These and Those

Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem

Shrine of the Book – Postcard Commentary #4

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Daniel Weinreb

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3. The stairs connecting the upper plaza to the shrine’s entrance resemble those in a mikveh excavated at Qumran.

Ritual life in Jerusalem is like nothing I have experienced elsewhere. The mikveh on the front of this card is only one part of life here that is enveloped in symbolic acts. The food in Jerusalem almost entirely is kosher; although my cousins (mother Ruthie’s side) eat pork. They live in Haifa, a town much more prose than poetry.

On Shabbat, Jerusalem quiets down, the buses return to the central parking yard for a 25 hour reprieve and the great big glass windows of the shopping stores – the unblinking eyes of Mammon – close shut.

Previous postcards here: 1, 2, 3