Entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday

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For me it is the day before Pesach, a day for cleaning the cupboards of the last vestiges of bread, cookies, pasta, etc.--anything that may have touched leavening. Tomorrow we start a week of eating matsa, the hard "bread of affliction," instead of soft bread.
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But for Christians, today is Palm Sunday and I wish you all a joyous holy day.
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If I were a braver blogger, I would have gone to the Holy Sepulchre to get you fresh photos of the festivities.
I should explain that this ancient church is not your modern orderly type of church. It has no pews or chairs. You do not have your own space.
Instead you have surging masses of pilgrims, the press of bodies, a lack of air.

Last time I was in the huge church for Palm Sunday, I was literally trapped in the crowd and could not force my way to the only door.
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But my pictures from 2007 are basically no different from what is happening this very day and year.
So I invite you to see my previous slideshows, from the comfort of our own homes:

• Morning services for Palm Sunday in the Holy Sepulchre
• Afternoon pilgrimage of the faithful from Mt. of Olives to the Old City

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The Fat Tuesday before Ash Wednesday

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Last chance before Lent to enjoy a fondue.
Last night my Christian friends cooked the cheese mixture in the Swiss Canton of Neuchatel style.
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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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Coptic Orthodox

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Today is Russian Orthodox Christmas.
I was planning to post pictures of the big and beautiful Russian Orthodox monastery in Ein Kerem.
But then I read the so very sad news that seven men were gunned down outside the Coptic church right after Christmas Eve Midnight Mass last night in southern Egypt.

In memory of them I give you whatever photos I have of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Jerusalem.

The Copts have a presence in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

You can see their priests and the faithful in this celebration of Palm Sunday 2007.

Since the 13th century the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria has been represented in Jerusalem by a resident archbishop.

They seem to have a nunnery in the Old City.

Slaying the dragon.

At the entrance to the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate.

I think this was on Via Dolorosa Street.

( The signs at the far left are obviously not connected to the Patriarchate. )

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The only statistics I can find say that in 2001 the small community numbered just over 1,000 members, in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth.

I get the impression that Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the Coptic Christians have religious freedom and security.

I wish them well on their Christmas Day and always.

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Joyful at the Western Wall

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Shalom, welcome to the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City!
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(Photos enlarge with a click.)

And just because the Wall is the only remnant of the Temple complex does not mean it is holy only to Jews. Look at all these Evangelical Christians singing and shouting for joy!

Hands high in praise!

Hallelujah -- הללויה

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Just behind the Western Wall is the Temple Mount or in Arabic, al-Haram al-Sharif الحرم الشريف (the Noble Sanctuary), home to Al-Aksa Mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock. The whole mount there on top is administered by the Muslim Wakf.

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So there you have it! In one small space the three great monotheistic religions.

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That's My World Tuesday is a nice meme where bloggers offer you a guided tour of their nice places. Free! Click and go, enjoy!

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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Jerusalem's version of empty

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In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre devout Christians can stand in line for hours for their turn to enter the tiny chamber containing the grave.
Only three at a time can fit into the chapel to kneel and touch their head or lips to the simple marble shelf which covers the stone tomb.

The EMPTY state of this sepulchre is the foundation of Christian faith.
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As is written in Greek next to the icon, Χριστός ανέστη -- Christos anesti, Christ is risen.
He is not here.
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Κύριε ἐλέησον

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At the center of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre stands this edicule, and inside is the tomb where Jesus was buried (according to Catholic and Orthodox tradition).

This is a rare photo of the edicule with no crowds standing in line to enter it. Early morning today.

But yesterday this same place was much more colorful, with red vestments bringing to mind the red tongues of fire.
The Orthodox churches were celebrating Pentecost.

The prostration is because of the liturgy of the day.

The Greek Orthodox have three sets of kneeling prayers for Pentecost.
The first is a prayer of great repentance; the second prayer is a call to the Holy Spirit to help the faithful follow the right path during their life; and the third prayer is to remember those who have gone before.

Some selected lines from the liturgy:

DEACON: For those who incline their hearts as well as the knee before the Lord, let us pray to the Lord.
CANTOR: Lord, have mercy.

DEACON: That He will accept our act of kneeling as incense before Him, let us pray to the Lord.
CANTOR: Lord, have mercy.

