Teach

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Torah was given to teach us. 

And today's City Daily Photo Theme Day's focus is TEACH.

Pirkei Avot 4:15 in the Talmud says

Rabbi Elazar ben Shamua taught: "The dignity of your students should be as precious to you as your own. The dignity of your colleagues should be as precious to you as your reverence for your teacher. The reverence for your teacher should be as great as your reverence for God."

And the daily prayer Kaddish dRabbanan blesses our teachers:

 "May you be blessed and strengthened 
as you have blessed and strengthened your student.

May you have peace, grace, kindness, mercy, long life and

everything you need."

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Good luck to the 2,310,000 pupils in Israel who start the new school year tomorrow, Sunday, Sept. 2.  
And blessings to their teachers!

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Orthodox Pentecost today and a video

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The Orthodox and Eastern Churches are celebrating Pentecost this weekend.
(Catholic and Protestant Pentecost was last Sunday.)
Here in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre the Greek Orthodox clergy's red vestments bring to mind the red tongues of fire of the first Pentecost in Jerusalem.

The prostration goes with the liturgy of the day which has 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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My photos are from 2009 but not much changes from year to year.

Wishes for a joyous feast day to all the Orthodox Christians!

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Sister  Dr. Vassa Larin, an American sister of the Russian Orthodox Church, has eleven minutes of good insights about Pentecost/Descent of the Holy Spirit in this new video (Episode 50!):

(You can also follow her meditations and world travels on her Facebook page, Vassa Larin.)

UPDATE: Here is the entire text of Great Vespers on the Sunday Evening of Pentecost with the Kneeling Prayers, in English, from the helpful website http://www.antiochian.org/online-liturgical-guide .
UPDATE June 6: Today the Jerusalem Patriarchate put online the videos and photos of the Orthodox celebration of Pentecost.

(Linking to inSPIRED Sunday.)

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Women's World Day of Prayer, this year Egypt

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Grandchamp, Switzerland, 2006

Tomorrow (Sunday) is International Women's Day and the 2014 theme is Equality for women is progress for all . 

But did you know?  Today is Women's World Day of Prayer!

Or so my sister-friends at the contemplative monastic Community of Grandchamp in Switzerland informed me.  

The 2014 theme is Streams in the Desert and it was prepared by women in Egypt. 

The World Day of Prayer is a worldwide movement of Christian women of many traditions who come together to observe a common day of prayer each year, and who, in many countries, have a continuing relationship in prayer and service.

• It is a movement initiated and carried out by women in more than 170 countries and regions.
• It is a movement symbolized by an annual day of celebration – the first Friday of March – to which all people are welcome.
• It is a movement which brings together women of various races, cultures and traditions in closer fellowship, understanding and action throughout the year.
Through World Day of Prayer, women affirm that prayer and action are inseparable and that both have immeasurable influence in the world. The motto of the World Day of Prayer is “Informed Prayer and Prayerful Action”.

source

More about the idea and how it started at Wikipedia. 

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A Tzohar Yom Kippur

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Yom Kippur has ended.
The long 26-hour fast has ended.  What makes it difficult is not the lack of food or even the lack of water, but with no coffee it is hard to feel fully awake.

Special prayer services were held inside this school building which is only ten minutes walk from my house (a good thing since it was 37 degrees or 99 F outside, the hottest Yom Kippur in sixty years).
I went  there yesterday evening and today.
I have heard a lot about  Tzohar  but this Yom Kippur was my first experience with the organization.
From Arutz Sheva I learn that
 "As part of its annual effort, the Tzohar organization will be organizing prayers at 250 locations around Israel for Yom Kippur, aimed specifically at secular Israelis who would most likely not attend services otherwise. Some 40,000 people are expected to participate altogether."

Here in Meitar there was a good turn-out, a mix of secular and religious men and women, young people, and even little kids.  (By religious I mean Orthodox Zionist Jews.)
The Tzohar machzor (Yom Kippur prayerbook) was provided.
It seems to be a mixture of Ashkenazi rite with some optional Sepharadi piyutim.
It has helps, like a tiny man printed in the margin who changes back and forth from sitting to standing.
The prayer leader even announces the page number from time to time (otherwise it is easy to get lost in the hundreds of pages). 

