As we sat overlooking the City of David, immediately adjacent to the Old City of Jerusalem, our guide, Jeremy, explained that human beings live equally between two worlds. Each time we breathe in, we breathe in the heavens. Each time we take a step, we stand upon the earth. Human beings live in two worlds, a heavenly world and an earthly world. We are the bridge between the two. Today we crossed that bridge between heaven and earth many times as we ascended and descended our way through more than 7 miles of walking in Jerusalem. Sadly the hotel masseuse was unavailable to rub our kids' feet. My first negative review on Trip Advisor!
We started at the City of David because it's the oldest part of Jerusalem that's really relevant to what we've learned over the years at Davis. To state the obvious, City of David refers to King David. We toured the area, asking big questions about the historical accuracy of the bible as well as the competing schools of thought when it comes to interpreting archaeological ruins. At the end we cooled off by journeying through Hezekiah's water tunnel, a feat of engineering and a Jerusalem classic.
From there we journeyed into the Old City proper via an underground passageway. We arrived to the sound of Klezmer bands frantically serending Bar Mitzvah boys at the place where the Western and Southern walls that once surrounded the 2nd Temple meet. Journeying south, we found a quiet spot where we could all write notes to place in the Kotel. Perhaps you can see from the pictures that the kids took this quite seriously. I think that's because our guides reminded them that these notes are less about asking for what we want and more about giving thanks for the many blessings in our lives. Later, when the kids placed their notes in the Kotel, many were very happy to do the mitzvah of delivering notes written by Lower School students that we carried from Atlanta.
While today was intense, there was also plenty of time to simply soak up the Jerusalem atmosphere. We had 90 minutes to wander in small groups through the Jewish quarter for lunch. Many meaningful gifts were purchased and they once again enjoyed the feeling of freedom.
After lunch we headed down to the Kotel. I wish I could tell you in intimate detail what happened there, but it's truthfully not mine to share. Having taken time to write our notes, we did very little framing or discussion. We took them to the Wall and let them do what they needed to do. Either through intuition, by observing others, or perhaps through some deep genetic memory, they all found their way. I would never presume to know what they thought, felt, remembered, smiled, prayed or wept for in those moments. But I will tell you that the boys tasted "earthly" Jerusalem as we happened to be at the Wall during "cleaning hour" as the local attendants essential pressure washed the entire plaza, asking us to move our group a couple times to avoid getting in their way!
From the Kotel we made our way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Our guides were very happy to take us to one of Christianity's most holy sites because many Jewish school groups do nothing of the sort. Knowing that our mission asks us to instill the value of Cavod (respect) we feel it is essential to integrate the diversity of Israel into our trip. This Church is holy to Christians because many believe that Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected there. Visiting a house of worship so incredibly different from our own helps us all contextualize our own experiences.
Tonight we added an unplanned visit to Ben Yehuda Street for dinner and shopping. We gave the kids 2.5 hours to roam, eat, mingle, shop, and enjoy. After a long hot day in the Old City, the mid 60s weather and gentle breeze were just right. Thursday night is a fun night in Israel because it leads into Shabbat the following day. There were several bands playing different types of music and lots of young people to keep us interested.
We returned for family visits at the hotel and let the kids kind of wander off into showering and getting ready for tomorrow.
I could say that today was a great day. But that wouldn't really do it justice. I could say that today we got to know Jerusalem in all her messy, glorious peculiarity. But that wouldn't do it justice either. I could say that today we fulfilled a dream that was denied to countless generations of our ancestors and that we carried their memories with us, whether their names are known to us or not. I could say that we were pilgrims, retracing steps that until today existed for us only in textbooks and classrooms. And I could say that our shopping was really just an unconscious attempt to embed today's experiences in physical objects that we can carry with us when we leave. But what I really want to say is that today was heaven and earth, and that each of us was the bridge.
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