Reading Response #4

I thought the discussion of the Israelite exile to Babylon formed a beautiful image of displaced peoples longing for their homeland, and also a powerful parallel to what the Jews felt before the creation of the Jewish state in 1948 as well as the feelings experienced by the Palestinians who have been forced to relocate under the Israeli occupation. This idea of longing for a homeland has been a sort of motif for Jerusalem over the past 70 or so years, and it was interesting to see Jerusalem viewed in the same light even hundreds of years ago: a homeland for those without one of their own. Caanan (except for Jerusalem) became the homeland of the Israelites after wandering for 40 years in the desert, it became the symbol of lost paradise for those exiled to Babylon, and is viewed as the lost homeland for the Palestinians as well. I also thought it was interesting that it seems that Jerusalem becomes a more significant symbol of homeland when the people are not actually living there. All of the peoples who call Jerusalem sacred, in fact, seem to idealize it when they cannot have it more than when they are actually living there. I suppose absence makes the heart grow fonder...or the grass is always greener.