Never impede a millipede

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Just me and a millipede in my secret cave. 

(Linking to Camera Critters meme.)
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In a donkey in a niche in a cave

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Today I hiked out to my secluded cave, which is 48 km/30 miles south of Bethlehem.

In order to make this Christmas card for you.
Enlarge the photos to see the little figures inside the donkey.

As the Byzantine liturgy says on the Nativity,
"and the earth offers a cave ..."

Christmas blessings to you from the Holy Land!

And to the rest of us, Shabbat shalom.
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P.S. I first discovered the cave exactly one year ago, on Dec. 25. 
Here's that story:
 http://jerusalemhillsdailyphoto.blogspot.co.il/2014/12/my-most-unique-christmas-ever.html
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An open cave

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It being Easter on the Western Christians' calendar, I thought I would hike to my Christmas cave and see if anything had changed.
The "door" was open, blocked only by spring flowers and a tall thistle.
No rolling stone.
The cave was empty.
And silent. 

Almost hidden by the new spring growth.
I trampled down the thistle and entered into the mystery. 
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Happy Easter to all you friends out there who are celebrating today!

Pope Francis gave a wonderful homily at the Easter Vigil last night.
(Go to the link for the full text.)
Here are my favorite parts:

“To enter into the mystery” means the ability to wonder, to contemplate; the ability to listen to the silence and to hear the tiny whisper amid great silence by which God speaks to us (cf 1 Kings 19:12).
To enter into the mystery demands that we not be afraid of reality: that we not be locked into ourselves, that we not flee from what we fail to understand, that we not close our eyes to problems or deny them, that we not dismiss our questions…
To enter into the mystery means going beyond our own comfort zone, beyond the laziness and indifference which hold us back, and going out in search of truth, beauty and love. It is seeking a deeper meaning, an answer, and not an easy one, to the questions which challenge our faith, our fidelity and our very existence.

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My most unique Christmas ever!

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"Today the virgin gives birth to the transcendent one,
  and the earth offers a cave to the unapproachable one"


    --from the Byzantine Kontakion on the Nativity

Tell me, what were the chances of me being led to a hidden ancient grotto in the desert davka on Christmas day?!

I woke up feeling sad that this would be my first Christmas far away from Jerusalem and from the smells and bells of  her old churches, far from any Christian friends, far from my nun-friends' Christmas roast chicken and panettone.
Because now I live in the Negev desert, in the middle of nowhere, alone.
(Yes, even we Jews enjoy the drama and mystery surrounding Dec. 25, once a year.)

Over morning coffee, a new video episode from the inimitable Sr. Dr. Vassa popped up on Facebook.
She spoke of loneliness being more acute on Christmas and how we can turn things around by focusing on certain things that can liberate us from the rut of self-pity.
(Try this brilliant young  Orthodox nun's on-going video series, you'll love it.)

So I left the cold apartment and walked into the warm sun.
Two short blocks brought me to the end of Meitar, to the edge of the desert.
I vacillated -- nu, which direction to take, -- east, west, or north?
Finally I said "OK God, it's your call.  Lead on."
He did;  we turned  to the East.

In the photo above, if you click on it a few times, you'll be able to see a strange bit of whiteness inside the fold of that hill.

I traversed afar over zillions of sharp dark flint stones scattered on the earth and suddenly, above that whiteness, I came upon a cave!
To enter?  Of course Dina, throw caution to the winds!

That's it! I was inside, looking out.
Nothing or no one attacked me, this is, except for a great feeling of awe and excitement! 

There was no ox or ass, but other animals had been there.
Like a porcupine!

Small animal tracks dotted the thick layer of loess.

I hated to disturb the layer of dust of the ages by trodding on it.
No one had been in this cave for a very long time.

I made just a few footprints.

A ball of chalk on the floor!
You could crumble it with your hands.

The stuff clings to you, were you to kneel.
Well, I was just doing a tiny bit of archaeology down there, honest.

After surveying the floor, the niches, the walls and ceiling of the very ancient place,  I knew the time had come to finally sit down on a rock and be quiet and attentive.
To reflect on the pathos of the nativity.
To imagine how Miriam-Mary felt,  having to give birth in just such a cave. 
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 As Orthodox Christians sing in today's Kontakion,
"Today the virgin gives birth to the transcendent one,
  and the earth offers a cave to the unapproachable one . . ."
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Underground

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U is for underground.
Down under, as in Australia.

Unfortunately Israel has nothing as large and grand as these Jenolan Caves in the Australian Blue Mountains.

