Tova Saul, tour guide

"Why does the world need Jews? Is it to eat bagels? Or is it to seek righteousness?"

Our next visitor at the King David was tour guide Tova Saul, to whom I had been introduced by Marty, mother of Cathy, my high school chum.

Tova also remarked on our room number, 613. We had been given a free upgrade to this terrific room overlooking the Old City, because the hotel was so empty. And the number 613 turned out to be significant to religious Jews because it is the number of mitzvahs (good actions) listed in the Torah.

Tova had a video she wanted us to see. It was about how bad the Arabs of the current Intifada were, and how duplicitous Yasser Arafat was. It would show him saying one thing to a western audience, and something vile and contradictory to a Palestinian audience. The vile part was looped and repeated five times. It seemed to me to be overly propagandistic, and we argued about it some.

Later, Tova took me to find a cheaper room, nearby and also with a view of Old Jerusalem, where we spend the rest of our visit. Then she asked me if I wanted to see the Wailing Wall. Now? At 11 at night? Sure! So we did.

We walked through the Jaffa Gate, through the Armenian Quarter, and stopped at Tova's place in the Jewish quarter so she could deposit her bike and pick up some cat food. The proliferation of stray cats in the Old City was a concern for Tova, who tries to rescue them and find them homes if possible. They knew her, and expected a little treat. Then we walked on to the wall. It was close to midnight.

Dozens of men stood by the wall, praying and swaying (dovening), in a gated area by the ancient stone wall, a remnant of the biblical temple mount. Tova suggested that I join them, but I declined. So we stood apart for a while and talked. Tova explained why this is such an important place for observant Jews.

"Jews believe that God is everywhere," Tova said, "so what's so special about two busted synagogues? Why is this the holy ofr Holies for Jews?

"Jews who live in the Old Quarter, if they are open to it, feel the concentrated Spirit here. They have a profound personal experience. They get in touch with their deep selves. They see what they need to work on.

"Why does the world need Jews," she asked. "Is it to eat bagels? Or is it to seek righteousness?"

Summary of video clips: At the King David
              Tour 1 • Tour 2 • Tour 3 • Tour 4 • Tour 5 • Tour 6 • Tour 7

At the King David - Tova describes her sheltered home life, libertine college career, and how she came to Israel to find a husband, but instead found a spiritual and religious foundation that she had lost touch with.

Tour 1 - Church of the Holy Sepulcher where, in the 4th century St. Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, determined that Jesus had been crucified, entombed and resurrected.

Tour 2 - Jewish settlement above the Arab market, in the heart of the Christian quarter:

Tova: This here is one of about 30 areas (in the old city). The rooftop has a fence around it and a guard post and a playground on top. It's very well protected. You see the Israeli flag?

There are many who believe there should be nowhere in Jerusalem where Jews can't live. It's this tiny lintball of country, there's 22 Arab countries. Jerusalem is the capitol of Israel. Why should there be any neighborhood where Jews can't live?

Peter: When did they move in there?

Tova: Well there's 50 different families sprinkling through. It started about 20 years ago. Maybe a few families. Now it's up to 50 families.

The balance of this segment is a walk through the Aram shuk (market).

Tour 3 - Roman ruins. Tova discusses Jewish rebellions against Rome. "God really has a sense of humor here."

Tour 4 -Tova describes the fighting of 1948 and the importance of the Jewish Quarter.

Tova: What I want to talk about now is the fighting that went on here in 1948. Once I explain this, I hope that you'll feel that the Jewish Quarter is sort of a home-away-from-home. I like people to feel that they can carry it around in your hip pocket..

This is the closest Jewish neighborhood to the Western Wall. It's very, very beloved to many people. So if you know a little bit about it, it makes you feel that much closer to it. And since we're sitting right outside the memorial for the soldiers who fell at that time, it's a good place to explain it. But when I say soldiers, these are basically people who suddenly decided to defend the Jewish area of the Old City so we would have the Jewish state, which we didn't at first. One of the soldiers was a 10 year old boy who was killed..

