A good, happy, productive, successful, healthy Monday to all! Today is the 22nd day of Iyyar and the 37th day of the Omer.
Sunday, May 13, 2018, the 28th of Iyyar, is the official day of celebration of Yom Yershalayim, Jerusalem Day, in Israel. A major celebration will take place on Thursday, May 10 in the city. I apologize for citing May 10th as the official day of this holiday in the previous post.
I would like to provide a creative way of looking at Jerusalem this morning. It consists of two excepts from my play A Panoply of Faces in One Another's Arms. The first excerpt is found in the Prologue; the second, in Act I, Scene 1. Please listen to the pellucid dreams expressed by two adult speakers.
The setting begins at a high school in the eastern part of Jerusalem. A speaker stands at the podium in the auditorium filled with the entire senior class and all of the teachers teaching those students. The speaker is Keren Hadar, a well-known Israeli opera singer. Her speech is accompanied by a subdued version of composer/lyricist Naomi Shemer's mesmerizing song "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav"; in English, "Jerusalem of Gold."
"History plays sill tricks on its offenders sometimes. Occassionally, the offenders think they are in the right, yet the right can only be defended by those who commit good deeds--deeds to be proud of, deeds to better the deed doers, deeds to better society in general. These acts speak for themselves.
"We do not really know whether our deeds are just: Justice can merely be pursued and not often ascertained. Acts of good intention and content may be rewarded; whereas acti-social acts may be punished. Of course, justice is not always served in this world. Nevertheless, frequently the reward or punishment is not found in the domain of our awareness. It will be taken into the account of all deeds and acts we commit at the time of our reckoning by the Higher Court in the Hereafter. Therefore, let this caveat take precedent before one commits any acts or deed: people create history; they are neither created by it, nor can they ever change its past events, which at once are irredeemable and irrefragable. Only the future holds the possibility for change--either for the better or the worse/ A simple, almost self-evident caveat to be sure."
The following is an opening statement at the outset of the 2003 academic school year in by the principal of this imaginary high school in eastern Jerusalem where a great experiment is about to begin: the commingling of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim students in a single seminar for exceptional seniors:
Sayyid Hussein (passionate, almost pleading, perspiring profusely):
"Let us close our eyes in deference to the moment. This seminar is the first of its kind in Israel for twelve Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Christian Arabs who will study together in preparation for the entrance examinations into colleges and universities throughout the country next year. Let us pray in silent prayer. Let the still, silent voice speak for us all. Aloow emotion to fade, reason to wane, sensibility to relax. A new consciousness--that's our goal. Let it peer at us, illumine our minds, open our feelings, free our ability to reason, and excite our imaginations. Yes, the Almighty Allah surrounds us and permeates our very being; and our His. (project vociferously) Cry out to the L-rd of a creation! Fear only that He has yet to hear your cries! (whispers) SUBMIT to His will. Sign upon your fate. His will enjoins your destiny. . . .
"Jerusalem is our--all of humankind's--destiny. For all of us, may this Jerusalem Day be the beginning of a new epoch in which history will have a chance to re-evaluate philosophy. How bold is our enterprise? one may ask. It is known to many of us who have been on the world's stage for some extended time, yea, longer than three score years: Blessed be those who dream the willed dream, for they run the risk of its actually being fulfilled. . . .
"Jerusalem is not a democratic enclave in Israel: it is part and parcel of the sovereign democratic State of Israel. Here in Jerusalem we residents can dream freely, openly, safely, transparently."