The Gate Behind The Wall

"Samuel Heilman went to Jerusalem as a scholar, planning only to observe and record the facts about another culture. But what began as an academic sabbatical was transformed into a personal pilgrimage, a quest to overcome his estrangement from the texts of Judaism and to integrate their meaning into this life. His meetings with Talmudic scholars, with mystics and preachers, and his encounters with the ordinary people of Jerusalem - alms collectors, book dealers, bank tellers, shopkeepers - open the gate in Heilman's wall of resistance to the past. In the study of the holy books he had rejected in the name of modern science and "fats," Heilman breaches the boundaries of time and place and discovers a spirit that links his modern world with his ancient heritage." -- Back cover