Do souls grow bigger in heaven?

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Behold Mary, fallen asleep, in the crypt of the Dormition Abbey.
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Today, at the Dormition and at many other churches in Jerusalem and around the world, Christians celebrated the Feast of the Assumption of Mary.
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You are welcome to see the ceremony in progress as I photographed it in 2007.
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In another earlier post, I was amazed by a strange old icon of Jesus holding a tiny little Mary. You might enjoy the unraveling of the mystery.
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UPDATE: Blogger Malyss just taught me how they celebrate the day in Nice, with boats full of flowers carrying the statue of Mary!
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Stairway shadows, San Salvatore

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Fun shadows on the outside of the old Turkish city wall that encloses the Old City.
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Now they are part of Hey Harriet's Shadow Shot Sunday.
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The building and tower behind the wall are part of a monastery.
The Franciscan Order opened one of the first printing presses in Jerusalem in this monastery complex and operated an organ workshop.
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That same spire from the first photo was beautifully illuminated for the week of the Jerusalem Festival of Light in July.
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It is atop San Salvador/San Salvatore/St. Savior Church, built in 1885.
This is the Parish church for the Christian Quarter of the Old City.
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Lara in the morning

Lara is not mine, but she is my best feline friend.
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Here she is in early morning sun, in all her glory, guarding her domain.
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I share her for Camera-Critters Sunday.
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Reflecting on the apocalyptic imagination

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The jets of cooling water are reflected,

and so is the tall basalt wall.
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Since joining James' group at Weekend Reflections, I am glad for all the reflections I can find.

The dome and the wall [but not the Franciscan friar] comprise the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum.
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Underground, beneath the dome and the wall, are fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a copy of the Great Isaiah scroll, letters written by Bar Kochba, the thousand-year-old Aleppo Codex, and an exhibition of relevant antiquities.

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The dome is shaped like the lids of the jars in which the scrolls were discovered, in caves, in the desert, at Qumran.

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Some collected ideas on the symbolism of the architectural sculpture:

The contrasting elements of white dome and black wall allude to the War Rule scroll.

The Essenes, the sect at Qumran, thought themselves to be the holy elect of Israel, the Sons of Light, who would at the end of time engage in a catastrophic war with the enemies of Israel, the Sons of Darkness.
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The sprayed water represents purity. The monastic Jews of Qumran were frequent mikva-dunkers.
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(The WizeGuide, in contrast, says "[T]he water spraying the dome . . . was merely meant to prevent the disintegration of the white tiles and the glue that keeps them in place . . . .")

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The WizeGuide Jerusalem, Step by Step book also suggests that

"While the striking juxtaposition between these geometric shapes aptly reflects the extremism of the Judean Desert sect, it is also reminiscent of the People of Israel's passage from exile to revival."
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Please enlarge this to see how the Shrine of the Book complex is laid out.

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Shabbat shalom.

And Ramadan kareem to the Muslim blogger-friends.

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Soon--less wall, more sky

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Good news for SkyWatch Friday!
Beginning on Sunday, this wall will be torn down.
The residents living across the street in the south Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo will be able to see more sky.

The Gilo residents will also be able to see their neighbor village again, Beit Jala.

Beit Jala is a Christian Arab village in the West Bank.

I should also say that Gilo, built in 1972, is just over the Green Line.

The problem between them began in 2000, during the second intifada.

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Some Palestinian gunmen used a few buildings of the village to shoot into the windows of the Gilo houses on an on-going basis.

That is why the protective wall was put up, to protect those living in Gilo from shells and bullets flying into their bedrooms

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The snipers who came into and used the village hoped Israel would respond heavily to their gunfire and attack the Christian village, causing very bad press for Israel. Well, we didn't.

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To learn more about this you can see

IDF statement on how/why/when the wall will be dismantled

Pre-1948 history of Gilo

Photos of Gilo under siege

Briefing by then-mayor Ehud Olmert

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Happy SkyWatch, hopefully with many sightings of the Perseid meteor shower tonight.