. . .

DEACON: Again, on bended knees, let us pray to the Lord.
CANTOR: Lord, have mercy. Kyrie eleison.

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(For views of other worlds by other bloggers please visit That's My World Tuesday.)
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Below in the darkness, but shielded

A dark flower (that appears, briefly, in the secret places of our woods always around Holy Week). For the Orthodox Christians, now under the heaviness of "Good" Friday and Holy Saturday.
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Conflict transformation

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For full impact click on the photo and read the writing on the wall.

It's a good thing that the inscription on this building is safely hidden behind a tall stone wall, a sliding metal gate, and a security guard. An ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood is just a block away.

What the historical building plaque posted outside the wall says is rather tame and lackluster in comparison, pointedly.

The English Mission Hospital was completed in 1897 and the doctors served all the different peoples of Jerusalem. The rabbis were dead-set against any Jew entering the doors of a Christian hospital.

But since the early 1960s the Anglican International School Jerusalem is housed here.

The school cat who came right over for a cuddle shows just how friendly the atmosphere is.

The place is old and beautiful. For their 100th anniversary the stones were cleaned with sandblasting.

The school has grades K-12, all taught in English. The student body is made up of 20-25% Palestinians, a handful of Jews, and the rest from the consular corps.

Speaking of foreign diplomatic families . . . this is especially for blog-buddy Catherine Mark-Beasant who writes about her years at the Anglican School decades ago in this interesting and touching post.
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The sundial quotes the Song of Songs in the Bible: "Until the day break and the shadows flee away."

And some shadows did flee away during the ten weeks I participated in a weekly Slim Peace group in this classroom behind the arch. All women. A few Arabs, a few Jews, a nun, a nutritionist, a facilitator, and a film-maker. Ostensibly coming together to discuss better nutrition and healthier living, but much more than that.

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What's your world like? You too can share it every Monday night with the bloggers at That's My World , or just come for a visit. Shalom!

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Frocks for friars

Frocks for friars.
Ordo Praedicatorum, the Order of Preachers . . . Dominicans.
Forty days of fasting, beginning tomorrow, Ash Wednesday.
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F is the letter of the day for ABC Wednesday bloggers.

The gathering of the greens

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Today, the first of the four Sundays of Advent, the Western Church begins a new liturgical year.
My friends went through our forest and in their garden to gather the symbolic greens for the Advent season.

Wishing a blessed Advent, that special time of watchful anticipation and waiting, to all our Christian friends. May it be a peaceful month leading into Christmas.

Pow! Boom! Wham!

UPDATE: A 4-minute video that shows the mayhem best is here on YouTube. A must-see!

Tempers flared and fists flew for nearly an hour in the Holy Sepulchre this morning. Greek Orthodox versus Armenians. Israeli army and riot police were called in to break up the fight between the warring monks and priests. One from each side was arrested.

The full story and background can be found in Ha'aretz. A shorter version in the Jerusalem Post. Many readers' comments coming in, both funny and caustic. Both sites just now put up amazing videos of the brawl.

Some pictures will help you understand what is written in the newspapers.

Under the rotunda is the edicule, a small "house" protecting the tomb of Jesus.

A priest stands guard at the entrance. No one passes until he says so. Only two or three people fit into the little chamber inside.

So sometimes the faithful must wait in line for hours to enter.

After what seems like half a minute the priest shoos you out.

A simple marble shelf covers the remains of the stone tomb.

Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholics (here called the Latin Church), Armenians, Syrian Orthodox, Copts, and Ethiopians--all these Christians have separate chapels within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The troubles always start when it comes to the common areas, like the entrance courtyard, the Stone of Unction, the Rotunda, and the Edicule.

The Yad Ben-Zvi guidebook says

"The agreements reached by the various religious communities over ownership of different parts of the Church ... are called the Status Quo. These also include the timing of religious ceremonies within the commonly-owned areas .... These accords are very complex and reflect the tumultuous history of Jerusalem and the fortunes of each of the ... communities."

