The Fat Tuesday before Ash Wednesday

. Last chance before Lent to enjoy a fondue. Last night my Christian friends cooked the cheese mixture in the Swiss Canton of Neuchatel style. . We all dipped and twirled our bread cubes in the hot cheese.

Being Jewish, I myself will not have to observe the long Lenten "fast," i.e. restriction on certain foods, that lasts until Easter.

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But I wish all who are entering Lent today, on this Ash Wednesday, a meaningful and blessed time of contemplation and repentance and spiritual preparation.

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Electricity emergency

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We had an exciting electricity emergency, just in time for ABC Wednesday.
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I had my hands in water doing some hand laundry in the sink when suddenly a strange noise outside made me turn. Through the window I was shocked (so to speak) to see a heavy metal cable breaking free from its electric pole and falling in what I first thought was the general direction of my roof!
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I ran out of the house.
The cable was swinging back and forth in the air.

(All photos enlarge with a click.)

We called the electric company.

In three hours they were in our village, re-attaching the cable.

I always think linemen are very brave.

See that sign on this (and every other) pole?

It says in Hebrew, Arabic, and English "DANGER OF DEATH."

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A plain old rope attached to the bumper of the car helped pull the heavy cable back into position.

Thanks, guys!
Things are back to normal again.

But it still looks to me like that long stretch of cable is hanging by a proverbial thread.

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Abraham Lincoln in Jerusalem

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Today, Feb. 15, Americans are celebrating (what is erroneously called) Presidents' Day.
And I actually found a Jerusalem photo for the day!

This street corner in Jerusalem is prime real estate. The prestigious King David Hotel is on the left, and the dome and tower you see are the venerable old YMCA.

It is where Abraham Lincoln meets King David!

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It made me wonder why President Lincoln got a street in Jewish Jerusalem.

The nice book The Streets of Jerusalem: who, what, why may hold the answer.
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Author Ronald Eisenberg writes this:

"When the House of Representatives enacted a law mandating that every chaplain for the army and for military hospitals be 'a regularly ordained minister of some Christian denomination,' Lincoln strongly supported legislation to allow rabbis to serve in these capacities. "

and

"In response to an edict by General Ulysses S. Grant expelling all Jews from the area of his command, allegedly because they were engaging in illegal trade, Lincoln declared the order unjust and forced its immediate cancellation."

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So on this, America's special day, I say "Thanks, Abe!"

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And happy That's My World day to all, especially to the blogger that everyone knows, Abraham Lincoln, who is a real live relative of President Lincoln.

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Ahava

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It turns out that Valentine's Day is called Yom HaAhava in Israel, i.e. Love Day.
And this year the 30th of Shvat happened to fall on February 14, so today is Family Day as well.
(30 Shvat is the yahrzeit of Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah Women.)

Dean and Eyal loved playing in this part of the Sculpture Garden. And why not? The letters spell ahava, Hebrew for LOVE.
Robert Indiana designed "Ahava" especially for the Israel Museum. The artist avoided his usual bold colors here because the sculpture is positioned in a way that makes it possible to sky-watch through the letters.
It is said that this angle alludes to the marriage of heaven and earth, with love.

I love how the big brother lovingly embraces his little brother, helping him down from the big sculpture.

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Wishing you all a happy day filled with love.

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Seeing red in Jerusalem

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A lightpole's shadow climbs over a bench for Hey Harriet's "Shadow Shot Sunday."

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Jerusalem does not do much with Valentine's Day (it being a goyishe holiday and all).

So this is the closest thing I can find that is even vaguely heart-shaped.

But at least it is red, Calder red!

(Remember the posts about it getting painted, here and here?)

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Alexander Calder's "Homage to Jerusalem - Stabile" was dedicated in 1977 on Mount Herzl.

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May all you blogger friends and readers receive, and give, lots of love on Valentine's Day and every day.

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Lolling in the warm February sun

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February is still supposed to be winter in Israel.
But instead we are having a week of heat-wave days.
Jerusalem is in the mid- to high-70s F, 23 to 27 C.
Tel Aviv and the south are even warmer.

My friend Shachar likes to soak up the rare winter warmth on roof tops.

On this other roof she even can be near olive branches. Very peaceful.

She can sleep soundly here because she knows jackals can't get up there.

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For Camera-Critter Sunday.

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Your love is coming back

"Your LOVE is returning."

Ben-Gurion Airport's Terminal 3 Arrivals is always full of excited stay-behinds anxiously waiting for their loved ones to return from abroad.
What joy when the sliding doors of Customs open and they step out.
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For James' meme, "Weekend Reflections."
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Bench music

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For RuneE of Visual Norway's "Bench on Friday," here are some boys on a bench.

Grandsons Dean and Eyal were here visiting from Australia almost a year ago.

The benches are in the center garden of the round Belgium House, Beit Belgia, on the campus of Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

A nice little hotel where visiting faculty can stay.

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Clouds like mountains

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Best seen full screen.

