Jerusalem Street Scene c. 10 pm tonight

My wife and I were taking a walk on Derekh Beit Lechem, and we passed the 1868 dairy restaurant. "Dairy restaurant" is a misnomer because it conjures up visions of blintzes and borscht, where as anybody in Jerusalem knows, this is a high-class and very expensive fish and pasta restaurant. 1868 is very popular with the haredi set, who look out of place in Baka, but who may come to the restaurant because the supervision is the Chug Hatam Sofer.

As my wife and I were passing the restaurant, we saw a young, well-dressed hasidic married couple. The young man looked at me and said in Borough Park Hebrew, "Would you take a picture of us?" I took his digital camera in my hand, and they posed in front of the restaurant. Just before I took the shot, the young man put his arm around his wife. They made such a lovely couple.

And yet I know many people in Israel, secular and religious, who would take one look at them and dismiss them because they don't belong to the tribe. Ditto for the Palestinians. How many times do we try to look at the individuals who are not member of whatever tribe we belong to, and relate to them as human people?

Appropriate thoughts for the Second of Av.