Only-in-Israel hazard symbols

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The April 1 City Daily Photo theme day is about triangles.

I'm thinking Israel might be the only country that has both of these two  hazard signs:

Old mine fields, whether Israeli or enemy or former enemy ones, continue to be dangerous.
The fence in the photo is in the Golan Heights, not far from Syria.
It certainly kept us dig volunteers strictly on the path as we climbed up to the archaeological site Sussita (Hippos). 

Further south in the same Rift Valley you find alarming triangles showing a person falling into a sinkhole!
Bol'anim, literally something that swallows!
Thousands of them have opened up along both sides of the Dead Sea in recent years as the salty lake dries up and the shore recedes.
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UPDATE: Readers are asking about the cause of our sinkholes.
Diminishing water levels in the Dead Sea are causing changes to surrounding groundwater flows.

Diminishing water levels in the Dead Sea are causing changes to surrounding groundwater flows. - See more at: http://www.greenprophet.com/2013/10/mysterious-sinkholes-threaten-to-sink-the-dead-sea/#sthash.MGeve7fF.dpuf

Diminishing water levels in the Dead Sea are causing changes to surrounding groundwater flows. - See more at: http://www.greenprophet.com/2013/10/mysterious-sinkholes-threaten-to-sink-the-dead-sea/#sthash.MGeve7fF.dpuf

Sinkholes in this region (unlike in Florida)  are the result of the interaction between freshwater (in the aquifer) and a subterranean salt layer, buried beneath the surface. The freshwater dissolves the salt, creating an underground void  which causes the surface to collapse suddenly.

Learn more about the phenomenon here:

Diminishing water levels in the Dead Sea are causing changes to surrounding groundwater flows. - See more at: http://www.greenprophet.com/2013/10/mysterious-sinkholes-threaten-to-sink-the-dead-sea/#sthash.MGeve7fF.dpuf

1. Green Prophet has aerial footage of the dramatic sinkholes.
2. Slate has the story from the geologist who was swallowed by a sinkhole and spent 14 hours hoping he would be found.
3. Ynet shows video of the Florida house being swallowed and compares our situation to America's.
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140 beaches open today

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Yay!  Good news for beach-goers!
Swimming season officially opened today at Israel's 140 public beaches.
Lifeguards will be on duty until October 3. 

Like at this beach and promenade in Tel Aviv.
And at all the other Mediterranean beaches north and south of Tel Aviv.

In addition to the Med, there is the Dead and the Red.
The photo above was taken by my daughter in 2007 when the Dead Sea had a lot more water than it does today.
Across the sea you see the Mountains of Moab in the Kingdom of Jordan.

I have not been down to Eilat in several decades and have no pictures for you of the Red Sea.

Across the Sea of Galilee you see the Golan Heights, beyond which, Syria's civil war is raging.
Fortunately the level of the Kinneret  (Sea of Galilee)  has risen again after the heavy rains at the beginning of this winter.

This picture of a public beach in Tiberias is from three years ago, when the lake  (from which much of our drinking water comes) was dangerously low.

Let's hope for a  fun and safe season for all who venture into the water.
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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UPDATE: See also Tourist Israel's selection of Israel's best beaches.
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The spider in the Psalter

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Whenever I am at a loss how to illustrate the PsalmChallenge Sunday psalm, I look in the beautiful medieval Stuttgart Psalter to see how they did it.
So imagine my consternation today when I found our Psalm 90 illustrated with a man watching a spider spin its web.
Huh?? I didn't see a spider mentioned in any of the translations I had perused nor in the original Hebrew.

Then it dawned on me that the copyist creating the manuscript in 820-830 in France would have only the Latin  Vulgate available to him.
It was only much later, during the Protestant reformation in the 14th and 15th centuries, that the Bible was translated into modern languages (against great resistance from the Catholic Church).

So I searched our Psalm 90 in the Vulgate for some sign of a spider and sure enough:

9 Quoniam omnes dies nostri defecerunt in ira tua defecimus anni nostri sicut aranea meditabantur
10 Dies annorum nostrorum in ipsis sep tuaginta anni si autem in potentatibus octoginta anni et amplius eorum labor et dolor quoniam supervenit mansuetudo et cor ripiemur

Online dictionaries say that aranea is Latin for 1. spider, 2. spider web, 3. (figuratively) threads similar to spider webs.

