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 |
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,
To be continued--
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