Walls

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"Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name... that shall not be cut off."

- Isaiah 56:5

My brother came to visit me here in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
On Wednesday our itinerary was as follows:

Visit the Old City in the morning.
Go to the Conservative Yeshiva at noon.
Visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in the afternoon.

In the morning we stood at the Western Wall (ha-kotel ha-ma'aravi), touched the ancient ashlars (giant square stones) that have stood for over two thousand years, the oldest remnants of the Holy Temple. As I felt the smooth stone beneath my fingers, I saw the notes scribbled and stuffed between the blocks, prayers to God.
The ancient past of Judaism.

Then we went to CY, and Egalitarian (men and women studying together) yeshiva where the future rabbis of America study (with me).
We ate lunch and went to the bathroom.
I will not go into explicit detail, but I stood in the religious restroom, at a yeshiva urinal, facing a wall of a different kind, but a feeling of calm came over me.
No, it wasn't my bladder, it was my heart.. the feeling of completeness.
The present and future of Judaism

Then we walked through the harrowing, heart-wrenching Holocaust Museum-- with walls inside to simulate the Warsaw ghetto.

Yad Vashem was named after the verse from Isaiah, "a memorial (lit. place) and a name... that shall not be cut off."
And my brother recalled the words of George Santayana:
"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."


That's Israel:
ancient memories of glory and God, recent wounds of destruction and death, but sandwiched in the middle-- learning, education... questions.
An oreo cookie of conundrums: Pride, Pain and Pedagogue.