A burning issue

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This Bench of the Week is ugly, but it is representative of the week that was, here in Jerusalem.
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The wheels, handle and frame, and the green melted plastic sticking to the bench are the remains of a big trash bin.
The torching of garbage bins and garbage in some squares and main streets of Jerusalem's religious neighborhoods is a favorite way of protesting for some.
Last week the haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) were protesting the Mayor's permitting that an underground parking lot near the Old City would remain open on the Sabbath day.
This week the extreme sects (like the anti-Zionist Toldot Aharon which does not recognize the State of Israel) were rioting for another cause. They wanted one of theirs, a pregnant mother arrested for suspected child abuse, to be released from jail.
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It is all very complicated and emotionally charged. But I think the heat of summer and the boredom for some youth out on vacation from school is part of the problem that "fans the fire."
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If you really want to try to understand, here are various articles:
situation as of Friday late afternoon
a Jerusalem Post background article
Haaretz news video and article
an editorial against "collective punishment" of haredim
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UPDATE: The woman has been released from jail to house arrest, in the house of a neighborhood (Mea Shearim) rabbi's family. Let's hope this will end the burning and smashing and stone throwing.
Let us have Shabbat shalom, please God.
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Did I smell RAIN??

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Sweet-smelling hard wet rain fell for two minutes yesterday morning!!
 Enough to whet my appetite for more.
This was a treat because Israel normally has no rain from March or April until about October.
In Jerusalem summer is hot and dry (low humidity) and very long.

Here are some clouds over the Mountains of Judea (also called the Jerusalem Hills) as seen from a moshav a bit north of my moshav.
It is an interesting community called Yad HaShmona, founded by Finnish Christians.
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The signs for their Biblical Garden are made of transparent glass. So what you see here is the actual blue of the sky and the clouds seen through the glass.

Great idea, eh?
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I can show you more about the antiquities and installations of the Biblical Garden in the future. Right now I want to get this post in for SkyWatch Friday.

Meanwhile, if you just can't wait, read about Yad Hashmona at their website or at Wikipedia or see great aerial photos of their mountain at BiblePlaces.com.
UPDATE June 2014: Aviva Bar-Am writes about her nice visit to Yad Hashmona here. 
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Jerusalem and the hills around her are full of surprises--a July rain, a Messianic moshav, and much much more.

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Caper

A friend here is patient enough to pick and pickle capers.

 

Don't ask me how. I just remember seeing that it takes a lot of rinsing and changing of water and soaking for the first few days.

 

And finally the capers sit around getting pickled.

Caper, defined:

1. any of numerous plants of the genus Capparis 

2: pickled flower buds used as a pungent relish in various dishes and sauces

The bush grows wild, usually where you don't want it. In the woods, by the roadside, in your yard; usually in rocky places. Even in a stone wall.

Enlarge this photo to see a bud or two.

 

 The buds have to be picked at just the right stage of the game.

The flowers are beautiful but the thorns are sharp, stubborn, and painful when attached to skin.

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Click on an earlier post to see capers and caterpillars. 

 Because it grows in crevices and cliffs, the caper became a symbol of the Jewish people's will to survive. The (Babylonian) Talmud, in Beitza 25b, says,

"There are three who are especially daring [tenacious, stubborn]: Israel among the nations, a dog among the animals, and a caper among the trees." 

רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן לָקִישׁ שְׁלֹשָׁה עַזִּין הֵן יִשְׂרָאֵל בָּאוּמּוֹת כֶּלֶב בַּחַיּוֹת תַּרְנְגוֹל בָּעוֹפוֹת וְיֵשׁ אוֹמְרִים אַף עֵז בִּבְהֵמָה דַּקָּה וְיֵשׁ אוֹמְרִים אַף צָלָף בָּאִילָנוֹת:

Update

Shalom to all.
The link to Rabbi Dan's blog that somehow did not appear in my story yesterday is this: "Walking with the Desert Fathers." Well worth a visit.

