Jerusalem Walking Tours Bulletin 92 Wed 29th Oct 08

Shalom everyone,

How unprepared for life we come into it. How unprepared are we for what awaits us on leaving it. The comings and goings of human beings is truly strange; we're on our way to destinations which we know nothing about.

Visiting a place as a tourist we usually follow a map or employ a tour guide so that we go to places that suit us and interest us and where we'll have a pleasant experience. Without a map or a guide we might find ourselves in a place where we might have an unpleasant experience.

This, however, is exactly the kind of thing I like to do when I'm a tourist. I remember once when I was touring Budapest with my son Ariel I decided to walk down a street without having the faintest idea about where it would lead us. Ariel, who is a very cautious man, unlike his father objected to this "foolish", "irresponsible" behavior but, being an obedient son, went along all the same.

It was a wide street but had a kind of forlorn appearance because it was night time and it was closed in by big, dark grey colored, monumental like buildings . Worst of all there wasn't even a cat or a dog to be seen anywhere not even a single living soul or a vehicle of sorts. There were some faintly shining streetlights so that we could see the cobbles in the street; that was a sure sign of an old neighborhood. The whole thing was what one might call "scary".

So there we were two tourists, who according to Ariel's incessantly complaining voice, deliberately getting lost and looking for trouble. Our footsteps clattered frighteningly on the black street cobbles, but we didn't walk far, about 200 meters when we saw a glimmer of light coming out of an open window of a basement of one of the ominous looking buildings.

A sign next to the window had a picture of a pizza. This was very encouraging so we went down some steps in a dark alleyway and came to a restaurant, full of people but spacious, warm, full of light. In short the complete opposite of the street above. The contrast in the two places however wasn't nearly as great as the contrast in our feelings.

There, above, in the street we were, lonely, scared of imminent, unknown danger. Here we were happy, full of confidence and pleasure and very good food. The alteration in our situation was dramatic and of course Ariel's trust in his father was vindicated and all complaints were forgotten as if they never were.

My conclusion is that life is full of surprises. Fear and trepidation come from the unknown and are seen to be negative qualities of the human being but they are the natural result of the human situation of not known the where he's going to. They are natural and being natural they are necessary. Nothing in nature is unnecessary. Their necessity is only revealed to us on arrival at the unknown destination.

Sometimes they are vindicated and those are unfortunately the moments of tragedy in life but mostly they are overturned, thrown away as if they never were in the face of life's pleasant surprises. The greatness and depth of their pleasure and joy is in direct proportion to the fear we felt before. This is the dimension of surprise; an absolutely vital part of human life which can only happen because we don't know where we're going and because we have fear.

The element of surprise in our lives is illustrated by the question: Why when we tickle ourselves we don't laugh? The answer, given by a lecturer I heard on the radio the other day, speaking about laughter, is that laughter is a reaction to a pleasant surprise and when you tickle yourself you can't be surprised because your brain has told you what's coming and there's no surprise.

The greatest experts at giving surprises are children. I've learned this from the little experience I've had with my grandchildren; Ophir's favorite game is hiding then surprising me when he appears suddenly from behind the couch or when I do that to him. Then we both laugh a lot. Tamar's favorite game is to upset me really badly by telling me she doesn't love me then when I least expect it she takes my hand and says "come and play with me grandpa".

As a tour guide I have found that of all the many pleasures of touring, a tourist's greatest pleasure comes from "seeing the light" or acquiring understanding of an historical event which he has always known about.

One of the most dramatic examples of this is that everyone who comes on a tour of Israel knows that the temple was destroyed but when they see the Western Wall, known as the Waling Wall they understand the dimension of the destruction, its antiquity and significance all in one glance at the wall and the Jews crying, praying, reading the Torah there and sometimes dancing and singing there like on Friday evenings.

Wishing you a great no news day.

Yours truly

Leon Gork