Reflecting on the apocalyptic imagination

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The jets of cooling water are reflected,

and so is the tall basalt wall.
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Since joining James' group at Weekend Reflections, I am glad for all the reflections I can find.

The dome and the wall [but not the Franciscan friar] comprise the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum.
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Underground, beneath the dome and the wall, are fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a copy of the Great Isaiah scroll, letters written by Bar Kochba, the thousand-year-old Aleppo Codex, and an exhibition of relevant antiquities.

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The dome is shaped like the lids of the jars in which the scrolls were discovered, in caves, in the desert, at Qumran.

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Some collected ideas on the symbolism of the architectural sculpture:

The contrasting elements of white dome and black wall allude to the War Rule scroll.

The Essenes, the sect at Qumran, thought themselves to be the holy elect of Israel, the Sons of Light, who would at the end of time engage in a catastrophic war with the enemies of Israel, the Sons of Darkness.
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The sprayed water represents purity. The monastic Jews of Qumran were frequent mikva-dunkers.
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(The WizeGuide, in contrast, says "[T]he water spraying the dome . . . was merely meant to prevent the disintegration of the white tiles and the glue that keeps them in place . . . .")

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The WizeGuide Jerusalem, Step by Step book also suggests that

"While the striking juxtaposition between these geometric shapes aptly reflects the extremism of the Judean Desert sect, it is also reminiscent of the People of Israel's passage from exile to revival."
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Please enlarge this to see how the Shrine of the Book complex is laid out.

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Shabbat shalom.

And Ramadan kareem to the Muslim blogger-friends.

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