#0202_West_Jerusalem

Thoughts on Jerusalem Day [1]

"Jerusalem Day is a strange day because it puts one of the strangest things about Jerusalem on the table: the fact that it is a real city. That's pretty weird when you think about it. Jerusalem is a city that is a lofty idea, a city that is characterized by yearning, desires, longing. People lift up their eyes to this city, a city of words. Yet, Jerusalem is also a city where people throw out their trash at eight in the evening and then exchange a few words with the neighbors. How strange is that?!

One of the things that happened during this period of Corona was that I realized I live in a place. I mean I always knew I lived here, but during Corona I was suddenly limited to a hundred meters. Suddenly things got clearer: who lives next to me? Who are my neighbors? How close or far away my family is. Where is there greenery around me? What is my relationship with the local shopkeeper? How do I feel in the stairwell of my building? Things that are usually far from my mind have suddenly become the whole world.

And that is strange.

It is difficult for us to experience connection as modern people. Modern people don't have a home – the food you see everywhere is all the same (pizza, hamburger). Fashion is the same all over the world (there is nothing like the feeling of familiarity that grips you when you enter a mall abroad). Language is the same. People from different nationalities are all users of the same Facebook which has no physical location and has no limits to the amount you can quarrel. Modern people are autonomous, each one walking his own path, without any connection to place or time, generic to the point of loss.

But Jerusalem Day is not like that. If on Independence Day we celebrate a state, and a state can be everywhere, then Jerusalem Day celebrates a land. If Independence Day is a story of nationhood, Jerusalem Day is a place. A specific, well-defined place. Not just the object of yearning, not just a utopian idea and not just Jerusalem as a holy city whose only place is in heaven. But a place that has backyards, cats, garbage cans, and neighbors who make noise after eleven at night and we need to go out in our slippers and complain.

Understanding this is like understanding the difference between 'a place' and 'the place', shelter and house, house, and home. They both provide a roof against the rain and a door against external misfortunes, but the word shelter is negative, not positive. For shelter, the only thing that matters is protection from the outside, constantly dealing and struggling with the outside; segregation, protection, racism, and war.

And home, well, is home.
_
(Two hours ago, I finished giving an online writing workshop to Chavruta Beit Midrash in Jerusalem, and this is what I said at the beginning of the workshop. If you also want a workshop, class, or lecture, you can of course contact me through private message and reserve one).

▶️Source: Yehuda Gizbar Fenigstein
▶️Picture Source: 0202 Archive

—
0202 Editor’s Note:
[1] Jerusalem Day is an Israeli national holiday that commemorates the reunification of Jerusalem and the establishment of Israeli control over the Old City in the aftermath of the June 1967 Six-Day War.

#Jerusalem_Day #Home
https://bit.ly/3edjrA6

https://www.facebook.com/1675349376080655/posts/2680153552266894/