Ethiopian Church exterior

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For That's My World and also ABC Wednesday, E is for Ethiopian Church--exterior.
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If you walk down the narrow lane just outside Jerusalem's Old City  to No. 10 Ethiopia Street,

you will find the (Ethiopian Orthodox)  Ethiopian Church.
It was built in stages between 1874 and 1901. 

The Bible says (I Kings 10:1-6) that the Queen of Sheba traveled to Jerusalem  in a great caravan to visit King Solomon.
According to Ethiopian tradition, the Ethiopian royal dynasty began with a union between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
Our symbol, the Lion of Judah, also became the emblem of the Ethiopian kingdom, but with the addition of a cross and crown.

When you come to visit, you may have to ask to have the church unlocked.
Here in the picture a nun smiles as the monk removes his shoes and opens the door for us.
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Please come back tomorrow to see the surprising interior.
It is Jerusalem's only circular church sanctuary.
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Feb. 14th

LOVE, even if a bit rusty.

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LO

VE -- Robert Indiana's Hebrew version,  AHAVA,  at the Israel Museum.

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Wishing you a happy day filled with ahava.

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God examines hearts and kidneys

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PSALM 7  for the weekly PsalmChallenge which is centered in Athens.
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1. A Shiggaiaon. Of David, which he sang to the LORD, concerning Cush, a Benjaminite

2. O LORD, my God, in You I take refuge; deliver me from all my pursuers and save me,
3. lest he, like a lion, rend me, tear me apart, with no one to save me.
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4. O LORD, my God, if I have done this: if my hands bear the guilt of wrongdoing,
5. if I have dealt evil to my ally, or plundered my foe without cause,
6. then let the enemy pursue and overtake me; let him trample my life to the ground, and lay my body in the dust. Selah.
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7. Rise O LORD in Your anger; lift Yourself up against the fury of my foes, bestir on my behalf the judgment You have ordained.

8. An assembly of peoples gathers about You - above it return on high.
9. The LORD brings the peoples to trial; judge me, O LORD, for the righteousness and blamelessness that is in me.
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10. Let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; He who probes the heart and conscience  is the righteous God.
11. My shield is with God, the deliverer of the upright in heart.
12. God judges the righteous; God pronounces doom each day.
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13. If one does not turn back, but whets his sword, bends his bow and prepares it,

14. then against himself he prepares deadly weapons, and makes his arrows sharp. 



15. See, he hatches evil, conceives mischief, and gives birth to lies.

16. He has created a pit and dug it out, and he will fall into the trap he made.17. His mischief will turn back on his own head; his lawlessness will come down upon his skull.
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18. I will praise the LORD for His righteousness, and sing a hymn to the name of the LORD Most High.

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Note  Verse 10:  ט יְהֹוָה יָדִין עַמִּים שָׁפְטֵנִי יְהֹוָה כְּצִדְקִי וּכְתֻמִּי עָלָֽי

: י יִגְמָר־נָא רַע
רְשָׁעִים וּתְכוֹנֵן צַדִּיק וּבֹחֵן לִבּוֹת וּכְלָיוֹת אֱלֹהִים צַדִּֽיק

Bochen libot uklayot  means literally  "examines hearts and kidneys." 

 
In Biblical times, the kidneys were the seat of emotion; the heart was the source of thought.
Today the idiom is translated "God tests the hearts and insides" or "probes the heart and conscience" or " tries hearts and minds."
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Photos:  1. Detail, exterior of Church of the Holy Sepulchre   2. a courtroom in Israel's Supreme Court  3 and 4. an archer in Switzerland  5. Canaanite shaft tomb,  Holyland Park excavations
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Final shadows of day

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 Shadows cast by the setting sun at 5:08 pm. 

This is from inside my friends' house, just before I shut the shutters from the outside  (see previous post).

Wooden Moses seems to be observing the pretty shadows too.

All for Shadow Shot Sunday.

Upside down sleepyhead

As I closed my friends' shutters against the invading rain, I discovered two of these animals.

One scampered away immediately, but this one just continued sleeping.

Its "eyelids" stayed closed.

Enlarge the photo and see the vertical line where the eyelids meet.

You can even see the ear opening and the bumpy skin!

