Lisa’s Love Life and Rabbit Emporium

I live in a quaint and upscale part of Jerusalem Israel known as The German Colony. The “Colony” is a neighborhood in Jerusalem, established in the second half of the 19th century by members of the German Temple Society. My community is dotted with upscale jewelry stores, gift shops, fancy restaurants and of course my favorite place, Lisa’s Love Life and Rabbit Emporium.

Lisa is a becoming red headed immigrant from Edinburgh Scotland. I would guess that she just turned sixty. Her own love life has been so unique that she decided to open an advice to the lovelorn shop which also offers domestic rabbits. Her son John is the pet expert. Customers visit Lisa dejected, rejected, and hoping to get consolation from our heroine. They also feel loved by petting and cuddling the furry little creatures.

Romance in the British Empire was very not kind to our store owner. She was married to a great looking South African lad who left her at age forty to become a perennial sky diver. Lisa also had a romance for several years with a Diamond Exchange employee who stole from his employer and was arrested. There were several affairs with married men, a South American political refugee, and Israeli political leader. “I feel lonely and frustrated at times”, quips Lisa but it sure has been fun. Living life one day at a time is my motto. She advises her customers to do the same.

Her thirty year old son is a bit shy unlike his mom. His hobbies include art, guitar, and pets. Rabbits are his favorite. Israel to my surprise has a booming pet industry including dogs, cats, parrots and our four legged friends.

Lisa owns a Bed and Breakfast in Scotland which gives her enough income to live in comfort. Traveling is a great passion of Lisa particularly South America. During her last excursion she bumped into a former boyfriend from high school on a beach in Brazil. Jack has a law practice in Scotland. They are trying to rekindle the flame.

Romance is just as important to Israelis as people anywhere. The nation has dating services, computerized match making, singles clubs, and more traditional Shiduchs. Divorce is common in the holy land with the rate at thirty per cent and rising each year. Israel has faced many challenges since its rebirth in 1948. There have been many wars, terrorism, immigration issues, and building a modern economy. Yet the search for romance is still one the most interesting.

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THE 20TH OF SIVAN BY EARL SHUGERMAN

The 20th of Sivan is a Jewish day of remembrance, twice designated as a fast day for massacres against European Jewry. I attended a lesson about this remembrance this week at a Jewish Kollel or study center. It was both a prayer session to commemorate this date and for the three missing Israeli youth who disappeared near Hebron.

This date is associated with two major catastrophes that befell European Jewry, one during the crusades in France, the second five hundred years later by the Cossacks against Ukrainian Jewry. In both cases Jews were slaughtered by the thousands for the crime of practicing our faith.

In Judaism, the purpose of a fast is to lower the volume on our physical pursuits in order to focus more acutely on our spiritual selves. This facilitates the process of:

1. Teshuva – literally means "return." We return to G-d, and to our essential state of purity.

2. Selicha – 'selicha' means not holding a grudge, not feeling affronted or aggrieved. If someone is angry with you, you would ask him to forgive you, to be "soleach."

3. Kappara – 'Kappara' is fundamentally different from the previous two terms. Kappara means "atonement." The object of atonement, that which is changed as a result, is not God (His attitude, as in selicha) or God's demands of us (His demands, as in 'mechila'), but Man and the sin itself. Objects which have been defiled by sin need kappara to return to a state of purity.

Our Rabbi spent much of the evening discussing the concepts of kindness and self-responsibility in Judaism. Many people think of Judaism as the religion of cold, harsh laws. This is an unfair characterization of both Judaism and Jewish law. Love and kindness have been a part of Judaism from the very beginning. When Jesus said, "love thy neighbor as thyself," he was merely quoting the Torah, and he was quoting the book that is most commonly dismissed as a source of harsh laws: Leviticus 19:18. The point is repeated in Leviticus 19:34: love [the stranger] as thyself.

The Talmud tells a story of Rabbi Hillel, who lived around the time of Jesus. A pagan came to him saying that he would convert to Judaism if Hillel could teach him the whole of the Torah in the time he could stand on one foot. Rabbi Hillel replied, "What is hateful to yourself, do not do to your fellow man. That is the whole Torah; the rest is just commentary. Go and study it." (Talmud, Shabbat 31a).

