Well-stacked

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Tonight Israel moves the clock forward and begins "Summer Time."
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The post-sunset colors, like these for SkyWatch Friday, will be later in coming.
And that's fine with me.
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But who stacked up those concrete barriers on top of our hill?
Modern sculpture it's NOT.
Maybe one night a giant came up to play with his set of giant Duplo or Lego blocks?
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Israelis trying to ice skate

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A few weeks ago I showed you a huge tent being set up next to the Jerusalem City Hall.
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Now the ice rink is open for skating (until it disappears on April 14).
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Only the Russian-speaking immigrants and Americans knew how to skate gracefully.

Most of the Israelis were falling down again and again.
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No big Zamboni here. All the ice cleaning was done with shovels.
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Most people went along the edge, holding on to the rail.
Some wore T shirts and even shorts.
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Outside in the warm sun the hoses of the cooling system were encased in white ice.
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Kaaba

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K is for the Kaaba on today's ABC Wednesday.
. A photo of the Kaaba in Mecca at Jerusalem's Museum of Islamic Art.
(And nice benches too.)
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I was surprised to be walking in Herod's Gate (the Flower Gate) and suddenly see a door open on a little storage space filled with an Old City grocer's produce, with a picture of the Kaaba surrounded by Muslim pilgrims.

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If you see a picture of the Kaaba on a Jerusalem door, it probably means that the resident is a hajji, one who has made the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca).

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I'd be happy if one of you could tell me what the Arabic says in this photo.
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St. Thérèse's relics on pilgrimage in Israel

. In her life as a cloistered Carmelite nun, St. Theresa never went out from her convent in Lisieux.
But in death, parts of her are making a world tour.
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On the poster you can see the long list of cities in Israel her relics will visit in a 2-week period.
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This Catholic custom of veneration of relics is strange to Jews, so of course I was curious and went to the Old City to find Theresa, The Little Flower.

Alas, the guard at the Latin Patriarchate told me I was two hours too late, that "she" had just left and was on the way to Haifa.

To console me, he showed me in to the empty cathedral.

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I had the whole place to myself! Blessed silence and solitude.

The stained-glass-filtered sunlight gave some pews and the pulpit a rainbow touch.

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I found one remaining copy of the welcoming ceremony at Jaffa Gate, the procession, and the Solemn Vespers at the church.

I sat on a multi-colored pew and read the pages, pretending to understand the Latin.

I thought about young (dead at 24) Theresa and her Little Way which teaches us to do little things with great love.

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So this post was a tour of something I did not see, for That's My World Tuesday

However, the Latin Patriarchate website has short videos of the welcomes given to the reliquary at Ben-Gurion Airport and in Jerusalem (and also articles about the saint).

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"Understanding Theresa's Relics" helps, e.g. "It is a fact that when people stand in the presence of her mortal remains or have some contact with her poor relics, . . . God, who received through her humanity so many signs of love, is pleased in turn to manifest his love through her bodily remains."

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This newspaper includes the fact that one set of her relics was taken into space in the Discovery.

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And Wikipedia has the whole story of Theresa, from 1873 to 1897.

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How long, O Lord?

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During the difficult and dark days of my life, PSALM 13 was my most-prayed psalm.
God answered me, in his own time. And indeed, "He has dealt bountifully with me."
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Now there are others who must ask "How long, O Lord?"
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1. For the leader. A psalm. Of David.
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2. How long, O LORD?!
Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
3. How long will I have cares in my soul, grief in my heart all day?
How long will my enemy loom over me?
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4. Look, answer me, O LORD, my God!
Light up my eyes, lest I sleep death;
5. lest my enemy say, “I have overcome him,” my foes exult when I stumble.
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6. But I trust in Your faithfulness.

My heart will exult in Your deliverance, I will sing to the LORD, for He has dealt bountifully with me.

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The Hebrew-English of Psalm 13 is here.

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Several other bloggers have taken up Robert's PsalmChallenge. Please join us over at Daily Athens.

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Gilad's "cell" is next to his parents' tent which is set up on the sidewalk near Prime Minister Netanyahu's official residence. His parents sit vigil day and night.

