A Moment In Time

After an intensely engaging third conference day that began with an inspiring and riveting keynote address given by Dr. Jane Goodall (yes, the chimpanzee lady), I was long overdue for a walk in the fresh air to clear my head and organize my thoughts.  My weary but energized footsteps led me along ul. Emilii Plater, past the Palace of Culture and Science towards a scaffolding-covered building behind which, the previous day, I was informed I would find the only synagogue to survive the devastation rained down upon Warsaw during the Second World War. 

Built at the turn of the century, the impeccably-maintained orthodox synagogue showed no signs of its true age.  The late afternoon sun illuminated its butter-coloured facade in such a way as to give the impression that if you were to place your palms against the exterior walls they would encounter a soothing warmth somehow radiating from within.  I stood for a long time in quiet contemplation of the beautiful building, conjuring in my mind the sights and sounds to which this building had been a silent witness throughout the past century.  I wondered to myself how many weddings, funerals, Bar Mitzvahs, celebrations, gatherings in joy and in sorrow these walls had housed?  How many grief-stricken mothers wailed inconsolably over the loss of a child?  How many men celebrated the renewal of their covenant with G-d after the birth of their son?  How many young brides stepped gingerly across the threshold, shyly yet eagerly walking towards a new life with a partner they barely knew but would come to love and respect in time?  How much terror had these walls absorbed when a Nazi declaration required all Jews to be segregated in what was to forever become known as the Warsaw Ghetto after the end of the Second World War?

The afternoon sun began to sink and I felt an icy finger of a chill trace its way slowly down my spine.  It was time to move on.  I silently paid my respects to the women who wept, the men who cried, the children who were never given the chance to become adults.

Emerging from the sheltered courtyard back onto the main road, I looked at the cityscape around me and it seemed as if I had never seen it before.  The sun was starting to sink but before dipping below the horizon was insistent upon bathing the buildings in its golden light for as long as possible before quietly giving way to the dusk and the inevitable darkness that is to follow.

There is indescribable beauty to be found in the simple, the banal, the common.  Sometimes we need to slow down and just look at the world around us in order to notice it.  I discovered an uncommon beauty in these vignettes, these snapshots, these moments in time.  I hope that you will too.

For Zavie