Page 44 - HaMizrachi Yom Yerushalayim - Shavuot 5782 USA

JEWS

with
VIEWS Rabbi Jeffrey Ruchama

Saks Alter

mong my favorite places in Jerusalem hen guiding tourists to the Old
is the Agnon House, built in Talpiot in City, I first stop at a site that holds
1931, when the neighborhood was still precious memories for me: Mount
a disconnected suburb of the Holy Zion. Mount Zion is situated on
ACity. S.Y. Agnon (1888–1970), Hebrew Wwhat was the border of Israel in
We asked five literature’s only Nobel laureate, wrote many 1948, facing the Jordanian-controlled Old City.
The first time I visited Jerusalem was on
of the most important works of our culture in
accomplished his upstairs study in this house. Surrounded by a 4th grade class trip. We received permission
a vast library of rabbinic and world literature,
to ascend the outer steps of the Dormition
he distilled it all into the mold of modern Church to the rooftop, where our soldiers,
Jews from storytelling to imaginatively capture Jewish standing behind sandbags, faced the Jordanians
guarding the Old City walls. Because of the
existence in his fiction. A visit to the house
today, which is a heritage site, study center, and danger of standing unprotected, we lined up
around the museum preserving Agnon’s legacy, allows us to and one-by-one bent below the sandbags. We
then moved forward cautiously until we faced
encounter the author’s world as it was situated
in Jerusalem; the city itself serves as a “main the Old City. We raised our heads to quickly view
world: character” in many of his tales. When first built Har HaBayit, and then bent down and returned
to the staircase.
the house looked due north to the Old City,
Our teacher had taught us about the
What is your then an unobstructed view available today only significance of Har HaBayit, but nothing prepared
from the Sherover Promenade. Having suffered
personal loss of property during the 1929 Arab me for this powerful encounter. I looked at the
favorite place uprising, Agnon declared, “I built a house and site with longing and felt it was akin to staring at
planted a garden. In this place from which the
the moon. Both were equally visible and equally
enemy tried to rout us, I built my home. I built inaccessible.
in Jerusalem, it facing the Temple Mount, to always keep reminds me never to take the short walk to the
Today, revisiting the rooftop on Mount Zion
upon my heart our beloved dwelling which was
destroyed and has not yet been rebuilt.” Kotel for granted. It renews my gratitude to
and why? his own autobiographical mind. Standing in Hashem for the miracle of 1967 and infuses me
That Jerusalem-consciousness animated
with optimism. If even the “moon” can become
Stockholm to receive the Nobel Prize in 1966 accessible, then greater redemption and peace
he introduced himself with this now famous are not that far behind.
declaration: “As a result of the historic
catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed
Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I
was born in one of the cities of the Exile. But I
always regarded myself as one who was born
in Jerusalem.”
Ruchama Alter is a tour guide and lecturer in Jeru-
Rabbi Jeffrey Saks is the Director of Research at salem and abroad. She completed her graduate
Agnon House, heads WebYeshiva.org and is editor studies in Bible and Jewish Studies at the University
of Tradition. of Toronto.

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