^th anniversary of Orson Hyde’s prayer to dedicate the land for the return of the Jews.  One of the speakers was Elder Holland, and I was impressed by both what he said and how he said it.  What jumped out at me was the way that he spoke exactly as Alma taught Shiblon to do: “Use boldness, but not overbearance” (Alma 38:12).  Elder Holland quoted the “Torah”—what Jews call the five books of Moses—right along with the Book of Mormon, not apologizing for referencing our own scripture but rather stating simply that it is “our sacred record which is Semitic in its origin.”  He interwove his discussion about our beliefs of a divinely mandated gathering of Jews at Jerusalem with reference to Joseph Smith’s “divine manifestation” and restoration of “priesthood and powers.”  He spoke of Elijah’s visit to the Kirtland Temple while at the same time acknowledging the “cherished Jewish tradition to leave an empty chair for Elijah at Passover” and our connection with Jews in our belief in Elijah’s important mission.  He told without apology of the “world-changing appearance of Moses” (recorded in D&C 110) to the prophet Joseph Smith and the role of this in the Jewish people’s return in the same paragraph that he acknowledged the Jewish leader Theodor Herzl who was one of the fathers of Zionism.  Elder Holland was able to respectfully reference beliefs important to his Jewish audience while at the same time being just bold enough to show how major events of the Restoration are intricately linked with those Jewish beliefs.  Like Paul he showed that he was both “not ashamed of the gospel of Christ” and also “all things to all men” (Romans 1:16, 1 Corinthians 9:22).

                I especially appreciated Elder Holland’s final words to this group of Jewish leaders: “We believe the work of modern Elder Orson Hyde has played a key role in God choosing Jerusalem again in the fulness of times.  We pray for the preservation of the Jewish people and for their peaceful association with all who dwell in what is truly the Holy Land.”  He seemed to have been subtly emphasizing our support for both sides of the great difficulties that exist between the Arabic and Jewish people at Jerusalem.  As he mentioned, our doctrine states a belief in the return of the Jewish people, such as in the Book of Mormon that speaks of the time when the Jews “shall be gathered home to the lands of their inheritance, and shall be established in all their lands of promise” (2 Nephi 9:2).  And while that belief encourages us to place some emphasis on the Jewish return to Jerusalem in events such as this 175^th anniversary, it does not mean that we don’t support the others who live at Jerusalem.  I appreciate the way that President Hunter described our love for all peoples it in an address at BYU while the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden was being constructed.  He said, “At the present time we are engaged in a project of beautifying the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem by a garden, in memory of Orson Hyde, an early apostle of the Church, and the dedicatory prayer he offered on that site. It is not because we favor one people over another. Jerusalem is sacred to the Jews, but it is also sacred to the Arabs….  Both the Jews and the Arabs are children of our Father.  They are both children of promise, and as a church we do not take sides.  We have love for and an interest in each.”  As a Church we seek to support the good in all cultures and religions, while at the same time not being afraid to testify of the “reason of the hope that is in [us]” (1 Peter 3:15).