I am returning from Jerusalem to the Coastal Plain, from the highest peak of the experiences of the visit to the Old City of everyday. There below me sits a young man, a Yeshiva student, dressed in a long black coat, with a delicate face and shining eyes.

Lines of cars are passing in front of us, large and small, transporting Jews who are coming to visit the freed Jerusalem.

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I saw my neighbour on my journey looking at the lines of cars and was interested in hearing from him what a young man, a Yeshiva student thinks about these days. I said: “And all the gentiles are flowing to it” is that what is happening?

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He looked at me with large eyes and answered immediately: “Indeed, all the gentiles are desecrating the holiness of Jerusalem; they are travelling to it as if it was a festival of gentiles…”

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And this is how our conversation started, which continued until we reached the Bet Shemesh junction. I said without wishing to be pulled into a polemic: “Nevertheless they are Jews for whom Jerusalem is close to their hearts”.

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And he responded with an irritating tone: “For them Jerusalem is Jerusalem of Gold and for us it is Jerusalem of the Heavens”

I did not let it go: “It has already been said “Man shall go in the name of his God”, everyone has their own Jerusalem, as he sees fit, but all of us together have one Jerusalem, which is the heart of the nation”.

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My young neighbour sat up straight in his seat and answered excitedly, while looking towards the mountains: “They are trampling on the name of Jerusalem, the holy city: they are desecrating its holiness, they travel in its streets on the Sabbath, they go to the Western Wall which does not want to see Jews desecrating the Sabbath in order to come to see it….”