Brave grandson Dean was exploring the cold dark caverns on a guided tour, with his parents of course.
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For U-Day at ABC Wednesday.

Photo was taken by our friend Noa E.-R.
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Crescents

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For Monday Doorways, a natural doorway to one of the many caves in the Jerusalem Hills.
Come on in, if you dare.
It would take some bending or crawling just to get to the main entrance.
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The cave arch resembles the shape of the new moon.
Id mubarak to those about to celebrate Id il Fitr. Ramadan ends today.
Chodesh tov to Jews. Tonight we start the new and special month of Elul.

Christians? Well, have a nice day in Ordinary Time.
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A grotto with a door

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For Monday Doorways meme here is a peek into the grotto in which John the Baptist may have lived.
Enlarge the photo and see Elisabeth and her son John painted on the wall.

And here we stand inside his cave and look out past the open door.
The Jerusalem Hills are round about.

The Franciscan monastery and church are built over the grotto.
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Unexpected underground stream uncovered

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I first posted about this dramatically deep hole a year ago (here and here).
Since then this new tunnel has been started on the southern side of the shaft.
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Here's the northern side.
Someday a high speed train will run between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and it will enter Jerusalem through these tunnels.
The big underground central train station will double as a bomb shelter.
It is between the busy Central Bus Station and Binyanei HaUma convention center.
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Meanwhile, a few days ago (and just in time for ABC Wednesday U-Day), a great discovery hit the news:
An unexpected underground stream was uncovered at a depth of 75 meters, five meters from the planned bottom of the shaft!
"The largest and most impressive underground water sources ever discovered in Israel," scholars say.
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The karstic cave developed as water seeped in from the surface and dissolved the limestone.
It is between a half a meter to a few meters wide, and is a few dozen meters high and at least 200 meters long.
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Prof. Amos Frumkin, Head of the Cave Research Unit at Hebrew University, said the cave also has hydrological significance because it is part of the mountain aquifer, an underground reservoir into which rainwater flows from the surface and that extends all along Israel's central mountain range. "The study of the cave can help us understand the precise mechanism by which water flows through the aquifer in the Jerusalem area."
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TV news showed him and a few lucky colleagues squeezing through nooks and crannies and crawling in mud. Brave explorers they are.
And I imagine the first humans to enter this cave!
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Frumkin says the cave must be protected as a valuable natural phenomenon and that this can be accomplished without impeding construction of the railway station.
That is good news!
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Read more details in the Haaretz article.
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UPDATE: A newer and better article has become available at JPost.
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Quarries in Israel

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A quest for quarries today, for ABC Wednesday.

First, let's see two ancient masonry stone quarries in Jerusalem.
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The photo above was taken underground during the Jerusalem Light Festival, hence the eerie blue color.
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This is the huge quarry beneath the Old City from which Herod the Great took the "Herodian stones" needed to renovate the Temple and its retaining walls, including the Western Wall.
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We call it Zedekiah's Cave, but, as a fascinating article in The New York Times says,

"For the Freemasons, the cave is definitely Solomon's quarry, making it one of the most revered, perhaps the most revered, site of their international secret society. The organization considers King Solomon the first Freemason, and its tradition of doctrines, passwords and symbols derives from the building of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. In the absence of the Temple, Freemasons revere the quarry, and they hold an elaborate ceremony inside the cave once a year. "

This thousands of years old quarry was found when I worked at a salvage dig of a Canaanite cemetery.

Today the area is covered by the awful Holyland Park residences.

Moving on to modern quarries, here's one in the Givat Shaul neighborhood.

It looks like the cement mixers fill up on site and drive out to their construction site.

Today the apartments and yeshivas have come right up against the old quarries.

The area used to be Dir Yassin . . . .

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Further north, toward Haifa, this quarry is biting into Mount Carmel.

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The Jerusalem Post reported in 2008 that our Minister of National Infrastructures "warned that there would be shortages in raw materials by 2020. There are currently 80 working quarries in Israel, and about a thousand which have been tapped out and are in need of rehabilitation. However no new quarry has been approved by the national planning council in the last 14 years."
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But my favorite quarry photo is this memory of the great five days I lived in the village of Darajat, studying Arabic.

(For more about it, see under my label Darajat.)

Our Bedouin hosts took our small group up the mountain for a hike and to see the quarry in the Negev desert where they work.

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Hope you don't have dust in your eyes after looking at all these quarries. Shalom!

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