Jerusalem quiet and busy -- why worry about life?

If you go to Jerusalem walk around where the locals are walking. Visit the shook (open market), take a walk along the main streets. They are old and narrow and crowded and a little noisy. But not too noise and very little shouting and pushing. I go to Jerusalem about once a week and just realized the difference in the people. They seem to be always going somewhere with a purpose. Not a purpose of buying groceries or picking socks for the kids. A purpose bigger than that. Then I noticed a middle aged man standing at a bus stop reading from a big "religious book". One of these large books the size of an encyclopedia volume with simple black cover and simple Hebrew lettering. I wanted to ask him about his life or what he was reading, but did not want to intrude. So I pretended to be lost and asked directions to a distant part of town, Talpiot, 'which bus goes there'. He quickly looked at me and gave me the bus numbers and the alternatives of how to get there. He noticed that I was not from Jerusalem, not just the question for direction, probably the dress and the accent and the somewhat look of being in a foreign place. So he asked me if I am lost but I was not really lost. I said quickly, looks like in Jerusalem everybody knows where he is going.

He answered right away: "we are not lost like the people in Tel Aviv". I think he meant "we are not searching like the secular people anywhere else". Suddenly it made sense. These people are already where they want to be. Most people wherever they are think that they need to get somewhere different (better?). They need more respect, a better tittle at work, a better home, job, car, wife... you name it... they need to GET SOMEWHERE to be SOMEBODY. But for the religious Jews in Jerusalem they ARE where they should be. The next stop on this train is somewhere not on this earth, so Jerusalem IS the last stop! So as far as where they live, there is no other place they need to go. So that would explain the feeling of comfort with the city. Jerusalem itself is not exactly a pretty place. It is certainly not very well kept and clean or even organized. There is always construction, the old and now new areas are crowded, there is always movement. Someone is always going somewhere and they are in front, beside, or behind you. But that does not feel like anywhere else, it's just busy and quiet.

On the way back I tried to imagine what Tel Aviv would be like if everyone felt like they are where they are suppose to be. Than I tried to imagine New York City and San Francisco. It just didn't make sense. Everywhere you go there are people who simply make you feel like you are not suppose to be there, that you need to go somewhere else. Some cities do have their prototypical residents. New Yorkers always tell you that it's the greatest city on earth, Parisians don't have to tell you, they just give you that look. But in Jerusalem they just go about living it. Nobody is really welcoming and helpful or even courteous. They simply give you the feeling that this is "THE PLACE".