Jerusalem of gold and blue

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For SkyWatch Friday here is our clear blue sky, typical for Israel's long hot dry season.

We are looking up at the Temple Mount from the foot of the Mount of Olives.
The top of the Dome of the Rock is visible.
In the Old City wall is the Mercy Gate.
Outside the blocked gate is a Muslim cemetery and below that is a Franciscan cemetery.

You can enlarge the photo twice and see the graves among the olive trees.

Shabbat shalom to Jerusalem and to you all.
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Happy Waitangi Day to New Zealand

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City Daily Photo bloggers are helping our New Zealand members celebrate their national day, Waitangi Day.
You can see what connections different bloggers have to New Zealand at the CDP portal. 
My own fondness for NZ is based on Middle-earth and Hobbits and such . . . .

 But Jerusalem's big link to New Zealand is, sadly, in the [British] Jerusalem War Cemetery on Mt. Scopus.
Every April I attend the ANZAC Day Commemoration Service there.

(The photos here can be much enlarged with two clicks.) 

The World War I Australian and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers were welcomed by the Jewish population as liberators in Jerusalem in 1917, having fought their way from Egypt, through the Sinai, Gaza,  Beersheva, up to Jerusalem.

The Memorial Chapel was erected by men of the Egyptian Expeditionary Forces "to the honoured memory of their comrades who fell in the Palestine Campaign 1914-1918.

Above the lintel quoting the Apocrapha Book of Maccabees, it says "The interior has been decorated by NEW ZEALAND in honour of the members of the NEW ZEALAND EXPEDITIONARY FORCE who took part in the operations in Sinai and Palestine 1916-1918."

"From the uttermost ends of the earth" -- yes, how true.
Represented are Hope, Humanity, Faith, and Patriotism.
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Happy Waitangi Day, Kiwi friends.
We thank your ancestors who died fighting here in the Holy Land.   May you never know war again.
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To learn more about ANZAC Day in Jerusalem and about the lovingly-tended big  cemetery of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on Mt. Scopus, please see my posts here, here, here, and here.
Or click on my label ANZAC Day. 
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Marking 17 years since Rabin's murder

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Yesterday the nation remembered Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the 17th anniversary of his assassination.
Youth movements organized the evening gathering in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square, national leaders gave speeches at the grave site on Mount Herzl, the Knesset had a session to talk about Rabin, and Galei Zahal, the army radio, brought Rabin's family together with musically talented soldiers for a night of reminiscing and of singing the moving and appropriate songs. 

This picture of the grave was taken early one January morning when no one was there.
Someone had brought a painting and left it.
Others had put stones or memorial candles.

It was mentioned yesterday on the radio that Rabin's grave is under constant surveillance, lest vandals get any ideas.
Just two weeks ago someone defaced Moshe Dayan's tombstone in Nahalal.
The red paint said "Sar hamechdal, beshem hanoflim," meaning the minister of the failure, in the name of the fallen.

Both Yitzhak Rabin and his wife are buried here, in the cemetery of  Israel's leaders on Mt. Herzl, the Mount of Remembrance. 
Their  grave is covered by the unusual tombstones which Rabin's widow commissioned from architect Moshe Safdie.
Yitzhak Rabin is written in Hebrew on the black marble, Leah Rabin on the white.
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 A touching story was revealed by Prof. Leonard Fein of Boston and was picked up by Israel's Haaretz when Ted Kennedy died in 2009:

After Prime Minister Yitshak Rabin was assassinated (in 1995), Senator Edward Kennedy dug up some earth from the Arlington graves of his brothers John and Robert, who had also been gunned down. 

He carried the dirt onto the plane to Israel. 

After Rabin was buried on Mount Herzl, Ted waited for the crowd and the photographers to disperse. 

Then, on his hands and knees, he gently placed the American earth onto the freshly-dug Israel earth.

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May they all now rest in peace.

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A previous year's story about the Rabin remembrance day:

 http://jerusalemhillsdailyphoto.blogspot.co.il/2010/10/for-tree-of-field-is-mans-life.html

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(A post for Taphophile Tragics and Our World Tuesday.)

