Syntactic Structure by Noam Chomsky

Simon Sebag Montefiore "Jerusalem. The biography"

A half of this fascinating book I had read in English, until I had shared with my father what interesting I had been reading. To my astonishment my father told me that he had already read it and gave me a volume in Polish. So I turned into my mother's language. There are some notes I did of the English version. First of all Preface makes a breathtaking introduction showing the history of Jerusalem as an pattern of the whole World history. This piece of land, recognized as the Holy City carries the burdens and tragedy of all humanity throughout the centuries. The history of Jerusalem is the history of the world... with this statement the book begins. But this is a peculiar way of writing on history,

"In Jerusalem, the truth is often much less important than the

myth. “In Jerusalem, don’t ask me the history of facts,” says the

eminent Palestinian historian Dr. Nazmi al-Jubeh. “Take away the

fction and there’s nothing left.” The second sentence of the Preface is not less genious then the first one. I simpy enjoy reading books when at the very begining everything is set with a right perspective. 

Let' s listen to the author: "Jerusalem was once regarded as the centre of the

world and today that is more true than ever: the city is the focus of

the struggle between the Abrahamic religions, the shrine for

increasingly popular Christian, Jewish and Islamic fundamentalism,

the strategic battlefield of clashing civilizations, the front line

between atheism and faith, the cynosure of secular fascination, the

object of giddy conspiracism and internet myth-making, and the

illuminated stage for the cameras of the world in the age of twentyfour-

hour news. religious, political and media interest feed on each

other to make Jerusalem more intensely scrutinized today than ever

before."

Notes:

pg 77:

Isaiah foresaw an extraordinary phenomenon: “the mountain of the Lord’s

house shall be established in the top of the mountains … and all

nations shall bow to it.” The laws, values and stories of this remote

and perhaps vanquished mountain city would rise again: “And

many people shall go and say, Come ye and let us go up to the

mountain of the Lord, to the House of the God of Jacob; and he

will teach us of his ways … Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and

the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among

the nations.” Isaiah predicted a mystical Day of Judgement when an

anointed king—the Messiah—would come: “they shall beat their

swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning-hooks … and

neither shall they learn war anymore.” The dead would rise again.

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie

down with the kid.”

pg. 209 

rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai (Yavneh):

When he visited the ruins, his pupil cried,

“Woe to us!” “Be not grieved,” replied the rabbi (according to the

Talmud, compiled several centuries later). “We have another

atonement. It is acts of loving-kindness.” No one realized it at this

time, but this was the beginning of modern Judaism—without the

Temple.

pg. 233 About St. Jerome and Paula:

Damasus and Jerome found themselves entangled in some very

worldly scandals: Damasus was accused of adultery, dubbed “the

tickler of the ears of middle-aged women,” while Jerome was said

to be having an a??air with the rich widow Paula, one of the many

such ladies who had embraced Christianity. Jerome and Paula were

exonerated—but they had to leave Rome and so they set out for

Jerusalem, accompanied by her daughter Eustochium.

pg. 245 - emperor Justinian: in 537, when Justinian dedicated

his breathtaking domed Church of Hagia So??a (“Holy Wisdom”) in

Constantinople, he is said to have re??ected, “Solomon, I have

surpassed thee.” Then he turned to Jerusalem to trump Solomon’s

Temple

pg. 276 The Dome of the Rock:

The Dome has a power beyond all this: it ranks as one of the

most timeless masterpieces of architectural art; its radiance is the

cynosure of all eyes wherever one stands in Jerusalem. It shimmers

like a mystical palace rising out of the airy and serene space of the

esplanade which immediately became an enormous open-air

mosque, sanctifying all the space around it. The Temple Mount

became instantly—and still remains—a place for recreation and

relaxation. Indeed the Dome created an earthly paradise that

relaxation. Indeed the Dome created an earthly paradise that

combined the tranquillity and sensuality of this world with the

sanctity of the hereafter, and that was its genius.

pg. 403 RAMBAN or Nahmanides: “Whatever is more holy,”

thought Ramban, “is more ruined.”

In Polish:
Bardzo podoba mi się epilog. A szczególnie opis, w jaki sposób budzą się każdego dnia o świcie osoby odpowiedzialne za miejsca najważniejsze dla trzech największych religii monoteistycznych. Dowiemy się w nim o tym, jak rozpoczyna się dzień pod Murem, w Bazylice Grobu Świętego i w Kopule na Skale.

" Do świtu w Jerozolimie pozostała jeszce godzina. Kopuła na Skale tętni życiem: muzułmanie modlą się. Pod Murem słychać głosy: Żydzie się modlą. Bazylika Grobu Świętego jest czynna: chrześcijanie modlą się w kilku językach. Słońce wschodzi nad Jerozolimą, jego promienie oświetlają jasne bloki kamienne Muru, które wydają się teraz biale jak śnieg - tak jak opisywał je Józef Flawiusz przed dwoma tysiącami lat - a potem padają na złotą czaszę Kopuły na Skale, która lśni w słońcu. Boska esplanada, gdzie spotykają się Niebo i Ziemia, gdzie Bóg spotyka człowieka, jest wciąż niedosiężna dla ludzi. Docierają tam tylko promienie słońca i w końcu światło pada na najpiękniejszą i najbardziej tajemniczą budowlę w Jerozolimie. Kąpiąc się i b lyszcząc w słońcu, Złota Brama pokazuje, czemu zawdzięcza swą nazwę. Ale pozostanie zamknięta aż do nadejścia Końca Świata."