Michael: This was 1948?

Tova: That's right. One of theses was a 10 year old boy, a messenger, who was killed. Another was a 90 year old man. They're all listed there with their ages. About 60 people.

Michael: My understanding was what you said. This was a catchall army. This was not an army per se but a catchall collection of people. Most of the defense involved their particular homes. There wasn't really an Israeli army capable of removing large numbers of Arabs.

Tova: A third of the Arabs stayed pur. A third of the Arabs fled the country in a panic. And a third of them were removed.

Michael: By the Israeli army.

Tova: Yes. They were driven out. That's what I've been told.

So the pictures in this book are the only pictures taken of the fighting in this neighborhood. And they were taken by a non-Jewish British guy. I would have loved to have met this man. The way he wrote was so beautiful. He was fascinated with the beginning of the Jewish state. And he went around in the chaos taking pictures of the fighting.

Now to imagine the fighting, imagine if you were a Jew fighting here the ratio was one to 100. You had 200 Jewish fighters against 20,000 Arabs. Most of them Jordanian legionnaires and others were local Arabs. They were defending about 1500 Jews who were hiding out in the synagogue very close by. After several weeks of fighting, they surrendered. So we have a photo – this is the Jewish commander and he's signing over the geographical heartbeat of the Jewish people – namely the Old City, the Temple Mount – the Western Wall – to the Jordanians. The Jordanians went to the doorway of that synagogue where the civilians were hiding and told them they had one hour to go back home and take whatever they could carry on their back, leave everything else behind, gather in a particular square and leave the Jewish Quarter forever.

They'd been here for generations. So, take a look at this picture. This is before the Jews were evacuated. And then take a look at the same exact place after the Jews were gone from this neighborhood and no Jew could step back in again until 19 years later after the Six Day War. So this is how the same place was trashed when the Arabs came in destroyed the Jewish Quarter. At least these buildings are still standing. Two thirds of all the buildings were blown up. These are some of the fighters who are still alive. So about 60 of the 200 soldiers died in the fighting and the ones who were left were taken to a prisoner of war camp in Jordan. And here they're beginning to be lined up.

And the way these men came back to Israel is an incredible story. They were in a prisoner of war camp in a very desolate part of the Jordanian desert. And after the fighting between Israel and Jordan ceased, it was the job of Moshe Dayan (with the eye patch) and another man named Eliyahu to go to the king's palace in Jordan and negotiate the agreement, like where exactly the border would be and everything else. So they would go over there – over the Allenby Bridge to the palace in Amman – and they'd negotiate with this Bedouin king. And one night on the way over Moshe Dayan said to Eliyahu,: You know what? Tonight's the night. Let's ask the king to release our POW”s after they'd been in prison for months. Eliyahu said to Moshe Dayan: I'm willing to negotiate with the king about releasing the prisoners on one condition. I grew up in an Arab country. I know their customs. Let me talk about the subject of releasing the prisoners not you. So Moshe Dayan agreed. He gave a solemn promise not to talk about it.

So there they were at the palace with the king that night and they're negotiating. Things are going on and on. Eliyahu is not talking about the prisoners at all. And Moshe Dayan begins kicking him under the table and by the end of the evening Eliyahu's leg was black and blue from the knee down. He still didn't say a word and Moshe Dayan was getting extremely irritated. So all of sudden the king rises from the table and he had these flowing robes and a saber – you know he looks the part of a Bedouin sheik. And he escorts these two Israelis to the exit of the palace. At the very last possible second Eliyahu turns to the king. He takes his hand and he grabs the belt of the king's robe and he says – it's old custom among the Bedouins that you have to grant your guests anything they ask for if they grab your belt. So the king says: My God, Eliyahu, don't ask me for anything that will embarrass me. So Eliyahu says: You have about 150 prisoners here from the war. Can they go back to Israel? And he immediately said: Let them go back.

