Ah, holy Jerusalem. I relish the opportunity to go to Jerusalem. It is exciting and suspenseful. Aside from the fact that you never know what you will run into when you are there, anything from a hafganah (protest that sometimes turns to riots) to terrorism (should never happen, but has happened to me a number of times) to achnassat sefer Torah blocking the road, to you name it.

Aside from all that, it is just simply exhilirating going to Jerusalem. The fresh air. The holy city. The range of different types of people. The unique shops and markets. The neighborhoods full of atmosphere. Oh Jerusalem - if I forget thee, my right hand should wither.

Tonight I had the good fortune to be in Jerusalem. I was there for a learning session for shechita and treifos. As usual, we met in a beis medrash near the great and famous Mir Yeshiva in the Beis Yisroel neighborhood of Meah Shearim.

In the past I wrote about seeing the men learning during their off-hours. Tonight I saw something unusual. It might not actually be unusual, but it struck me as being unusual. What I saw tonight I would have expected to see in YU, Skokie Yeshiva, most of the more modern yeshivas for American boys, etc. So when I saw it in this beis medrash next to the Mir, it was a bit of a surprise, pleasant at that.

In the beis medrash was sitting an avreich learning. Not very unusual, so what's your point Rafi? This avreich looked like your typical "greasy" guy, excuse the terminology, but I do not know another word. He was very skinny with a scraggly beard and a thick set of wild peyos (though not as wild as Brisker guys), his skin was pale as though he never spent a day in the sun, and he was wearing one of the navy blue shapeless button down sweaters they wear in the super yeshivishe yeshivas. You know the type.

That's still just some background info.

So what was so unusual?

He sits down to learn and in addition to his sefer, he opened a laptop in front of him. He was putting down his notes in digital format. Maybe he's writing a sefer, I have no idea. But this guy was the last person on earth I would have expected to be using a computer, let alone in a beis medrash by the Mir Yeshiva! Yet there he sat comfortably in front of his trusty laptop commiting his thoughts and words to his electronic notebook (hmmm, maybe he was blogging?).

I wonder if I would have seen that in bnei Brak....

But that's not it... A short while later, as we are learning, another avreich walks in with his bags. He whips out his sefer and then sure enough pulls out his IBM laptop and places it on the table. He, very comfortably, starts learning and doing whatever he was doing on his laptop (blogging perhaps as well?). he may have been playing Freecell, but it looked like he was committing his notes to his electronic journal.

This guy looked even less likely to be using a computer than the first guy! Similar dress and appearance, but seemed even further from the modern world than the first guy. Man can appearances be deceiving!

Shortly after that a night kollel filled the room with Yerushalmi men in full garb.

Ah, Jerusalem. The melting pot of the Jewish people.