Learning in Jerusalem

Early in the morning on our first day in Jerusalem, Wednesday, December 7, 2011, we walked across the street from our hotel, the Leonardo Plaza, to the Fuchsberg Center for Conservative Judaism.  The center has been a Conservative congregation since the 1970s.  Rabbi Gail Diamond, Associate Director was our guide and teacher.  The center has recently expanded its offerings of Jewish learning for people of all ages and for different periods of time.  Students can come to the Fuchsberg to study for a week, a month, 3 months, a year, several years.  Early students were young people of or just past college age.  Now the Fuchsberg is attracting more retired people who, for the first time in their lives, have the time and resources to come to Jerusalem to study.

Rabbi Diamond presented a lesson using two psalms and other poetry to explore the concept of place, specifically the place of Jerusalem in time, space, history. mythology.  She invited us to read and discuss the texts with a study partner for several minutes, identify important themes, notice which Hebrew words were familiar, and generate questions.

The Book of Samuel details David’s conquest of Jerusalem, the capital of the Jebusites.  Jerusalem means “City of Peace,” but has always been a place of contradictions.  It is full of information from the past, but also lives vibrantly in the present.  The national bird of Jerusalem is the crane, used for the many construction projects always in the works in the city. 

The city of Jerusalem is rife with controversy between those who want to enforce the rule of strict Jewish law and those who want to embrace the present and future of social issues.  For example, can women's faces be on billboards?  What should be the city’s response be to the international pride parade in the holy city?  These questions must be decided by a religious government.

Psalm 48: Jerusalem is not conquerable because of its height and vistas.  It has only ever been conquered from the north. Sena Horib, an Assyrian king, wanted to conquer Jerusalem and failed.

The morning newspapers carried a disturbing story that created a crisis in public confidence for the government.  Israel’s former president is going to jail because he was convicted of rape.  Women have long been harassed and abused by men in power, but the enforcement of this ruling in support of abused women is new for Israel.

Psalm 122:  Jerusalem is the city of peace but has been full of killing and hatred.  Earthly Jerusalem is corrupt.

Puritans in America went to build a city on a hill in Massachusetts.  Literature is full of references to the earthly Jerusalem and the heavenly Jerusalem.

Lo pashut.  Nothing in Jerusalem is simple.

Rabbi Diamond advised:  Listen to the city while you are here.  What did you hear while you were in Jerusalem? What will you say? Will what you say draw others to Jerusalem and support the constant building/rebuilding of the city?

Our next stop was a tour of the Old City.  We entered through the Zion gate.  As we walked along the Cardo, the center of the Old City, we looked over the railings to view excavations below down to the level of Herodian Jerusalem 2000 years ago.  In other locations, excavations have been completed revealing life from the time of Solomon’s first temple.

We toured the Hurvah Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter, a synagogue that had been completely destroyed.  Only part of one wall survived, that remnant incorporated into the front wall of the sanctuary in the recently rebuilt synagogue.  The synagogue was first built in the early 18^th century, destroyed only a few years later by the Muslims in 1721.  It was rebuilt in 1864 and was the main center of worship for Ashkenasic Jews in the Old City.  The Arabs reduced it to rubble again during the War of Independence in 1948.  The last time I visited the Old City in 1989, I saw the single arch that had been constructed as a sign of the intention of rebuilding the synagogue in its entirety.

We had a lecture from the synagogue’s educational director while sitting in the women's section in a balcony high above the ground floor sanctuary where yeshivah students were studying.  We climbed from there to an indoor and outdoor upper balcony for a rooftop view of the Jewish quarter and a bird’s eye view of students studying inside in the beit midrash.  Looking out over the rooftops of the Old City, we imagined King David’s first sighting of Bathsheba, who later became his wife and the mother of King Solomon.  The rooftop was one of the highest points in the Old City, giving spectacular views in every direction, including the Dome of the Rock and the Temple Mount.

We visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, a colorful and emotional spectacle to observe as Christian pilgrims from so many groups came to offer their devotions.   Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Armenian, Coptic Christians, and others gathered in that place to adore the relics collected there. 