The English Psalter translates the verses as
9 For all our days are spent; and in thy wrath we have fainted away. Our years shall be considered spider:
 10 the days of our years in them are threescore and ten years. But if in the strong they be fourscore years: and what is more of them is labour and sorrow. For mildness is come upon us: and we shall be corrected.

Or more polished:
"Our years pass away like those of a spider." 
Meaning our life is as frail as the thread of a spider  web.
But still, I don't understand where the translator could have gotten spider from the Hebrew
(ט) כִּי כָל יָמֵינוּ פָּנוּ בְעֶבְרָתֶךָ כִּלִּינוּ שָׁנֵינוּ כְמוֹ הֶגֶה

Photo is from Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart DFG-Viewer

where it can be enjoyed in high resolution

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OK, let's see the whole Psalm 90 in a good and modern translation by Rabbi Benjamin J. Segal, directly from the Hebrew:

1. A prayer of Moses, the Man of God:

O Lord, You have been our refuge from generation to generation.

2. Before the mountains were born, before You formed the earth and the world,

from eternity to eternity You are God.

3. You turn mankind back to dust; You decreed, “Turn back, you children of man!”

4. For in Your sight a thousand years are like yesterday that has passed, like a watch in the night.

5. You cause them to flow by. They are sleep. At daybreak they are like grass that renews itself;

6. at daybreak it flourishes, renewed; by dusk it withers and dries up.

7. Indeed we are consumed by Your anger, terror-struck by Your fury.

8. You have set our iniquities before You, our hidden sins in the light of Your face.

9. All our days pass away under Your wrath; we consume our years like a sigh.

10. The days of our years are all of seventy years or, given the strength, eighty years; but the best of them are trouble and sorrow. They pass by speedily, and we fly away.

11. Who can know Your furious anger, and Your wrath, which matches the fear of You.

12. Bring us to know how to count our days rightly, that we may obtain a wise heart.

13. Turn, O Lord! How long?! Show mercy to Your servants.

14. Satisfy us at daybreak with Your steadfast love that we may sing for joy all our days.

15. Give us joy for as many days as You have afflicted us, for the years we have seen calamity.

16. Let Your deeds be seen by Your servants, Your glory by their children.

17. May the favor of the Lord, our God, be with us; establish with us the work of our hands; yes, the work of our hands, establish it!

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Translation: Rabbi Segal.  See his excellent commentary.

Photos (all can be enlarged with a click and then a second click):
1. Stuttgarter Psalter
2. Statues made from Dead Sea salt crystals.  Mamilla mall Ahava store.
3. Just before the sun rises over Jerusalem.  You can see the tall mast of the Calatrava bridge on the horizon.
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Tristramit

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As you may have read previously, on Monday my visiting daughter and her toddler and I drove down to the Dead Sea for a scientific conference.

Tuesday I woke to the lovely sight of two birds strolling on the balcony of our hotel suite.
Grab the camera for a Camera Critters photo op.
It was 7:26, the sun was up, and the day quite clear.

By 3:30 it looked like this!
Brown air, hard to breathe. A major dust storm.

Down at the pool the wild wind was toppling everything not bolted down.
In this close-up of the bird on our railing, you can see the wind ruffling his feathers on the left side.
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The bird in the last two photos with the orange tipped wings is a Tristram's Starling (aka Tristram's Grackle).
This species is named after Reverend Henry Baker Tristram, the Englishman who did a lot of exploring of the Dead Sea region between 1858 and 1872.
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Wilderness & civilization reflected

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Naomi, Libby, and I drove from Jerusalem down down down to the Dead Sea on Monday, when it was still fairly sunny and clear.
This photo for Weekend Reflections shows the light at 3:30 pm when the sun was getting low in the west.
The shadows of the mountains were reflected in the still waters of the Dead Sea, as was our destination, the tall white Le Meridien hotel at the Ein Bokek resort complex.
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For how the weather totally changed in the next days, please see the earlier post.
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Dust storms, flash floods, rain, and snow

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Hello--I'm back!
We have been four days at over 400 meters below sea level.
My Naomi flew in from Australia and I got to take care of her little one while Naomi lectured and attended an engineering conference, all at a big hotel at Ein Bokek on the Dead Sea shore.