Our Rabbi discussed the need to forgive our enemies and to look deeply within ourselves before we judge others. How do you do this when you look at the history of the Jewish people and the world in general? How can followers of Judaism forgive the horrors of the Holocaust or the injustices of the Crusades? Do we dare ask the parents  of the three children to understand and not hate? I personally cannot say that I have an answer.

I can, however, look at my own life and see that my enemy’s treatment of me has often brought more long term good than suffering. Often I have discovered that those who inflicted hurt upon me were despondent about their own lives rather than attacking mine. The component of my soul that most needs improvement in the ability to protect myself but not feel rage at those who try to harm me and mine. This is the message of the 20th of Sivan.

HE HATES BIRTHDAYS BY ALEXANDRA LEDNICHENKO

Alexandra (on the left) with her Mom

He hates birthdays. He can't stand presents, because they have to be unwrapped with the air of breathless excitement and exclaimed with gratitude and happiness that he cannot feel. He detests the annual ritual of being approached by his Grandmother to be left with an oily 50 shekels' bill in his hand, a kiss on his cheek, indifference in his heart. ​And he abhors the drawling discord of "Happy Birthday to You" sung for him at yet another smoke-filled pub in drunk voices of his friends joined by those around, when everyone's holding someone's hand while secretly longing for someone else's.

​Loathsome to him are the group text-messages that he, Johnny, Frankie, and hell knows who else, get every year, because they share a date of birth and the questionable honor of having their numbers saved in the phone-book of a girl that barely knows them. Distasteful in his eyes is Anna's habit of getting drunk by his side and launching, just like a train gaining speed, into a monologue about her ex until the first sobs break out, and then she cries and wipes her tears, mascara, and embarrassment on his shoulder. He finds it irritating that Julie and Ben are making out under the flickering lights of the restrooms, thinking that nobody knows. And isn't it revolting that it's the only thing discussed at the table then.

What are ​​​birthdays? Merely a reason for other people to disguise their loneliness, while pretending they're celebrating the number of years you've rounded up with.

But this year it will be different. This time he'll run away into the jungles. He'll cancel his Grandmother, and friends, and stupid presents. He will cancel on his Mother and the tears she sheds on his every birthday over the boy she lost in the 2006 Lebanon War.

This time he won't be there to see any of that.

This birthday he will spend lying on a pile of leaves, enjoying lions and tigers that wear true patches and real colors. As they sooth his pain away with their dark blues, he won't ask himself what day it is, who he is, what he's done, or what will he do. It will be just a perfect day with real tigers and lions.

A WONDERFUL MISTAKE BY EARL SHUGERMAN

I enjoy spending several days a month these days in the holy city of Jerusalem, which has been considered by many as the center of the world since the beginning of time.

Jerusalem is located on a plateau in the Judean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, and it is one of the oldest cities in the world. It is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Jerusalem housed the two Jewish Temples, King David composed the 23rd Psalm here, Muhammad made his nocturnal journey to heaven, and Jesus of Nazareth carried the cross in this incredible place. The city has spiritual, religious, historical, and archeological significance that leaves me in awe each time that I come here and I never cease to find new and amazing things to explore and learn.

I have often enjoyed staying atThe Abraham Hostel which is located in Jerusalem’s city center. The hostel hosts guests from around the world who enjoy daily events and tours of the region. The tour of the Old City takes about four hours. I have taken it several times and last week decided to take the tour of The Mount of Olives for the first time. The 2:30 pm tour was initiated at the Jaffa gate. Something is to be said for paying attention to details. There was also one of the daily city tours at the same time and place. It took me about fifteen minutes to realize that I was on the wrong tour. It was fine though as I learned more about the Old City this time and each new fact was amazing. It was a wonderful mistake.


The Jaffa Gate, Lion’s Gate Jaffa Gate

          Herod's Gate
 
The main entrance to the Old City is the Jaffa Gate, which was built by Suleiman in 1538. The name in Arabic, Bab el-Halil or Hebron Gate, means "The Beloved" and refers to Abraham, the beloved of God, who is buried in Hebron.