And for those of you who asked about the mud bricks of yesterday, that answer is here.
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Guess what! Rain came down on us for two whole minutes this morning! Rain in summer is like a miracle here. It smelled and felt and sounded so good!
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Zero conflict

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ABC Wednesday meme has come full circle to the letter Z.
I immediately thought to write about Zion or Zionism, of course. However, today certain other things came together to convince me to attempt something about . . . let's call it . . . zero conflict.
First, the July 14 entry in "Word from the Desert, Meditations on the Orthodox Life from the Early Church Fathers, Ascetics, Saints and Righteous," is this:
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Two old men had lived together...
…in the desert for many years and had never quarreled. The first said to the other, “Let us also have a fight like other men do.” The other replied, “I do not know how to fight.” The first said to him, “Look, I will put a brick between us, and I will say it is mine, and you say, `No, it is mine,’ and so the fight will begin.” So they put a brick between them and the first said, “This brick is mine,” and the other said, “No, it is mine,” and the first responded, “If it is yours, take it and go” – so they gave it up without being able to find an occasion for an argument.
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Don't you love the simple humility of the Desert Fathers (and Mothers)! ?
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Beginning in the third century C.E. (=A.D.), these Christians fled to the deserts of Egypt and of the Holy Land to live as hermits.
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In his post of July 13, "Walking with the Desert Fathers," an American rabbi on sabbatical in Israel shows and tells about his hike into hermit-land in Wadi Kelt and reflects on our own Jewish need for some desert solitude from time to time.
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Do we not all seek that blessed but elusive state of zero conflict?
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A building meant for rabbis

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The first time I saw this enormous monotonous building on Torah Mitzion Street, I really wondered about its history.
Now I know a little more, but I still wonder . . . about the lives of those many families of pious Jews who live inside.
The shikun, meaning apartment block or housing project, was erected in 1945 to house rabbis who had survived the Holocaust and who had made it from Europe to Jerusalem, probably with nothing but the shirt on their back.
However, it soon became populated with all kinds of refugees and needy people, not just rabbis.

In the first photo you see (especially if you click) a white dome. It is the roof of this synagogue, called Beit Knesset Beit Aharon [of] Shikun HaRabbanim.

The man with his hand on his ear is talking on his cell phone, in case you wondered.

The dedicatory plaque praises several generous and upstanding men who gave money to build the synagogue.

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The neighborhood is called Romema, near the western entrance to Jerusalem. Founded in 1921, it was the first Jewish neighborhood built during the period of British rule and was planned as an exclusive residential neighborhood.

Maybe in a future post I can show you some of the dozen original stately houses, very beautiful.

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The funny story of how the Arab mayor surrendered Jerusalem to two British army cooks in 1917 on the then-desolate hill that would become Romema is in an earlier post.

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Many bloggers wish to guide you around their favorite places, every Tuesday-Wednesday at That's My World. Go for a visit, or join us by sharing your own post. Just sign in at Mr. Linky.

No complaints

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Shalom friends. Just to clarify--in yesterday's post I just meant to state the facts about my summer season in Israel, as requested by Robin's meme.
Didn't mean it to come across as complaining.

No, really: no whining, no kvetching.
I am perfectly happy right where I am, in the place just right.

But, just for a laugh, this is a good opportunity to share a favorite Zen cartoon. LOL!
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Bite of summer

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Robin, a blogger in Israel, challenged us to a Sunday meme about our version of summer.
Well, here is what summer means for me:
Yep, I'm very sensitive to insect bites.
The pretty bottle contains vinegar. If you put it on a bite or sting right away, it helps a lot to stop the itching. I never go out without some cotton and a little vial of vinegar, just in case. Tiny bugs find me anywhere, even on the bus.
What I forgot to photograph is toothpaste. It heals most bites in a few days (as opposed to weeks).
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We have no natural bodies of water in Jerusalem like lakes or rivers. So for me summer is not swimming and fun.
It is lots of heat (no air-conditioning), winter greenery that turns brown and dry, and bugs that do not exist in cooler seasons. It is even too hot (no rain here for amost half of every year) to go hiking very far.
One good thing for Jerusalem: our higher altitude and inland location gives us less than half of sweaty Tel Aviv's humidity.
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Happy summer to Robin and all participants in Summer Stock Sunday!

An erstwhile bug-eating buddy

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Here is my erstwhile little buddy on the wall, near the ceiling.
He (or she) is quiet and eats mosquitoes.
In short, a good housemate.
The little one comes and goes; now you see it, now you don't.

But one day, I, barefoot, picked up something from the bathroom floor and was startled to see the creature there instead of safely on the ceiling. Eek! I reacted by scooping him up and setting him outside on the front stair.
Now I kind of regret my harsh action . . .
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For other animal tales and photos please visit the bloggers at Camera-Critters today.
UPDATE: My post on a visiting lizard who lost half a tail is here.
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Shabbat shalom

Dark Paths
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"He could have placed streetlamps along all the pathways of wisdom, but then there would be no journey. Who would discover the secret passages, the hidden treasures, if all of us homed in straight for our destination?"

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From the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, of righteous memory; rendered by Tzvi Freeman.