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UPDATE: Haaretz just now (Aug. 13) published a slideshow of 8 photos of different sections of this small wall.

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"Shukilida," a heart-warming ice cream place

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The mid-day heat was oppressive, I was shlepping many kilos of fruit and vegetables on my back, the covered part of the Mahane Yehuda market was crowded and stuffy, I needed to drink more or to eat, quick . . .

When suddenly an angel in white appeared, offering free samples of ice cream!
But even more than the sweet cold treat, Tali's big smile and friendly way revived my spirits immediately.

It was new to me, this ice cream place, a great discovery.

Ice coffee looked inviting.

But so did the ice vanilla, passion fruit, mint lemonade, and the watermelon drink.

Yotam is the proprietor. You can feel how he loves his new business and loves what he is doing.

What a pleasure to see young people like Yotam and Tali who are enthusiastic about their work.

The idea behind this "magic machine" and of "custom blended ice cream" is that you can choose either yogurt or chocolate or vanilla ice cream and then choose what additions to blend into it.

Click to enlarge and you can read the imaginative names for the possible creations.

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And to the left of the sign are the blessings for a place of business.

I was blessed by being able to sit down at the little counter [so clean!] inside and feel how the delicious ice cream was reviving me.

There is a table outside, if you prefer to people watch.

The name Shukilida is a clever combination of the Hebrew word shuk, meaning souk or market, and glida, meaning ice cream.

Even the card is cute, with an ice cream cone used as the letter i.

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I wish Yotam lots of luck in this venture.

It is heart-warming to see a young Israeli who really cares about giving his best to his customers.
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Desert dwellers

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DESERT DWELLERS -- for today's ABC Wednesday.

Our bus stopped in the middle of nowhere on the Jerusalem-to-Jericho Road to let this family get off.
The women, in their finest clothing, walked across the highway and climbed over the side barrier and returned to their encampment.

Some Bedouin still prefer to live as nomads, as shepherds tending goats, sheep, and camels.

Enlarge these photos and look for goats feeding at the troughs, the corrals, the tin structures, the black goat hair tents, the car in its carport.

I love the desert.

I admire the desert dwellers.

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Kursi's ENERGY bench!

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Oi, where to begin . . . ?
Have you heard of Bovis units?
How about geobiology?
Demons in pigs?
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Have you read Luke 8:26-39 or Matthew 8:23-34 lately?
It tells the "miracle of the swine" and the photo above shows where it likely took place.
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As you enter Kursi National Park, up north in the Galilee, you find a welcome bench in the shade.
Sit and listen:
The Gospels call this place Gergessa. Jesus exorcised devils from the body of a man.
The demons possessed a herd of swine grazing nearby.
The pigs then raced into the Sea of Galilee and drowned.
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Modern archaeologists identify the site as Kursi, mentioned in the Talmud as a center of idol worship.
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When road construction began in 1970, antiquities were accidentally exposed.
Archaeologists went to work and uncovered the largest known Byzantine (5th to 6th centuries CE) monastery in the Holy Land.
Monastery, church, mosaics, a chapel on a nearby hill.
PLUS a bathhouse!
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In the chapel, the skeletons of thirty men, probably local priests, were discovered.
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Reconstruction was done and the site was opened to the public in 1982.
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My two visiting American friends and I were the only ones there in the hot sun.
We had only little Kursi National Park brochure to guide us.
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I read the sign and could hardly believe my eyes!
An ENERGY BENCH?? Safsal ha-energiot?!
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I had read a book in German while living in Switzerland about measuring energy in the earth and giving values in Boviseinheiten, Bovis units.
But here?? Would the Israeli government's Israel Nature and Parks Authority really write "energy bench" on the official signage??
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The arrow pointed to here.
Which bench to choose?
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I sat down here for an all-too-brief minute.

But alas, the friends were calling me away; it was closing time and the gates were about to be locked. Oi . . .
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Here's the strange history of the place. Click and read if you'd like.