You don't see her in this picture but among these people was a nurse from England who was 22 years old. I've got a picture of her. Maybe I'll show you her picture. Her name was Esther Halingold from England. She came here when she was 22 to do whatever she could, like everybody else. To pitch in. To make a Jewish homeland. And she was mortally wounded in the fighting, trying to be a medic. And she was dying among these people here. And the doctors had run out of morphine for here pain. So they brought her a cigarette to smoke. And she was about to take it when she realized that Shabat had just begun. It was a Friday evening. And she held up her hand and said: No. It's Shabat. And after she passed away a letter was found under her pillow that she had written to her parents back in England. This letter is taken out of the book O, Jerusalem:

Dear Mommy and Daddy,

I'm writing to beg you that whatever may have happened to me, you will make the effort to take it in the spirit I want. We have had a difficult fight. I have tasted hell but I am convinced that the end will see a Jewish state and the fulfillment of all our longings. I hope one day soon you two will come and taste the fruits of that for which we are fighting.

Be well and remember me only in happiness.

Shalom.

Esther

Tour 5 - Tova's friend Moshe Kapinsky, stops by while we are having coffee.

Tova: I wanted you guys to meet this guy. This is Moshe Kapinsky. Moshe runs a gift shop around the corner from here. And Peter, all of a sudden, out of the blue, decided to get to the bottom of the political conflict in Israel. Out of the blue.

Moshe: You've got a decade of your life to sacrifice?

Peter: I didn't really think I would get to the bottom of it. I wanted to come and get a touch of it.

Tova: So Jewish observance...he's third generation non-observant. I don't know. I haven't talked to Mickey about this at all…

Mickey: Same thing.

Tova: So I feel like – I haven't told them this yet – I think it's even more important to find out what Jewish spirituality is all about along side of the political issues. It has so much to do with what it means to have a state of Israel. What it means to be a Jew here.

Moshe: I'll tell you what happened. I had a meeting here with a Palestinian. I was walking by. The Palestinian – somebody I sort of know, actually – was talking to somebody who was representing the European Union. And I heard him saying something totally bizarre. Off the wall. I looked at him really strange like, come on!. So he goes – he felt embarrassed. He goes come, come, let's ask him. So we started what began to be an hour and a half discussion. In the midst of that there was some fascinating pieces. But one of the things that I think relates to what she was saying is that at one point I said to the European – her name was Katrina – "You know what, you're not going to understand this. Because you're about 30 years old and I'm about 50 and so is Nabo," I said. "But him and I are not 50 years old. The two of us are 3000 years old. And you're coming in as a 30 year old and you're not touching the core of what we're talking about. Because every issue that's important to me is 3000 years old and every issue that's important to him is probably about the same number of years." I mean you have to understand the breadth of what this is about; then you realize this is such a complicated interconnected issue. It's not about land. It's about different language.

I have another friend. I have a shop so we work together. So once he came in here. This is when Netanyahu was prime minister. We had coffee and argued. We loved argue, especially over coffee. He says to me: I'm really disappointed in the peace process. "You know, I never asked you what you meant by peace," I said to him. He said: Well, peace means my son can go from Ramallah to Bet Lechem and not be stopped by the army. I can build a house and add an addition and it won't be torn down because the army feels its – whatever reason they'll tear it down. It means I can determine who I want to run my country. I want my own state.

So I said: Okay. We can talk about statehood. We may disagree, but I can understand that. But what about the end to killing and murder and terrorism. And he gave me a sigh. He goes "nah, that will take generations." I said do you realize what you just said? When I say peace I mean no more killing. When you say peace you mean political statehood. We're using the same word. We don't even mean the same thing. No wonder we can't talk to each other. We don't mean the same thing.

So when the Palestinian feels that these processes are falling apart, it means his vision of a Palestinian state. By the way, that's a legitimate definition, but it's not my definition. So when I'm talking about peace I'm talking about no more hatred, no more incitement, no more kids at the age of three being told that if you have 10 Jews and you kill three how many are you left with in a mathematics class. That's what I mean. We're not talking the same language. That makes it so much more complicated. And then to add fuel to the fire, when you have a western idea: Okay guys. We're going to make peace. And peace means there's a good guy and a bad guy and you give in and you give in and we have to do it in 60 minutes minus commercials because we have a time limit either to get a peace prize or whatever the reason may be.

