Last friday afternoon I was in Kiriat Belz (Belsz?) looking at baby strollers. (I don't think I will ever want to put our child down b"h once s/he is born, but thankfully my wife is more practical than that.)
What struck me as so remarkable was how calm and peaceful it was amid what must have been erev shabbath preparations. Everyone was smiling and happy and beautiful.
Also funny, Israel is the center of the world, and Jerusalem is the center of Israel. All the life-force in the world flows from Jerusalem to Israel and on to the rest of the world. (At least that is the state of affairs as it should be.) The Jewish people are the soul of mankind, and so, the root of all the life force of the billions of people in existence flows through each particular Jew to all those gentiles in the world connected to that particular Jew. (Again, this is the state of affairs as it should be.)
On friday I happened to see a George-Clooney look alike, a Robert DeNiro (if he were sixty, and a smiling grandfather with a big silver beard and payot) look-alike and another look-alike I'm forgetting at the moment, all in a two-block radius in Kiriat Belz. Who knows if they were their respective soul-roots. But there is something about the people of Jerusalem that makes you know right away that they are the life-force of the world.
As nice as the rest of the world is, as nice as the rest of Israel is, there really isn't anything like Yerushalayim.
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