What surprised me (dare I say, shocked me) was to hear two of the ancient prayers sung not to their traditional melody but to the tune of "Hatikva" (our national anthem) and of  "Erev shel Shoshanim."
Googling now, I see that it is a trend to adapt recent Israeli song tunes to the words of some prayers.    Neh neh . . .

Tzohar chairman  Rabbi David Stav has said that “Now more than ever we are seeing that Israeli society wishes to deepen its connection to Jewish identity, in a pleasant and non-coercive manner.”

Well, let's hope that today our prayers, no matter how they sounded, were heard in heaven and that we have been "written and sealed" in the book of life for the new year.
A new beginning!
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Join the prayer vigil for peace in the Middle East, live from Rome, now.
At least Pope Francis is doing something positive about it, bless him.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw1UYylwwuc

http://www.news.va/en/news/prayer-vigil-for-peace-with-pope-francis-schedule

UPDATE:  The 4-hour televised peace vigil called by Pope Francis has just concluded, at midnight our time. 

 The Israeli papers are already saying good things about it. The Times of Israel says "The peace vigil marked something of a novelty for the Vatican: Nothing of its kind has ever taken place in St. Peter’s Square ..." It says the Vatican estimated 70,000 were present.

See also the Yediot article "Pope calls for end to Syria spiral of death" at http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4426847,00.html

The official translation of Francesco's homily is here: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/homilies/2013/documents/papa-francesco_20130907_veglia-pace_en.html

 

Prayer for Christian Unity at the Cenacle

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Thursday my nun friends invited me to come along to  Day 5 of the annual  Week of Prayer for Christian Unity .
Every day a different church hosts the community and leads the ecumenical prayer service.

 But Day 5 was in the Upper Room, the Cenacle, which belongs to all Christians, so to speak, because here was the Last Supper and here the first Christian community gathered and experienced the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

 The only ones to have chairs were the clergymen from the various denominations.
(May be helpful to enlarge the photo.)

On the right is Father  Gregory Collins OSB, who led the service and preached, in ENGLISH! 
He is an Irish Benedictine monk of Glenstal Abbey and last year he became the Abbot of the Dormition Abbey on Mt. Zion (see my coverage of that Mass here).

 The ancient columns and capitals and the six rib-vaulted bays are beautiful to behold.
For Christians I can imagine the Upper Room has much spiritual energy.
And one floor below is the Tomb of David where Jews pray, so Christianity's roots are literally underneath.
At one point the hall was also made into a mosque as you can see in the first photo above with the Muslim prayer niche, the hanging mosque lamp, and the Arabic writing on the window.

Here is one of the two small doors into the Cenaculum.

UPDATE: A short video of the Unity Week's prayer services is now  here. 
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So for ABC Wednesday, C is for Christians communing in the Cenacle.
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And the architectural elements are linking to Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors.
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From Herod to Adam

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Christian neighbor-friends invited me to dinner yesterday evening.
Chanuka candles, Sabbath candles, and Advent candles all together  made lots of happy light--and even reflections for Weekend Reflections.
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That was before we heard the news from America, from Connecticut.
More appropriate now are  memorial candles, so many of them.
 Sigh . . .
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It being so near December 28, the Christian Feast of the Holy Innocents, their prayer  came to mind for today, this awful day:

"We remember this day, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents . . . Receive, we beseech thee, into the arms of thy mercy all innocent victims; and by thy great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish thy rule of justice, love, and peace . . . "           
 ---Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the Holy Innocents
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Tashlich, year 5773 AM (anno mundi)

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 On  Rosh Hashana afternoon it is customary to do the Tashlich ceremony.
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In the biblical book of Micah (7:18-19) it says:
"Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? . . . You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea."

"You will cast" in Hebrew is the verb tashlich.

The Jerusalem region has no sea or lake or river.
I am lucky to live  a short walk  from a spring-fed fish pond.

I read the prayer  and then took the symbolic bread crumbs from my pocket.
 I named a personal sin and threw a crumb in the water, named a national sin and threw another, a private sin of omission and tossed more bread.

The fish had a feeding frenzy!

Part of the symbolism is that a fish has no eyelids and cannot close its eyes, and so  too  may God always keep his eyes open watching over us.

You can see the nice Tashlich prayer here. 

Shava tova -- let the new year be a good one.
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UPDATE: The newspapers now have photos of where Israelis like to go for Tashlich .
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Tune in to streaming video from Jerusalem church

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This poster and reflection were on the glass door of the Christian Information Center in the Old City.