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But what you really will enjoy is this page by geobiologist Richard Benishai which I found when we got back to Jerusalem after our two days in Galilee.

Here is part of his explanation:

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"I first visited this location in February 2005 with my brother. A few months later, there was interest from the National Parks Authority to publicize this site, based on an article I wrote. Thereafter, the media made a short movie on this site for TV showing.

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Looking at Figure 3, there is a tree, with two wooden benches located under it. We were told that this area was special. We had no idea how special, until I measured it.

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Now to give you an idea about energy levels: when working in the Cathedral of Strasbourg or Notre Dame of Paris, the highest levels I measured there, were around 2.3 to 2.5 million Bovis units. A healthy and energetic house may have something around 30-40 thousands Bovis units, typically.

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As we stood in front of the benches, I tried to measure the level there. I had to increase the scale, up and up until I reached a scale in the millions. That location gave me an 8 million Bovis reading !!!!

Standing there, I had a feeling that I was going up, floating. "

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Dear blog readers, read the rest of his webpage. It gets even more bizarre!
You might decide that my Kursi world for today's That's My World Tuesday is otherworldly.
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UPDATE Dec. 16, 2015:  UPDATE Dec. 16, 2015: A marble stone with a long Hebrew inscription was just found at Kursi, so Kursi may have been a Jewish town with a synagogue -- a surprise!
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Bright sun, sharp shadows

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Shadows of Jerusalem Technology Park for Hey Harriet's Shadow Shot Sunday.
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Across the street, in blue and white, is the Malcha Mall.
And in back of the mall the towering residential buildings of Holyland Park.
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Good news: the mall is air-conditioned. Yay!
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A bridge reflected

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In the reflection you can see the Sea of Galilee and a little bridge over a duck and fish pond-- gifts to the hosts and friends at James' Weekend Reflections and at Louis la Vache's Sunday Bridges.
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You'd never know it, but right behind the windows were hundreds of tourists eating seafood.
Yes, this is the famous fish restaurant of Kibbutz Ein Gev.

A view of the restaurant and patio.
All the palm leaves were furiously blowing eastward.
It was a strange super-hot day in June with a strong west wind creating a dust storm and rare whitecaps and high waves.

This is a map for Christian pilgrims from the Yardenit website.

Ein Gev is on the right (east) side of the lake.

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In case you missed my post on the yummy St. Peter's fish we had at Ein Gev, it's here.

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Heat loss

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Instead of showing the usual JHDP's cute cats, today I give you our hard reality for Camera-Critters Sunday.

Israel in summer means hot, sunny, and no rain.
But this summer has been abnormally hot.
And this last week has been brutally hot.
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The farm animals are suffering just like the rest of us.
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A report in Ynet (Yediot Aharonot) explains that the extreme heat makes it hard for cows to conceive and this lowers their milk production. By over 20%, in fact!

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The cows get misted with water and have fans blowing on them, but still, as one dairy farmer says, "It's like going around in a leather jacket in the heat of summer."

A million chickens died on the first day of the unprecedented heat wave alone, last Sunday.

Poor chickens.

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Even if the farmers spray the roofs and try to cool the coops, the water runs in above-ground pipes and comes in hot, even the chickens' drinking water.

(Even my water comes boiling into my cold water tap now in my hot little house. )

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Exacerbating the problem is the reduced water allotment that the government gives the farmers. Israel has been in drought for years and we are running out of water.

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The current heatwave is also ripening many fruits before their time.

Like peaches, plums, nectarines, grapes, watermelons.

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Also, there are not enough foreign workers (mainly Thais) to pick the fruit.

Imagine working in the field in the sun or in a hothouse the whole day.

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Sadly, thousands of tons of fruit are being tossed, wasted.

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Let's hope it will cool down soon, in Israel and in all the affected countries.

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Paying respects, 65 years later

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I posted details about this bonsho Japanese Zen Buddhist temple bell two years ago, when I first discovered it in a Jerusalem park.

Today, the 6th of August, 65 years since the fateful day in Hiroshima, I think of the bell again.

