"I am the door"

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Here's a very tall door for Monday Doorways and some words of explanation for Our World Tuesday.

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Enlarge* the photo to enjoy the Latin words in gold.
Latin scholars out there, can you translate? I think the words are based on passages from the Gospel of John.
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I'm just guessing here, but maybe it is

EGO SUM OSTIUM + DICIT + DNS +
I am the door, says the Lord,

SI - OVIS SITIT VENIAT + AD ME ET BIBAT +
if the sheep thirst, let them come to me and drink.

Here is the door from afar, to the right of the smaller door.

The church is from Crusader times, 12th century.
We have talked about this church and Benedictine monastery in Abu Ghosh quite often lately.
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*UPDATE:
Dear readers, I am sorry the photos no longer enlarge when opened.
Blogger has changed the photo viewing system just recently and everyone hates it.
See the discussion here:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=73493b0be3a4116d&hl=en
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UPDATE 2: Thanks to blogger Martus for solving the mystery of what is written on the door. Please see his comment near the end of the Comments section.
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Green door with a grate

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Here's a strong and serious door for Monday Doorways meme.

In this close-up of the monastery's sign you can see some reflection of the Israeli Arab town of Abu Ghosh.
Just outside the monastery wall is a mosque and minaret; sometimes the muezzin's call mingles with the Latin + French Mass being sung in the church.

The little door of the grate was open and the lush greenery of palm trees and gardens was visible inside.
The church was built by the Crusaders over a spring in the 12th century.

The Olivetan Benedictines have a double monastery; the men's and the women's monasteries are within the same walled compound, and each has its own superior.
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Enlarge the photo and see a nun carrying a tall musical instrument into the modern monastic enclosure.
Pictures of her playing that Senegalese kora or bridge-harp are in an earlier post.
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More pictures inside and outside the church are here.
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UPDATE: I just learned that That's MyWorld is being continued in the form of Our World Tuesday. Thanks to hosts Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, and Sandy for giving it new life after founder Klaus, z"l, died. He would be happy to know that.
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Use it or lose it

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A dirty door with broken glass for today's Monday Doorways.
And to my further chagrin, ISRAEL COINS & MEDALS CORPORATION is what the metal letters on the door say, both in English and Hebrew, in between the menorahs.

If you enlarge this photo, look for the sign next to that door.
It says DANGEROUS BUILDING, NO ENTRY.
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The smaller signs says No Parking, to no avail.

In addition to housing the Coins and Medals office/store, this must have been a hotel once, judging from the remnants of a sign.
This decaying building just off Keren Hayesod Street is one of several in central Jerusalem that have been standing empty for years, caught in legal battles between contractors, investors, and government bureaucracy.
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As I hope your news media have told you, the past month is seeing an unprecedented wave of grassroots "social justice" protests all across Israel (well explained here).
For one thing, young people are demanding affordable apartments to buy or rent, saying that the cost of housing has risen 50% in the last two and a half years.
And thus the current tent encampments of protestors in the big cities now.
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Some of the students went around finding and photographing buildings like the one shown above and then digging in municipal files to find out why the structures are caught in limbo.
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They presented their findings to the Jerusalem Municipality and also got time on the evening TV news.
These young people claimed that these buildings could be renovated and turned into hundreds of available apartments much faster than the years it takes to get permits and finish construction of new housing.

Not to mention that Jerusalem is almost out of space to build new places, at least if we want to stay inside the Green Line (the previous border) and not to encroach on the surrounding green lungs (e.g. the forested Jerusalem Hills).
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This post can surely be for That's My World.
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Tisha B'Av begins

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Tonight and tomorrow Jews around the world remember the destruction of the First and Second Temples and many other calamities that befell our people on this day, the 9th of Av.
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More about Tisha B'Av:
How I sat on the floor and read Lamentations by candlelight--here and here
Tisha B'Av at the Western Wall
Diorama of Titus breaching the city wall of Jerusalem
Remembering the destruction on the wall of one's house
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That's My World today--collective remembering for thousands of years.
And for Shadow Shot Sunday too.
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Postcard-worthy Hills of Jerusalem

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The dry Jerusalem Hills of summer.
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The Jerusalem Hills are a hilly region in the Judean mountains, with Jerusalem nestling in the middle.

