411 April 23, 1976
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Four Thousand Years are Transcribed
In the Fascinating 'Jerusalem the Holy'
"Jerusalem the Holy" by
Prof. Michael Avi-Yonah
(Schocken Books) could not
have appeared at a more
appropriate time. The con-
tinuing interest in the city
and the conflicts that in-
volve it in the interational
arena make this tremen-
dously important work
especially valuable. Its his-
toric analyses, the objective
treatment of the role of all
religions which view the city
in holiness, make the pre-
sent work notably valuable.
The 130 photographs by a
very able photographer,
Werner Braun, add to the
significance of this volume.
The 30 full color photos em-
phasize the uniqueness of
the combined effort.
The history of the city, its
background, its earliest role
in history, and the peoples
who have come to it and the
faiths which have made it
holy, are among the factors
excellently defined by the
author who is professor of
archeology and history of
art at the Hebrew Univer-
sity.
Appropriately defined as
"the navel of the univ-
erse," Dr. Avi-Yonah's his-
torical record of this great
city emerges as a classic and
the objectivity of the study
introduces it compellingly
as a forceful guide for all
faiths.
The remarkably exten-
sive, five-page chronologi-
cal record of 4,000 years of
history of the city as it af-
fects the world's religious
history is in itself a great
contribution to historical
analyses and fact-gather-
ing.
The impartiality of Prof.
Avi-Yonah's assessment of
the value of the Holy City to
all faiths marks a creditable
achievement in his impres-
sive compilation. Thus, he
states in his summation:
"For Moslems, Jerusa-
lem's holiness is bound up
with the historical domina-
tion of a proud and univer-
salist faith which is marked
by a profound submission to
the Divine Will.
"Judaism, by its very na-
ture a national-universalist
religion, is and always has
been focused on the Holy
City. Its holidays, its pray-
ers and a good deal of its re-
ligious legislation become
meaningless without refer-
ence to this central point,
the "navel of the unverse" as
the Aggadah has it. The
problem of secular vs. reli-
gious Jerusalem, which con-
fronts the state of Israel by
no means detracts from the
Holy City's intrinsic import-
ance, on which all Jews are
agreed.
"Christianity is a univer-
sal religion free from the
trammels of nationality,
whose beginnings were
marked by a historical event
localized in space and time
in and around Jerusalem.
Though the city's import-
ance in Christian eyes has
varied from time to time
and varies along the spec-
trum of ecumenic Christian-
Artistis View of Worsh ipers at Western Wall
ity, the spiritual elevation
connected with the lumi-
nous character of the Holy
Sites is now generally ac-
cepted. Because of its univ-
ersal and transcendental
character, the Christian
presence in Jerusalem re-
quired less material content
than other faiths."
Jerusalem as the city of
many pilgrimages em-
phasizes its importance for
all mankind and Dr. Avi-
Yonah's explanation of the
pilgrims and their direc-
tion towards Jerusalem is
additionally fascinating.
He provides this illuminat-
ing resume of the empha-
sis on pilgrimages:
"The superior holiness of
Jerusalem attracted two
kinds of people: those who
came to sanctify themselves
at the holy sites and then re-
turn home — the pilgrims
— and those who decided to
spend the rest of their lives
there in contemplation of
infinity — the mystics. Ar-
ound these two trends there
crystallized an entire estab-
lishment, also on two levels:
an ecclesiastical hierarchy
to take care of the spiritual
needs, and a mundane in-
frastructure to take care of
physical needs.
"Pilgrimage to Jerusalem
by Jews was only inter-
rupted with the City's de-
struction and for all practi-
cal purposes never ceased.
We find scattered refer-
ences to it in the talmudic
sources often embroidered
with legendary elements
such as the story of Rabbi
Jose ben Halafta who met
the Prophet Elijah there
and heard the Shekhina
weeping over the ruins.
Even in Byzantine times,
when the old Roman edicts
forbidding Jews to visit Je-
rusalem was strictly en-
forced, an exception was
made for the pilgrimage of
the Ninth of Av, when Jews
were wont to lament and to
anoint the 'Pierced Stone'
(probably the rock over
which the Dome of the Rock
now stands).
"Christian pilgrimages
began in the Second Cen-
tury and continued to grow
through the ages. Even in
the worst periods — the
17th and 18th Centuries
when Europe was first de-
vasted by war then domi-
nated by Rationalism —
there were always groups of
pilgrims who came to visit
the Holy Sites. A vast litera-
ture of Itineraria' or de-
scriptions of the Holy Land
grew up through the centu-
ries, some of them only a
few pages long, others in
many volumes. Moslems
who came to perform the
`meritorious deed' (ziyara)
of a visit to the al-Aqsa have
been recorded from the en-
tire world of Islam, from
Morocco to Persia and India.
"If a mere visit to the
Holy City was regarded as
bestowing divine grace or
freedom from sin, this ap-
plied a fortiori to dwelling
there. Jewish mysticism —
the Kaballa -- was cen-
tered on Jerusalem from
the very beginning. In the
past, however circumst-
ances for its growth there
were not favorable and it
was Safed which became
pre-eminently the city of
the old Kabalists.
