There were many topics that icnext Israel Mission 23 learned about in this geopolitical tour of Jerusalem. Our guide was Ilan Bloch and he took us to
locations to discuss what he called the “seam lines” of Jerusalem today - aspects that present potential tension.
We learned about longing for Jersulam/ the temple and the customs/traditions for honoring them. For example, when a man gets married, he steps on glass to break it. This represents that even in his happiest hour, he is sad for Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. Another example is when buying fruit in the land of Israel, you give up 1% of your food to the kohen. Now since we don’t have a kohen, we give up 1% of the fruit and wrap the piece of fruit up and let it rot, making sure no one can eat it. We also learned how to connect Jerusalem to Jerusalem. This means how to connect the people inside of Jerusalem and the traditions inside of Jerusalem to each other. We learned what eruvs are and their importance. Knowing that you can’t carry from public to private places or private to public places during Shabbat, rabbis invented the eruv. This is a string with nails on top of wires making an enclosed area. The Orthodox Jews use this as an “extension” of their home/ connecting all of the Jewish areas together. Some of these things cause tensions between secular and religious Jews.
We learned about longing for Jersulam/ the temple and the customs/traditions for honoring them. For example, when a man gets married, he steps on glass to break it. This represents that even in his happiest hour, he is sad for Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. Another example is when buying fruit in the land of Israel, you give up 1% of your food to the kohen. Now since we don’t have a kohen, we give up 1% of the fruit and wrap the piece of fruit up and let it rot, making sure no one can eat it. We also learned how to connect Jerusalem to Jerusalem. This means how to connect the people inside of Jerusalem and the traditions inside of Jerusalem to each other. We learned what eruvs are and their importance. Knowing that you can’t carry from public to private places or private to public places during Shabbat, rabbis invented the eruv. This is a string with nails on top of wires making an enclosed area. The Orthodox Jews use this as an “extension” of their home/ connecting all of the Jewish areas together. Some of these things cause tensions between secular and religious Jews.
Then we talked about how the east side of Jerusalem housing has flat roofed houses and black water tanks, while the west side of Jerusalem has slanted roofed housing and white water tanks. East Jerusalem is mostly Arab and not as well developed as West Jerusalem which is mostly Jewish Israelis. He discussed the differences in these neighborhoods.
And finally he took us to an ultra-orthodox neighborhood. We saw differences in dress and discussed their lifestyle and the challenges it presents for the Israeli government.