"This region is blessed with some 100 springs, in the valleys between the hills and on the hillsides. Most of the springs flow from cracks in rock formations and every one of them is a celebration of nature.
Many of the hillsides have ancient terraces built on them, silent testimony to ancient agricultural efforts.

Scattered among the hills are also the remains of agricultural settlements from the First Temple period (3,000 years ago); such as Khurvat Kfar Sum, farm houses and agricultural systems from the Second Temple and Roman-Byzantine periods, such as Sataf and Ein Khandak; and Crusader sites such as the church at Abu Ghosh, the Tsuba fortress and the Ein Khemed monastery.
The Jerusalem hills also have many sites commemorating the fierce battles waged here in the 1948 War of Independence, such as the Kastel in Mevaseret Tsiyon and the Burma Road."

From GoIsrael. More about our Hills at their webpage.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants. We City Daily Photo members are posting today on our August 1 theme, Postcard-worthy.
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This post is also for the round-the-world meme That's My World .
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Coming together in protest

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First there was the Arab Spring; now we have the Israeli summer.
Ordinary individuals started Facebook protest groups, and this has rapidly mushroomed into tent cities and protesters marching in the streets in cities all over Israel, even now as we speak.
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Last month the three dairy monopolies raised the price of cottage cheese by many shekels.
One man fought back with a Facebook page and soon had the whole nation boycotting the product.
And we won! The price was lowered.
The Cottage Cheese Revolution was "a watershed in the economic life of Israel."
And the people got a taste for revolution.
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Then young Daphni Leef needed to move and discovered the exorbitant rents in Tel Aviv.
She started another Facebook movement.
Now citizens have moved into tents in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and other cities to emphasize the lack of and price of rental housing.
Students mostly, but also other sectors who can't afford to buy apartments, even if there were enough to buy.
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These two pictures are from this morning in Independence Park.
Apparently it is a subgroup of the bigger tent city. The sign says "Public housing for all."
Certain families, mainly single parent families, below the poverty line are entitled to public housing; but again, there is just not enough of it.
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Dairy farmers came up to Jerusalem to protest today too.
The government was threatening to import milk.
What a stupid idea.
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The doctors in public hospitals have been striking off and on for the past 128 days.
Yesterday they started a march to the capital, led by their union head who began a hunger strike.
They are camping overnight at Kfar Chabad and will arrive here tomorrow.
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What's great is that the students and everyone are staying mostly civilized when blocking traffic by sitting down in the street in the midst of the marches and when confronting police.
And all the different groups help one another and all of us support our doctors.
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The chant most chanted is "Ha-am doresh--tsedek hevrati!"
"The people demands social justice!"
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http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/netanyahu-i-have-been-aware-of-israel-s-housing-crisis-for-years-1.374989

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_housing_protests_in_Israel

http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=230518
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All this is to share with That's My World meme.
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"Kreps" with Nutella and sprinkles

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Last night the crêpes stand was one of the most popular food stands at the American Independence Day bash in Jerusalem.
Except its name was transliterated from the Hebrew as KREP.
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The little girl could hardly wait to sprinkle her sprinkles on the Nutella-filled "krep."
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The AACI Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel put on the Fourth of July + Canada Day picnic in Kraft Stadium.
The best part was the big yard sale. Lots of bargains.
No fireworks, thankfully.
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For That's My World meme.
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A semi-secret passageway

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Outside, on the Old City's Christian Quarter Road, are the souvenir T-shirts and all the hustle and bustle of the Arab bazaar and of passing tourist groups.
But if you pay attention to this door within a gate, and if you have the courage to step through, you will be entering a secret other world.
The quiet courtyard feels ancient, quiet, and mysterious.
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It is the Greek Orthodox monastery and Church of Prodromos [the Forerunner], also called the Church of St. John the Baptist.
Its 5th century crypt is the oldest surviving church building in Jerusalem.
.The upper story was destroyed by the Persians in 614.
It was rebuilt by St. John the Almoner, Patriarch of Alexandria, and later, in the 11th century, by Italian merchants from Amalfi.
Only the the small bell tower and the present facade of the upper story are modern.
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In 1099 many Crusader knights who were wounded during the siege of Jerusalem were cared for in this church.
After their recovery some of the grateful knights dedicated themselves to helping the sick and protecting pilgrims to the Holy Land.
Calling themselves the Knights of the Hospital of St. John, they later developed into the military order of the Hospitallers.
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More information at Sacred Destinations.
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This post is for inSPIREd Sunday and That's MyWorld.
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I'm glad you came through the doorway!
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Good-bye trees, thanks guys