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When I released the second of the antique little "Menschelach" and moved the other shutter, which gave a rusty screech, only then did the lizard come to life and run away.

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For Camera-Critters, this is.
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Party time reflections

All is ready for a birthday party

at my neighbor's newly redone mud brick structure.

Lots of shiny surfaces for James' Weekend Reflections.

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Shabbat shalom to all.

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A rainbow crown for Jerusalem's Old City!

Jerusalem was treated to a rare phenomenon on Monday!
A rainbow!
In these first two photos taken by a friend from her vantage point in the city, it looks like the arc starts in the Christian Quarter inside the walled Old City

 and ends in the Jewish Quarter.
Enlarge her pictures to find the landmarks you already know. 
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It was strange: thunder and lightning, then suddenly a few minutes of sunshine and rainbow, then gloomy darkness and a downpour.

From my house in the Jerusalem Hills I could only see half a bow, and it was touching the tall mast of the Bridge of Strings.
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This is only the second rainbow in several years that I have seen and I'm so happy to share it with you for  SkyWatch Friday.
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From Florida to Jerusalem

I was walking to the Italian Jewish Art Museum when I spotted this institution for the first time. 

I wasn't familiar with Southeastern University but I figured this must be another new Jerusalem branch of an American college, most likely Protestant, probably Evangelical. 

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Back home, I Googled and found  two opposing views of this school:

  Southeastern's Jerusalem campus website  vs.  an anti-"missionary" Jewish website

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As I have written many times, nothing is simple in Israel; life is always made complicated.

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Dagger display

To my delight, these dangerous daggers were safely displayed behind glass at Jerusalem's Museum of Islamic Art. 

(Yes, it's ABC Wednesday D-day.)

The kind  without a fancy hilt is called katar, I think.

They are all antique daggers from around the Middle East. 

Besides being a weapon of war, the dagger is useful in hunting and eating, and a beautiful one can be a ceremonial status symbol. 
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UPDATE:  You can see the 4,000-year-old stone  pommel of a Canaanite dagger that we unearthed at the Holyland Park dig in Jerusalem in an earlier post.

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Trams in training!

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 For the first time in 3,000  years,  trams are moving through the streets of Jerusalem!
YAY!!
Yesterday was my first time to see one actually moving. 
I was so excited to see it coming that I ran across the street in order not to be shooting into the sun when  the tram would pass by.
The shadow on the zebra crossing is of the guard who shouted at me "Hurry up, fast!"
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The trams and their drivers will be doing such training runs for a few months before they dare to load up with curious first-time passengers.

Route map from CityPass 
(can be enlarged with a click) 

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What you see in the top photo  is the end of the train as it goes along Jaffa Street in the direction of the Old City.

It seemed rather incongruous, a sleek modern light rail in the narrow street  lined with old stone buildings housing mom and pop shops, right next to the old Machane Yehuda vegetable market.

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But I guess here in Jerusalem contrasts are nothing new to us.

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Most residents hated the  dug  up streets and congestion, but for me as a blogger it has been fascinating to watch and record, for these  many years, the building of Israel's first light rail transit system.

(Proof  of which is under my label "tram.")

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I'm proud to say That's My World.

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Psalm 6 -- bones, bed

PSALM 6

1. To the chief Musician for stringed instruments, according to the Sheminith, a psalm of David.

2. O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor chasten me in your hot displeasure.
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3. Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak;  O Lord, heal me, for my bones shudder. 

4. My soul is also much troubled. And you, O Lord, how long?

5. Return, O Lord, deliver my soul. Oh save me for the sake of your loving kindness!

6. For in death there is no remembrance of you. In Sheol who shall give you thanks?

7. I am weary with my moaning; all night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears.

8. My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my enemies.

9. Depart from me, all you evil doers; for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.
10. The Lord has heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer.
11. Let all my enemies be ashamed and much troubled; let them return and be ashamed in a moment.

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Photos:  1. The Australian Museum skeleton room.
2. Dean and I slept one night in an ancient hermitage.(He was not really sad.)
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This post joins those of other Psalm illustrators at Robert's weekly Psalm Challenge at Daily Athens.
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Bridges to archaeology

 One way to allow the public to visit an archaeological site is to build bridges over the old stones.

