PART EIGHT. The Real Jerusalem

Jerusalem is a story that does not end--

 For me, there are two Jerusalems.

First, there is the modern city called Jerusalem.

It'a a city like any other--




buses and people outside the Shuk

 
Jerusalem is a 'working' city--




 corporate entities sell and service product

 
Jerusalem the modern city can be called




old and  new and growing



Of course, Jerusalem has another hallmark of the modern city--





traffic jams

 But always, this is a city where  people do what they always do in great places--





enjoy



But there is a second world in Jerusalem--

An ancient world,



a 'Bazaar' world



A world that takes you first



down one ancient street


and then




down another ancient--almost fairytale-- street



drawing you past



shops of 'olde'



Until you come to

                                                                          the Kotel--



your first view of the Kotel



Then--



The Plaza at the Kotel



And finally--



The Western Wall--the Kotel



where today you discover



a Sephardi Bar Mitzvah



as the Bar Mitzvah  boy



reads the Torah



Afterwards, an adult



raises the Torah



Then



turns around, so all can see the text



Then,  you leave the Kotel--



along ancient-stone streets



where you



turn down onto a darker, shadowed street



where you turn



to look back, behind you



Then, through a window, a discovery!



Yeshiva boys learning at Yeshivat Bircat HaTorah



You continue, past a doorway that is



carved into a stone wall, revealing a stone chamber



Then, you see a tiny slice of an

inner courtyard behind a door



You walk past



an ancient Roman ruin that is isolated, revealed



until you are back into the 21st century, on a modern city street--

Where you walk once again in the Modern Jerusalem, a city that is building, changing, upgrading--

Until you suddenly see, off to the side,





business in an ancient modern city



To be continued--