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A Friday afternoon cat circus

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Yesterday, as the Sabbath Queen* was about to come in, I allowed myself to sit down on my friends' bench and just get quiet, like the land itself gets quiet just before Shabbat.

Furry friend Lara seemed to be practicing for a cat circus.
First she did a balancing act.
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Oi, is she a tightrope walker?!

Is this a handstand or the beginning of a cartwheel?

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I'm happy to share sweet Lara the Acrobat with Camera-Critters and the lengthening shadows with Shadow Shot Sunday.

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Shabbat shalom.

*Oh, and if you are curious about the Sabbath Queen, here is a real eye-opener.

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Reflections in a jewelry store window

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Store window reflections at the ritzy Alrov Mamilla Mall for James' Weekend Reflections.
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"The walls have ears!"
Or in Hebrew, "Oznaim lakotel."
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The Old City wall and Jaffa Gate are right across the street from the mall.
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The old Citadel (or Tower of David) probably never dreamed it would be reflected in a fancy 21st century jewelry store.
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It does seem like the tower is in a tizzy--or a whirlwind.

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I had to Google to understand the words on the window.

Apparently the gold jewelry creations in the H. Stern + Grupo Corpo collection are meant to resemble the choreography, costumes, and dancers of the Brazilian dance troupe Grupo Corpo.

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Lights out! Earth Hour tonight in Israel

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Lights out!
Tonight Israel takes part in Earth Hour.
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And for the sky-watchers at SkyWatch Friday here is a full moon rising over Jerusalem (on the horizon) as seen through my neighbors' gate lamp globe.
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Israel is doing the lights out thing tonight instead of on Saturday night like the rest of the world's 6,000 participating places.
Flipping electric switches (which is considered work) would be complicated for Jews who strictly observe the Sabbath, which ends sometime Saturday night.
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Twenty cities will be powering down tonight in this order:
20:00 – Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Yerucham, Modi’in-Maccabim-Reut
20:10 – Jerusalem, Dimona
20:20 – Petach Tikva, Nes Tsiona, Ra’anana
20:30 – Netanya, Rehovot, Arad, Eilat, Yavne
20:40 – Ashdod, Givataim, Herzlia, Bat Yam
20:50 – Holon, Haifa, Yokneam
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Life and Environment, (Israel's umbrella organization for environmental NGOs), will announce its Green Globe awards today in recognition of outstanding contributions to the environment as well as its annual Black Globe for damage done by an individual or entity to the environment.
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I just hope we can see a lot more stars for even one hour without all the light pollution.
Good night!
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Explosion

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Just after 3:00 pm a bomb exploded next to one of the many bus stops on this big road between Jerusalem's Central Bus Station and Binyanei HaUma convention center.
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One woman has died and over 40 were injured, 3 very seriously, from the flying shrapnel.
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All the windows on the right side of bus 74 were broken by the blast and bus 14 was also damaged.
Terrorists fill their bombs with nails and screws and ballbearings.
So, between flying glass and flying metal, many were physically hurt or else in shock.
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More at the Jerusalem Post.
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For several years Jerusalem has been spared these terrorist bombings and we got used to a more quiet life. Now . . . ?
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It has been a bad 24 hours in southern Israel too, with 4 Grad missiles being fired from Gaza into the cities of Beersheva and Ashdod and dozens of mortars landing in kibbutzim and rural areas.
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Japan and a joint Jordanian-Jewish exercise

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Jolted by the level of devastation in Japan, Jordan and Israel are getting together to prepare for our own expected big earthquake.
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All photos by Dani Machlis/BGU

Is this not a heart-warming picture?
One stretcher-bearer from the Jordanian Red Crescent and one from Israel's Red Magen David.
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Photo by Dani Machlis/BGU

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One week ago the two medical organizations and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev held an "Exercise Simulating a Response to an Earthquake" in Timna, down south in the Arava valley.

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Ben-Gurion University's photographer, Dani Machlis, covered the event and he has very graciously agreed to share his beautiful photos with us for this post.

Thank you, Dani!

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Photo by Dani Machlis/BGU

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Two hundred people took part, including trained professionals that included academic faculty and students at BGU.