Living in the shadow of Ahmadinejad's threats of nuclear destruction of Israel, I feel a strange new bond with the folks who once lived in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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Anyway, here is the positive news from today's Jerusalem Post:

"US, nuclear powers join Hiroshima memorial

By ASSOCIATED PRESS 08/06/2010 07:12

The site of the world's worst atomic bomb attack echoed with choirs of schoolchildren and the solemn ringing of bells Friday as Hiroshima marked its biggest memorial yet and the first to be attended by the U.S. and other major nuclear powers.

Washington's decision to send U.S. Ambassador John Roos to the 65th anniversary of the bombing was seen by many as potentially paving the way for President Barack Obama to visit Hiroshima — which would be unprecedented for a sitting U.S. leader.

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Along with the U.S., Britain and France also made their first official appearance at the memorial, as well as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Altogether, 74 nations were represented.

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Roos said the memorial was a chance to show resolve toward nuclear disarmament: "For the sake of future generations, we must continue to work together to realize a world without nuclear weapons," he said in a statement.

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About 140,000 people were killed or died within months when the American B-29 "Enola Gay" bombed Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. Three days later, about 80,000 people died after the United States attacked Nagasaki.

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According to Japan's Kyodo news agency, the average age of the survivors is over 76 years, and the number of certified survivors has fallen to 227,565 from a peak of 370,000."
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May the horrors of World War II never repeat themselves.

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UPDATE: I discovered some interesting facts and ideas, new to me, about the Hiroshima bombing at http://ww2history.com/key_moments/Pacific/Nuclear_bomb_on_Hiroshima.
Apparently some Japanese were/are thankful for the atomic bomb because it saved Japan from being invaded by the USSR and the USA, who might then have shared/split Japan into two like East and West Germany, North and South Korea.
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Climbing into the sky

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This jet has a funny face, but I can't decide if its mouth is smiling or frowning.
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Happy Sky Watch Friday to all of you who love to fly.
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Jackhammers on Jaffa Road

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Enlarge the photo to see the bit a bit better

Just when I thought we had a nice new sidewalk along Jaffa Street (which has been torn up for years while the new tram rails are being built)--now I see it being drilled into and broken up.

Oi . . . again?
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But pity the poor workers who have to bend over a loud hot jackhammer in this abnormally high heat Jerusalem is presently suffering from.
Thanks guys.
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Cold cash

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Cold cash or credit card?
How do you like to pay?
Either way is good for ABC Wednesday's C Day.

Our newest form of currency, the plastic 20 shekel banknote, first came out in 2008.
The polypropylene (a polymer substrate) note is printed by Orell Fuessli Security Printing of Zürich.
(They say Israel is the land of milk and honey but Switzerland is the land of milk and money.)
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The face of the bill has the face of Moshe Sharett; a picture of the ceremony of the unfurling of theIsraeli flag at the UN building on May 12, 1949; and the text of the speech given by Sharett on that occasion.
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But most fun is the transparent "see-through" in the shape of a magen David.
Here's lookin' at ya!
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"Make a parapet for your roof"

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Even nights are hot in Jerusalem this week.
 IF my roof were flat, I would prefer to sleep on it instead of in the warm house.
In Biblical days the flat house roofs were like an outdoor room, used for many tasks, including sleeping.
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So the Bible, in Deuteronomy 22:8, gave us a good "building code":

"When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you will not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone falls from it."

In Jerusalem we still take that law seriously. Here are some examples of parapets:

David's Village, Mamilla

In Romema

Mamilla Hotel

An old synagogue being repaired in Nachlaot

Israel Broadcasting Authority building (formerly Shaarei Zedek Hospital)

In a very Orthodox neighborhood

Shikun HaRabbanim in Romema

An old hotel near Jaffa Gate, Old City

Apartments over the bastot stalls of Mahaneh Yehuda market

Christian Information Center near Jaffa Gate, Old City

St. Vincent de Paul hospice, Mamilla
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I hope you enjoyed your roof tour for That's My World Tuesday. Shalom!

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