A Hindu and a Muslim met a person on the journey and asked him from which city was he, he replied, “Washington Jerusalem.” They asked him, that’s a strange name for a city because we’ve heard, Washington is located in America, we’ve never heard before Washington Jerusalem. He said, “I am a Christian pilgrim, we live a life of worship and it is part of our tradition to have a second name as a sir name to every city. The cities in which we live, the cities we travel, all bear a second name. It is keep sake of roots from which we all came from. You live on planet earth, we live on planet Jerusalem.”

Then they met another pilgrim from Turkey Jerusalem, then another from Hong Kong Jerusalem, Then another from London Jerusalem. Moscow Jerusalem. All the pilgrims told the names of their cities, as if they were name of people, that included not only their name but also name of their father.

They arrived at a town to get some rest, a town where all the people were pilgrims and worshippers. The travelers got free food from the town, where ever they went. They arrived in a church where the priest asked them what cities they were from. They answered. The priest asked again, what’s the sir name of your cities, the Muslim said, “I know what to say, but what’s the point of telling it if it was something that we learned from another culture. It wasn’t our tradition, it will never be.” The Hindu looked his friend and then to the priest and said, “Sanskrit Yerushalem.”

The Hindu picked up a good lesson of faith because he thought, I’ve never heard of an ancient civilization that kept the city of their origins so close to their heart. It almost reminded him a touch to his own ancestry and taking Yerushalem as a sir name did not felt strange to him. He thought, verily, God gave some of us their own Holy centers, but the value of diamond didn’t change in all these years. Envy truly came into this world as the book of Genesis said, and Cain envied Abel because God accepted his offering. Abel became the first lamb.

Abel Yerushalom.