Together they treated the simulated "wounded" and set up a tent camp for those who would have been made homeless by a quake, for example, in the nearby cities of Eilat and Aqaba.

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Students (including Jordanians) can study for a bachelor's degree in emergency medicine at Ben-Gurion U. medical school.

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Please see more about the joint exercise in the Jerusalem Post.
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The earthquake-prone Great Rift Valley (the Syrian-African Rift) runs along the shared border of Jordan and Israel.

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The Israeli city of Eilat and the Jordanian Aqaba are on the bottom of the map.

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These troubled days we are greatly admiring Japan's embedded culture of preparedness and we will try to learn to be more like the Japanese.

Meanwhile, an Israeli team is setting up a field hospital in a hard-hit fishing village north of Tokyo and we are sending mattresses, blankets, coats, gloves and chemical toilets.

Our hearts and prayers are with the Japanese people.

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(The J theme is a contribution to today's ABC Wednesday meme. )

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Tour of my backyard world

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Happy spring to all of us in the Northern Hemisphere!
Israel turns from brown to lush green before spring actually, when the winter rains first wet ground that has been dry for half a year.
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Would an end-of-winter walk in my yard count as a guided tour for That's My World Tuesday?
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The view from my window for now is almond blossoms on a young tree that planted itself just a few years ago.
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A 3-year-old can get lost in the tall wild grasses.
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Jackals have made this their crossing place from the upper terrace to the lower terrace.
They have worn a path through the yard.
Sometimes at night they stop and howl near my window.
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When I moved to this little house six years ago, the beautiful old terrace walls were covered with parasitic thorny vines.
I exposed the beauty of the stones by cutting the creeping plants and pulling them away.
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I was digging around and raking once and discovered a paved path hidden beneath several inches of soil.
Now I have an easy way to reach my new compost pile of plant cuttings and kitchen scraps.
This photo shows the early morning dew sparkling.
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Looking down from the street above, my yard is quite hidden from view.
The neighbors' big red-roofed house is down on a lower terrace, across another street.
The sky was hazy on the day of this photo but normally you can clearly see the western neighborhoods of Jerusalem across the valley.
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The bare pomegranate and fig tree branches will soon have leaves and flowers and then fruit.
They and the olive trees and my grapevines give nice free food.
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Our little village (moshav) on the hill is a quiet and pleasant place to dwell.
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Lying lips

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To answer Robert's Sunday Psalm Challenge at Daily Athens, here is PSALM 12.
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1. For the leader; on the sheminith. A Psalm. Of David.

2. Save, O LORD! For the faithful are no more; the loyal have vanished from among humankind.

3. Men speak lies to one another; of smooth lip, they speak with two hearts.

4. May the LORD cut off all smooth lips,
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the tongue that speaks boastfully,
5. those who say, “By our tongues we shall prevail; our lips are our own, who can be our master?”
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6. ‘‘Because of the plundering of the poor and the groans of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD; “I will grant him the salvation for which he longs.”
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7. The sayings of the LORD are pure sayings, silver purged in an earthen crucible, refined sevenfold.
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8. You, O LORD, do keep them; ever protect each from this generation.
9. Round about the wicked roam, as vileness is exalted among humankind.
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Photos:
"The Golem," popularly known as The Monster, by Niki de Saint Phalle. More about it here.
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A homeless sitting by the [British] Jerusalem War Cemetery.
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Fine silver cases, crowns, and breast plates for Torah scrolls in a Judaica store.
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Bridge over the river Soreq

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Recently you saw the modern train station in Tel Aviv and also the inside of an Israel Railways train.
Now let's take that train up to Jerusalem.
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When the Tel Aviv-Jaffa to Jerusalem railway was opened in 1892, it saw the Middle East's first train.
The journey of 82 km (50 miles) then took 4 hours.
Today it is "only" about one hour and 45 minutes.
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One single track goes all that way, with a few places where one train can pull over and wait for another train coming from the opposite direction to pass.
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While my train stood off to the side, near the old and now roofless Bar Giora train station, a group of school kids came by, on their spring hike through the Soreq Valley to see the almond trees in bloom.
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A delight to see the kids out in nature!
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But I was overjoyed to see that they were crossing a BRIDGE, something to post for Sunday Bridges meme!
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The metal bridge is narrow, enough for just one person, and appeared to be less than two meters above the fast-flowing Nahal Soreq river.