You can click on it (and click again on the photo that opens) and read about the " 8th Extraordinary Prayer of all Churches for Reconciliation, Unity and Peace, beginning in and proceeding from Jerusalem,"
being hosted by the Armenian Catholics.

You can watch it in live streaming video
--at 6:00 pm Israel time (4:00 pm GMT or 8:00 am California time).
Check on the handy time zone converter timeanddate.com.
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Let's hope their prayer helps the situation.
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UPDATE: It was a nice broadcast of the ecumenical service.
That same Franciscan Media Center that shared it online is a good source for documentary videos on religious life in the Holy Land.
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Week of Prayer for Christian Unity + the Chapel of Adam

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Apparently visitors to the Western Wall are not the only ones who write letters to God and stick them between the stones.

This nun in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is collecting some notes left by Christian pilgrims with her brush and dustpan.
Reaching the ones under the glass floor might be more complicated.
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Every year the various Churches have a week of prayer for Christian unity.
In the Northern Hemisphere this is in January.
In the Holy Land Christians wait until after Armenian Christmas, so this year the week of prayer is January 21-29.
Every day, the common liturgy is hosted by one of the cathedrals of the different communities.
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Jerusalem's Week of Prayer started, of course, at Anastasis (Church of the Holy Sepulchre), in the Calvary chapel, with the Greek Orthodox Office of “Apodeipnon”(Compline).
The following days were at the Anglican Cathedral of St. George, the Armenian Cathedral of St. James, the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, the Latin Patriarchate’s Church, then the Upper Room (Cenacle).
Tonight all are invited to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and tomorrow to St. Anthony’s Church, Coptic Orthodox.
The week ends on Sunday at the Greek Catholic Church of Annunciation.
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But getting back to our nun in the photo . . .
She tends the Chapel of Adam which lies directly under the chapels at the summit of Calvary, where the cross was raised.
The New Testament says that when Jesus gave up the ghost, "The earth shook and the rocks split."
The rock you see behind a glass in the wall, reflected* in the glass altar top, is indeed a cracked slab.
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Christian tradition maintains that Adam was buried at the base of the Rock of Golgotha.
When the rock split, a drop of blood from Jesus' wounds seeped through and touched Adam's skull, thus bringing redemption to the first sinner.
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And I thought it apropos for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity what Yad Ben-Zvi's guidebook notes:

"The Chapel, which is situated on the traditional burial place of Adam, exactly under the location of the crucifixion, was much sought after as a burial site by the Catholic Crusader kings. The Greek Orthodox, however, who were hostile to the Catholics, destroyed these tombs at the first opportunity, during the course of the renovations carried out after the great fire in 1808."

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(*The rock's reflection is for Weekend Reflections and the slight shadow of the nun's head on the wall is for Shadow Shot Sunday 2.)
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How long, O Lord?

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During the difficult and dark days of my life, PSALM 13 was my most-prayed psalm.
God answered me, in his own time. And indeed, "He has dealt bountifully with me."
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Now there are others who must ask "How long, O Lord?"
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1. For the leader. A psalm. Of David.
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2. How long, O LORD?!
Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
3. How long will I have cares in my soul, grief in my heart all day?
How long will my enemy loom over me?
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4. Look, answer me, O LORD, my God!
Light up my eyes, lest I sleep death;
5. lest my enemy say, “I have overcome him,” my foes exult when I stumble.
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6. But I trust in Your faithfulness.

My heart will exult in Your deliverance, I will sing to the LORD, for He has dealt bountifully with me.

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The Hebrew-English of Psalm 13 is here.

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Several other bloggers have taken up Robert's PsalmChallenge. Please join us over at Daily Athens.

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Gilad's "cell" is next to his parents' tent which is set up on the sidewalk near Prime Minister Netanyahu's official residence. His parents sit vigil day and night.