A glorious February sunset in the Jerusalem Hills.

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For SkyWatch Friday, with love.

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More about the humble dude

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Wow, you want-to-know readers never let me off easy!
Your questions about yesterday's solar water heaters need a whole new post.

1. OK, so today I telephoned the company that installs the dood shemesh pictured above.
The basic dood unit costs 2300 shekels = $614 =446 Euros.
Not bad, right?
Big savings on your electric bill when you let the sun heat your water for free.

2. The black collector panels connected to the water tank are NOT the same as solar panels.
The water inside the black coils heats up quickly (because that is what black does).
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Solar panels, on the other hand, collect heat and turn it into useable electricity.

3. The high percentage (90%) of Israeli families that have a dood shemesh is because we WANT them and believe in them, not because it is now mandatory.
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I found the following historical information in a good blog called MetaEfficient, The Guide to Highly Efficient Things:
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"These heaters were first installed when the country experienced a fuel supply crisis in the early 1950s. The government responded by severely restricting the times when water could be heated. Israelis in turn responded by purchasing huge quantities of solar water heaters. By 1983, 60% of the population heated their water with the sun. A law was eventually passed requiring the installation of solar water heaters."

4. We are poor in natural resources but rich with sunshine.
Israeli companies are the forerunners in alternative energy sources.

Hawaiian bloggers like Cloudia even tell me that our ORMAT company is harvesting power from their Big Island's volcano!
I think it is something like digging a well to capture geothermal fluid (steam?) and turn it into electricity.
But better you ask the Hawaiians about that. :)
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Hey dude

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For D Day at ABC Wednesday, let's take the Hebrew word dood.

A dood shemesh is a solar water heater.

Some 90% of Israeli families have one on their roof.
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The first two photos are not representative because these tanks are sitting on the ground, next to their house. (Well, actually it is a converted chicken house, with a roof apparently not strong enough for a dood on top.) But it is a good chance to show you a dood up close.

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Typical domestic units consist of a 150 liter insulated storage tank and a 2 square meter flat panel. The black collector panel collects solar radiation, heats the water, and passes it to storage in a pumpless, gravity-driven loop.

Convection carries colder water from the bottom of the tank into the collector and hot water rises to the upper intake on the tank.

After a few hours of good Israeli sunshine, you just open your taps and out comes near-boiling water!

If the sun hides for a few days (which happens only in winter), set the timer or flip the switch to run the immersion heater built into the tank for half an hour before you want a shower.

The ubiquitous dood shemesh is found on apartment building roofs,

on buildings in Jerusalem's Old City,

on Vatican-property roofs in East Jerusalem,

and on Bedouin village houses in the desert.

In short, EVERYWHERE.

On slanting roofs, the dood is often put in a horizontal fashion.

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Good system to let the sun do the work, eh? Saving fuel, saving money.

Would it, or does it, work in your country?

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In 2005 Spain became the second country (after Israel) to require solar water heaters by law.

And in 2010 Hawaii will require all new houses to have one!

How do you say dood shemesh in Hawaiian?

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Zion Gate by night

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On a cold and rainy night last week we walked out of the Old City of Jerusalem through the Zion Gate.
But not until this little car exited. There is no room for both pedestrians and a car.
The bigger cars have to maneuver, with at least one backing-up, through the angled gate.
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They can blame the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. He built the city wall (on top of a much older one) in 1540.
He made the Zion Gate, as well as the Jaffa and Damascus Gates, angled in order to prevent invaders from charging straight through.

Archers could shoot arrows from the top of the wall.
Through the opening just above the arch the defenders could pour boiling tar or oil on an attacking enemy.
Iron rods could be pushed out from the long slits on the left and right of the gate to stop enemy chariots.
The sharp turn to the right made it hard for horsemen holding a sword or javelin in their right hand to overcome defenders on the inside attacking them from their left.
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Even in modern times the Zion Gate has suffered, as the many bullet holes from the 1948 War of Independence testify.


The pavement around the gate, when wet, is only slightly less slippery than it looks.
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Zion Gate underwent six months of restoration in 2008. A good photo of the work on the Sultan's dedicatory plaque is here.
Wikipedia has a brief history of the gate.
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Hope you enjoyed your night journey to the Holy City.
For more tours around the blog world, check in to That's My World Tuesday tonight.
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The lighting on the wall

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Our sun is out again (!), leaving sort of a reverse shadow on the wall.
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For Hey Harriet's "Shadow Shot Sunday."
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Coping with winter

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The hills surrounding Jerusalem have seen four straight nights of freezing temperatures.
No snow, but cold enough that we have to leave the house faucets dripping all night so that the water tanks and glass water-heating panels on the roofs will not freeze and crack.
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That happened a lot last time it snowed, in 2008. Water was gushing from the roofs of many houses in the village the morning after. Guess they forgot the drip trick.
Well, we only see snow here once every few years.
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For Camera-Critter Sunday, here are some snowy cat pictures from two years ago.

