Culture war on schoolbags

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Big displays of schoolbags and pencil cases in the malls remind us that Israeli kids will soon be heading back to school.
Not that they had a real summer vacation this year, what with the war and all.
Will the fighting, which started up again last night,  be over by September 1?
If not, parents will not be willing to send their kids back  to the many unfortified school buildings here in the South.

If you enlarge the photo you can find Hello Kitty and superheros and other foreign themes.
(Oh, and also find the arrow pointing to the mall's protected area.)
I read here that one supermarket chain started promoting book bags featuring characters from beloved old Israeli children's literature instead.
The article calls it Culture War.
Who will win, you reckon? 

Photo from Israel21c

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UPDATE Aug. 21:   http://www.timesofisrael.com/despite-rockets-schools-to-open-september-1-ministry-says/
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Our holiday of love, in a mall, in a ceasefire

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Happy Tu B'Av!
Today is the Jewish minor festival celebrated on the 15th of the month of Av (in Hebrew, Tu B'Av).

I explained its lovely customs and roots from the days of the Talmud in these three posts:
Dancing in the vineyards in the moonlight 

The Feast of Xylophory 

The Day of the Breaking of the Ax

In recent years, in Israel, the holiday of love has started to look a lot like the Valentine's Day that other countries celebrate.

In the Negev Mall in Beer Sheva today lots of stands had sprung up with Tu B'Av gifts.
On the white chocolate lips it says "Especially for you, with a kiss."

Today is the beginning of a 3-day ceasefire, so people were so happy to get out of the house and away from the bomb shelters, they flocked to the mall.

But still, big signs pointed to the huge building's "protected area."
When the rockets are falling, believe me, you want to know where to run in the 90 seconds before the explosion.
This 3-story mall has a big skylight of glass in the roof.
Even the elevator is of glass.
The arrow in the photo points to stairs.
Imagine the mothers with kids in a stroller having to get down to a lower floor in 1.5 minutes.
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(Linking to  signs, signs  and   Our World Tuesday.)
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"In the day of my trouble . . ."

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Psalm 77 today, for PsalmChallege at Daily Athens Photo.

 To the choirmaster: according to Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph.

1  I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, that he may hear me.

2 In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted.

3 I think of God, and I moan; I meditate, and my spirit faints. [Selah]

4 Thou dost hold my eyelids from closing; I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

5 I consider the days of old, I remember the years long ago.

6 I commune with my heart in the night; I meditate and search my spirit:

7 "Will the Lord spurn for ever, and never again be favorable?

8 Has his steadfast love for ever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time?

9 Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?" [Selah]

10 And I say, "It is my grief that the right hand of the Most High has changed."

11 I will call to mind the deeds of the LORD; yea, I will remember thy wonders of old.

12 I will meditate on all thy work, and muse on thy mighty deeds.

13 Thy way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God?

14 Thou art the God who workest wonders, who hast manifested thy might among the peoples.

15 Thou didst with thy arm redeem thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. [Selah]

16 When the waters saw thee, O God, when the waters saw thee, they were afraid, yea, the deep trembled.

17 The clouds poured out water; the skies gave forth thunder; thy arrows flashed on every side.

18 The crash of thy thunder was in the whirlwind; thy lightnings lighted up the world; the earth trembled and shook.

19 Thy way was through the sea, thy path through the great waters; yet thy footprints were unseen.

20 Thou didst lead thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.  . . Translation: RSV Revised Standard Version, 1971 Photos: "HaNavi Yehezkel" (The Prophet Ezekiel), by Alla Grinberg, Mamilla Mall, 2011 "Tefila -- The Prayer," by Sam Phillipe, Mamilla Mall, 2011 .

Different meanings of horn-raising

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For this week's PsalmChallenge group effort, here is Psalm 75.

1. For the leader; al tashheth. A psalm. Of Asaph. A song.

2. We praise You, O God; we praise, as Your name is near. They recount Your wondrous deeds.

3. “Indeed, I will set a time; it is I who will give judgment uprightly.

4. At the tottering of earth and all its inhabitants, it is I who keeps its pillars firm.   Selah.

 

5. To the boastful I say, 'Do not be boastful'; to the wicked, 'Do not raise a horn!'” 

6. Do not raise your horns on high, speaking with arrogant neck,

7. for neither from the east nor the west nor the wilderness is (one) raised;

8. indeed, it is God who gives judgment; He brings down, He raises up.

