Marilyn Stowe Blog

Rites of Passage in the Eternal City: what will survive of us is love

What’s the best way to attend a wedding? There must be a better way if, like me, you don’t particularly enjoy getting poshed up all day, making small talk with people you barely know, sitting ramrod-straight and getting up and down throughout the ceremony. Then of course you can virtually guarantee you will have the worst table by the kitchen at the wedding breakfast and like it or not you will put your foot in it, somehow with somebody, after a few drinks.

Do you ever wonder what it would be like to attend a wedding and not go through all that rigmarole, to just relax all the way through?  Especially during the best part: when you see the bride come down the aisle to be given away by her parents, about to start a new life with her partner.

This Monday I “attended” just such a beautiful wedding and, I think, in the best possible way! Let me explain…

It was 6 pm and the sun was setting behind the pale honey walls of the Old City of Jerusalem as Mount Scopus lay in the distance. I was standing high up on the balcony of our hotel watching a wedding scene taking place on the terrace below.  I could see the hustle and bustle of lorries and cars still thronging up the hill beyond as they entered the Old City through the Jaffa Gate. Alongside the gate stands King David Tower and there were still lots of tourists walking around the old Roman walls during this cooler part of the day.  I could see churches, synagogues and mosques spread across the city on rolling hills. Somewhere in the distance out of view is the Western Wall, all that remains of the Jewish Temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD and which stood on Temple Mount, the holiest place in Judaism. The wedding below me was taking place under a canopy facing towards the Western Wall.

This city of Jerusalem has seen its share of historical battles and invaders. With the Persians, Romans, Arabs, Crusaders and Turks all invading and laying claim to it at various times.  Sadly, as we know, conflict continues to this day and will do until all its peoples make peace. How wonderful would that be?

Archaeological digs keep revealing the fascinating history of the city. During the reign of King Herod a fortress was built alongside the Jewish temple on Temple Mount, which was itself built by King Solomon.

There is in fact a large-scale model of Jerusalem in Roman times, with the Temple still erect before its destruction, which stands in the grounds of the newly renovated Israel Museum. The museum is opposite the Israeli Parliament and the Supreme Court of Israel (below) and is where I had earlier spent most of the day. There is a beautiful Rose Garden separating the two.

The stunningly reconstructed buildings at the Museum are home to galleries full of European impressionist and modern art, including pieces by Renoir, Cezanne Pissarro, Gauguin, Modigliani, Chagall, Magritte and Dali. You could easily spend hours there taking them in, but there is much more to see.

There are 15th and 16th century paintings too and the collection includes two Rembrandts: one of St Peter in prison, the light framing his elderly face of resignation unaware that the prison shackles would soon fall away; the other of his wife Saskia. There is also a huge painting by Nicholas Poussin from 1625, presented to Cardinal Richelieu, which features the Roman destruction of the Temple. It is quite moving in that it magnificently depicts the battle and tragedy taking place.

There is also a large gallery of some of the first photographs ever taken and several galleries devoted to modern 21st Century Israeli art. Again you could spend hours here too.

But I suppose because I am Jewish, and a family lawyer, I was particularly taken by the collection called Rites of Passage, which included the clothing and religious artefacts of Jewish families from across the world and down the centuries. No matter how far apart and no matter how long ago, I could see how similar they all were.

The theme Rites of Passage centred on birth, marriage and death. Marriage within this context isn’t portrayed as the “gold standard” as opposed to cohabitation; rather, it is depicted as a deep-seated, spiritual and religious part of the circle of life for all those Jewish communities featured. Whether the bejewelled Yemeni bride, or the brides and grooms of Afghanistan, China, India and other remote regions on earth, all had similar Jewish marriage ceremonies, similar rituals at birth and on death and their communities managed to survive, somehow and in some form.

I then visited a building called the Shrine of the Book. This is a fabulous building, which stands in the grounds of the Israel Museum and houses the Dead Sea Scrolls. You don’t have to be religious to appreciate the Dead Sea Scrolls’ historical significance. Discovered in 1947 and preserved in jars in caves by the Dead Sea, they are now housed in this building. The white roof mimics the top of a jar; the bottom lies underground and is only accessible down some steps. Here you can view the entire scroll of Isaiah, which has been saved intact in a real jar.  You can also walk around and see other fragments of the bible, with all the documents found scientifically dated from 150BC to 70AD.

In the same building you can also see the Aleppo Codex, which is a bible written in Jerusalem in the 10th century and saved from destruction by the Crusaders. It was smuggled to Syria and then to Egypt, before being returned to Jerusalem in the 20th Century.

I was knocked out by the fight that Jewish people have had through the centuries: scattered throughout the world by the Roman destruction of Jerusalem – and yet, still managing to survive.

The central roles played by birth, marriage and death, and the power of the Rites of Passage to preserve a people and its beliefs stayed strong in my mind after I left the museum.

I returned to my hotel feeling dazed. There was so much to see, assimilate and think about. Things you take for granted in a material world.  On reflection I don’t think it matters what religion you may be, or even whether you are an atheist, an agnostic or nothing at all. Every one of us can always appreciate the beautiful things that life has to offer. Some lives have been filled with tragedy that at the time seemed to be meaningless sacrifice but, years later in retrospect, have played their part in the journey for survival.

But other lives are filled with joy and achievement too, whether it is spiritual, artistic or architectural and they survive the generations. The Rites of Passage all play their own part. The common feature of everything I saw was the desire, will and passion to survive and, above all, to preserve and hand down for future generations all the traditions, customs, art, music and spiritual values. Some of these are still being passed on 2,000 years later, while the 500-year-old artwork is relatively young!

I was standing on my balcony trying to take it all in, looking out over this fascinating city, the ancient and the modern, and drinking a quiet toast to the spirit of survival with a huge glass of chilled white wine when, unexpectedly, the music of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah began.

The melody was the same, but the words were different. It was the well-known Israeli singer Ohad Moskowitz singing Boi Kala, which translated means come my bride, come my beloved – and then I was really overcome after such a wondrous day.

And so I watched the bride walk with her father under the canopy. The Rites of Passage were continuing and so were my hopes for eternal peace in Jerusalem, the Eternal City.

PS. Congratulations to Judy, David and their families on their marriage at the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem on 23 August, 2010. I wish them every happiness in their life together.

Image credits: emileaguso, www.goisrael.com, emileguso.