The Old City of Jerusalem
As we were walking to the Old City of Jerusalem, in the late hours of the night, I was thinking, how this place is like a magnet to so many people, It draws people back, time and time again. Last weekend, when there was a heatwave even in the night, during the Shavuot festival, there was a stream of people on the way to the Jewish quarter of the Old City. The intention was to learn a little bit of Torah here and there on this very special night. The entire Old City was welcoming, doors open to synagogues, private homes, endless Yeshivot and Jewish educational institutions, where Torah learning was going on through the night.
We are transported back in time, surrounded by fortress-like walls. We walk on cobble stoned streets, through secret alleys and walkways. The sense of history is everywhere. King David did good in conquering this city from the Jebusites. As we walk, we hear song and dance. It’s coming from the Tomb of David. Very fitting for the descendants of the beloved King of Israel to sing and dance by his burial place. The one who wrote so many songs and played so beautifully on his harp. He also danced somewhere around here before the Ark, when it was brought to Jerusalem.
We pass by the Cardo, what used to be the main commercial center during the Roman period. The mural low down in the excavations shows how it might have looked like in those days; lined with shops and vendors, it was a center of economic and cultural life. The street ran from North to South, with impressive Roman columns on the sides.
Close by is the Hurva Synagogue, about which the famous Vilna Gaon said: “When you see the Hurva synagogue built for the third time, you should know, that the rebuilding of the Third Temple is very close.” Originally the Hurva was built by Askenazi European Jews around 1700. Arabs destroyed it by fire in 1720. It was rebuilt by Vilna Gaon’s followers in 1864. During the Jordanian occupation they were fully aware of the Hurva synagogue’s importance, so they blew it up in 1948. They meant to show that the Jewish presence in the Old City had come to a permanent end. In 2010 it went through a major renovation and restored to it’s original beauty and splendor. The re-dedication of the synagogue caused international uproar and the Muslims called the rebuilding a “provocation” and called for “a day of rage”. What else is new under the sun?
Towards the early morning we walked to the Kotel- the Western Wall. Both the wall area and the plaza was filled to the brim with thousands of people; men, women, adults and children, shoulder to shoulder. There were even big crowds on the rooftops. The sun was about to rise above the Western Wall, it sent ray of glitters on our faces. I think at that moment it would have been hard to find an atheist among us. As we silently prayed the early morning prayer, the Amidah, we prayed as a united people, committed to each other and to our God. We were standing among Jewish history and it is without a doubt the greatest story of stories ever told. We know the famous story about the mathematician Pascal. King Louis XIV asked him to prove the existence of God. Pascal answered, “The Jews, your Majesty, the Jews.”
On the way back from the Kotel Plaza, we were met with free croissants and ice cold water bottles. How refreshing and thoughtful of someone to donate morning snack to countless numbers of very tired Jews. We were all hoping that we had been able to make up a little bit for the shortcomings of the Israelites, who over 3000 years ago fell asleep the night before they received the Torah on Sinai.
