Let’s take a walk in Jerusalem. Traversing three blocks is not merely crossing Madison, Park and Lexington. It means going from Hanevi’im to Shivtei Yisrael to Shmuel Hanavi. How can one but feel history rush by? Each step is a leap into the past.
Rechov Hanevi’im: Yishayahu, Yechezkel, Yirmiyahu, Devorah and Zephania (and many others), this street is named after you! Yishayahu’s call to act righteously, seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless and plead for the widow echoes through the street; Yirmiyahu’s laments and Yechezkel’s visions permeate the asphalt.
Walking up Rachel Imeinu Street it is hard to feel lonely. For thousands of years, Rachel has been masterfully offering solace to lonely, wandering Jews.
An English tourist once stopped me on Mount Zion and asked if it was true that a crusader was buried in “King David’s Tomb?”
I told her that I didn’t know, but I was sure that where we were standing, David had conversed with Jonathan, and much further down the hill Solomon had written Proverbs. “In my opinion,” I told her, “there is sanctification enough in that!”