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Strange venue for a Jewish shadow

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Mamilla Mall is having a wonderful free outdoor sculpture exhibit on the theme Bible Stories that will go until October.
There must be over a hundred works by 45 Israeli and international artists.
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It gives me a good opportunity to collect shadows for Shadow Shot Sunday.
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Helene Jacubowitz titled her work "Mah tovu."
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These Hebrew words are the opening of a prayer we sing in the synagogue, translated here:

How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel!
And I, with Your great loving-kindness, shall enter Your House; I shall prostrate myself toward Your Holy Temple in the fear of You.
O Lord, I love the dwelling of Your house and the place of the residence of Your glory.
Come, let us prostrate ourselves and bow; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker.
But, as for me, may my prayer to You, O Lord, be in an acceptable time.
O God, with Your abundant kindness, answer me with the truth of Your salvation.
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Wikipedia explains
"Ma Tovu ... is a prayer in Judaism, expressing reverence and awe for synagogues and other places of worship. The prayer begins with Numbers 24:5, where Balaam, sent to curse the Israelites, is instead overcome with awe at God and the Israelites' houses of worship. Its first line of praise is a quote of Balaam's blessing and is thus the only prayer commonly used in Jewish services that was written by a non-Jew."
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I wonder if just by coincidence this Mah tovu sculpture was placed at the foot of a Catholic church . . . .
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The huge l'Hospice Francais St. Vincent de Paul was there first, like a century before Mamilla ever dreamed of becoming a fancy mall; so the mall was built to accommodate the hospice and its church.
That's how things are done in Jerusalem.
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(See also Art at the Mall and Mamilla Mall by night. )
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Knee-mail

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The Church of Our Lady of the Spasm marks the 4th station of the cross on the Via Dolorosa.

Along the left-hand wall you see something beginning with K, needed for today's ABC Wednesday.

Kneelers!

Well, actually only the lower part, where you kneel, is called the kneeler.

The whole prayer desk is more properly called a prie-dieu.

The French names means literally "pray [to] God."

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These prie-dieux look hard, but I think the Armenian Catholics (to whom the church belongs) are modest and tough enough to use them well.

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More about this nice church and the Armenians in a previous post.

Just for contrast, I show you a more cushy prie-dieu.

It is in St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney, Australia.

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Either way, remember the saying that they taught me in Arkansas:

"God answers knee-mail."
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Shepherd and sheep on Yom Kippur

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Two of the stained glass windows of Renanim synagogue in Hechal Shlomo, Jerusalem.
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In a few hours Israel enters into both the Sabbath and Yom Kippur.
Everything shuts down and it gets very quiet all over the country.
This Day of Atonement is a time of intense prayer, total fasting for 25 hours, soul-searching, and repentence for many Jews.
(For many secular Jews, it is a time to stroll down the empty highways and for the children to bike ride or skate in the car-free streets.)
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As the beautiful Yom Kippur window shows, the Gates of Repentence are open.
Above Jerusalem is the traditional image of God's Book of Life, open, with quill ready.
The long liturgy of the evening and of the following day centers on our plea that he will inscribe us in the Book of Life and seal it for another year.
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The Rosh Hashana window (please do enlarge it) quotes from the moving and powerful piyyut (liturgical poem) Unetaneh Tokef which is sung in every synagogue both on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.

כָל בָּאֵי עולָם יַעַבְרוּן לְפָנֶיךָ כִּבְנֵי מָרון. כְּבַקָּרַת רועֶה עֶדְרו. מַעֲבִיר צאנו תַּחַת שִׁבְטו .כֵּן תַּעֲבִיר וְתִסְפּר וְתִמְנֶה וְתִפְקד נֶפֶשׁ כָּל חָי. וְתַחְתּךְ קִצְבָה לְכָל בְּרִיּותֶיךָ. וְתִכְתּב אֶת גְּזַר דִּינָם:
בְּראשׁ הַשָּׁנָה יִכָּתֵבוּן וּבְיום צום כִּפּוּר יֵחָתֵמוּן כַּמָּה יַעַבְרוּן וְכַמָּה יִבָּרֵאוּן מִי יִחְיֶה וּמִי יָמוּת. מִי בְקִצּו וּמִי לא בְקִצּו מִי בַמַּיִם. וּמִי בָאֵשׁ מִי בַחֶרֶב. וּמִי בַחַיָּה מִי בָרָעָב. וּמִי בַצָּמָא מִי בָרַעַשׁ. וּמִי בַמַּגֵּפָה מִי בַחֲנִיקָה וּמִי בַסְּקִילָה מִי יָנוּחַ וּמִי יָנוּעַ מִי יִשָּׁקֵט וּמִי יִטָּרֵף מִי יִשָּׁלֵו. וּמִי יִתְיַסָּר מִי יֵעָנִי. וּמִי יֵעָשֵׁר מִי יִשָּׁפֵל. וּמִי יָרוּם וּתְשׁוּבָה וּתְפִלָּה וּצְדָקָה מַעֲבִירִין אֶת רעַ הַגְּזֵרָה
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"All mankind will pass before You like members of the flock.
Like a shepherd pasturing his flock, making sheep pass under his staff, so shall You cause to pass, count, calculate, and consider the soul of all the living;
and You shall apportion the fixed needs of all Your creatures and inscribe their verdict. "

