Everyone who lives in Jerusalem - especially those
like me who were born here - is in love with the city, really in love. For us,
it is not just a place, not just a house; it is a home. But it is even more than
that: It is an object of love. Even visitors are in some way ensnared by
Jerusalem. So many of their hearts are captured, but in different ways, for
different reasons. Why is it so?
Jerusalem is many things to many people, because it is - and always has been - a
kind of enigma. It is a place that is composed of many parts. They may seem to
clash with one another, but somehow they achieve a kind of harmony that is felt
by anyone who walks her streets or breathes her air or soaks up her sunshine.
Jerusalem is simple, but not naive.
Jerusalem is simple, but not naive. Jerusalem is simple in a most sophisticated
simplicity, because Jerusalem has passed sophistication. It is a very old city.
It is a city that has suffered much and has known so many things that it is now
very simple, like some of those great masterpieces. The simplicity hides so many
things. You look at it, you dream about it, and you think, what really is it?
Jerusalem is also, in many ways, a combination of contradictions: It is called,
and its name itself implies, "City of Peace," yet so many wars took place here.
It is perhaps one of the most quarrelsome and troublesome places in the world,
but it is still a city of peace. There is a saying, especially in Jewish
tradition, that it is "the house of God." The gate to heaven is understood to
refer to Jerusalem, but Jewish tradition also identifies the valley of
Gehinom (purgatory) near the walls of the Old City.
This is Jerusalem. This is what the Psalmist described as ir she'chubra lah
yahdav — a city that was joined together. It is not just joined together
because there is old and new, or because it is home to religious and
non-religious, Arabs and Jews and Christians. It is a place that combines
differences and brings them, somehow, together in a kind of harmony of
contradictions. And there is another explanation, which seems very beautiful to
me, that the name Jerusalem comes from yir'eh shalem, which may be
translated as "a complete view," another form of harmony.
It is historically, and perhaps theologically, significant that Jerusalem is
unlikely as the site of a capital. It is not on a road, or on a river, or near
the sea. It is somewhere ...in nowhere. Even so, it is a center - the place the
Bible tells us that God chose. But why?
In life, as in geology, there are many strata...
In life, as in geology, there are many strata: of substance, of meaning, and of
energy. And in life, as in geology, there is physical causality, in which things
move and are understood according to physical laws and reasoning. This physical
causality - which some might call "real life" - is one level of existence.
There is also another, higher and very different level of causality - a
spiritual one - in which there are rewards and punishments for good and evil.
Usually, there are no connections between the physical and spiritual strata;
they don't mix. People may move from one level to the other, but they don't mix.
But there are - in spirituality, as in geology - points at which the levels
touch, where two strata of existence somehow come together in one point, like a
corner formed by two walls. The corner has no substance of its own, but - like a
lap - exists because of the relationship of two other planes. This juncture is
what Jacob called the ladder or gate to heaven, a place where influence, power,
and insight can move either way, between the spiritual and material worlds.
Such a point is Jerusalem.
No one knows why it should be so, but Jerusalem is a fault-line in the
stratification of the world order. Just as water may spurt forth from a
geological fault, so, too, Jerusalem is a gushing wellspring of existence, a
source of goodness and benefit. Because this point where the physical and
spiritual worlds meet is the place where they can work together, things happen
in Jerusalem that do not conform to ordinary rules. Here, more than anywhere
else, the smallest events take on a cosmic meaning and enigmatic complexity that
are beyond our understanding.
An event that happens in Jerusalem reverberates all over the world, yet a
similar incident elsewhere passes almost unnoticed. Only here does the causality
of the material world become entangled with the entirely different causality of
the spiritual world. The energy of justice and the energy of power are pulled
toward Jerusalem, as toward a lightning rod, and become entangled, sending shock
waves around the globe.
Jerusalem is a place of power and resonance...
Jerusalem is a place of power and resonance, waiting - perhaps hoping - for a
voice that will be heard all over the world, a voice that will renew the message
of peace and wholeness and holiness that has always issued from this holy city.
At this time of year, we mourn for Jerusalem, not as we mourn a relative -
emerging, in stages, from our sudden grief: shiva to sheloshim to the 11 months
of avelut. Rather, in keeping with Jerusalem's contradictions, we descend into
mourning gradually: from the Three Weeks to the Nine Days to Tisha B'Av. We have
no hope of seeing our loved ones again; the stages of mourning mark our fading,
but always lingering, memories. As we mourn for Jerusalem, however, we hold out
hope that we will see mourning swept away forever, by its peace and wholeness
and holiness.
[From the "Endless Waters" on Facebook]
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