Jerusalem: historical, cultural, and religious significance

Jerusalem

Some cities prove evocative enough to warrant a biography of their own, and Jerusalem is certainly one of them. Cities as ancient as layered as Jerusalem are more complex than any one person, for the entire gamut of human culture and history passes through their old walls. Like people, cities can also become profoundly insecure and even neurotic. In A Woman in Jerusalem, the titular woman "believed in Jerusalem more than Jerusalem believes in itself," (236). It is not only Yehoshua's novel that underscores the significance of Jerusalem as a universal city. Jerusalem, a highly contested city, socially, politically, and culturally belongs to the world. Disputes over the West Bank and broader political conflicts reflect and draw attention to the importance of the ancient city of Jerusalem.

In A Woman in Jerusalem, a powerful and subconscious longing for the city and its spiritual secrets is the theme of the work. Likewise, people from all over the world flock to Jerusalem either as temporary visitors or as expatriates. Most expatriates are Jewish, touched deeply by the reverberations of connectivity with their ancestry upon visiting. Whether it is the wailing wall or the sprawling ancient cemetery on the hills near the City of David, Jerusalem offers unparalleled opportunities to touch a part of the human soul.

There are both personal and political dimensions to the city, both of which are explored in Yehoshua's book but also in the broader discourse related to Jerusalem. As Messud puts it, Jerusalem puts the person face-to-face with the "fundamental questions about identity, selfhood, belonging," (1). The individual addresses the deepest personal issues: ancestry, community, identity. During this contemplation, the individual wakes up to the broader reality of which he or she is a part. The self-reflection that Jerusalem engenders is in fact triggered by the knowledge that no one is an island, and that each person belongs to something far greater than a mere nuclear family. The reason why Jerusalem is a universal city that belongs to everyone is because, after all, it is. Jerusalem is a microcosm of the world.

Any visitor to Jerusalem is immediately struck by its inherent multiculturalism. Judaism is a rainbow culture, and is far more than a religion. It is a family. Non-Jews who feel drawn to and connected with Jerusalem likewise understand their role in the human family. All peoples of the Book including Christians and Muslims understand the centrality of Jerusalem in their cultural and religious heritages. The city is more than just a city. As Yehoshua explains in the novel, ordinary cities are about mundane daily existence: working, eating, sleeping. These mundane activities do and must take place in Jerusalem: after all, it is a living city and not a museum. There are vendors and restaurants, lawyers and doctors in Jerusalem old and new. Yet there are other dimensions to the city that are absent from almost all other cities on the planet. People who live in Jerusalem have their feet in different worlds: old and new, spiritual and mundane.