 

9. Indeed, there is a cup in the LORD’s hand with foaming wine fully mixed; from this He pours; but its dregs, all the wicked of the earth drink to the last drop. 

 

10. As for me, I will forever declare and sing a hymn to the God of Jacob.

11. “All the horns of the wicked ones I will cut off; but the horns of the righteous one shall rise.”

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Translation: Rabbi Benjamin Segal 

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Photo:

Sculpture by Michal Bein, at the Musical Instruments art exhibition at Mamilla Mall, Jerusalem. 

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"Call me Ishmael"

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Half of our father Abraham is in the light, half is in shadow (for Shadow Shot Sunday).
But the names of both his sons are in bright sun: Isaac on his right hand and Ishmael on his left.
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The artist, Betty Moller, writes that her "Abraham" is based on Genesis 17:9 --

"Then God said to Abraham, 'As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.' "

Today many consider Ishmael to be the father of the Arab people.
I like to think that there is a parallel inside the building, behind the sculpture, of two young workers talking, one a Jew and one an Arab.
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Meme mishmash

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Bear with me as I bundle three memes.

Fear not--she is unarmed.

These two are reflecting, in a highly polished and distorted way, the buildings of Jerusalem's Mamilla mall.

For Weekend Reflections.

The hand got into the frame unintentionally.
But now I see it seems to point to the BS on the horse's rump. hmm . . .

We don't often see equines around here, but three horses were tied up under shade trees at our spring down in the valley yesterday.
They wore nice saddles and saddlebags.

Finally, something for Camera-Critters!

First time I have seen the new tram almost empty (well, it WAS just leaving the depot).

The big windows and glass doors make some interesting shadow designs, but this summer we passengers were baking in the sun.
The air-conditioning could not keep pace.
I think the carriages were built in France for a perhaps more merciful French sun.

For Shadow Shot Sunday.

The binding and unbinding of Isaac

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The frightful story of the binding of Isaac, in Genesis 22, is read in the synagogue every Rosh Hashana.

I talked about it and showed other artistic portrayals of the almost-deed here and here.
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But the photos in today's post are of Sam Philipe's sculpture "Akedat Yitshak" (the Binding of Isaac), on exhibit at Jerusalem's Mamilla mall.

We can be glad that the angel was sent just in time to stop Abraham's hand.

In the story's happy end, the angel quotes God as saying to Abraham
". . . in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast hearkened to My voice."
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By the way, Christians are celebrating today too. It is the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, also known as the Feast of the Archangels.
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More about Rosh Hashana in previous posts:

A stone sculpture of the Akeda

Fish heads

New calendar for a new year

Tashlich bread to the fish

Shofar, tashlich

The world's birthday

Pomegranate symbol
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The olive branch, birds, and St. Jerome

. "Noah's Ark" . It's part of the Bible Stories exhibit still going on at Mamilla mall. Genesis 8: 8 And he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him to the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth; and he put forth his hand, and took her, and brought her in unto him into the ark. 10 And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came in to him at eventide; וְהִנֵּה עֲלֵה-זַיִת טָרָף בְּפִיהָ and lo in her mouth an olive-leaf freshly plucked; so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. . . An interesting tidbit from Wiki:

In his 4th century Latin translation of the story of Noah, St Jerome rendered "leaf of olive" (Hebrew alay zayit) in Genesis 8:11 as "branch of olive" (Latin ramum olivae). In the 5th century, by which time a dove with an olive branch had become established as a Christian symbol of peace, St Augustine wrote in On Christian Doctrine that, "perpetual peace is indicated by the olive branch (oleae ramusculo) which the dove brought with it when it returned to the ark." However, in Jewish tradition there is no reference to an olive branch in the story of the Flood and no association of the olive leaf with peace in the story of the flood. 