Strong winds blew up dust storms on three of our four days.
Yesterday we started the drive home, passing this little airstrip (enlarge to see the planes).
Across the sea (which you could hardly see), the sky was black and the Kingdom of Jordan was being treated to a rare snowfall.

Soon we passed Masada on the other side of the highway.

The road is between the Dead Sea on the east and tall cliffs on the west.
Eighteen normally dry riverbeds emerge from between these mountains.
When hard rain falls in Jerusalem or the Hebron Hills, the water collects in one or two or three of these wadis (you never know which it will be) and can suddenly come gushing out from the canyons under the little bridges built over the Dead Sea road.
But more often the flash floods rush over, not just under, the bridges.

Yesterday bulldozers were parked at the places most likely to flood.

Wow! We arrived just as the rolling brown water (enlarge the picture!) was starting to inundate the road and make its way to the Dead Sea!
The cars in front of us made it across just in time.

Naomi looked at the pole with potential depth markings of 0.5 meter, 1.0, and 1.5 meters, looked at our little toddler in the baby seat, and quickly (and wisely) turned the car in the opposite direction.

We drove south again, back in the direction of the hotels we had just left.
Luckily we did not encounter another flash flood; otherwise we would have been trapped in between two of them.

The only alternative was to climb up the Arad-Beersheba road.
The evaporating ponds where they mine potash and minerals from the Dead Sea water became visible way below, under a dramatic sky.

The road curved around and around as we ascended from minus 400 meters below sea level to about 500 meters above sea level.

What an adventure! It was our first time to see this powerful natural phenomenon with our own eyes.

Today, Friday, it snowed in Jerusalem. And even in my village for a few minutes.
March is acting like real winter.
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A post for SkyWatch Friday, of course!
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Dead Sea needs your votes!

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The Dead Sea needs your votes--and soon!
Please vote at least once to help the Dead Sea become one of the New7Wonders of Nature.
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Voting closes on 11.11.11.
Go to http://www.votedeadsea.com/how-to-vote and choose the easiest method for you.

The lake is disappearing at an alarming rate.
Its shores lie in the desert at 420 meters below sea level.
As the water level goes down, dangerous sinkholes are opening along the shore.

Winning New7Wonders of Nature status will bring it funding and more tourism and attention.
Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority have nominated the Dead Sea for this competition and all of us will benefit if it wins.

Thanks for your help!
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(Click my label "Dead Sea" for more photos and info.)
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Naked Sea photo shoot--it really happened

UPDATE: If you really want to see them, here are 6 AP photos in The Washington Post.
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FLASH (flesh?):
The newspapers are starting to report that it (see my Thursday post) really happened early this morning!
Some 1,200 Israelis were bused to Mineral Beach where they undressed and posed for Spencer Tunick.
On the Dead Sea shore, in the slimy water, and once even covered with the therapeutic black mud.

Haaretz bears it all, complete with a little fuzzy photo, revealing that

"The quiet of the photo shoot was interrupted by Peeping Toms who hovered above the models in powered parachutes. Some of them were equipped with large photographic lenses, which was against all preceding promises and customary rules. In addition, some of the photographers who came to document the event broke the rules and used larger lenses than were allowed."

Opponents to this mass "immodesty" are calling it "Sodom and Gomorrah."
But at least this time no one turned into a pillar of salt.
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UPDATE: Today, Sunday, more articles are appearing, like this in the Jerusalem Post. My favorite part is what the female participant in the photo shoot writes:

After an hour in the Dead Sea holding different positions (certainly the longest I have ever been in the salty water, and an experience I hope never to repeat), and an hour standing in the sun, I started to feel a bit like beef jerky, wellsalted and laid out to harden in the sun.

The Naked Sea Installation: overexposure?

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Would you rather see just this lone person at the Dead Sea shore or a thousand?
If American artist Spencer Tunick has his way 1,000 Israelis will converge at some as yet secret meeting place at this lowest place on earth, undress, and pose naked for his photographs and videos.
On Saturday, Shabbat, the Sabbath.
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Supposedly it is meant to call attention to the fragile nature of the shrinking Dead Sea and to make you vote for the lake as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature -- oh, yeah, and to improve Israel's image in the world.
Tunick also wants to prove that the Jewish State is the only country in the Middle East with religious freedom. (We'll see about that . . . )
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If your kids aren't looking over your shoulder, you might click here to see a clip of Tunick's style in other countries.
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Three thousand Israelis volunteered for the project.
Only one thousand were selected.
I wonder how these chosen people were chosen.
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Red tape might block this mass photo shoot.
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OK friends, I can hardly wait to read your comments!
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Hopefully the little sliver of hazy January sky above the mountains of Jordan, just after sunset, qualifies this photo for Sky Watch Friday.
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UPDATE: I can hardly believe it! They really did it. See the first photo and first news article about the photo shoot at Haaretz.
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Shabbat of Consolation

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The bus goes down down down from high altitude Jerusalem to below sea level Dead Sea.
With reflections of the skilled driver in the mirrors for Weekend Reflections.


