Life has been busy lately.
On Thursday we went to the rally in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. We left our home in Modi’in, drove to Ben Gurion Airport, and took the train into the city, assuming that traffic and parking would be difficult. We walked about 20 minutes to the rally which was well-attended– depending on who you ask, there were between 60K and 100K people there. That’s pretty impressive for a country of under 7 million when everyone in the country agrees that the soldiers need to come home. the people there were not protesting anything– rather giving strength to the families and appealing to our own leaders and leaders throughout the world to do whatever it takes to bring these young men home. Most impressive was Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau’s (former chief rabbi of Israel, current chief rabbi of Tel Aviv) challenge to Nasrallah that as another man of religion, to show himself as a compassionate human being… as a father who himself lost a son, who should know what it feels like to have that sort of pain, he should be ready to deal kindly.
Of course, as far as I am concerned, asking Nasrallah to act like a compassionate human being would be like asking a snake to walk on all four of his legs. I don’t think that he is capable of human feelings of compassion and kindness. Several years ago, I referred to him as an animal and my daughter reminded me that I was insulting her dog who would never act cruelly unless he really felt a personal threat.
So we went and we displayed our concern for the suffering of the families, and these young men are never out of our consciousness as we, along with the rest of the people of Israel, wait for their return.
On Friday morning, a friend of a friend arrived in Israel for a first visit and since then we have been introducing him to Israel. Last night, after dark, we went to the Western Wall (the Kotel) and found it full of people from all over Israel as well as plenty of tourists.
In the air was the sound of the shofar and the sound of a small band of seminary students playing the music of traditional prayers. The air was cool and clear. We walked through the stone alleys of the Jewish Quarter. We noted that the Hurva Synagogue, long a symbol of the destruction of the city by the Jordanians after the War of Independence– readily identified by the single arch reminiscent of the former roofline– is being reconstructed. The arch was gone and the area was full of construction materials. We are still rebuilding Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is a treasure. It is our place. It is our home. Jerusalem is a magical city.