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Absalom's Pillar and Yom Kippur

You have seen this stained glass window before, I know, I know.
Every year at Yom Kippur I seem to refer you back to my earlier post that explains  the synagogue Yom Kippur window,  just because I have nothing new to tell about the holy day.
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But hey, let's look at the real monument that is depicted in the glass!

It is Yad Avshalom,  Absalom's Pillar, at the foot of the Mt. of Olives, in the Kidron Valley.
The bottom part is hewn out of the rock.
Together with the drum and cone, it is 47 feet tall. 

Also called Absalom's Tomb, it was built some 2,000 years ago.
It is Jerusalem's only relatively intact structure from before the Roman destruction of the city in 70 CE.
Both Greek and local styles are blended. 

Avshalom was the son of King David.
David's men killed him after a failed mutiny.

Zev Vilnay says that "For centuries, it was the custom among passersby--Jews, Muslims, and Christians--to throw stones at the monument. Residents of Jerusalem would bring their unruly children to the site to teach them what became of a rebellious son."
Frommer's says that  "At one time, religious Jews would throw stones at Absalom's tomb (Kever Avshalom) in condemnation of Absalom, who rebelled against his father, King David."

See a 17th century engraving of the stoning here. 

Go to this 19th century photo to see how high the pile of rocks around and inside the monument had reached.
Another view here. 

A big clean-up was done in 1925.

Just to the right of Absalom's Pillar are the Tomb of the Sons of Hezir and the Tomb of Zechariah.
Enlarge the photo (with two separate clicks) to see the thousands of ancient (and some modern) Jewish graves on the Mt. of Olives. 

Don't get lost, follow the signs!

Lots more information:
360-degree panorama
A short video
Bible sources about Absalom
About Yad Avshalom as a 4th C Christian shrine here and here

Getting back to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement starting tomorrow afternoon . . . I wish you gmar chatima tova, may you be written and sealed in God's Book of Life for a good new year.
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(The post participates in Taphophile Tragics, ABC Wednesday, Our World Tuesday, and  Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors.)
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Three together in life and in death

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An unusual grouping of tombstones from World War I.
The reason for it: the three men died together when their vehicle was blown up.
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Please enlarge (click once and then again on the photo that opens) and see and say the names of the British soldiers who died fighting a war far from home.
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To see more of the [British] Jerusalem War Cemetery (of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission) please click on my ANZAC Day label.
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A post for Taphophile Tragics.
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Head west, feet east

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Welcome to the Russian Orthodox Convent on the Mount of Olives.

Thursday, Ascension Day, was my first time to visit this welcoming place, also known as the Russian Monastery of the Ascension.
Now that I am one of Julie's many Taphophile Tragics taphophiles, I paid special attention to the graves.
You can click on the photos to have a closer look.


A few tombs of VIPs were inside, or next to, the church, but there were more graves in the courtyard.

And some not far from the well.

The monastery was built between 1870 and 1887.
I think the old Made in Czechoslovakia Sigma pump is from those early days.
There are many underground cisterns in the big compound and it looks like some are still being used for the garden watering.

Many nuns were buried in a fenced graveyard.

I noticed some of the gravestones were "backwards," I mean facing the cross, facing eastward.

Now I knew that this monastery in the Arab village of A-Tur is the highest point on the Mount of Olives at 818 meters (2,683 ft) and the ridge is the watershed, its eastern side being the beginning of the Judean Desert.
But I rather doubted that the spectacular view toward the Dead Sea, the mountains of Moab, and Jordan was the reason the dead were looking in that direction.

Back home, I googled.
One source said that Orthodox Christians bury the body facing east [i.e. the person's head on the west] because when Jesus was born the guiding star was in the East.

