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Most days Natan El is at a yeshiva - a Jewish Torah School, in the Old City's Muslim Quarter, poring over the Torah and Talmud in the way Orthodox Jews have studied since the first millennium. The study regime is rigorous. A typical day runs from 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. and Natan intends years of study so he can become a rabbi.
The evening of Michael Goldfarb's visit, Natan El is analyzing ancient monetary laws.
He shares a lesson first noted 1,600 years ago: it is forbidden to pick up coins off city courtyards during festival gatherings. The law decrees the lost money is holy since it
was intended for the purchase of an animal for a Temple Mount sacrifice. In ancient Jerusalem, coins lost in the city belong to the city.
Natan El belongs to Ateret Cohanim, a group identifying itself as "a national movement which aspires to renew and bolster the Jewish presence in the heart of Jerusalem."
The group is just one of many settler movements in Israel expanding a Jewish presence in the West Bank - including East Jerusalem - and Gaza. The settlers' expropriation of land has outraged Palestinians. Moreover, their militancy and religious fundamentalism repel some of Israel's secular Jews.
With their armed guards, the Ateret people are seen by some residents of Jerusalem's Muslim Quarter as being involved in a calculated maneuver to force Arabs out of the area, and there are regular clashes between Ateret settlers and their Palestinian neighbors.
Natan El believes his presence in the city is testament to a prophecy:
"This is where everything unfolds, this is where everything comes together. We are living prophecy here," he says, referring to a passage from one of the Jewish Books of the Minor Prophets describing Jews returning to Jerusalem.
As to the thousands of Palestinians that live in Jerusalem and lay claim to the city as part of their historical heritage? According to Natan El, "The prophecy isn't speaking of them."
The Ateret Cohanim website
Collusion in Jerusalem - How the government and the settlers conspire to take over houses and land
The Jerusalem Post - Olmert inaugurates Jewish home in Moslem Quarter
Holy Tanakh
(prophesizes the Jews return to Jerusalem)
Note: WBUR and Public Interactive do not endorse these sites.
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