Symbolic reflections

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Let's continue our walk through the Supreme Court Building.
The benches (near the mosaic) of the previous post are visible in this first photo.

Let the guard thoroughly inspect your bag (or he may use the X-ray machine), answer his questions, walk through the metal detector, and YOU ARE IN.

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In 1986 a competition was held and 174 proposals from around the world were submitted.

Israeli architects Ram and Ada Karmi, a brother-sister team, won.

Before creating their design for this new justice building, they reread the Hebrew Bible.

Drawing inspiration from biblical metaphor, they put into play the contrasts of

• inside and outside
• old and new
• lines and circles

In the coming week we will walk through the building and see examples.

For James' "Weekend Reflections" meme, here is a mirror that runs between the floor and the wall in many places of the Supreme Court Building.

One idea of the mirror, here running on the right of the main entrance stairway, is from the biblical book of Amos (5:24):

"But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream."

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The stairway resembles an old Jerusalem lane, complete with streetlamps. The floor here is stone, not marble, like a Jerusalem courtyard of 130 years ago.

The wall of unhewn stones (from quarries from every region of Israel, united in one wall), with no mortar in between, reminds us of the walls of ancient Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

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The wall on the left is plain white plaster. The new faces the old.

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The reflecting mirrors show our contact and emotional connection with the land.

They create the illusion that the building's foundation extends deep into the earth.

This effect recalls the foundations of the Old City of Jerusalem and suggests that the roots of law and justice are also deep.

The panoramic window floods the stairs with natural light.

We are inside but feel outside.

Sacher Park and the 19th century neighborhood of Nachlaot are at our feet.

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Xs around Jerusalem

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ABC Wednesday is here again. To see what other bloggers are coming up with, X marks the spot at Mrs. Nesbitts Place.

Looks like an X to me. But truth be told, this is a stylized alef, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Alef is the first letter of Egged, the huge bus company whose lines reach every corner of Israel.


X-ray machine at the entrance to Jerusalem's Central Bus Station.
Anything bigger than a small purse has to go through the machine.
Even before you get to this point you have walked through a metal detector.
Normally there is a big crowd there trying to get their stuff X-rayed quickly and run up the stairs to catch their bus on the top departures floor.
If you are shy you will never get through.
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Buses arriving to Jerusalem from other cities drive into the basement of the Central Bus Station. The arriving passengers have their own lines and guards and X-ray machines.

X-ray machine that lets you into the Western Wall Plaza.

Here it is less chaotic than at the bus station.

But here you might also be wanded or asked a few questions by the guards if they have any suspicions.

X is the Greek letter with which the name of Christ begins. So for many centuries X has been a short form of his name.

Xmas = Christmas. Xian = Christian. Xity = Christianity.

If you enlarge the photo above, you'll see Greek letters IC and XC on each side of the halo.

In this "Pantocrator" icon the fingers of Jesus are forming these letters.

Wikipedia explains that
"In Eastern Orthodoxy, the most widely used Christogram is a four-letter abbreviation ICXC--a traditional abbreviation of the Greek words for 'Jesus Christ' (i.e. the first and last letters of each of the words ΙΗΣΟΥΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ — written 'IHCOYC XPICTOC' with a transliteration of the lunate sigma common in medieval Greek as 'C'). "

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