The Soreq drains the Jerusalem Hills west of Jerusalem and ends in the Mediterranean Sea.
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Strange venue for a Jewish shadow

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Mamilla Mall is having a wonderful free outdoor sculpture exhibit on the theme Bible Stories that will go until October.
There must be over a hundred works by 45 Israeli and international artists.
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It gives me a good opportunity to collect shadows for Shadow Shot Sunday.
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Helene Jacubowitz titled her work "Mah tovu."
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These Hebrew words are the opening of a prayer we sing in the synagogue, translated here:

How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel!
And I, with Your great loving-kindness, shall enter Your House; I shall prostrate myself toward Your Holy Temple in the fear of You.
O Lord, I love the dwelling of Your house and the place of the residence of Your glory.
Come, let us prostrate ourselves and bow; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker.
But, as for me, may my prayer to You, O Lord, be in an acceptable time.
O God, with Your abundant kindness, answer me with the truth of Your salvation.
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Wikipedia explains
"Ma Tovu ... is a prayer in Judaism, expressing reverence and awe for synagogues and other places of worship. The prayer begins with Numbers 24:5, where Balaam, sent to curse the Israelites, is instead overcome with awe at God and the Israelites' houses of worship. Its first line of praise is a quote of Balaam's blessing and is thus the only prayer commonly used in Jewish services that was written by a non-Jew."
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I wonder if just by coincidence this Mah tovu sculpture was placed at the foot of a Catholic church . . . .
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The huge l'Hospice Francais St. Vincent de Paul was there first, like a century before Mamilla ever dreamed of becoming a fancy mall; so the mall was built to accommodate the hospice and its church.
That's how things are done in Jerusalem.
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(See also Art at the Mall and Mamilla Mall by night. )
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Rehov Aza

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"People who live in glass houses should not throw stones."
This idiom (meaning don't criticize other people when you yourself have faults and weaknesses) comes to mind whenever I walk past this apartment building on Aza Street in Jerusalem.
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I wonder if that entrance is a 2-way mirror . . . .
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This photo from yesterday reflects the clear blue skies we have been having.
Temperatures of low 20s C (low 70s F) and no rain are perfect conditions for kids wearing costumes for the Purim holiday.
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A combined post for SkyWatch Friday and Weekend Reflections.
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Shabbat shalom!
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The Irish conquer Jaffa Gate

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I would say that, except for a few drinking green beer in the pubs today, the majority of people in Israel do not know or care about St. Patrick or his day.
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So what is an Israeli blogger to do?
You must be tired of seeing the same totally bright green house posted every March 17.
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So imagine my surprised delight this afternoon when I walked into the Old City's Jaffa Gate and heard this group playing a lively Irish jig!
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Never have I seen buskers within the gate.
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Not sure the locals realized the connection: Irish music and March 17.
But for me the music, remembered from my youth in Chicago, made me feel like dancing a jig.
LOL
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
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In the intercity train

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For ABC Wednesday I-day, you are invited inside the Israel Railways.
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All aboard!
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Hmm, where is everyone?
I almost had the whole train to myself.
The Tel Aviv-Jerusalem route is not so popular; the journey takes one hour and 45 minutes, compared to 45 minutes by bus.
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Tables are useful and they also give a bit of separation in case you don't relish sitting face-to-face with two strangers.
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Eeuw, who picked up that pink color for the railings?
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You technical readers can enlarge this chart and learn all the specifications, e.g. that the train was made in Denmark.

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Stickers remind you to be polite and leave the seats nearest the door for your elders.

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The Hebrew is verse 32a of Leviticus 19 (the one positive commandment in a chapter of thou-shall-not's).

God tells Moses to say to all the congregation of the people of Israel:

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" 'You shall rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of an old man . . .' "

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(More about Israel Railways at their website and at Wikipedia.)

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