A few days ago, on Tisha B'Av, Jews mourned the destruction of the Temples and of much of Jerusalem and the beginnings of our exile.
But God in his mercy does not leave us totally in this doom and gloom.
Instead, on the first Sabbath after Tisha B'Av he gives us Shabbat Nachamu, the Sabbath of Consolation, named after this day's reading from the prophet Isaiah 40:1-31 which begins "Nachamu nachamu ami," meaning "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people."

1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
. . . 9 Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!" 10 Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. . . .

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Shabbat shalom!
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Pass the salt

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See what the Dead Sea is good for?
To make salt sculptures!
Read about Anat Eshed Goldberg's art project in the salty sea here and then click Previous to see her gallery.

This crystal couple stands in the Ahava cosmetics store in Jerusalem's Mamilla Mall.
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The window reflects a book store and the sun umbrellas of its outdoor cafe and people out strolling, enjoying yesterday's warm weather.
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The reflection is for James' Weekend Reflections.
Shabbat shalom!
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Summer sky seen from 422 meters below sea level

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The visiting American friends and I took the bus down to the Dead Sea early this morning.
Literally DOWN--from Jerusalem's 800+ meter elevation to 422 meters (1,385 ft) below sea level at the shore of the salty sea.

I love the desert!

These are the cliffs on the way to Ein Gedi.

In the heat of summer it is always hazy.

You can see the water of the Dead Sea in this picture, but very faint appear the Mountains of Moab over in the Kingdom of Jordan.

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Other skies from around the world are viewable starting tonight over at SkyWatch Friday.

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That sinking feeling

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Before we get back to reporting about Jerusalem, allow me to share just one more thing about my recent visit to Ein Gedi.
It is That's My World Tuesday and I'm wishing my world were still down in the warm Rift Valley instead of up here in presently rainy cold (2 to 5 degrees C) Jerusalem.

We always hear that there are no boats on the Dead Sea because the water is so corrosive.
Some 34% of the water is salt and minerals, i.e. eight times the saltiness of a normal sea.
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So what is this boat for, and what is the thing behind it?
Does anyone know? I searched and found no answer.
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Certain tiny algae are the only creatures that can survive.
It is only a joke that you can catch salted fish here. :-)

The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth. Its surface is more than 400 meters below sea level.
And this unique body of water is shrinking fast.
Kibbutz Ein Gedi built a spa right on its shore 25 years ago. Today a bather or mudpack-seeker must drive 1.5 kilometers to reach the water.

The sun was just setting and we had to catch the bus back to Jerusalem (the bus climbs 1150 meters in an hour and a half).
But first my hiking friend, visiting from Europe, really needed to go down to the lonely shore and touch the famous Salt Sea waters just one time.
Even though I warned her of this:

Bol'anim! Holes that swallow you!
Look at that warning triangle with a person falling into a pit!
A geologist who was swallowed by a sinkhole himself says there are up to 3,000 open sinkholes along the coast and likely just as many that haven't burst open yet.
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UPDATE Feb. 2015: Finally, information (and great photos) about that boat--in The Boston Globe.
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Antiquities in the desert

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As you would expect, "A" is for ANTIQUITIES and ARCHAEOLOGY for today's ABC Wednesday.
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All photos will enlarge with a click.

