I'm in the Jewish Quarter, in the square, doing nothing but enjoying the warm sun and watching the people. Sure, I did have a mango cone ten minutes ago, but that was then and this is now. Always good to live in the present, even in cities that go back millennia.
A man sits at a table in the square with a banner telling us, in Nike speak, that we should just wear phylacteries. His tefilin wind around his arm, making him the poster child for a new generation. Move over Michael Jordan and Tiger.
I go into the Dead Sea Products Center and sample some of the famous Ahava products for men. I will return to Stoughton with an entirely new aroma to define me. Hmmm. Essence of Masada, or Essence of Qumran?
Herod lived at Masada when he was particularly paranoid and smelled of fear. John the Baptist quite likely had contact with the Essenes at Qumran when he thought it was the right time of year to come in out of the desert and have a bath. Still, I'm guessing "Essence of John the Baptist" and "Essence of Herod" never made it past the marketing folks at Ahava. It's not one of Israel's most profitable companies for nothing.
