Someone asked me, should we fear going to Jerusalem….thoughts on and from Jerusalem as a city and person:

What Rabbi Greenberg calls, “the unafraid streets of Jerusalem” are a miracle in themselves, given her true layered and long story. That is, the fact that we can all walk around sharing markets, and enjoying the same full moon settling on white stoned rooftops, is a wonder.

The fact that the Muslim holy days (fridays) come a day before Shabbot (saturdays), come a day before Christian services (Sundays); and that the church bells are ringing as evening chants and daily prayers layer into a daily mid air tapestry which make up her atmosphere. Her symbolic simultaneity alone is a miracle in itself.

Her religious and secular streams from each religion, and her more orthodox expressions all somehow walk with or around with one another daily. Perhaps, that is one of her miracles. How she holds all that in her womb or heart at once.

I experience that daily here in a city which one would think would be contantly terrified, rather than just often disgruntled and conflicted; instead, you find very human markets, schools, holy sites, and rich daily conversations as you wander. Everyone, of course, has strong opinions, and shares them openly, but there is something more than mere co-existence here. There is a strange and often strained type of communion in her streets. Something unspoken, or sounded between the lines. Some tone of hope.

Each city has her own challenges. Some are more overtly religious, like Tiberias, some, like Tel Aviv, more secular humanistic problems to solve. This one seems to have all the world’s city’s problems and triumphs at once. And they walk around together. And talk and often yell at one another, but are all here.

There is a difference of course between religious traditions, and faith or spirituality. Spirituality is how you actually live daily, and dialogue with all that is around you. Spirituality is what your heart is actually soaking in, or in union with; and it’s fruits are made obvious by daily exchange with others. What tree you’ve planted within, will eventually be revealed by the outer fruits, as the books teach us! The fruits of the Spirit have already been named.

And if you don’t take sides, but try to listen well and empathize, to Love in short, almost every point of angle of humanity exist in one conversation. It is a very human city, despite it’s intense unconscious and more overt ongoing conflicts. That it continues daily is in itself a miracle of possibility.

One thing is clear, Jerusalem is not fearful. Being in constant conflict is not necessarily living in fear was one take away from my walks this week through the winding ancient labyrinthian streets and conversations of, in and with Jerusalem.