War

Even if liquor had as much to do with it as love, all children want to feel that they are the result of a romantic union rather than sleazy circumstance. All the peoples of the world prefer the romantic version of their national birth, as well. And yet, with the intensification of the war on Israel’s legitimacy, comes a related salvo: Israel, alone among the nations, is to be denied the romantic version of its birth; Israel, these critics say, was born in sin — an alien people engaging in terror — and in sin  remains.

I’m a rationalist. I’m not into mysticism or spirituality or New Age stuff. An “intellectual,” I like to fancy myself. Yet there I was in Jerusalem one Saturday morning a few weeks ago, putting two kvitels, little notes, into the crevices of the Western Wall. One was a petition for a friend; the other a personal plea. I laughed to myself as I pressed them deep into the cracks, knowing that like untold others, I somehow ascribe special powers to that Wall and the missives it bears. I had done this before and will do it again. So much for rationalism.