Private initiative

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Would you trust this rickety-looking bench?
Sighted outside the back entrance to a vintage apartment building in a back street of Jerusalem's Beit Hakerem neighborhood.
"Benches on Friday" is the brainchild of RuneE. His scenic benches are in Visual Norway. In his comments section are some other blog-friends who offer you a seat on their benches. Come join us!
May you have a restful and peaceful Sabbath, wherever you sit. Shabbat shalom!

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Draped in black for mourning?

A blue sky (for SkyWatch) dawned this morning, the 17th day of Tamuz on our Hebrew calendar.
Devout Jews around the world fast on this day. Here in Jerusalem this "minor fast day" begins at 4:15 am and ends at 8:13 pm.
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All sorts of calamities befell the Jewish people on this date in history. For instance, Moses smashed the twin tablets of the Ten Commandments upon seeing the golden calf.

But Shiv'ah Asar bTamuz also commemorates the First Century breach of the walls of Jerusalem, the first step towards the destruction of the Second Temple on the 9th of Av ( another fast day in three weeks from now).
In this unusual scene, Jerusalem's Old City wall appears to be dressed in black robes of mourning.

But no! Just the opposite. The wall, rebuilt by the Ottoman Turks in 1535-1541, is being patched up and strengthened and beautified. And by whom? The Roman Legion? The Ottomans?

NO! By the ISRAEL Antiquities Authority.

Yes, we are still here, alive and well.

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In fact, here you see the happy crowds who came for the Jerusalem Light Festival a few weeks ago, along that same stretch of wall near Jaffa Gate. Full of life.

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I do not fast on this day. But I do think about the breakage of Moshe's stone tablets and the breaking of my beloved Jerusalem's walls. And about this, Rachel at her wonderful "Velveteen Rabbi" blog has a good message:

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"[If you are fasting today], I hope that your fast is meaningful. May we find a way today to be open to whatever may flow through the places in us which are broken, remembering that our brokenness can be a place where holiness is found."
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Sun baked

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Remember those mysterious stacks of straw bales across the street that we all surmised about in last month's post?
And remember the garden spiral my neighbors' nice young volunteer created a year ago?
Well, he came back again for a few days--to use some of the straw!

A new mystery! Why are they making mud bricks??

On the huge bale of clay is written Mamshit. That's a place down in the Negev desert. I know it as an ancient Nabatean city, but apparently there is some clay mining going on too.

The neighbor's sons were having fun packing mud into the wooden frames.

Do enlarge this photo to imagine the squishy feeling of the mixture.

Apparently the only thing lacking was donkey manure, the best for giving the bricks added strength.

The mud bricks will have to dry in the sun for several weeks now.

. . . then what ?

YMCA, YMCA . . .

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Y is our current letter on ABC Wednesday.
Jerusalem has a Y name that works both in English and in Hebrew.
Our grand old YMCA is affectionately known in Hebrew as Yimca.

The building was dedicated in 1933.
 Its three wings allude to the Young Men's Christian Association's credo of the unity of body, mind, and spirit.

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The central part (with the tower) contains the administrative offices, a library, the Three Arches Hotel, kindergartens, and rooms for social and cultural activities.

As their website says,

"JIY’s unique programs . . . foster harmony and the building of spirit, mind and body.
With its elegant arches, domes and 152-foot observation tower overlooking Jerusalem’s Old City, JIY [Jerusalem International YMCA] is a designated city landmark.
JIY is acknowledged as a center of cultural, athletic, social and intellectual life in Jerusalem and is visited by more than 500,000 people annually.
 In addition to offering amenities such as fitness, dining and hotel facilities, JIY’s auditorium often hosts the most socially and culturally significant events in the region. JIY’s presence serves as a foundation of optimism and offers a message of hope and reconciliation for all in the Holy Land."

The north wing has the hall for concerts and public gatherings.

The southern wing is dedicated to physical development, with a pool, gym, squash courts, and outdoor playing fields.

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A page about the building's fascinating history is here.
About the architecture and its symbolism, here.

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Read about the integrated preschool where over 130 little Jewish, Christian, and Muslim kids learn and play together, in both Hebrew and Arabic.

"Maximizing dialogue among adherents of the three monotheistic religions is a goal of the local YMCA; the concept of a trinity of spirit, mind and body is the international organization’s motto.

This trinity is repeated in three rooms in the tower – an underground oratory, a second-floor Upper Room depicting the Last Supper and a space under the tower’s dome devoted to silent worship. These chambers represent three stages in man’s quest for God."

(from the website)
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Someday I will just have to climb that tower.

Hope you enjoyed Jerusalem's own special Y.

