David felt again the stirring of a deep race memory, a hollow feeling of
the soul which longed to be filled.
The men prayed facing the wall, many of them in the long black coats of
the Orthodox Jew with the ringlets dangling against their cheeks as they
rocked and swayed in religious ecstasy. Within the enclosure of the
right hand side, the women seemed more reserved in their devotions.
Joe spoke at last, a little embarrassed and in a gruff tone. I think
I'll just go say a shma. Yes, Hannah agreed. Are you coming with me,
Debra?
A moment. Debra turned to David, and took something from her handbag.
I made it for you for the wedding, she said. But wear it now. It was a
yamulka, an embroidered prayer cap of black satin.
Go with Joe, she said. He will show you what to do. The girls moved
off to the women's enclosure and David placed the cap upon his head and
followed Joe down to the wall.
A shamash came to them, an old man with a long silver beard, and he
helped David bind upon his right arm a tiny leather box containing a
portion of the Torah.
So you shall lay these words upon your heart and your soul, and you
shall bind them upon your right arm Then he spread a tollit across
David's shoulders, a tasselled shawl of woven wool, and he led him to
the wall, and he began to repeat after the shamash: Hear, 0 Israel, the
Lord our God, the Lord is one His voice grew surer as he remembered the
words from long ago, and he looked up at the wall of massive stone
blocks that towered high above him. Thousands of previous worshippers
had written down their prayers on scraps of paper and wedged them into
the joints between the blocks, and around him rose the plaintive voices
of spoken prayer. It seemed to David that in his imagination a golden
beam of prayer rose from this holy place towards the heavens.
Afterwards they left the enclosure and climbed the stairs into the
Jewish quarter, and the good feeling remained with David, glowing warmly
in his belly.
That evening they sat together on the terrace drinking Goldstar beer and
splitting sunflower seeds for the nutty kernels, and naturally the talk
turned to God and religion.
Joe said, I'm an Israeli and then a Jew. First my country, and a long
way behind that comes my religion. But David remembered the expression
on his face as he prayed against the wailing wall.
The talk lasted until late, and David glimpsed the vast body of his
religious heritage.
I would like to learn a little more about it all, he admitted, and Debra
said nothing but when she packed for him to go on base that night she
placed a copy of Herman Wouk's This is my God on top of his clean
uniforms.
He read it and when next he returned to Malik Street, he asked for more.
She picked them for him, English works at first but then Hebrew, as his
grip upon the language became stronger. They were not religious works
only, but histories and historical novels that excited his interest in
this ancient centre of civilization which for three thousand years had
been a crossroads and a battleground.
He read anything and everything that she put into his case, from
josephus Flavius to Leon Uris.
This led to a desire to see and inspect the ground. It became so that
much of the time that they were free together was spent in these
explorations. They began with the hill-top fortress of Herod at Masada
where the zealots had killed each other rather than submit to Rome, and
from there they moved off the tourist beat to the lesser-known
historical sites.
In those long sunlit days they might eat their basket lunch sitting on
the ruins of a Roman aqueduct and watching a falcon working the thermals
that rose off the floor of the desert, after they had searched the bed
of a dry wadi for coins and arrowheads brought down by the last rains.
Around them rose the tall cliffs of orange and golden stone, and the
light was so clean and stark that it seemed they could see for ever, and
the silence so vast that they were the only living things in the world.
They were the happiest days that David had ever known, and they gave
point and meaning to the weary hours of squadron standby, and when the
day had ended there was always the house on Malik Street with its warmth
and laughter and love.
Joe and David arranged leave of absence from the base for the wedding.
It was a time of quiet, and le Dauphin let them go without protest, for
he would be a guest.
They drove up to Jerusalem the day before and were immediately
conscripted to assist with the arrangements. David laboured mightily as
a taxi-driver and trucker. The Mercedes transported everything from
flowers to musical instruments and distant relatives.
The Brig's garden was decorated with palm leaves and coloured bunting.
In the centre stood the huppah, a canopy worked with religious symbols
in blue and gold, the Star of David and the grapes and ears of wheat,
the pomegranates and all the other symbols of fertility.
Beneath it, the marriage ceremony would take place.
Trestle tables covered with gay cloths and set with bowls of flowers and
dishes of fruit were arranged beneath the olive trees. There were
places for three hundred guests, an open space for the dancing, a raised
timber stand hung with flags for the band.
The catering was contracted out to a professional firm and the menu had
been carefully decided upon by the chef and the women. It would have
two high points an enormous stuffed tuna, again a symbol of fertility,
and a lamb dish in the bedouin style served upon enormous copper
salvers.
on the Sunday of the wedding, David drove Debra to the home of the chief
surgeon of Hadassah Hospital.
Hannah was one of his theatre sisters and he had insisted that she use
his home to prepare for the wedding. Debra was to assist her, and David
left them and drove on to Em Karem. The lane leading to the house was
cordoned off and thick with secret service men and paratroopers.
While he watched Joe dressing, losing and finding the ring, and sweating
with nerves, David lay on Joe's bed and gave him bad advice. They could
hear the guests gathering in the garden below, and David stood up and
went to the window. He watched an airforce colonel being carefully
scrutinized and searched at the gates, but taking it all in good part.
They are being pretty thorough, David remarked.
Hannah has asked to have as few as possible of the guards in the garden.
So they are being damned careful about who they let in. Joe had at last
completed dressing and already he was beginning to sweat through the
armpits of his uniform. How do I look? he asked anxiously. God, you
handsome beast, David told him.
Piss off, Morgan, Joe grinned at him, crammed his cap on to his head and
glanced at his watch. Let's go, . he said.
The Chief Rabbi of the army was waiting with the Brig and the others in
the Brig's study. The Rabbi was the mild-mannered man who had
personally liberated the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the war of 67. During
the advance on Hebron, he had driven a jeep through the disintegrating
Arab lines, shot open the door to the tomb with a submachine-gun and
chased the Arab guards screaming over the rear wall.
Joe sat at the Brig's desk and signed the ketubbah, the marriage
contract, then the Rabbi handed him a silken cloth which Joe lifted in a