Never duplicated

 Morning thoughts as I readjust to New Jersey. Why is it that I find myself drawn to Israel so much and Jerusalem so, so much. Sure, there is a religious element but I'd like to think that there is something deeper than a simple divine commandment. I assembled two ideas that probably aren't even mine, are not new, nor are they especially insightful. But mornings are for poorly thought out inspiration. It's like a rule of something.

The first is the idea of time and history. Israel on the whole and Jerusalem in specific exists both frozen in time and flowing with it. There is history there, ancient and modern and they are often at one and the same spot. And what is historical is also the future. The kotel is the nexus of the various time streams. It signifies the past, both biblical and recent, it is the essence of being in the present moment as connecting with it is an immediate, intense feeling, and it is a mark of a future temple, a promise that all is not lost. That pull back and forward and the need to see everything in the present is what Israel is all about. Drive the highways looking at battle fields from the last 75 years while looking at ruins from the last 3000 years. And then look at the people who live there now and making the desert bloom NOW and are leading the tech world into the future. All without leaving the passenger's seat. Drivers, focus on the road because there's a guy about to change lanes without a blinker. So that push and pull, that division and unity that city of contradiction and reconciliation, that stirs something in me that makes everything feel very real.

The second is a based on a little bit of word play and apologize to the linguistic purists who might (I haven't researched this) say that my "fast and loose" is too of both. One term for Jerusalem, at least part of it is Ir Ha'atika, the ancient city. This is often translated as the "Old City" but I think that that should be "Ir Hazaken/hazekeina"*. I'll stick with "ancient" for atik. When we aren't in Jerusalem, we use it as the basis for much of our thought (we must not forget Jerusalem!) Our synagogues are supposed to be a mikdash me'at, a "sanctuary in small" (a copy, as it were, of the holy temple in Jerusalem). So in any place where you find a Jewish community, you find a group trying to make for themselves a copy of Jerusalem. In a sense, Jerusalem is the most copied city in the world. In Hebrew, the word for copy (as a verb) is l'ha'atik and this word shares 3 consonants with "atok" (ancient) (ayin-tav-kuf). So the ancient city is also the copied city. It is where we all try to be even when we can't be there. So, as the title suggests, often imitated, never duplicated. To go there is to strip away the generations  and to see the original in its ancient and yet still vibrant and inspiring form. Going back to the source, the source of life and of identity is an experience that I enjoy.

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*based on wordplay, that would make it "the bearded city" because of the connection between old age and beards and their words in Hebrew. And yes, there are beards in Jerusalem but that's neither here nor there. Well, it is there, but whatever.