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A taxing summer

Yay, we are spared the dreaded threatened 16.5% tax on fresh fruit and vegetables!
No less than 34 (!) readers around the world felt they had to join the protest by leaving a strong comment on my post of a week ago. Thank you! Our prime minister must have heard you.
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Ynet News quotes him as saying:
"Part of my job is to listen to the public, said Netanyahu, "And I've come to the conclusion that this is not the time for a new VAT and this is my decision."
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Good listening, Bibi.
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Armenian Orthodox

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The Old City of Jerusalem is less than one square kilometer. Inside its city wall are four quarters: the Moslem Quarter, the Jewish, the Christian, and the Armenian.
Today on our That's MyWorld Tuesday tour we visit the Armenians.


I love the rhythm of the call to prayer. It gets faster and faster, louder and louder! See the blur of the mallet and hand?
The device, called simandron or in Arabic nakos, is made of wooden boards and iron sheets suspended on chains.
A 14th century Ottoman edict forbade the ringing of church bells in Jerusalem. But there is always a way around laws in the Middle East. So these gong-like instruments replaced the bells to call the monks and the public to prayer.


Ottoman rule ended in 1917 and today Israel has freedom of religious expression.
Many church bells ring in the Old City. But in memory of those centuries of Moslem prohibition of the bells, an Armenian monk emerges from the church every day and hammers on the simandron just before 3:00 pm vespers.

St. James Cathedral is Armenian Orthodox.

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Aviva Bar-Am, in her Beyond the Walls: Churches of Jerusalem, hits the nail on the head (so to speak) with her description:

"A vast collection of paintings, ceramic tiles, and rich ornaments decorate the grandiose interior of St. James Cathedral. Lit only from light which enters through a few windows, the dome, some candles, and dozens of hanging oil-lamps, the church's interior is mystic and eastern. The scent of incense permeates the air, adding to its mysterious aura."
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And that is before you even hear the choir of men's voices in Byzantine chant!

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Whenever I have been at vespers on a weekday, only a handful of tourists or locals come in to sit on the bench that lines the side and back of the church. And most do not last for the entire liturgy.

Woe to you if you forget the rules and cross your legs. An Armenian will come over and remind you to keep both feet on the ground.

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But if you do sit respectfully and quietly, you may find yourself soaring .
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"Let Jerusalem teach you."

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The plaza in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City was pretty quiet when I sat down on one of the benches pictured here to eat my cheese sandwich.
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(Click to enjoy the face of youth!)

Suddenly the army "invaded"!

All the girl soldiers were listening to the boy soldier lecture. He must have been their tour guide for the day.

Learning about the country and about Jerusalem, including the holy places, is part of every Israeli soldier's training. And you learn by walking in the places.

The "picnic box" for their group must have been heavy. The girls had to put it down and rest several times.

But they did it. They delivered the goods!

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Happy 4th of July

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Happy Independence Day to all Americans, wherever you may be!
This is the closest thing Jerusalem has to the Statue of Liberty.

The statue and New York Place were dedicated in 1993 by Mayor David Dinkins of New York City and our late great Mayor Teddy Kollek. Actually it is just a little traffic island between several busy Jerusalem streets.

So to make this post look more like the joy of the 4th of July--BOOM, crackle--fireworks!

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Jerusalem also has a replica of America's famous bell. To see it in our Liberty Bell Park, click here.

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Happy birthday, United States. Savor your liberty and good life.

God bless America, land of my birth.

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A cat bench

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Kittens need a bench to sit on (or under), too.
This rugged bench is for RuneE at Visual Norway who invites us all to share our benches every Friday.
In case you are wondering why a tree branch with a shelf on it is protruding through the bench . . .

it's because this is a work-place for an artist neighbor. See his paintbrush on the shelf?

Here is one of his Etong construction block sculptures in progress.

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Camera-Critters weekend meme is starting early this week. Over a hundred bloggers contribute interesting animal shots. Have a look or join us.

Jerusalem sky full of cranes

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The skyline of "new" Jerusalem (as opposed to the walled Old City of Jerusalem) is forever full of cranes, the one-legged kind.

(Photo is clearer when clicked upon)
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This is a rare vista from the roof of the French Hospital St. Louis which is in east Jerusalem, across the street from the Old City's New Gate. (Rare because the public is not allowed inside the old hospital, let alone onto its roof; but I was part of a special Yad Ben-Zvi tour.)
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The tower you see in the center is part of the YMCA. To its left stands the stately King David Hotel.
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Tonight and tomorrow bloggers worldwide will be showing off their skies. Visit them at SkyWatch Friday.