Because of the rivalries the key to the church has been entrusted for many generations to a Muslim family. "The Ceremony of the Key is a holdover from the expulsion of the Crusaders from Jerusalem, when Muslim rulers limited access to the church. Prior to 1831 and the rule of Ibrahim Pasha, Christian pilgrims could only enter on payment of a stiff fee and were locked in for the night. The owners of the key were the Joudeh family, while the Nusseibeh family, also Muslims, were actually in charge of opening the door."
(from guidebook by Sarah Kochav)

The Ha'aretz article gives examples of problems caused by the status quo:

"The Israeli government has long wanted to build a fire exit in the church, which regularly fills with thousands of pilgrims and has only one main door, but the plan is on hold because the sects cannot agree where the exit will be built. In another example, a ladder placed on a ledge over the entrance sometime in the 19th century has remained there ever since because of a dispute over who has the authority to take it down. More recently, a spat between Ethiopian and Coptic Christians is delaying badly needed renovations to a rooftop monastery that engineers say could collapse."

Indeed I was trapped in the press of the crowd on Palm Sunday and it took me much time and patience and will power to reach the one and only door. The doors are high but not wide.

As mentioned in the paper, this is the Ethiopian compound on the roof of the church. The monks live in these tiny monastic cells in great poverty.

And here is the famous ladder which no one dare remove since the 19th century.

Location, location, location, status quo, status quo, status quo.

Welcome to the Middle East!
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Over to Switzerland, just for Reformation Day

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Two shots of books in this post. (Books is the City Daily Photo group's Nov. 1 theme.)
The same book, the Bible, but in two vastly different moods.

Knowing the church would be packed for All Saints and All Souls Days (Oct. 31 and Nov. 1), Martin Luther seized the day to nail his "95 Theses" protest on the Wittenberg church door. That was back in 1517 and till today Protestants mark Oct. 31 as Reformation Day, including here in Jerusalem.

Well, Luther was no friend of the Jews, to put it mildly, so you won't find a statue of him in Israel (unless there is one I don't know of, tucked away in some Lutheran church). So to illustrate Reformation Day I have to open my photo archive from when I lived in lovely Switzerland (2002-3).
Meet Guillaume Farel (1489-1565), fiery French preacher, a founder of the Reformed Church in the Francophone cantons of Switzerland.

He guards the door to the old (begun in 1185) Collegiale in Neuchatel, Switzerland. Click on the first photo to see his face and understand why, whenever I entered this basilica, I would duck in quickly to avoid his wrath!

The pulpit Bible is more friendly-looking than the one in Farel's hands.

This 14-th century cenotaph is a grand piece of Gothic art, the only monument of its kind outside Italy. Fortunately it escaped the iconoclastic frenzy of the Reformers in 1530. The citizens did not have the heart to destroy their own noblemen in this Monument of the Neuchatel Counts.

I loved to look at them while hearing marvelous free organ concerts the church gave one Friday each month.

What is this one holding, another book, a scroll??

BTW, a major dig around Luther's house was just completed. Interesting stuff in Der Spiegel's article entitled "THE REFORMER'S RUBBISH, Archaeologists Unveil Secrets of Luther's Life."
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How many Followers for a Pope's blog?

This blog has been heavy on the Jewish topics for many weeks. High time to give some attention to Israel's other religious groups.
Today the world General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops concluded at the Vatican. For the first time ever a rabbi was invited to address a plenary session of the Synod. Shear Yashuv Cohen, Chief Rabbi of Haifa, gave a brave speech (which you can read at Zenit news service from Rome).
But what I thought you bloggers would enjoy is this: Zenit's article entitled "A Blogging Benedict XVI?"

Or, here is another, lighter, version of what happened, as reported by Catholic News Service:

Pope Benedict as Bible blogger?
Posted on October 14, 2008 by John Thavis
VATICAN CITY — The Synod of Bishops on the Bible heard an unusual suggestion Tuesday morning when a Hong Kong observer asked Pope Benedict to start up his own daily blog on Scripture.
Agnes Kam Leng Lam, president of the Catholic Biblical Association of Hong Kong, said people need to experience Scripture in small but significant doses.
“To put it in a nutshell, I’d like to suggest to you Holy Father to start a multi-language blog to shepherd today’s world by scriptural verses, daily verses,” she said on the synod floor. The pope’s blog should include simple reflections that relate Scripture to real-life situations, she said.
Lam included advice that’s probably good for any blogger: “Remember, brief texts, Holy Father, and plentiful images, and this will be very attractive to the young generation and to today’s people.”
The talk apparently provoked a positive reaction and some laughter, but the pope, who was presiding over the Oct. 5-26 assembly, didn’t say whether he’d be blogging anytime soon.