My cat friends at the neighbors' woods were wet and cold and confused, this being their first encounter with snow.

Mother Lara and her black daughter even had a hissy fit.

Lara tried hard to keep her tail and at least one foot off that white stuff that invaded her grounds.

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To Reader Wil. A Psalm of snow

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Blogger friend Reader Wil in The Netherlands wondered "if there are any psalms dedicated to the snowy mountains of Jerusalem."
Wil knows her Bible very well. And I'm sure she has a Bible concordance to look up snow references. I suspect she knew the answer herself.
But, former teacher that she is, she succeeded in stimulating my curiousity. I researched, I read, I wrote.
Thanks, Teacher Wil.
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Psalms 147:12 ff
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Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
Praise your God, O Zion!

For . . . he sends forth his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
He gives snow like wool;
he scatters hoarfrost like ashes.
He casts forth his ice like crumbs;
who can stand before his cold?

He sends forth his word, and melts them;
he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.
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יב שבחי ירושלים, את-יהוה; הללי אלוהייך ציון.יג כי-חיזק, בריחי שערייך; בירך בנייך בקרבך.יד השם-גבולך שלום; חלב חיטים, ישביעך.טו השולח אמרתו ארץ; עד-מהרה, ירוץ דברו.טז הנותן שלג כצמר; כפור, כאפר יפזר.יז משליך קרחו כפיתים; לפני קרתו, מי יעמוד.יח ישלח דברו וימסם; ישב רוחו, ייזלו-מים.

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The snow of 2008

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Jerusalemites were hoping for snow last night.
But the most we got was a short fall of mixed hail, rain, and a few snowflakes this morning.
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By now I have such snow envy that I am just going to go ahead and post favorite photos from our last snow which was two years ago.
The pictures were taken in my mountain village in the Hills of Jerusalem.
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The cloud came in the valley!

Falling flakes, yay!

The new green grass of late January didn't know what hit it.
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So happy to have these memories of a snowy sky to share for SkyWatch Friday!

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Staying warm

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HAIL Winter, full of surprises!

A brief but fierce hail storm caught me as I was walking up to buy bread this morning. Oi!

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Readers of yesterday's post were surprised that Israel can be cold.

Some asked about our heating system.

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Well, here is mine. This electric radiator is my heat source.

That plus fleece-lined jeans, thermal undershirt and two sweaters, and "fur"-lined hiking boots.

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Jerusalem's stone and concrete buildings are notorious for retaining coldness all winter.

Normally it is warmer outside than inside.
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And at night the radiator is turned off, the window is opened, and I quickly dive under the fluffy feather-filled puch.

A simple old-fashioned hot-water bottle under the blankets does wonders to defrost feet that have half-frozen on the cold stone floor.

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I'm not sure but I imagine new and modern residential buildings have central heating, maybe.

Because of our high altitudes, Jerusalem and the Upper Galilee always have the coldest temperatures in the nation.

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Today's Ynet has a surprising article which begins "The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews . . . is donating NIS 20 million (approximately $5 million) to pay the heating bills of 134,000 elderly people in need throughout Israel, ensuring that they will have a warm and safe winter. This is the first time in Israel that a philanthropic organization is transferring its donation directly to the Electric Corp., which will deduct the sum from personal electric bills of eligible recipients. . . ."

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Zero degrees C in Jerusalem tonight

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I braved the driving, freezing rain this afternoon to go up to Jerusalem.
An American friend is here on a whirlwind guided tour and this was the only free hour she had.
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The group's Inbal Hotel enjoys a view of Mount Zion.
That is the church and bell tower of the Dormition Abbey on the horizon.
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Here is the Dormition up close. The basilica was dedicated in 1910.
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Pastor Suzanne dragged me out into the cold and wind and rain to visit the Old City and, just outside the Old City, Mount Zion. All for night shots.
Can you tell that my friend is a photo blogger? :-)

Hagia Maria Sion, as the Dormition is also called, is an abbey of Benedictine monks.

Their website is in German and English.

For more pictures and info you can also click my "Dormition" label.

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Jerusalem is beautiful by night!

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My world of trees

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The almond trees are blossoming!

Right on time for their Tu BiShvat holiday.
That's the New Year for Trees that I posted about last Friday and Saturday.

It has become a custom in Israel for classes of schoolchildren to go out and plant baby trees in honor of the Birthday of the Trees.

In the week before this Tu BiShvat over 800,000 trees were planted!

The Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet leYisrael) is the body that manages our beloved groves, woods, and forests.

Since 1901 the JNF has planted 240 million trees!

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Please see my post about the JNF's gigantic Golden Book, dating back to 1901.

And their nice forest markers here.
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The pushke in the above photo is the famous Keren Kayemet donation box which Jewish families here and in the Diaspora always had in their homes.

It was, and is, very special to help make the barren land green.
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Growing up in Chicago I always dreamed about someday living in nature. Now it is true--I live on a little mountain surrounded by the forested Hills of Jerusalem.

Happy to say That's My World.

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