The Mir Rabbinical College, Jerusalem. Most of the rabbinical college students looked up from their Torah books, casting curious glances at the secular visitor. The others showed no interest at all in the unusual guest walking through the spacious study hall. A deafening noise filled the air. Hundreds of voices mingling with each other lent the place the feel of an overcrowded Hyde Park parley. Everyone was talking and arguing and shouting over some issue or interpretation of the Talmudic tractate under discussion. Some of the students sat, while others stood. Some listened, while their mates made theatrical gestures, trying to make a point.
Recent political events far from herald good news for the ultra-Orthodox community, so there seems to be no cause for celebration there. For the first time in decades, a coalition government has been established on the strength of several secular parties and a single religious party. The ultra-Orthodox parties were sent into the political wilderness, deeply frustrated.
