The Gates of Jerusalem

Even when the Jaffa gate is closed, the gates of prayer are open

Once I sat on the steps by a gate at David’s Tower. I placed my two heavy baskets at my side.

A group of tourists was standing around their guide and I became their target marker.

“You see that man with the baskets? Just right of his head there’s an arch from the Roman period. Just right of his head.”

“But he’s moving, he’s moving!”

I said to myself: “redemption will come only if their guide tells them, ‘You see that arch from the Roman period? It’s not important: but next to it, left down and a bit, there sits a man who’s bought fruit and vegetables for his family.’”

Yehuda Amichai


haggadah Section: Nirtzah
Source: Excerpted from Yehuda Amicha "Tourists"