This passage was originally built in 1898 when Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany visited Jerusalem. The ruling Ottoman Turks opened it so the German Emperor would not have to dismount his carriage to enter the city. Many of the city tours and festivals are held in the area which is close to a wonderful mall and leads to exotic shops and cafes in the old city.

Located in the east wall, the entrance leads to the Via Dolorosa. Near the gate’s crest are four figures of lions, two on the left and two on the right. Legend has it that Sultan Suleiman placed the figures there because he believed that if he did not construct a wall around Jerusalem he would be killed by lions.

 
Lion's Gate (note the dual lions on either side)

Much of the architecture in the old part of Jerusalem was built by Herod the Great in the first century of the modern era. He was a schemer who took advantage of Roman political unrest during his era to claw his way to the top. During a civil war in the empire, Herod won the favor of Octavian, who later became the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar. Once he was king, Herod launched an ambitious construction program, both in Jerusalem and the spectacular port city of Caesarea, named after the emperor. He restored the magnificent Jerusalem temple, which was later destroyed by the Romans following a rebellion in A.D. 70. Herod was the Roman client king of Judea. He has been described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a large number of rabbis. He was the evil genius of the Judean nation prepared to commit any crime in order to gratify his unbounded ambition, yet he is considered the greatest builder in Jewish history and of his time.

King David's Tower in The Old City of Jerusalem is a grand 3,000-year cross-cultural architectural collaboration, a patchwork of fortifications, monuments and shrines cobbled together by three millennium worth of kings, conquerors’ and holy men. In no single place is this more apparent than in the Jerusalem - Citadel.
The tower itself is a minaret added by the Ottomans to an older Mameluke mosque and dominates the Old City's skyline. Situated over a weak spot in the ancient city's defenses, the area of the citadel has been continuously used as a fortification by every Jerusalem civilization from the Canaanites and Israelites on down to the Ottomans, all building atop and throughout each other's works. Our guide explained to us that mortar was hard to obtain in the days of Herod. Therefore, many of the bricks in the old city were made large enough to maintain their own weight.

The most inspiring part of the trip was a view of the Temple Mount. We climbed to a rooftop view of the glorious spot. The mount is only open to Muslim visitors in an effort to maintain peace in the city. Judaism regards the Temple Mount as the place where God chose the divine presence to rest (Isa 8:18); according to the rabbinic sages whose debates produced the Talmud, it was from here where the world expanded into its present form and where God gathered the dust used to create the first man, Adam. The site is the location of Abraham's binding of Isaac. According to the Bible, two Jewish Temples stood at the Temple Mount, though there is no proof for the first temple.

Among Sunni Muslims, the Mount is widely considered the third holiest site in Islam. Revered as the Noble Sanctuary (Bayt al-Maqdes) and the location of Muhammad's journey to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven, the site is also associated with Jewish biblical prophets who are also venerated in Islam. After the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in 637 CE, Umayyad Caliphs commissioned the construction of the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock on the site.[4] The Dome was completed in 692 CE, making it one of the oldest extant Islamic structures in the world, after the Kaabah. The Al Aqsa Mosque rests on the far southern side of the Mount, facing Mecca. The Dome of the Rock currently sits in the middle, occupying or close to the area where the Bible mandates the Holy Temple be rebuilt.

Yes, each time I tour Jerusalem I am more amazed at the history of the city and the emotional fervor associated with the City of David. There has been more than three thousand years of joy and spiritual ecstasy. Sadly, conflict has continually been a part of the holiest city on earth. In my opinion, one of the greatest challenge facing the leaders of this region is to find a just and peaceful way for the major faiths to share access to the holy sites of Jerusalem. Religion has been a major source of conflict since the beginning of humanity. I often quip with my Jewish, Muslim, and Christian friends that we could all live together as brethren if Jerusalem was located in another part of the world. Hopefully, what should be the common thread among the faiths “The Golden Rule” will become a practice rather than a dream. This is certainly the place where the test could be the greatest.