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Israeli salad for a blue-tongue

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Even though its bustle and size make me dizzy, I stepped into Malcha Mall.
The pet shop is the one store there that I cannot NOT go into.
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The picture taped to this skink's enclosure makes me believe it is what Australians call a blue-tongue.
I, for one, would not want to keep a 60-centimeter reptile in a glass case for its 20-year life expectancy.
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Well, at least this guy had a nice bowl of "Israeli salad."
We humans eat it for breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner.
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Shalom to friends at Camera-Critters meme.
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Sarah gets a shower

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Early morning pre-opening Mamilla Mall life is reflected in the store window in this picture for Weekend Reflections.
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I was shocked to see the cleaning man throw a bucket of water on one of the Bible Stories statues.
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But our matriarch Sarah just laughed.
She seemed quite tickled when the cleaner scrubbed her with his broom.
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The statue is "Sarah" by Rita Paran, based on Genesis 21:6:

ו וַתֹּאמֶר שָׂרָה--צְחֹק, עָשָׂה לִי אֱלֹהִים: כָּל-הַשֹּׁמֵעַ, יִצְחַק-לִי. 6
And Sarah said: 'God hath made laughter for me; every one that heareth will laugh on account of me.'
[This was after God had promised the barren Sarah that she and Abraham would bear a son in their old age.]
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Birds of Paradise

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A rare bird of paradise flower in Jerusalem.
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A bird-of-paradise bird, literally!
The sculpture's Hebrew name is Tsipor Gan Eden, meaning "bird of the Garden of Eden."
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Sculptor Judith Shacher quotes Genesis 1:
And God said, ". . . Let the birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens."
So God created . . . every winged bird according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply . . . and let birds multiply on the earth."
And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
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For Shavuot -- faces of Ruth

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Today Jews celebrate Shavuot, also know by its Biblical names Chag HaKatsir, the [wheat] Harvest Festival, and Yom HaBikurim, Day of the First Fruits.
By tradition today also marks the day of King David's birth and death.

But mainly Shavuot is Zman Matan Toratenu, The Season of the Giving of our Torah.
Seven weeks (shavuot) have passed since Passover.
It took 49 (+1) days of wandering in the desert for God and Moses to prepare the People for the the biggest day in history.
In today's morning prayer service Exodus 19-20 is read.
All rise in silent reverence to listen to the Ten Commandments with the feeling that we all are standing at Mount Sinai.
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The scroll of the Book of Ruth is also chanted, in loving memory of David and of Ruth, his Moabite ancestor, the mother of all converts.
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Let's look at some very different portrayals of Ruth, all at the current exhibit of Bible story sculpture at Mamilla in Jerusalem.

The one above is called "Ruth and Naomi, the dialogue."
Sculptor Ruth Agmon quotes the famous passage in Ruth 1:16-17 that widowed Ruth speaks to her mother-in-law Naomi:

And Ruth said: 'Entreat me not to leave thee, and to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God;
where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried . . .

"Ruth the Moabitess" by Judith Sudai who quotes Ruth 2:3:

So she went. She came and gleaned in the field behind the reapers. As it happened, she came to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.

"Ruth" by Cathy Kerner. Ruth 2:2:

Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain . . .

"Ruth and Boaz" by Rachel Levi. Ruth 2:10:

Then she fell prostrate, with her face to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?”

"Ruth" by Cathy Kerner.
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Notice the crown of future kingship on the boy's head!
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For other aspects of the holiday please click on my label "Shavuot."
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HAPPY SHAVUOT!
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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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Olive branch shadows

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For Shadow Shot Sunday here is an artistic shadow from the exhibit of Bible story sculptures now at Jerusalem's Mamilla Mall.
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Please enlarge the photo to appreciate the details.
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Shadows of the firmly-rooted branches of "The Menorah" by Dov Levi Noymand.
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The seven short Hebrew words on the branches mean "Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit . . ."
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Read Zechariah 8 to see how the prophet's angelic vision is connected with the menorah.
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The artist took inspiration also from Numbers 8:2-4 in which God says to Moses,

2 'Speak unto Aaron, and say unto him: When thou lightest the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the candlestick.'

3 And Aaron did so: he lighted the lamps thereof so as to give light in front of the candlestick, as the Lord commanded Moses.

4 And this was the work of the candlestick, beaten work of gold; unto the base thereof, and unto the flowers thereof, it was beaten work; according unto the pattern which the Lord had shown Moses, so he made the candlestick.
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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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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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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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