Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Harris
cycle of Jewish holy days and sacred seasons, one full year of the
cycle of the Five Books of Moses, one full year of ups and downs,
and of mistakes. One full year of life. There are so many people
of offering our first fruits, the first fruits of our labor, to God. We,
bring greater meaning and unity into our lives and into the world.
1
Over the last 24 hours we have engaged three different texts in
about these three readings is where they take place. The Torah
not in the land of Israel, but in the Sinai desert, in the wilderness,
Land. Ezekiel takes place in ancient Babylon, and tells the story
of the visions and activities of a prophet who was sent into exile
community some 2, 600 years ago. That leaves the Book of Ruth.
Ruth takes place partly in the land of Moab, just to the east of the
Land of Israel, and partly in the territory of Judah, which was part
2
geographically closest to Jerusalem, as Ruth ends up making her
yet become the Israelites’ capital, the last words of the book point
David, and David’s name is the final word of the book. The Book
literally points towards a Jerusalem that has not yet been realized,
days.
the last 2500 years, Jerusalem has known so much war and far
too little peace. As we all know, Jews, Christians and Muslims all
3
the Divine that are so central to all three of the Abrahamic
Hebrew. It’s as if our people had named the city ha-kadosh. And
Some 3000 years ago, King David conquered the city from a
kingdom. It was also called the City of David. For four centuries,
2,600 years ago, sacked the holy city and took it over. Since
another to own it and dictate the roles of the various groups that
consider it holy.
4
After the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem, then the Persians
took over. Then it was Alexander the Great and the Greeks. Then
Jerusalem centuries after the Exodus, if you can imagine it! Then
came more Greek rulers from the north, the Selucids. A bit more
than 2,150 years ago the Maccabees revolted against them and
Romans destroyed the Temple and the city a bit less than 2000
years ago, and they ruled it a while until the Byzantine Christians
took over about 1,700 years ago. The Persians snatched it very
That lasted a few centuries until the Crusaders of 900 years ago
5
over the city and ruled for 250 years. Then the Ottoman Turks
took it over about 500 years ago, and they had a 400 year run.
World War I changed that, and the next thing you knew Jerusalem
finally was British, though with British rule came the beginnings of
who would have control of the holy land once the British left.
Fast-forward to 1948, and the birth of modern Israel, and for the
first time since the Macabees part of Jerusalem was once again
under Jewish rule. The other part came under Jordanian rule. A
mere 42 years ago, following the Six Day War, all of Jerusalem
who should rule Jerusalem. Many in the Muslim world would like
of Jerusalem but leave the Jewish areas to the Jews. The Vatican
6
city with special protected status. The United Nations and most
be in the form of pubs, youth culture, and the arts, or Jewish life in
that abound in the city. And yet, we know that Jerusalem remains
7
The prophet Isaiah said:
,רץ
ֶ הא
ָ לאה
ְ מ
ָ -כי
ִ :שי
ִ ד
ְ ק
ָ הר
ַ -כל
ָ ְ ב,חיתו
ִ ש
ְ ַ י-לא
ֹ ְ רעו ו
ֵ ָ י-לא
ֹ
סים
ִ ַ מכ
ְ לַָים,מים
ַ ַ כ,ְיהָוה-את
ֶ עה
ָ ד
ֵ .
“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain; for the
realized? What is to become of that idea that the end of the Book
8
You’ve probably heard the following tale about the origins of
Jerusalem. It makes the claim that the site for the Holy Temple
and caring by two brothers, each concerned for the other’s well
According to the tale, there long ago lived two brothers who shared a
field whose crops they used to divide equally. One of the brothers was a
bachelor, and the other a married man with many children. Once, during
the harvest, each of them felt pity for the other. The bachelor was worried
that his brother did not have enough to feed his household, while the
bachelor had concern for his brother's solitude. In the dark of the night each
of them would carry some sheaves of produce to the other's house, and in
the morning each would be astonished to discover that their own supplies
9
had not diminished. This went on for several days and nights until the two
finally met tearfully during one of their nocturnal errands. At that point it was
decreed from above that this was the place upon which it would be fitting to
The rabbis who tell this moving story … usually cite it as a Talmudic
legend taken from the "midrash." Making allowances for the limitations of
my own erudition, I was always troubled that I had not encountered the
story of the two brothers in any of the standard compendia of rabbinic lore.
As it turns out, the same problem had troubled a more capable scholar than
author with an affection for the Bible and its land. He claims to have heard
it from the mouth of an Arab peasant during a journey through the Holy
Land in 1832. The literary record of that journey was published in 1835.
From that point on, versions of the tale began to appear in several
10
Yisra'el by Rabbi Israel Costa of Livorno, Italy, which was published in 1851
The story has become so familiar that many knowledgeable Jews are
that for some reason was not recorded in our own literature.
The fact is that even in ancient times it was not uncommon for foreign
legends and fables to find their way into the volumes of Talmudic and
Midrashic teachings. Our rabbis did not live in isolation from their
an Arab folk-tale into the family of Jewish legend. Indeed, the story of "the
two brothers" accurately reflects the traditional reverence which Islam has
always held for the site of the "Bait al-muqdasah" (the Temple) and its
builder, King Solomon. The story, by the way, is still part of the living oral
11
The main purpose of the legend was to emphasize the values of
and the Temple. Is it not therefore doubly appropriate that in admitting (or
debt of gratitude precisely to those cousins with regard to whom it has been
the rest of the world.” And yet, “Ten portions of hypocrisy are in
the world – nine in Jerusalem, and one in the rest of the world.”
There is spiritual depth and passion that would seek to heal the
12
constant ruins and rebuilding of civilizations lies the coexistence
over the past 3000 years, modern Israel has been the most
13
discussions about helping Jerusalem realize the vision of its own
name – “they will see peace” – would focus not on models that
in the way that Jews and Muslims have worked out a way of
sharing sacred space on the Temple Mount. It’s a cold and prickly
sharing, to be sure, but it has largely held over the decades and
most sacred sites without getting in each others’ way too often.
anyone who asks. That question is this: What would it look like if
live, pray, work, love, be born and die in Jerusalem, have our
capital and Knesset there, have our spiritual life centered there in
14
an active and vibrant way – if sharing didn’t require sacrificing
any of that, but simply made room for a new kind of thinking to
prevail over this tortured city, would you support it? What visions
do you have of how Jerusalem can finally return from its spiritual
to the root of its own name and become a city of peace where
but two, sacred mountains – Mt. Sinai, of course, but also the
seek out ways for the city that holds that second mountain, the
15