A darkness psalm

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For PsalmChallenge, hosted by Robert Geiss in Athens, here is the dark Psalm 88.

1. A song. A psalm of the Korachites. For the leader. On mahalat le’annot.  A maskil  of Heman the Ezrahite.

2. O LORD, God of my deliverance, daily I cry out at night in front of You.

3. Let my prayer come before Your face; incline Your ear to my cry.

4. For my soul is sated with evils; my life has arrived at the brink of Sheol.

5. I am reckoned with those who go down into the Pit; I am become like a man without strength,

6. loosed among the dead, like slain corpses lying in the grave whom You remember no more, for they are cut off from Your hand.

7. You make me be at the bottom of the Pit, in utter darkness, in the depths.

8. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and so all Your waves; You cause affliction.   Selah.

9. You have distanced from me my companions; You make me an utter abhorrence to them; I am imprisoned, unable to get out.

10. My eyes throb from affliction; I call to You, O LORD, every day; I spread out my hands to You.

11. Will You work wonders for the dead? Will the shades rise to praise You?   Selah.

12 Will Your steadfast love be recounted in the grave, Your faithfulness in Perdition?

13. Will Your wonders be made known in the Dark, Your righteous beneficence in the land of oblivion?

14. As for me, to You, O LORD, I cry out, and in the morning my prayer greets You.

15. Why, O LORD, do You rebuff my soul, do You hide Your face from me?

16. Afflicted and dying from my youth, I suffer Your terrors wherever I turn.

17. Your fury overwhelms me; Your dread assaults destroy me.

18. They swirl around me like waters all day long; they encircle me totally.

19. You have distanced from me loving friend and neighbor, my companions. Darkness.

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Translation by Rabbi Benjamin Segal.   It is well worth reading his explanations, especially for this unusually dark psalm.

He also points out that "It is of note that the Church prescribed this psalm for Good Friday, implying an appropriate description of Jesus’ suffering on the cross."

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PHOTOS: 

1.  The newer section of the ancient cemetery of Tiberias.

2.  Me struggling in Fribourg, Switzerland. 

3-4. Ancient burial caves, some still with the bones!, under St. Etienne/St. Stephen's in Jerusalem.

5.  Man praying at a tomb in Tiberias cemetery. 

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UPDATE:  See how Orthodox Christians made the blessing of the waters for the Feast of Theophany, not at the Jordan, but on a frozen lake in Minnesota!   Great photos at Leif's blog.
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What's your lucky number?

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" 'Round and 'round she goes; where she stops, nobody knows."

This roulette wheel in Tiberias is on display at the Dona Gracia hotel and museum.
And the August 1st City Daily Photo theme is numbers.
Voila, a winning combination!

Notice the cunning sliding top which could be quickly turned over and closed to hide the illegal gambling table in a former century (should the authorities drop in).

On the face of it, the antique table was an innocent chess board and card table.

I think the local guide might have said that it was crafted in Italy. Venice maybe?
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See how other City Daily Photo bloggers have illustrated numbers here, at the gathering point.
I hope someone finds a way to use the biblical Book of Numbers in the Theme Day.
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Of moths and men

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For today's PsalmChallenge at Daily Athens, here is the dark Psalm 39.
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To the leader: to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.
¹ I said, ‘I will guard my ways
that I may not sin with my tongue;
I will keep a muzzle on my mouth
as long as the wicked are in my presence.’
² I was silent and still;
I held my peace to no avail;
my distress grew worse,
³ my heart became hot within me.
While I mused, the fire burned;
then I spoke with my tongue:

⁴ ‘Lord, let me know my end,
and what is the measure of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is.
⁵ You have made my days a few handbreadths,
and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight.
Surely everyone stands as a mere breath.
Selah
⁶ Surely everyone goes about like a shadow.
Surely for nothing they are in turmoil;
they heap up, and do not know who will gather.

⁷ ‘And now, O Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in you.
⁸ Deliver me from all my transgressions.
Do not make me the scorn of the fool.
⁹ I am silent; I do not open my mouth,
for it is you who have done it.
¹⁰ Remove your stroke from me;
I am worn down by the blows of your hand.

¹¹ ‘You chastise mortals in punishment for sin,
consuming like a moth what is dear to them;
surely everyone is a mere breath.
Selah

¹² ‘Hear my prayer, O Lord,
and give ear to my cry;
do not be deaf at my tears;
for I am an alien with you,
a sojourner like all my forebears.

13 Look away from me, that I may hold back,
before I pass away and am gone.'
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The psalm in Hebrew, with commentary, is here.

PHOTOS:
1. Ancient and new graves, Tiberias cemetery
2. "Homo sapiens" at the Australian Museum, Sydney
3. Dean at the same moth and butterfly exhibit
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Give him a hand

To all my Franciscan friends, to those of you who celebrate the Feast of St. Francis today and to those who do not, to all the animals that were blessed today--

Pax et bonum! . . . . Pace e bene!
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Inn reflections

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Friends Kristine and Mark and I looked for a modest place to stay for one night in Tiberias last month.

