For B at ABC Wednesday today . . .
--a bench on a bima.In every synagogue the bima is the raised platform to which people come up to read from the Torah scroll.
Above the holy ark, where the Torah scrolls reside, the Great Synagogue of Jerusalem has a magnificent stained glass window.
It is an Orthodox place, so the men sit here and the women are in the balcony above.
Big buildings, bound together..
The Great Synagogue is on the right. The two tablets on top remind us of the Ten Commandments.
Enlarge the photo and see if the doors remind you of the breastplate of the High Priest from the days of the Temple.
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Hechal Shlomo, former seat of Israel's Chief Rabbinate, is to the left.
That is where we saw the hundreds of Persian carpets ready for auction in yesterday's post.
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Absolutely stunning stained glass window! That's what I miss about our churches here - they're all so stark and don't "feel" holy.
ReplyDeleteWow. Love this.
ReplyDeleteROG, ABC Wednesday team
The window is amazing! So pretty :)
ReplyDeleteHave a good rest of the week!
Hood Photo Blog
What a grand synagogue. How nice it would be to personally stand inside it. It must be even better during a service!
ReplyDeleteIf that is the synagogue next to the Kings Hotel, I've been inside it a long time ago...it does look rather familiar. The windows are so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteLeslie, and there are smaller windows all around the sanctuary, even upstairs in the women's gallery.
ReplyDeleteI remember going into a medieval church, now Protestant, in Switzerland and being shocked at the starkness. I said, "Where is everything??" Then I grasped the full meaning of the Reformation.
Roger, Roger. :)
Hood Photo Blog, glad you like it. Thanks.
Rockin' Robin. Grand is a good word here. I actually was there for an afternoon/evening service this spring. No photos, of course.
I went there for the Pessach seder and the worship came first.
Complete with big-name cantor. Very Ashkenazi.
Sara, you're right. It is next to the Kings Hotel. On King George Street, near France Square.
I love stained glass windows! Can anybody visit this synagoge? It's very beautiful!
ReplyDeleteWhat beauties! The stained glass is stunning.
ReplyDeleteok
ReplyDeleteyou know I love that window. Not as much as the Chagal you once featured, but love I do!
Shalom!
ReplyDeleteI never went inside but I remmeber quite well the buildings on King George Street...
ReplyDeleteI learn something here every day.
ReplyDeleteI certainly learned something. This was a neat post, Dina.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful stained glass.
ReplyDeleteOn behalf of the ABC Wed. team, thanks for participating.
I love those massive buildings! So there are synagogs where you can take photos! Did I tell you I was caught in one at the Jewish Quarter in Prague? :-)
ReplyDeleteShalom and thank you all for your nice comments on the place.
ReplyDeleteWil, sure, anybody can visit when there is not a service in progress. Let's go!
Of course you can go in and join the service too, if you are modestly dressed.
JM, I think there is no reason not to photograph in a synagogue if no one is there praying. Or unless it is a museum (like in Prague?).
When I was in the Jewish Quarter in Prague a few years ago no one had time to catch me taking photos. The river was rising and the city was flooding and they just wanted to get us out of the Jewish Quarter fast, "while the getting was good."
Really nice images of the Synagogue. That stained glass window is fabulous.
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