Once Again, A Moment in Time

 by Gail F. Nalven

Pre-Shabbat and the shuk, Jerusalem’s Machane Yehudah marketplace is bustling with shoppers.  All are walking fast through the rows and rows of luscious fruits and vegetables.  The colors are amazing.  The smells of the home baked challah and cakes are in the air.  I quickly bypass the meat and fish stalls which are not so appetizing.  I notice that there are new stores, “real” stores, and not just open stalls.  There are now sit down restaurants and not just quick falafel stands.

Rehov Sukkat Shalom, just outside the shuk

I find myself standing in almost the exact spot I stood on Yom HaZikaron, 1997 when the 10am siren blew.  Yom HaZikaron is Israel’s memorial day.  A day to remember those who died on the battlefield, and in terrorist attacks.  It is not marked with sales and bar-b-ques as in the US.  It is a solemn day.  When the sirens blast, everyone stops in their tracks.  People get out of cars, off buses.  And they remember. For just a moment. For everyone knows at least one person who has died, before their time.


As I stood in that same spot before this Shabbat, I remembered the woman who had stood in front of me 14 years before, holding her packages and weeping.  I remembered the newly painted stalls that terrorists had blown up just a short time before, killing innocent shopkeepers.  I remembered people stopping to mourn. There was a silence not often heard in the marketplace. And then the siren stopped.  Everyone picked up their bags. Everyone move on, getting on with their lives and the business of keeping Israel going, keeping Israel alive.

Mourning is not a business here.  It is not a full time occupation that makes Israeli’s building monuments taller and taller into the sky.  It is appropriate and life goes on.  And Israel continues to stand.

Note:  This post is also published @tefillah.wordpress.com.