A Chicagoan in Israel, Part I

Greetings from Jerusalem! The internet cafe next to the central bus station from which I write closes in half an hour, so indulge just one memory from this land of many memories

Thursday night I went to the Kotel, the Western Wall of the ancient Temple Compound. It is the the holiest place at which Jews can pray. Very nearby is the Al-Asqa mosque, which sits on what was the Holy of Holies in the Temple that the Romans destroyed many years ago. By custom, the Old City of Jerusalem is divided into an Arab quarter, a Jewish quarter, an Armenian quarter, and the Christian quarter, through which I walked on the way to the Kotel. I passed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, known to some Christians as the place of Jesus's burial. (Before I get many angry comments, remember the spot is disputed, as is the ownership of the church.) Next to the church is the Mosque of Omar. A religious Jew told me that Omar, an early Muslim holy man, asked to be taken to the Temple of Solomon and was taken to that Church. As this holy man visited, later Muslims built a Mosque there. I have no reason to disbelieve this story.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is dark, and filled with pilgrims and clergy of various sects and denomination, all manners of coats and robes and languages walking, kneeling, pacing, and lighting candles in the dark. The church is, if you'll excuse the expression, Byzantine, with more stairs and basements and subbasements than I could begin to figure out. I could write for pages just on the few short minutes I spent inside. As I stepped out of the church, into the sunset, loud Arabic surrounded me: the muzzein's call to prayer from the mosque next door, flooding over me and the traditional Jews and the Greek Orthodox pilgrims and everyone else. As I walked to the Kotel, the call came from the Al-Asqa mosque, too.

I don't know what lessons to draw from that, I have no grand conclusions. I only have a new year coming at me, a Chicagoan who stepped past the buried Jesus into the Muslims rushing to pray as he walked towards the Temple of his fathers. You all should have a healthy and happy new year.

By Michael Pomeranz  |  December 31, 2007; 11:26 AM ET  | Category:  Lox et Veritas
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