We ate lunch in the Old City crowded with adolescent school groups, touring with their teachers.  One Hebrew-speaking school girl was completing a school assignment to find an American Jewish tourist.  She chose my friend Leslie.  Leslie was thrilled to have this interaction with a local student. 

After lunch, we had some time for shopping in the Cardo.  I found a shop called Mira where the owner was acquainted with Ellen Masters from Pittsfield, a frequent visitor to Israel.  I found a silver dreidel there for Alex’s collection, his only Israeli dreidel with the words Nais Gadol Haya Po, a great miracle happened *here*!

We walked to the Western Wall where we had some time to spend any way we liked.  I was able to observe myself as a Jewish pilgrim similar to the Christians I had observed during the morning.  I felt so happy and grateful to be there at the wall, so much in the right place at the right moment for the right reason.

From the center section of the Western Wall, traditionally used for prayer, we walked south to a new, recently excavated site at the southern end of the western wall and the southern steps leading up to what used to be the Temple Mount.  Now the Al-Aksa Mosque stands at the top of the southern steps of the ancient temple.  The southwest corner of the wall has become a favorite site for conservative and reform Jewish groups to stage mixed-gender ceremonies such as bnei mitzvah.  Notice the remnants of Robinson's Arch in the center of the image below.

At the excavation site, we watched an animated movie about the experience of a poor farmer offering a sacrifice at the ancient temple.  The movie traced the steps in the process of bringing a sacrifice to the temple, including a visit to the mikvah. 

Next we toured the excavated south wall.  We saw several of 153 mikvot uncovered near the entrance to the temple, recalling the sequence in the movie where the farmer had entered into the mikvah before he offered his sacrifice.  We walked on the steps that our guide Ronny said were the exit steps from the temple, another yet-to-be-uncovered set of steps being used for entrance.  Most striking to me were the varying sizes of the steps to the temple, some wide, some more narrow.  With the unpredictable sequencing of wider and narrower steps, the supplicant was forced to step carefully, to become more contemplative as he climbed. 

While we climbed the steps, Rabbi Weiner led us in singing Shir Hamalot (Step by Step) from the blessing after meals.  My former cantor Abe Lubin in Chicago used to say that some messages come only through music.  This was one of those messages:  Slow down.  Take your time.  Contemplate the experience you are having while you are having it.  Consider the steps you are taking, each one bringing you closer to Hashem.  The root of the Hebrew word for sacrifice means coming closer.

In the evening, we returned to the Western Wall plaza for a night-time tour of the tunnels under the Western Wall.  The excavation of the full length of the wall began in 1967, shortly after the Six-Day War gave Israel control over the area.  The exposed open-air section of the wall that has been used for prayer since 1967 is about 60 meters in length, while the entire retaining wall of the ancient temple is 485 meters long.  The recently excavated section to the south was described above.  The excavations on the north end are underground, under existing buildings in the Old City.  These areas have been designed for easy and comfortable access for visitors, with air conditioning, lighting, signage, and other safety measures.

Ronny described a fortress in the northwest corner of the temple platform as the beginning of Via Dolorosa.  From bedrock to the top of the wall is 210 feet.  The temple itself was 150 feet high, yet took only 1.5 years to build with Herod’s vision and resources.  Steps to enter the temple were on the south end.  The area at the entrance included places to change money and purchase sacrificial animals.  Pilgrims coming from far reaches of the land would have to change their local currency to the currency of the city to get in.

Some stones in the wall weighed as much as ten tons.   The largest stones were the length of our tour bus.  Each stone had a frame of one finger’s depth around the edge on each side.  A comparison of the workmanship in the Herodian temple and surrounding Muslim buildings shows the high standards enforced by Herod.

During excavation work undertaken by a team of British Royal engineers in 1871, Charles Warren found a door where the priests entered into the holy temple.  Muslim distrust forced the closing of this door with modern concrete.   Along the underground pathway, the spot closest to where the ancient Holy of Holies would have been was occupied by woman praying fervently.  As we walked to the far north end of the underground wall, stopped for discussion, and returned, the same women were praying the whole time.