Jerusalem

A search, through text and paintings, for the "essence" of Jerusalem, set against a background of some 4000 years of recorded history. The book expresses the spiritual and physical bond between Jews and Jerusalem, and records the veneration of Christians for the city.

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This book is a paeon of praise to Jerusalem, holy city of three great religions. According to the sages of the Talmud, ten measures of beauty were given to the world and nine of them alighted upon Jerusalem. Drawing on 4000 years of history, Eliane Wilson has sought the soul of this ancient city through the words of kings and prophets, chroniclers and poets, travellers and pilgrims. The words and artist Motke Blum's powerful vision are bound together in a passionate dialogue, each medium inspiring and reflecting the beauty of the other in a quest for the essence of Jerusalem, the city whence Judaism, mother faith of Christianity and Islam, bequeathed mankind the concept of ethical monotheism and the rule of moral law, fulfilling itself in a law of love. The book is a search for the sound and fabric of the living city set amidst the Judean hills. It expresses the spiritual and physical bond between Jews and Jerusalem, a bond unbroken since David, 3000 years ago, made her the capital and the religious centre of the Hebrew nation.
It records too the love and veneration of Christians for the city where Jesus wept and the reverence of Moslems for the city of the sacred Dome of the Rock from which the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven. Jerusalem and her people have not escaped suffering - again the sages tell us ten measures of suffering were given to the world and nine alighted upon Jerusalem, the city whose name means peace.