Dawn in November comes at 6 a.m. I arrived at 5:55 a.m. two days in a row. Standing immediately outside the Jaffa Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, I felt a tinge at what I could expect by walking through it—some 6,000 years of history, and at least 3,000 since King David conquered it. Along with sandy patches of East African plain, no spot on earth speaks to us more of from whence we come.

Within 10 feet, I saw a Greek Orthodox priest scurry across David Street, known to Arabs as Suq el Bazar, and disappear, aptly, along Greek Orthodox Patriarchate Road. I followed and saw a... Read More