The pilgrim inn that we found was built in 1907 by ANSMI, the Associazione Nazionale per Soccorrere i Missionari Italiani.
For its first decades the building served as a school for children.
Since 2001 it has been the Oasis San Francesco, and now Oasis Emmanuel, run by the Emmanuel Community which is part of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

Kristine popped out of her room at 7:00 p.m.
She and her door are reflected in the full length mirror.
The big wardrobe looked so old and mysterious that I dared not open it, fearing I would be pulled through into Narnia. ;)

I did, however, take a look BEHIND the wardrobe and found--no, not a lion--but a nest!

So THAT'S why the pigeon was pacing nervously by the rail, waiting for us to go away.
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At 6:55 a.m. the already-risen sun, playing with clouds, was turning the Sea of Galilee silver.

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As the non-native-English webpage of the Oasis so charmingly says,

"The simplicity of the rooms is compensated for the eyesight overlooking the lake and Golan Heights."

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I was happy to find these reflections for our growing group at James' Weekend Reflections.

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Shabbat shalom.

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Pony shadows at the Sea of Galilee

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Tiberias has a nightly market place near the lake for tourists and locals, with all kinds of things to buy or eat.

Once we even saw pony rides!

The harsh projector-like lights above made strong shadows, good for Shadow Shot Sunday .

The string of ponies is a welcome change from my usual cat or bird for the Camera-Critters meme.

Two Arab boys were lucky to ride when their father (in the dark shirt) shelled out some shekels.

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Old and new, co-existing

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For James' Weekend Reflections , here is the new reflected in the old.

The old is about 900 years old, a building from Crusader times that now houses the Tiberias Tourist Information office.

The new is the Leonardo Plaza Hotel next to the Sea of Galilee.

Which architectural style do you like better? I'll take arches any day.
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Transporter on the bridge

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We talked before about the now-elegant old Scots Hotel in Tiberias here and here..

Their footbridge allows guests to cross above the busy street and go down to the hotel swimming pool.

The view from the bridge is to the Sea of Galilee. Beyond the lake, the Golan Heights.

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I love the lighting in the floor of the wooden bridge.

If my kids were there at the Scots Hotel, each of us could stand over a blue light and say "Beam me up, Scotty!"

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Hope this makes Louis into la vache qui rit for his Sunday Bridges meme.

Join us, it's fun!

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Black shadows of black basalt, all in a row

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The Spring 2010 Tiberias excavation ended yesterday.

I'm back home in the Hills of Jerusalem.

But my memories (and photos) from the dig are still sharp in my head.

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Passing this curb on the way to and from the dig site everyday used to make me laugh.

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Something about the surfeit of basalt antiquities in Tiberias . . . . The municipality sticks the pieces anywhere they can find room (e.g. impaled on iron fences).

Something about the stubby little shadows of mid-afternoon just waiting for Hey Harriet's Shadows on Sunday.

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And it made me smile that as a photo blogger I now am on constant look-out for interesting skies, benches, bridges, and critters for the various memes.
Funny how blogging changes us.
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Cool clear water vs. hot dusty digging

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This is one of the all-too-numerous pay-for-entry beaches in Tiberias.
But at 5:28 in the morning, when we walked past it to our archaeological dig which is just across the street, the pool was still perfectly still--good for James' Weekend Reflections meme.
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You can see both the Sea of Galilee and the sky all pink, getting ready to welcome the 6:05 sunrise over the Golan Heights.
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Walking back to the hostel at 1:00 pm, after work, we would see a few brave souls speeding down the water slides into the pool.
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Northern clouds

For SkyWatch Friday, here is the sky over Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights, seen from a moving bus as the road winds down toward Tiberias. The city's elevation (or lack of it) is about 690 feet below sea level.
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I was down there doing archaeology since Sunday.
Today I came home to my computer and back to the pleasures of blogging.
Shabbat shalom to you all.
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Tiberias tombs, part II

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Thank you all for your comments and questions on yesterday's post. They are of great interest to me.
Today let's continue the subject and look at some of the things which caught my eye as I roamed the ancient Jewish cemetery of Tiberias.

My first time to see such memorial flames.
The oil + water probably can burn for a long time.

As a sign of respect, visitors put a stone on the tomb.

Also, mourners place a pebble on the earth that has been shoveled into the grave as they depart from a funeral.

This admor (great rabbi) must have LOTS of people who come to pay their respects.

If you click to enlarge the picture, you see little notes among the piled stones.

The black is from the many little tea lights lit in his memory.

Prayerbooks are available in a rain-proof book case.

A (very) few of the older graves had been given a coat of blue paint.

I assume this is the old Middle Eastern superstition that this shade of blue drives away "the evil eye."