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Having just missed the infrequent bus to my village yesterday, I started the 35-minute walk home along the road.
But what's this?!
Almost all the trees, albeit dead trees, along the right side of the road had been cut down!
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Then I saw the sign:

CAUTION !
KKL [Keren Kayemet LeYisrael] is thinning out the forest in this area
in order to create firebreaks and to keep the forest healthy.
You can call us at 02-6204672.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
KKL, Mountain Region
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Carefully I looked over the steep and now bare slope.
Down below, a man was attaching a rope or chain to the log so he could skid it out with the tractor. (Click on the photo to find him.)

Others were cutting down tall pines, sawing them up into smaller lengths, stacking them and getting them ready to load on trailers, boiling a pot of coffee . . . .
I felt a tinge of envy . . . .

Last July a forest fire killed these trees in the valley.
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That's my moshav (village) in the photo.
The only road out of our village was closed, with fires burning on both sides of the road.
The fire was stopped at the very gate of our village, thank God.
It was a scary time watching the flames come nearer.
There was no way for the fire trucks to get down into the valley, and the few small planes could not work fast enough.
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That is why I am so glad that the wake-up call is being heeded now.
Keren Kayemet-Jewish National Fund is on the job, bless them.
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And I did, I called the telephone number on the sign, and said a big thank-you.
Even got to speak to the head Forester of the Mountain Region, Eli Yaakov.
He said "Before new trees can grow, the burnt ones must be cut down."
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Let us hope and pray the new trees will never feel the pain of a forest fire.
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The first Babel fish?

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Step through this door and you will find doors to many little translation booths.
Or so I trust.
Alas, I lost my nerve after seeing the sign
TRANSLATION BOOTHS -- AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.
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Well, I AM (or was) a certified translator, but I was certainly not authorized to be roaming in the big empty convention hall building of The Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center.
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The new modern building is on Vatican property near the 19th century Notre Dame pilgrim hostel (see here and here).
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These doors made me think about the Catholic center's need for simultaneous interpreting these days as compared to the Disciples' sudden ability to speak in many languages, a miraculous gift given in Jerusalem's Upper Room on the first Pentecost almost two thousand years ago.
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Today is Pentecost Monday, the Feast of the Holy Spirit.
The dramatic story of the "speaking in tongues" is in Acts 2.
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Some see this as a reversal of the curse of the Tower of Babel, when God confounded the languages.
Acts 2 describes the phenomenon as a miracle of universal translation, enabling people from many parts of the world speaking many different languages to understand the Christian message.
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From the Orthodox Christian liturgy for the day:

Kontakion

When the most High came down and confused the tongues,
He divided the nations;
But when he distributed the tongues of fire
He called all to unity.
Therefore, with one voice, we glorify the All-holy Spirit!

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This post, my last about Pentecost until next year (no, really!), enters into Monday Doorways and That's MyWorld Tuesday.
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Shaare Zedek original doors

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These doors do not open in the physical sense.
But the fact that they are mounted on the wall invites us to open ourselves to their history.
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The doors have a new home in the lobby of the new Shaare Zedek Hospital in the Bayit Vagan neighborhood of Jerusalem.
The two plaques on the threshold explain where they came from.

They were the original doors in the first Shaare Zedek Hospital, from when it was built in 1902 until it moved to the new facility in 1979.

There is even a camel caravan going down Jaffa Road in this photo of Shaare Zedek from around 1902!
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I hope you enjoyed your tour for That's My World Tuesday and for Monday Doors.
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Creepy crawlies

Enlarge to see the surprising details.

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Every time I walk through Mamilla Avenue (the mall), I find more sculptures have been added to the Bible Stories exhibition.
Here, for That's My World, is a new one.
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The face created by Yael Erlichman is on the wall next to the Ahava (Dead Sea cosmetics) store.
Its inspiration came from Genesis 1:20 --

And God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures . . .
So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm . . .
And God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas" . . . .
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Only at this time, 7:30 a.m., is Mamilla Mall so empty. Later in the day and all evening it is packed.
All the black boxes you see, and about a hundred more that you don't see, have sculptures on them.
The Bible Stories theme is going on until October.
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Birds on a (razor-) wire

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Yesterday Israel learned that wire fences are for the birds.

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(Enlarge to see the sitting doves.)