"On the other hand, Has-
idic mysticism, with its
greater practicality, man-
aged to strike roots in Jeru-
salem. Since the year 1702,
when Rabbi Judah the Has-
riovet h ds,
l et c , auP Poland,
i ed e' mof ae d Siedle
sid'
S yn-
the
agogue, t e city has never h
lacked its mystics. The Has-
idic communities of the
Rabbis of Gur, Lubavich
and Szatmar may differ in
their attitude to the state of
Israel and modern Jerusa-
lem, but they all add to the
city's picturesque character.
"The religious quarters,
centered upon Mea
Shearim, the oldest, have a
peculiar flavor which is
greatly appreciated by visi-
tors. Especially on Sabbaths
and holidays, their resi-
dents' fur hats and bright
velvet coats form a remarka-
ble sight.
"With the city's re-uni-
fication in 1967 and the
return of the Wailing Wall
to Jewish hands, the Old
the
City a nd
praying area in front of the
wall have become a center
of activity for Hasidim
ranging from Habad intel-
lectuals to modern mystics
of the type fashioned
among today's youth. Jew-
ish orthodoxy in the city is
represented by hundreds
of synagogues and there is
even the modest beginning
of a Reform movement.
The traditional yeshivot
where talmudic law is still
taught by the methods of
centuries ago stand side by
side with modern centers
of talmudic learning
where computers are an
accepted tool of the
scholar.
"Jerusalem's Christian
community is even more
variegated than the Jewish
one and reflects every facet
of the Christian world.
There are the traditional
eccesiastical authorities
such as the Greek Orthodox
Patriarchate (in Arabic,
Deir el Rum or "House of
Rome" recalling the fact
that this institution inher-
ited the Byzantine (East Ro-
man) Empire; then there
are the Catholic Patriar-
chate, a relatively modern
institution but allied with
the Franciscan Custodia di
Terra Santa; the Armenian
Patriarchate, and the heads
of the Greek Uniate, Ar-
menian Uniate, Coptic and
Abyssinian churches — the
list is by no means com-
plete.
"The Protestant commu-
nities are represented by
the Anglican bishopric of
St. George, a German pasto-
rate, and numerous other
groups among which the
Baptists are among the
most numerous. The city's
Christian aspect is enh-
anced by its learned institu-
tions, mostly founded by
monastic orders, but some
of them secular: the Domin-
ican Ecole Biblique et Ar-
cheologique Francaise, the
Franciscan Stadium bibli-
cum, the Benedictines on
Mount Zion, and the Ameri-
can, British and German
schools of archeology."
Some valuable examples
culled from the chronologi-
cal 4,000-year record of this
remarkable story further
illuminate the great value of
this beautifully illustrated
book. Taken at random are
the following:
* *
Historic Jerusalem Dates
2000 B.C.E. — Earliest
archeological evidence of
settlement. First written
records of Jerusalem, the
Egyptian Execration Texts,
indicate the city as Canaan-
ite.
David de-
1000 B.C.E.
feats the Jebusites, and
moves his capital to Jerusa-
lem from Hebron.
Solomon
961 B.C.E.
begins construction of the
1st Temple and the city
walls.
Shishak of
928 B.C.E.
Egypt sacks the city.
Nebuchad-
587 B.C.E.
nezzar takes the city, de-
stroys the Temple and exiles
the Jews to Babylon.
The return
537 B.C.E.
from Babylon begins, in the
reign of Cyrus. Construc-
tion of the 2nd Temple is be-
gun under Sheshbazzat,
Governor of Judah, and is
continued by his nephew,
Zerubbabel.
164 B.C.E.
The Macca-
bees reconquer the city and
rededicate the Temple.
Pontius Pilate
26 C.E.
is appointed Procurator of
Judea.
33 — Jesus is crucified in
Jerusalem.
The Jews revolt
66
against Roman oppression.
The Great Revolt culmi-
nates in the fall of Jerusa-
lem and destruction of the
2nd Temple by Titus (70).
132
The Jews, led by
Bar Kochba, drive out the
Romans and again make
Jerusalem the Jewish capi-
tal.
The Emperor Had-
135
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
rian destroys Jerusalem and
builds a new walled city —
Aelia Capitolina, with a
temple dedicated to Jup:
on Mount Moriah.
136 — The City, under
Roman rule, enjoys per-
haps the quietest period in
its history, as a sleepy
provincial town, forbidden
to Jews, but visited by
Christian pilgrims.
Constantine of
324
Byzantium conquers Jeru-
salem, thereby inaugurat-
ing the first Christian rule
over the city.
—
The City capitu-
638
lates to Omar, the 2nd Mos-
lem Caliph.
—
1099 The Crusaders led
by Godfey de Bouillon con-
quer Jerusalem.
—
1187 Jerusalem returns
to Islam after conquest by
Saladin, who restores Mos-
lem and Jewish inhabitation
of the City.
Suleiman the
1538
Magnificent rebuilds the
City ramparts, in their pre-
sent form.
The first Jewish
1860
suburbs are built outside
the walls.
1948 — Arab-Jewish
War. The state of Israel is
proclaimed with Jerusa-
lem as its Capital — a di-
vided city.
1967
The Six-Day War
reunites the City and re-
opens all the holy shrines to
all.
—
—
—
—
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A Special Feature Prepared by the Tarbuth Foun-
dation for the Advancement of Hebrew Culture.