Dig work can continue beneath  the visitors, as happens here at the City of David, a top tourist destination in Jerusalem.
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These "bridges" are for Sunday Bridges .
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Wet fur coats



Wet mother and daughter at dinner

 For six  of the last eight days it has been raining.
The aquifers and the Sea of Galilee, the plants and the earth all love the long-awaited water.
But my neighbors'  outdoor cats hate the wet and cold.  

The clouds sit not just on top of the mountains, they creep down to the valley and into  ravines.

I know Israel needs the rain, but like the cats, I will be happy to see and feel some sunshine again.

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My  feline  friends are posted for Camera Critters weekend meme.

Surveillance cameras in the shadows

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Shadows of security cameras

The 16th century Zion Gate, an entrance into the Old City for pedestrians and (small) cars, was a few years ago treated to an intensive 6-month restoration.

The 800,000 shekel  (then over a quarter million dollars) cleaning, fixing, and strengthening  was courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority with financial support from the Jerusalem Development Authority and the Jerusalem Municipality.

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The dedicatory plaque installed by the great builder Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman sultan who commissioned the walls of Jerusalem, was painstakingly restored.

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The hundreds of bullet and shell marks were preserved, a lesson for posterity of what can happen in war.

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Old Zion Gate photos: A  very touching photo from 1948 and a historic photo from 1865 can be viewed here.

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(The night shadows are for Shadow Shot Sunday meme.)

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Reflected in a bumpy surface

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A weird reflection of my camera and me in a not-smooth metal sign.

Here is the building that the plaque describes.

Now it is part of the complex of old and new buildings around the Jerusalem City Hall, Safra Square.

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The distorted reflection is contributed to James' Weekend Reflections.

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A niche market for red pitaya

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A new exotic fruit at the market! Sweet RED pitaya, aka dragon fruit.
It used to be only white inside.

But since each one costs ten shekels (!), I won't be able to tell you how it tastes.

Israel recently developed this new variety because extra-healthy RED fruit is apparently "in" these days.
You'll enjoy seeing the new ways pitaya is pollinated, grown, and packed in this 3-minute video.
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Advancements in agriculture are something Israel can be proud of.
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Visit Rob and Mandy's Food for Thoughts meme to see a variety of foods and places to eat.
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Creating light

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The Hebrew on the black T shirt is from Genesis:

"And God said . . .

[energy formulas]

. . . and there was light."

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Light in the heavens for Sky Watch Friday.
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Showers bring flowers

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(Enlarge and see dewdrops sitting on top of the grass!)

UPDATE: I meant to tell you that the rafeket or cyclamen is now Israel's national flower.
It is one of the first wildflowers to bloom when the winter rains start.
This year these flowers first appeared in mid-January.
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See also rakafot growing in a high stone wall--click here.
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A legend about the shy and graceful cyclamen, also called nezer Shlomo, meaning "the crown of Solomon," says that when Solomon became king he chose the cyclamen as a model for his crown.

Centuries later, when Jerusalem was conquered, the royal crown was stolen from the king's treasury.
The cyclamen bowed its head in sorrow, saying, "Only when a son of David again ascends the throne and the crown is returned to Jerusalem shall I once again stand erect."
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Till today, the cyclamen droops its head.
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Clouds, winds of change

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Cumulous clouds for ABC Wednesday.
There is a big heavy cloud over the Middle East.

Here it has rained since Saturday; it is wet and windy and at night it goes down to almost freezing in the Jerusalem Hills.
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The sun is down now and I wonder how cold it is for the over one million people right now in Tahrir Square. Cairo is only 264 miles from here.
Let's all hope for the best, for Egypt and for Israel.
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A fountain that screwed up

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The water has been turned off in many beautiful fountains in drought-stricken Israel.
But for this fountain in Jerusalem's Safra Square, it's especially sad because the Archimedes' screw is, after all, a way to raise water from one level to another.

Here is an old Archimedes' screw that was actually used in agriculture years ago.
The now-rusty handle was once turned by hand.
It's on display with other old tools in Sergei Courtyard in the Russian Compound.
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This post is for both the weekly meme That's My World and the monthly City Daily Photo Theme Day.  The Februay 1 theme is fountains. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants
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