Memories and Stones

I fell in love with Israel that I dreamed of going back. I was supposed to go back to Israel this year (2020) to study Sefer Devarim in Jerusalem, as part of a five-year program that discussed one sefer of the Torah per year. Unfortunately, COVID-19 came into the picture, and then the entire world stopped. Surely, man proposes, but God disposes.

In 2016, when I went on my first pilgrimage to the Holy Land, I was fascinated by the varieties of how the Israelis expressed their religiosity or lack of it.

In school, I got the impression that “Jews” are all the same, then I realized that just as there are many groups within Christianity, there is also such diversity in the present Jewish religion.

Thus, walking in Jerusalem, you can meet men in groups dressed in long black robes with fur hats on their heads. While on the next street, you will encounter school children on their way to school wearing ordinary clothes, but you will notice that tassels dangle under their shirts and wear the kippah. Just a little further, young men are walking briskly while talking with each other; the only religious symbol you can see is that they wear the kippah.

Present-day Israel is a country that you will think of as a “religious state” just like Saudi Arabia. On the contrary, Israel has self-consciously promoted itself as a “secular state.” It is a surprise when I first learned this because mainstream international media portrayed Israeli almost like a rabid fanatic who is there to occupy the land while driving away the Palestinians.

My group’s pilgrimage guide was a Filipina who married an American Jew. When her children were growing up, they transferred from the States to Israel. As a kind of spiritual devotion, she went into the vocation of leading pilgrimages.

Just like any other Filipino, she had a knack for “shortcuts,” so we passed by two cemeteries, the Muslim cemetery located near the “Lion’s Gate” and the Jewish Cemetery located on the Mount Olives.

The Jewish cemetery impressed me more because on top of tombs are stones placed there by those who visited the grave. Some of the graves are filled with stones, while some got barely a few. The guide told us that Jews placed stones on the graves instead of flowers or candles.

What is the reason for this?

I do not know. Maybe because flowers are rare in Jerusalem while there are plenty of stones, it may also be that stones remain much longer than flowers, so these are more potent reminders of the sentiments of the visitors. I can only guess what the real reason is.

One thing I am sure of is that no one wants for forgotten. To be remembered would always be the blessing that the dead would aspire for since ancient times.

This is why they build temples and churches, not only to worship the Lord but also that the builder(s) will also be remembered, thus ensuring one’s name in the minds of generations to come.

But, then even if the world will eventually forget us, God will never forget us.

May the faithful departed be remembered!

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