An older source, a William Tyler Olcott, writing in 1914, explained the custom thus:

The funeral rites of all people reveal the universal belief that the east is the source of all that men hold dear, light, life, warmth, and happiness, while the west, on the contrary, is said to be the abode of darkness, death, cold, and sorrow. The worship of the Sun cultivated and strengthened this idea, and down through the ages the influence of this belief has swept, retaining even to-day much of its ancient force and vigour. . . .
It is said that the body of Christ was laid with the head toward the west, that the risen Lord might face the eastern realm of eternal life and glory, and the Christian custom that sprang from this belief led to the usage of digging graves east and west, which prevailed through mediæval times, and is common with us to-day.
In the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew's gospel we read: "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." From the literal interpretation of these words there arose the belief that Jesus would, at the resurrection, appear from the east, and hence that those buried with their faces upward and their heads to the west, would be in readiness to stand up with their faces toward their Judge.

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(This cemetery mini-tour also joins Our World Tuesday.)
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Why?

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Right after the annual ANZAC Day ceremony last week in the Jerusalem War Cemetery, I walked alone between the graves, taphophile that I am.

If you like to wander around cemeteries and read headstones and wonder about the human history below them, you too are a taphophile. In fact you could contribute a post to our new meme, Taphophile Tragics, which Julie in Australia started and graciously hosts.

But wait--actually this post is for Shadow Shot Sunday 2, with a question for the shadow folks there.
You see the crows looking for food in the photo above?

I am curious, in the second photo why is the bird in flight blurred while its shadow on the grass is sharp?

You might have to enlarge the photo to even find the bird.
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ANZAC Day in Jerusalem today

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Many photos today, but I want you to feel as if you were with me at Jerusalem's ANZAC Day Commemoration Service this morning.

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.
Aussies and Kiwis observe the day on April 25.

But this year the 25th is also the date of Israel's Day of Remembrance for fallen soldiers and victims of terror, so ANZAC Day was commemorated today instead of tomorrow.

Come, enter the Jerusalem War Cemetery on Mount Scopus.

It is one of many many cemeteries around the world for which the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is responsible.

In the Jerusalem War Cemetery are 2,515 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 100 of them unidentified.
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On the wall on the sides of the chapel are engraved the names of 3,366 Commonwealth servicemen who fought and died in Egypt and Palestine during the Great War and who have no known grave.

At today's ceremony Rabbi Dr. Raymond Apple, a former chaplain and the rabbi emeritus of Sydney's Great Synagogue, read the 23rd Psalm.
To see his medals please enlarge the photo.

After Ambassador of Australia Ms. Andrea Faulkner gave the ANZAC Day address, Lt. Col. Steer of the MFO (Multinational Force and Observers) Australian Contingent read

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
. . .

As H.E. the Ambassador laid the first wreath, one normally strong and motionless-standing-at-attention member of the catafalque party began flexing his limbs and was led away . . .

. . . to be replaced by a nice sailor girl, as a Turk laid another wreath.

The Last Post on the bugle, silence, and The Rouse followed the reading of the "Ode to the Fallen"

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, not the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

The national anthems of Australia and New Zealand and a benediction prayer ended the moving ceremony.

Many groups and institutions had come up to the catafalque to place their wreath.

This year's program featured an old photo of diggers standing in the sand near a row of sabras.
The Ambassador said the one who took the World War I snapshot had written just "Pals" on the back and that this was the beginning time of the Aussie spirit of mateship.

After the official ceremony, Rabbi Apple led many of us over to the 24 Jewish graves for Kaddish and a Psalm.
A second rabbi sang El Malei Rachamim.

All were surprised to find that fresh flowers, a memorial candle, and a black-ribbon-draped Israel flag had been placed at each Jewish grave.

People visited each Jewish grave, read the names, and some put a little stone on the marker in respect.

Then we all walked to the far side of the big and beautiful cemetery to come together near tables of refreshments.

I went back to visit the empty chapel and found this wreath from previous years.
The message stays the same.
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For more about the Jerusalem War Cemetery and for previous ANZAC Days, please see my earlier posts here.
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This post is dedicated to the Sydney-based cemetery meme Taphophile Tragics.
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The Mount of Olives

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Enlarge the photo and see how many churches you can find.

The Mount of Olives as seen from near St. Stephen's Gate into the Old City.

