Leon's Jerusalem No News Bulletin (19)

Fri 28th Apr 06

 

Once again I walked along the ancient walls and through the narrow Jaffa Gate. Each time it's different, no matter how many times I do this.

 

Stones don't change, at least not visibly, so what makes this walk different each time I do it?

30 years ago, before I came to live in Jerusalem, I never dreamt that I would be a daily walker of Jerusalem's ancient walls and holy places.

 

Nevertheless from the time that I was very young, perhaps 7 years old I had a vivid dream of living somewhere close to God.

 

I think that every child has this kind of dream and growing up is the process of pursuing it.

 

Finding happiness and beauty is its fulfillment and finding the opposite is its demolishment.

The real, adult world is the scene of this daily human struggle.

 

A dream is only a framework and pattern which no one knows how life will complete.

I, for example, didn't know that the stones, I see today in Jerusalem's walls were in my dream when I was a little kid. Only now I know this.

 

According to the Midrash, God dreamt of a holy world with a centre and a nation who would gather to worship Him there.

 

The Jews dreamt of being that nation and they made Jerusalem the center that God dreamt of. So it came to be regarded as a holy city.

 

The Children of Israel dreamt their dream, marching through the desert on their way to fulfill it.

 

The dreams of both the Israelites and God coincided in Jerusalem and were realized in the building of the Temple.

 

Every time a Jew went up to Jerusalem his dream and God's dream became more complete, just as every time I walk along the walls of the Old City my dream becomes more complete.

 

The tragedy of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple is that it brought an end to a dream fulfilled.

 

In Babylon the dream once again returned to being a dream. It's as if the nation that had been awake in Israel had again fallen asleep.

 

But the Jews had proved that the dream of being close to God could be fulfilled and when they went into exile again with the destruction of the 2nd Temple they had the courage to carry on dreaming.

 

The prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and others, which seemed very far fetched to the Jews of their times were adopted as inevitable truths during the last 2000 years of exile.

 

Their words were regarded as so imported that reading them became the essence of Jewish prayer.

 

They achieved the same importance in the synagogue as the sacrifices in the Temple. Our leaders, the sages of blessed memory, instituted laws to compel Jews to gather in synagogues throughout the world, 3 times per day, at least, (Sabbaths and festivals 5 times) in groups of 10 men (at least) for the purpose of prayer which, in fact consists of the words of the prophets.

 

The world sees the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 as the awakening of the Jewish nation out of its dream into reality.

 

Some like most Jews are ecstatically happy and rejoice. But there are others e.g. the Satmar Hassidim who prefer to stay in the dream and so don't accept the existence of the state of Israel.

 

The state of Israel has many enemies who have tried in the last 58 years of our existence to destroy us and send us back into the dream mode.

 

There is no guarantee that they won't succeed, but the past experience of the fulfillment of the dream, twice in the last 3000 years will make the next destruction more difficult and if it does succeed the dream will become stronger and more vivid, the next time we fall into a sleep (hopefully it won't happen) our courage in fulfilling it will grow stronger.

 

Here's wishing you all a great no news day and a very happy Israel Independence Day. Leon.

 

 

 

 

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Written by:

Leon Gork. Israeli Tour Guide.

PO BOX 49091

Jerusalem 91491

Israel.

Tel/fax 02 5810732

Mobile phone 052 3801867

http://www.jerusalemwalks.tripod.com