The piyyut is traditionally attributed to a medieval Rabbi Amnon of Mainz, who spoke the words while he was being martyred. More here.
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You can read its translation in the ArtScroll Machzor.
Here is part of it:
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"On Rosh Hashanah will be inscribed and on Yom Kippur will be sealed
how many will pass from the earth and how many will be created;
who will live and who will die;
who will die at his predestined time and who before his time;
who by water and who by fire,
who by sword, who by beast, who by famine, who by thirst,
who by storm, who by plague,
who by strangulation, and who by stoning.
Who will rest and who will wander,
who will live in harmony and who will be harried,
who will enjoy tranquility and who will suffer,
who will be impoverished and who will be enriched,
who will be degraded and who will be exalted.
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But REPENTANCE, PRAYER and CHARITY
[tshuvah, tfilah, tzedaka]
Remove the evil of the Decree!
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Don't you love that idea that by our re-turning, praying, and doing acts of kindness we can change everything?!
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Before shutting down the computer for its yearly day of rest, I leave you with the traditional blessings--Shabbat shalom (Sabbath peace), tsom kal (easy over the fast), and Gmar chatima tova (May you be have a good inscription)!
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P.S. My little grandson made his own ram's horn for these Days of Awe!
Here is a short and sweet video of Dean blowing the shofar.
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Both feet on the floor

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First-time visitors to St. James Cathedral had better read the rules before entering the church for vespers.

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 I have seen confused tourists get corrected by an attendant for breaking Rule 4c. . And once I tried to catch a picture of the priest hammering on the simandron when he suddenly turned around and said "No pictures." I instinctively put the camera in my pants pocket.

Click to read the Armenian Orthodox rules. Compare and contrast; how do the recently-posted Catholic monastery's rules differ? :) Just kidding.

 

 Reflected in the glass for James' Weekend Reflections is the monastery with old khachkars in the wall.

 

 I really like St. James and whenever I am in the Old City I try to be in the Armenian Quarter and the church at 3:00 pm to hear their vespers.

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Russian Orthodox prayer, the video!

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Holy Trinity Church was built in 1872 and served as a spiritual center for the many Russian pilgrims who came to Jerusalem in the 19th century.

All too often the door of the castle-like Holy Trinity Cathedral is locked.
Recently I was walking past it, in Jerusalem's Moscow Square, when I saw a nun come out. Without thinking twice, I grabbed the door and asked in sign language if I might enter and she nodded.
Wow, I was finally inside! And a service was in progress!
I was unfortunately not wearing the required head scarf and skirt, so I stood in the narthex, sort of hiding behind the door. The men's choir upstairs was so glorious that, after two hours, I could no longer resist my blogger's temptation and took out the camera for a furtive 19-second video.

When the Russian Orthodox priests in their splendid vestments came around incensing the several dozen worshipers, the head priest and I--our eyes locked in a second of intense mutual curiousity.
Soon a nun came and, smiling, excitedly asked me a long question in Russian. I shrugged and said, "English? Hebrew?" She knew only Russian, and that was the end of it. I still wonder what she asked. . . .

The story of the church in the Russian Compound, now in downtown Jerusalem, can be read at

http://www.rusdm.ru/en/cathedral.php?item=1 and

http://www.gojerusalem.com/article_435/The-Russian-Holy-Trinity-Church

and in Russian: http://www.rusdm.ru/ .

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This post is a gift to Irina at the wonderful Moscow Daily Photo. Today she showed us a replica of the Western Wall outside the Moscow Synagogue!

Their synagogue was built about the same time as our Holy Trinity Church!

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(Linking to inSPIREd Sunday church meme.)
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Stretch out your hands

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Grandson Dean at the Bloomfield Science Museum Jerusalem, 2007, (and me), reflected for James' Weekend Reflections.