In the huge cemetery this was the only place I saw with anything to sit on.

These names are not on graves but rather on a gal'ed, a memorial.

It speaks of the 19 "martyrs," largely women and children, who were stabbed and burned to death, some in the synagogue and some in their homes, when "raiding gangs of Arab rioters" infiltrated the Tiberias neighborhood of Kiryat Shmuel on October 2, 1938.

The 1936-1939 Arab revolt was a hard time for the Jewish residents of Palestine, then under the British Mandate; but the Tiberias massacre was especially shocking.

The words of the prayer are large and clear so that a group of mourners who has just buried their dead relative can recite it in public, together.

However difficult it is to understand why your loved one was taken away, the prayer Tziduk HaDin must be said, as a statement of our faith and trust in God's justice.

It speaks of God giving life to the dead.

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Judaism does not have dogmas, especially not about future things that we have no way of knowing for sure.

Some believe in resurrection and some do not.

This raised walkway over the graves must have been built recently to protect the sensibilities of the ultra-Orthodox. It separates the hundreds of mourners leaving the cemetery after a funeral into MAN [sic] and WOMEN.

After finishing our archaeology work in early afternoon (the dig was just south of the cemetery), I would often stop in the cemetery to roam about, all alone.

When the sun dropped behind the mountain, darkness fell quickly, reminding me it was time to return to the land of the living.

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Tiberian tombs

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For T day on ABC Wednesday we travel north to Tiberias to visit tombs, some over two thousand years old.

(Touch your mouse button to enlarge any photo.)

The gate to the ancient cemetery.
(Everywhere in Tiberias you see ancient local basalt stones "impaled" on iron fences for decoration. Always reminded me of shwarma meat roasting on a turning spit.)

Just across the road is the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

This man was the only other person I ever saw during my wanderings in the huge cemetery.

He was praying at the tomb of an important Admor (the word comes from the Hebrew Adoneinu, Moreinu, Rabbeinu, meaning our master, our teacher, our rabbi).

Many of the revered old rabbis are buried here.

Tiberias is one of Israel's four "holy cities." The Chabad website explains it thus:

"Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries Tiberias received an influx of rabbis who established the city as a center for Jewish learning.  One of these was Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitbesk, one of the leaders of the third generation of the Chassidic movement, who, in 1765, emigrated from Eastern Europe together with a group of several hundred followers. During this time, because of its concentration of Jewish scholars and mystics, Tiberias became known as one of the four 'Holy Cities,' along with Jerusalem, Hebron, and Safed."

This was a rare instance of a modern-style use of basalt.

Most of the tombstones are so old their inscriptions cannot be read or are missing.

This design was unique.

This one is very unusual.

Ever since Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, built Tiberias some two thousand years ago, it has been shaken by battles, earthquakes, and a great flood.

Plus, I imagine many good stones were robbed from the graves by unfriendly "neighbors" or conquerors for reuse in building their own houses.

According to the sign, 350 graves have been repaired in the section where the disciples of the Baal Shem Tov are buried.
 The work was done by the Committee to Save the Tombs of the Ancient Ones.

The sign invokes God's blessings on the family of the benefactor "by the great merit of the righteous ones buried here."

Come back tomorrow and I'll show you  the divided (male-female) walkway that he had constructed for people to exit the cemetery after a funeral and some other things that were new (and strange) to me in this special place in old Tiberias.
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UPDATE: Sorry, I forgot not everyone is familiar with Jewish burial.
A grave is dug, the shroud-wrapped body in put IN THE EARTH and is covered with earth.
Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.
OVER that goes the marker or tombstone or raised structure.
In Israel a coffin is used only for military and state funerals, not for the rest of us.
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(Linking to inSPIREd Sunday.)
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Sundial resting in shade

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Sundials for ABC Wednesday S-day, in the garden of the Scots Hotel, St. Andrew's, Galilee, owned and managed by the Church of Scotland.

Enlarge the photo to learn that Tiberias is 3, 390 kilometers from Edinburgh.

The clever sundial tells both local time and time in Edinburgh.

The Hebrew writing says "In sunshine I work, but in shade I rest."

We talked about the newly refurbished hotel in an earlier post.

The Scots built it as a hospital in 1824 and it served as such until 1959. Then it was converted into a youth hostel. In 2005 the site was reopened as an elegant boutique hotel.

A strange ship near the shore of the Sea of Galilee, with the sundial in the background.

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Salutations to artist Pietro Brosio. At his blog you will find lots more sundials as well as his paintings and fine photos of Italy.

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New bench at old fortress

At the foot of the old Citadel a bench adds color to the black basalt stone you see everywhere in Tiberias.

I think there is a cafe up on the roof. But otherwise the 265 year old fortress is pretty much neglected and abandoned.

Happy "Bench on Friday" to RuneE at Visual Norway and all the other bench bloggers.
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