Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on December 26, 2012 by Tadea Klein
Jerusalem is redeemed by her ordinariness By the wait for tardy buses the fear of meshugeneh drivers the lines at the bank In rows of clothes hung out to dry, I see ordinary people, with habitual concerns Petty, of this earth, utterly familiar and utterly commonplace Jerusalem is elevated by her extraordinariness By Arab women in hijaab and heels And distracted, bearded men in tall black hats By churches so beautiful that you could weep And a blurred fog of fact and memory inhaled with every other breath Jerusalem, ordinary and extraordinary becomes an almost-home by means prosaic and immense By the whistling of the koomkoom on a cool evening And the taste of fresh figs found nowhere back home In waiting for the change of the traffic light And the casual Shabbat greetings of the pierced convenience store clerk dressed in faded blue jeans