That is an unacceptable incursion into a process that has to go much further back down to the grass roots instead of determining what a Palestinian state will be, what they've got to do is have the kids in Gila and the kids in Bet Lechem planting trees together. Already we knew the solution to the peace treaty would be a Palestinian state and back to '67 borders. That's already the solution. We're already working the solution backwards. It never works. It doesn't work in a marriage. It doesn't work in a business relationship. You first have to build a building blocks in order to say okay now when we get further on in this relationship we'll know how to redetermine – reposition – our positions. That hasn't happened here. And so then, after that, the whole Palestinian religious view – Islamic religious view. One of the interesting things about Palestinians as opposed to Israelis is there's very few secular Palestinians. There may be Palestinians living a secular lifestyle, but in their heart they're not secular. There's a deep ? You talk to them you'll find it.

Mickey: This fight is not about religion. This fight is not about peace. This fight is not about man. This fight is not about…

Moshe: What is it about?

Mickey: What do you think it's about?

Moshe: It's about honor I think on one hand. I find that's what the issue on any of the Arabs I speak to. And even when we've spoken for a long time, it always comes down to honor. But then on the other side, the Israeli side, there seems to be another and that's a gut inner core fear about survival. Meaning, and by the way the European, for example, that we had this meeting with, that's her major point. She goes well you people have to stop talking history. And I said I can't stop talking history. She said you need to stop talking history because history just gets you into trouble. And I said you know who got us into trouble? You did. It's you Europeans that taught us that if we forget history for a moment we could end up in a gas chamber. And she gave me a look like well, there you Jews go again raising the holocaust thing and everything else. I said that may be true but if you wanted. But I have to deal with that in reality. That's how the European world looks at us. We're hanging on to this holocaust thing. When in fact I have no option. I said to her if I am a curse to this Palestinian here, you're the one that put that curse on. Cause you taught me that I can't trust unless I have secure reasons to trust. I cannot trust. And therefore when a Palestinian says: No problem. You keep this land up. We'll be your friend. We'll be this. I don't trust him until I see reasons for trust.

I do agree that spirituality is at it's core here. It's at its core for the Muslim, it's at its core for the Jew. And it's even at the core of the most secular Jew who doesn't believe there is a God. There's no reason I should even bring God into the equation. He's very much in the equation. So that needs to be addressed as well.

At one point I said to the European, "You're not going to understand this. The two of us (himself and a neighboring Palestinian shopkeeper) are 3000 years old...You've got to understand the depth of what this is about...."

She said "That's the trouble. You've got to stop talking about history." I said I can't stop talking about history.

Tour 6 - Walking through the Jewish Quarter

Tour 7 - From a rooftop we look out over the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

Tova: 4000 years ago, according to Jewish tradition, Abraham came here with Isaac to sacrifice him, but sacrificed the ram instead, on a little tiny hill called Mount Moriah (she points to it), which is under the golden dome. Long after that, according to the Bible, King David, at the end of his life, buys this mount from the king of the Caanonites. It was a threshing floor for wheat. And then his son Solomon built the first temple, which stood for 400 years. The height of that temple, according to the instructions for it in the Bible, was another golden dome higher. The Babylonians destroyed that temple in 586 bce, and took most of the Jews up to Babylon, which is in Iraq today.

The Persians conquered Babylon and they said something very strange to the Jews. They said: We want you to go back to your land and build a temple to your Lord. That’s like President Bush telling the Jews of America to come back and build a third temple. Why would a non-Jewish king be interested? Anyway, that’s what this Persian king said. King Cyrus. And in the Bible it explains how a few tens of thousands Jews came back and settled. But most of the Jews stayed up there in Persia because they were very comfortable up there. Those Jews built a second temple, which is very puny compared to the first one. That also stood for 400 years. And during that time you have the holiday of Hannukah, which is next week. The Greeks come marching in and they defile the temple. They fill it with idols. The Maccabees come along and the few against the many. The Maccabees managed to kick out the mighty Greek army and they take over the second temple again and they cleanse it and they find that one flask of olive oil. At the tail end of that second temple period was like the first temple. It stood for 400 years approximately. You have the Romans come marching in and they put this character in charge named Herod. King Herod.