Onward Christian Zionists, marching as to . . .

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REUTERS photo from today's Haaretz online newspaper

Although yours truly was a lazy blogger today and did not go out under a rain-threatening sky to photograph it for you, today was the annual Sukkot Jerusalem March. Some 35,000 Israelis were walking the three possible routes too, but a big contingent was some 7,000 Christian Zionists, pilgrims from a hundred nations who came to express their love and support for Israel. The International Christian of Embassy Jerusalem, a global organization that promotes ties between Israel and the world's Christian communities, is sponsoring a week-long convention in the capital. After the hikers converged on Jerusalem another 20,000 people joined in the festivities at Sacher Park.
The Christian visitors always call the Sukkot holiday the Feast of Tabernacles.
You can read more about the march in the Haaretz article and/or see a brief video of the marchers from IBA television here.
A humorously biting coverage of this and last year's march is here, at the Jerusalemite blog.

UPDATE: Thursday's Jerusalem Post has full coverage of the event here and explains the important point that "Citing different verses of scripture shared by Jews and Christians alike, organizers pointed out that Succot is the time when the nations of the world are supposed to come to Jerusalem and celebrate with the Jewish people." . Sukkot is one of the three ancient Jewish pilgrimage festivals (along with Passover and Shavuot), when Jews from all over the world were to come up to the Temple in Jerusalem.

Twin forests in Germany and Israel

Ramadan kareem to all the Muslims beginning their fast and their observance of the special month of Ramadan today.

It's also the first day of September and that means the members of City Daily Photo are posting for their monthly theme day. Their theme today is Sister Cities. Well, I must have spent too long living as a volunteer in a monastery because my first reaction was "Cool--whole cities full of nuns!"
I had to Google to find out that Jerusalem is, no big surprise, twinned with New York City. But more interestingly, I learned that Israel and Germany have twin forests! The Jewish National Fund/Keren Kayemet website reported this:

"There are already several Israel-Germany twin towns and now, there will also be twin forests. Although 'Thüringen Forest' in the Northern Negev will certainly never number as many trees as there are in the wooded State of Thuringia, an extra 5,000 trees in the 'Forest of German States' will make a significant difference to the life quality and recreational opportunities of residents of Beer Sheva, Lahav, Lehavim, Rahat and many smaller communities."
(full article here)

The forest that I see everyday on the mountain right across the valley from my village has 20,000 trees that were donated by German citizens in the year 2000.
"The Peace and Reconciliation Forest 2000" was planted by an organization in Wetzlar, Germany called Christians for Israel. While hiking there in Sataf, I was saddened to see the sign on the stone. Someone had scratched out the German word Christen and the words in Hebrew for Christians and Germany. Someone without peace in his heart.
Feelings, painful memories, always remembering--nothing is simple or easy in the Jewish State.

Mary Magdalene, her feast-day and church

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Mary Magdalene's feast day is celebrated tonight and tomorrow by Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Anglicans. No question, she is one of the New Testament's most important and interesting women.
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The Church of St. Mary Magdalene graces the slopes of Jerusalem's Mount of Olives.
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It was built by Czar Alexander III and was inaugurated in 1888. Seven gilded cupolas stand atop a monumental Muscovite-style body.
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The iconostasis is a work of art. The prayer hall has wondrous icons, relics, art, two sarcophagi, history, -- and special people too.
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Several native-English-speaker nuns man the gift shop and are helpful and friendly. They offer religious objects and books and CDs of their own singing (I bought the Russian Christmas carols and a CD of liturgy).

If you enlarge this last photo you can see how the tall gilded Russian Orthodox crosses are tied down. I always like to imagine this is to keep them on earth and to curb their natural desire to take off into heaven.

My pastor friend in Arkansas, preaching a sermon on Christ the King Sunday, revealed to us that the onion-shaped domes like these on the Church of St. Mary Magdalene are like crowns, meant to remind Christians of the Kingdom and of the kingship.
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