To the left of the arched Basilica of the Agony are the ancient olive trees of the Garden of Gethsemane.
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So many life stories in a small space

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Julie describes her new Taphophile Tragics meme as "a warm touch on cold hard stone."
Here is a little more about the Trumpeldor Cemetery I started to talk about here.
This can also be a tour for Our World Tuesday.

The first burials were in 1903, victims of a cholera epidemic.
The cemetery was then situated far from human dwellings because of this plague.

But as Tel Aviv (founded in 1909) grew, the cemetery became surrounded by buildings.

So sit and consider this unofficial pantheon of the great leaders, public figures, educators, writers, journalists, even singers, of the Zionist endeavor.

How strange the sabra cactus looks here. Perhaps the deceased was a Sabra (a native-born Israeli).

Just a very few plots remain, and their starting price is 75,000 shekels (more than $20,000)!

But (reminiscent of yesterday's Psalm 49) all the dead, rich or poor, will be wrapped in a shroud, wheeled to the grave on this simple gurney, and laid in the earth with no coffin.

Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.
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British humor?

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I started to tell about the new murals inside this Christian cemetery a few weeks ago.

Its address in Jerusalem's old German Colony is 41 Emek Refaim; one possible translation of the street name is "Valley of Ghosts."
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Many of the gravestones have biblical quotations, especially from the Psalms (but I'm saving those for PsalmChallenge meme).
Some, the more modern ones, have sentimental words like "See you soon, darling," or "We miss you," or "Gone home."

But my favorite is the home-spun wisdom on former British soldier Johnny Shortlidge's stone:

"WE DO WHAT WE GOTTA DO AND THEN WE GO."

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This post goes to Our World Tuesday, to Signs, Signs, and to the growing and fascinating new cemetery meme Taphophile Tragics.

Find a grave via SMS

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"Al tichapess, SMS!" - Don't go searching, just SMS!
It even rhymes.
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That's what the new sign at Tel Aviv's historic Trumpeldor Cemetery invites you to do.
For only one shekel you can text them the deceased's full name and name of the father, and you will receive the plot number of the grave.
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The gate is open every day except Saturday, according to the hours posted.
Welcome!
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This little post is for Monday Doorways, Signs, signs, and the new Taphophile Tragics.
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A messianic mural in the making

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You don't really expect to see much new when you visit a small cemetery begun at the end of the 19th century; so when I stopped in to the Alliance Church International Cemetery in Jerusalem's German Colony in November, I could hardly believe my eyes.

A grand mural painting was underway!

Most days the tall gate is locked on this place of final repose of Christians, Messianic Jews, internationals, and people refused burial elsewhere.
I took advantage of an open moment when a woman came out; the gardener allowed me in and when I asked him about the mural, he said that was the artist who just left.

Back home, I found their website which explains it thus:

[In 2009 a Wisconsin woman, Patricia Solveson,] announced to us how the Lord laid it on her heart to donate her talents to the cemetery. As the Lord would provide, she would put together an assisting work team and periodically visit Jerusalem to paint a biblical mural on our "unfinished" cement walls. The mural would begin with Genesis and continue through Revelation and tell the prophetic story of "God's Sacrificial, Salvation Lamb".

This webpage, with photos, interprets each Bible scene of the mural in a messianic way.
They call it "The Jerusalem 'Wall of Life' ministry project."

Tall enough to need a scaffold.

Here you see how part of the 300-foot wall is being prepped for painting.
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"Over the years, neighboring construction projects have caused some of our historic stone walls to be destroyed and replaced with unsightly, unfinished cement walls," the website explains.

It seems like artist Pat couldn't wait, got ahead of herself and skipped over to the end of the Christian scriptures to what looks like her favorite scene, Revelation 1:13:
"and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest."
This portrait is not yet finished.
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In future posts I'll tell more about the interesting history of this place and of those buried here.
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I want to contribute this post to some new memes--Monday Mural and Taphophile Tragics (for those who like to wander through graveyards), and also to our old favorite Our World Tuesday.
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