Xie Ailei Heshed

Shaarei Hesed is the Jerusalem neighborhood where Shmuel Ash settles into a job caring for the disabled Gershom Wald. At its western edge, the neighborhood gives way to rocky fields and the remains of Sheikh Badr; the house and its courtyard offer Shmuel a place of work and residence at once sheltered and exposed to the city’s frontier.

Setting and Edge of the City

Rabbi Elbaz Lane descends along the slope of Shaarei Hesed toward the Valley of the Cross. At the time of the novel’s winter setting, number seventeen stands at the lane’s end, where the neighborhood and city give way to stony fields stretching toward the remains of Sheikh Badr. Beyond the house, the damaged road becomes a rocky path that winds down toward the valley. This position places Shaarei Hesed not simply within Jerusalem but at a visible boundary between its last houses and open, unsettled ground.

The House and Courtyard

The house at the end of the lane sits below street level, its windows nearly embedded in the heavy soil of the slope. Shmuel first approaches it after the rain, when the path and the surrounding landscape are still marked by winter weather. From the gate, six uneven, cracked stone steps lead down to a small courtyard. The enclosure is paved with old stone tiles and shaded by a fig tree and a dense arbor; the foliage allows only scattered light through, giving the paving the appearance of a hidden pool.

Geraniums grow along the courtyard wall, beside the house, and on the window ledges. They have been planted in an assortment of reused containers, including old cooking vessels and other discarded objects. Green iron shutters and barred windows protect the house, while its Jerusalem stone is left rough rather than polished. A dense screen of cypresses stands beyond the house and courtyard, further enclosing this domestic space.

Shmuel’s Arrival and Daily Life

The courtyard awakens in Shmuel a vague, misleading recollection of other inner courtyards, though he cannot identify where or when he might have seen them. He associates that uncertain memory with summer, light, and a mixed feeling of pleasure and melancholy. The winter courtyard he has actually entered becomes the setting for this unplaced nostalgia, linking the house to a past he cannot recover.

After his family loses its savings, his research stalls, his university career is interrupted, and Yardena marries her former boyfriend, Shmuel accepts the position at the house. In exchange for modest monthly pay and lodging, he is to spend several hours a day keeping Gershom company, with the rest of his time free. Atalia, who is nearly twice his age, is also part of the household’s daily presence; Shmuel feels disappointed when she leaves the room. Two days after accepting the offer, he moves in with five cardboard boxes, an old kitbag, books, a typewriter, posters, a record player, and records.

His routine connects the house to the wider city. After walking through Nahalat Shiva and returning by Agron Street, he reaches the iron gate late and breathless for his shift in Gershom’s library. There he lights the kerosene stove, feeds two goldfish in a glass bowl, prepares tea, and exchanges pages of Davar with Gershom. The work makes the house a practical refuge amid Shmuel’s interrupted studies and uncertain prospects, while the daily trip keeps it connected to Jerusalem beyond the lane.

Narrative Significance

The house’s position at the neighborhood’s outer edge gives Shmuel’s new home a double character: it is an inhabited household with a courtyard and ordinary routines, yet it stands beside rocky, abandoned terrain. The below-street rooms, enclosed garden, and cypress screen make domestic life feel sheltered, while the lane’s descent toward the valley keeps the city’s margins close. For Shmuel, the courtyard’s beauty and its inexplicable pull of memory make the location more than an employer’s residence; it becomes the setting in which a stalled life begins a new, provisional course.