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A Tale of Two Cities

Rabbi Dr. Avi Rockoff

wo cities, fused. Both are significance. Though some might relish – but not necessarily where they hang out
T Jerusalem. such an opportunity, many others would every day. Having sanctity close by all the
prefer otherwise.
time can be irritating.
I will call the first Yerushalayim
Aleph. This city is Yerushalayim ir The fellow who comes to assess our pos- I first sensed this not from growing up in
HaKodesh. Built around the even haShtiyah, sessions for renter’s insurance – Shuli’s Jerusalem, but from being raised in a rab-
the foundation stone of the world, where flute, my tefillin – grew up in Jerusalem binical household. Those of us who did call
Shlomo HaMelech built the first Beit HaMik- but lives in Yavneh. “I come here for work ourselves PKs – Preachers’ Kids. PK mutual
dash as the focus for all prayers. Where the sometimes,” he says, unasked. “But I leave understanding is deep, and ecumenical.
Sanhedrin met and issued rulings. Where as soon as I can. I don’t like it here.” Progeny of rabbis, ministers, imams can
throngs on Sukkot celebrated the simchat I am walking past the entrance to the all relate in surprisingly similar ways
beit haShoevah. Where Jews suffered and Mamilla Mall when a group of high-school (though it’s trickier if Pop is Catholic).
mourned the tragedies of two destroyed kids on a field trip walks by. A boy of about
Batei Mikdash. Where Jews, dispersed in 14 with light hair stops me. “Do you live Clergy themselves bask in imputed purity.
exile for millennia, dreamt of returning to. in Jerusalem?” he asks. I tell him I do. They chose their vocation or answered
Where so many fought and gave their lives “Why?” he asks. their call. Yet shall the piety of the parents
in 1948. Where Rav Shlomo Goren blew the be visited upon the children?
shofar when the city was reunified in 1967. Jerusalem does not do well in surveys of
urban satisfaction. A survey from 2018 So we PKs sometimes find ourselves
The second city, Yerushalayim Bet, is the placed it 13th out of 14 Israeli cities. unwillingly putting off pals who want
capital of the modern State of Israel. to tell an off-color joke without lowering
People live and work there. They fight Respondents voice practical objections: their voices, or pursue a pastime of no
traffic and honk at each other for getting housing is hard to find and costly; traffic redeeming social importance without the
in the way. They tend their gardens and is tough, parking impossible. The city is company of those presumed to be focused
shop for hardware or high fashion, eat said to be dirty. Some complaints strike always on loftier things.
falafel at kiosks and drink lattes at cafés. class notes: too many charedim, too many
They walk their dogs and step around Anglos, too many Arabs. Nightlife is poor. Likewise, there are times and places for
stray cats. They ferry their kids to school All these sound plausible, justified to those spiritual significance. In Jerusalem, these
and take in a movie at the Cinematheque. who express them. Yet it seems to me that are hard to avoid. Holy places, and the
They help complete strangers with heavy they express them with more asperity people who run and patronize them, are
packages or flat tires, or refuse, on point of than needed (is Jerusalem really 12 rungs everywhere. And time – historical time,
high principle, to pay va’ad bayit building lower than Bat Yam?). I may be wrong, but transcendental time – weighs heavily. All
maintenance bills they think unjust. something else is going on here. Perhaps the time.
too much sanctity, too close by.
People everywhere live everyday lives. Of course, it can be awkward to complain
Few need to do that against a back- People appreciate sanctity, in principle. about that out loud. It can be uncomfort-
ground of cosmic historical and religious They value it, in its proper time and place able even to think about it. Easier, perhaps,

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