Abba Macarius was asked, "How should one pray?"

The old man said, "There is no need at all to make long discourses. It is enough to stretch out one’s hands and say, 'Lord, as you will, and as you know, have mercy.'

And if the conflict grows fiercer say, 'Lord, help!'
He knows very well what we need and He shows us His mercy."
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-- from the April 19 Word from the Desert, Meditations on the Orthodox Life from the Early Church Fathers, Ascetics, Saints and Righteous
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Rome and Jerusalem

UPDATE: I watched all one and a half hours of the live broadcast of the visit and speeches and music. It was all very moving! You can read Pope Benedict's address at
http://cnsblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/pope-at-rome-synagogue-may-these-wounds-be-healed-forever/ .
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In a few hours Pope Benedict will make a rare visit inside a synagogue, the Great Synagogue of Rome, and then go outside to plant an olive tree together with his Jewish "brothers and sisters."
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Meanwhile, let me show you our own Italian synagogue here in Jerusalem.

I posted the Italian Festival last summer (click on the tag "Italian" below) that took place in the courtyard, but you still have not seen the Italian Jewish Art Museum or the old synagogue inside the building.
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Above the entrance is written Beit Knesset ke-minhag Bene Roma, Tempio Italiano.
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The rite of the Conegliano Synagogue is technically called "Minhag Bnei Roma" (Children of Rome Prayer Custom), "Loez"(Foreign), or "Italiani."
In modern Hebrew it is called " Minhag Italki" (Italian Prayer Custom).
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Wikipedia says that "Italian Jews can be traced back as far as the second century BCE: tombstones and dedicatory inscriptions survive from this period. At that time they mostly lived in the far South of Italy, with a branch community in Rome, and were generally Greek-speaking. It is thought that some families (for example the Adolescenti) are descendants of Jews deported from Judaea by the emperor Titus in 70 CE."
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Welcome inside the 300-year-old interior of the synagogue.
After World War II it was dismantled in a huge rescue operation in the village of Conegliano in Italy. The furnishings arrived in Jerusalem in 1951 and the restoration began.
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This is the bimah, the platform on which the Torah scroll is read.
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The bimah faces the holy ark or aron kodesh, inside which the Torah scrolls are kept.
Elements of the ornate ark may be from even before 1700.
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The women's gallery is on top.
All in grand Baroque style.
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The men sit on the benches on the main floor.
Services are on Saturday (Shabbat) morning.
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Here is a photo borrowed from photographer Jonathan Sierra.

See more of his good photos of the worshipers at an Israelity Blog recent post.

Wiki on the history of Jews in Italy is here.

About Il Rito Bene Romi prayerbook and liturgy (in Italian).

MP3 of the Shema prayer chanted in Roman rite.

The portal for news of Italy's Jews (in Italian), which will soon have hopefully good news about the visit of il Papa --

or in English and other languages, the Pope's YouTube channel.

UPDATE:  The story of the synagogue, from the Museum of Italian Jewish Art:  http://ijamuseum.org/museum/the-synagogue/the-story/

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Wishing peace

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In the new year 2010 -- our hope and wish for the world:
PAX . . . peace . . . shalom .

For James' "Weekend Reflections" --
stained glass windows reflected in the door of a confession booth.

And our hope and wish for Jerusalem and the Holy Land.
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Post-Day of Atonement post

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Yom Kippur ends with the Ne'ila (= locking, closing) prayer. You can feel the heightened intensity in the congregation in this last hour of a long day of prayer. We stand before the holy ark and plead

"OPEN UNTO US, O GOD, THE GATE OF MERCY, BEFORE THE CLOSING OF THE GATES, ERE THE DAY IS DONE. THE DAY VANISHES, THE SUN IS SETTING; LET US ENTER YOUR GATES!
We beseech you, O God, forgive, pardon, condone; have pity and compassion, grant us atonement, and subdue our sin and iniquity."

Thank you all for your expressions of solidarity and blessing for this long day of fasting and introspection.
This morning I woke up to a surprise. Father Adam created a lovely post of Yom Kippur wishes for his Jewish friends, complete with a closing (or opening?) stained glass gate!
Thank you, FA. God bless you and all the new possibilities of interfaith learning that blogging opens for us.
FA is a Carmelite monk and priest in California and his Monastery Daily Photo is a welcome look behind the monastary walls. And he answers comment questions too!
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