Welcome to En Gedi Antiquities National Park, much of which is under the sheltering tent.
Note the Dead Sea in the background, and the mountains of Moab in Jordan.
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The first sign of this magnificent mosaic was discovered accidentally, when a field was being plowed in 1965. It turned out to be a synagogue, adjoining rooms, and a street.
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The thriving Jewish community living in En Gedi existed from the 3rd to the 6th century CE (the late Roman and Byzantine periods, also know as the period of the Mishnah and Talmud).
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Archaeologists conclude that the settlement and its synagogue were destroyed by fire in a wave of persecution under the Roman emperor Justinian I around 530 CE.
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The synagogue probably had a second-story balcony.
The present mosaic carpet was created in the mid-5th century to replace older ones.
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The bamah, where the portable holy ark stood and where the Torah scroll was read.
Three small menorahs adorn the mosaic.
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The rooms might have been dwellings for the synagogue staff.
Two mikvahs (purification baths) were also found.
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This is cool because it shows the stratigraphy of the preparatory layers for a mosaic, layers with fancy names like (from bottom to top) statumen, rudus, nucleus, bedding layer, and tessellatum.
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The most exciting part of any mosaic--the dedicatory inscription!

But not easy to photograph with the setting sun, so instead I give you a picture of it from the excellent leaflet.
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I quote the leaflet written by Avivit Gera and translated to English by Miriam Feinberg Vamosh:

"The first section depicts the 13 ancestors of humanity: 'Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mehalel, Jared, Enoch, Methusaleh, Lamech, Noah, Ham, Japeth.' "
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"The second section shows the 12 signs of the zodiac, the three patriarchs, the word 'shalom,' followed by the names of Daniel's three companions who, according to legend, are the three bases on which the world rests, and finally, a blessing for peace on Israel:

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'Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. Nissan, Iyyar, Sivan, Tamuz, Av, Elul, Tishrei, Marheshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat, and Adar, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Peace, Hananiyah, Mishael, and Azariyah, peace on Israel.' "
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"In the third section, an inscription appears in Aramaic which mentions the benefactors of the synagogue, Yose, Ezron, and Hazikin, sons of Halfi.

The inscription also charges all inhabitants to conduct themselves according to the rules of the village.

It warns of a curse on those who start quarrels, slander their neighbors before the Gentiles, steal, or 'reveal the town's secret.' "

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"Most scholars believe that En Gedi's economic welfare was based on a secret method for producing perfume from the balsam shrubs cultivated in the area. The inscription may hint at this possibility."

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"The fourth section contains an Aramaic inscription noting the names of the above-mentioned benefactors and calls for blessings on them for their good deeds."

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The fifth section (not shown) thanks the citizens and "Yonatan the cantor" who paid their share toward the repair of the synagogue.

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And I, Dina, thank the archaeologists who excavated this site off and on from 1970 to 2002 and the Israel Antiquities Authority Conservation Department who lovingly preserved and restored these wonderful mosaics and the site from 1991 to 1996.

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Rivers in the desert

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After a warm sunny winter the rain is finally hitting us today, all across Israel.
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The south is particularly hard hit, with dry wadis suddenly becoming raging rivers.
Roads have been broken up. Drivers who try to cross the flooded roads have been rescued with helicopters. One woman is dead and one man is missing.
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Just last Thursday a friend and I were hiking in two canyons of the Judean Desert--Nahal Arugot and Nahal David.
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Enlarge the trail map and you will understand the danger that rainfall, even far away, poses.
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The Ein Gedi Nature Reserve is sandwiched in between the Dead Sea (which is more than 400 meters below sea level) and the steep Fault Escarpment, the cliffs which rise to +200 meters above sea level.
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Rain up on the Desert Plateau, even as far away as Jerusalem, sends the water rushing down the narrow canyons.

The water takes with it rolling boulders, rocks, trees, mud . . . .

It makes a powerful sound.

Hikers must always plan their hikes according to the weather forecast. Announcements of possible flash floods in the low places, the desert, are always made in advance if there is any rain expected.

The sudden streams in the desert rush down to the Dead Sea, cutting up or flooding the highway.

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Ein Gedi is famous as an oasis because it has springs and waterfalls and vegetation all year.
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These are the waterfalls in Nahal David in normal times, i.e. last Thursday.

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Scroll down a few days if you missed seeing the animals of Ein Gedi.

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We certainly need rain, but not all of it in one or two days.

Let us pray for all who are in harm's way right now, including the nomads of the Bedouin diaspora who still live in tents and huts in the desert who have lost much today, including many of their sheep and goats swept away by the floods.

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For photos of overturned vehicles, a bus half-covered with water, trapped cars, the helicopter rescues, etc. see Ynetnews or Haaretz.
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That's it for That's My World Tuesday.
More blogger-guided tours await you at the meme's website.