Now a lot of tour guides say if it wasn’t for Herod, we wouldn’t have a job. Here I am talking to you about what Herod made the Temple Mount into, which was the largest temple complex at that time – possibly in all of human history. The Talmud says anyone who never saw Herod’s temple never saw a beautiful building.

So what does this mean? Temple, temple, temple. First temple, second temple. Like who cares. Who cares about a big synagogue. Why do we fast on the 9th of Av every summer, longest fast of the year. To mourn the destruction of the two temples, that were destroyed on the same date. What for? In a nutshell, the temple represents the entire role of the Jewish people. Why are there Jews in the world? To eat lox and bagels?

The role of the Jews in the world is to be a light to the nations. And the temple was a symbol of that. As I said to Peter last night, someone goes to England, to Buckingham Palace, to feel the royalty. People go to Paris to feel romance. So people in the times of the temple used to come to Jerusalem to see godliness. And many, many MANY gentiles came as well. And people far and wide would feel godliness when they came. Now with the lack of a temple, we still believe that this energy is still focused here. And godly energy, even though God is everywhere in the world and accessible to everyone. We believe that there’s a special energy here. And with the absence of the temple, back then as now, Jews were expected to embody something of what the temple represents. So that’s my humble attempt at trying to get across why this piece of land is so important to the Jewish people. The temple wasn’t just a building where people went to pray, like a synagogue. It symbolizes the Jewish base of operations in the world and a place emanate Jewish energy. It’s all considered very, very holy ground. Especially the holy of holies where only the high priests could go into once a year on Yom Kippur. What about the rest of the wall that goes from here to here? This is all the Muslim Quarter to our left. All these houses.

Peter: Is what we’re hearing the Muslim call to prayer?

Tova: Yes.. So to finish off (takes a photo from her folder), this is the most famous picture in modern Israeli history. These are the Israeli soldiers coming to the wall in ’67. And what I want to play for you is the original news broadcast of the soldiers coming to the western wall in ’67. It’s in Hebrew but I have an English translation for you. It takes about three minutes to listen to. And what happened was, there was a brigade that came from here and another one that came from this direction and they met up pretty much where that tower is right there. You’ll see in the news report it’s called the House of Praetoria. So I’ll just play it for you. The soldiers came in through Lion’s Gate, which is behind the Golden Dome. And they came running through the Muslim Quarter. And no one knew how to get to the Western Wall exactly. They had to sort of feel their way along because it had been 19 years since anyone had been here. These guys had never ever been here because they were about 19 years old. So I’ll just play the recording for you now and you can follow along in English.

This is the general who’s speaking... It’s Hatikvah, the national anthem. The last thing you’ll hear is the chief rabbi of the army saying a eulogy, a special for the prayer for the dead. And he’s added some of his own words for this specific situation. At the very end you hear the soldiers weeping for their friends who died in battle...

So that was Rabbi Goren blowing a shofar at the end. And that’s very significant because it was the first time a Jew could blow a shofar at the Western Wall from time immemorial. Because when the British were here they wouldn’t let Jews blow a shofar there even at the end of Yom Kippur because the Arabs would get very upset. So at the end of Yom Kippur there would always be a Jew every year that would blow the shofar. And we have a record of every single Jew who was thrown into jail each year for blowing the shofar at the end of Yom Kippur. And so when he was blowing the shofar back then, when we came back and we had sovereignty for Jerusalem, I can imagine what feelings he was having when he knew so well what it meant to blow the shofar at the Western Wall after who knows how many centuries of not being allowed to blow it there.

Voices of Israel and Palestine