"For the birds" -- an American idiom meaning worthless, meaningless.
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That's My World for now.
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Down to earth again

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OK, the holidays are over.
It's back to everyday life.
So for That's My World and ABC Wednesday O-day, let's observe my ecology-minded neighbor's new OUTHOUSE.
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Actually, it is a really nice composting toilet.
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All you have to do is sprinkle some sawdust.
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When the container is ready to be emptied, it can be pulled out through this little back door.
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I should add that the neighbor also has a normal house with conventional plumbing, but this little outhouse is good for visitors.
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It is clean and OK-smelling, nothing like the pit latrines I've seen in my travels. This one is not a pit at all.
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But speaking of pits, I just have to say this well-known expression from the Talmud:
in Aramaic it is מאגרא רמא לבירא עמיקתא Me-igara rama lebeyra amiqta.
Literally:
From a high rooftop to a deep pit.
Meaning:
A person lost his former greatness and got into deep, uh . . . , trouble.
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That's My World -- matza

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Goodbye bread.
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Hello matza.
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Pesach begins this evening.
No bread for us, or any food with leavening, for the seven days of Passover.
Jews who observe the biur chamtetz ritual burned their last remaining morsels of bread in little bonfires this morning.
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For more fun posts about matza and for the deeper meaning of the "bread of affliction," you are welcome to click on my label MATZA.
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I'm getting ready to take the last bus from my village up to Jerusalem for the seder meal.
See ya later. Chag sameach--happy holiday!
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A tireless and devoted Italian architect

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Antonio Barluzzi (1884-1960) was an Italian architect, a fervent Christian, and a tireless traveler.
He certainly left his mark in the Holy Land.
Between 1912 and 1955 he built or restored 24 churches, hospitals, and schools in Israel and Jordan.

The Christian Information Center in Jerusalem is currently showing an exhibition about his life and works.
The posters, like the one above that you can enlarge and read, are in English and Italian.
Look at the Arab stonemasons at work on the stones to build the Basilica of the Agony on the Mount of Olives.
Look at the arches in the ceiling of the church!

Here is how the arches looked from above while being constructed in the early 1920s!
Please enlarge the picture and feast your eyes!

The church is over Crusader and even earlier foundations.
Right next to it is the Garden of Gethsemane.

The altar is built next to the Rock of the Apostles (where some of them fell asleep instead of watching with Jesus).

What is the Great Seal of the United States of America doing on the ceiling?
Well, the church is also called The Church of All Nations and the symbols of each country that contributed money are incorporated into the inlaid gold ceilings of each of 12 cupolas.

The Franciscans' worship there on Maundy Thursday, April 21, will be broadcast live to the world.

With thanks to Antonio Barluzzi for our That's My World tour today.
Find my other posts about his works here.

UPDATE Oct. 3, 2013:  See how Italian tinsmiths are doing restoration work on the roof of the church.

(Linking to inSPIREd Sunday.)
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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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Damascus Gate under wraps

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For today's That's My World walk, let's go see what's up with the Damascus Gate.

It's under wraps!
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The Old City wall and its gates were built in the 1530s by the Turkish sultan.

So from time to time they need some attention.

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We have seen how Zion Gate was refurbished recently and then how Jaffa Gate and Herod's Gate were fixed up and rededicated.
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It looks like it's now the turn of Damascus Gate, in my opinion the gate most beautiful.

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Celebrating 100 years of women's achievements

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(Logo from www.internationalwomensday.com/ )

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For our posts today we can change the meme's name to That's OUR World Tuesday because all over the world people are (or should be) celebrating this one special day: the centenary of International Women's Day.

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Every year each country chooses its own theme for the day.

The United Nations' 2011 theme is "Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women."
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The U.N. website has good background information about the theme, including this startling fact:

Women make up nearly two thirds of the world’s 759 million illiterate adults.
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Fortunately my own daughter was in the right countries for getting the science education she wanted.
Naomi grew up in Israel. After her compulsory army service she worked to save money and soon married, and she and Guy went to California to study at San Jose State University.
Naomi graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
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They then migrated to Australia and, while starting a family, both Naomi and Guy got a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering.
Today they are doing good work in academia and are raising three thinking and caring young children.

Not every woman has to study for a doctorate. But I hope and pray that more and more women around the world will someday soon enjoy "equal access to education, training and science and technology: pathway to decent work for women."
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