Happy Hannukah!

Since I wrote "חנכה" on my third grade spelling test and it was marked wrong ("Christmas" was marked right though, go figure!), I have always been insecure about spelling out the name of the Festival of Lights. In an effort to be ecumenical and cover my tuchus, I have intentionally varied the spelling in this post.

Christmas Chanukah decorations in downtown Jerusalem:

Our new Channukiah gets its inaugural light:

And Mordu confuses Hanuka with his birthday: 

After lighting candles, we embarked on a Saturday evening latke experiment (my first time making them myself). We started with a bowl of grated white potato, sweet potato, carrot, zucchini, and red onion:

Mixed with lentil flour, salt, garlic powder, and curry powder:

Baked (and then fried):

And because we didn't have apple sauce or sour cream, we served them with sliced apples, plain yoghurt, and Belgian ale:

Michelle's Wedding

The last stop in Haifa was the wedding of Mordu's friend and former roommate, Michelle, at the Dan Panorama hotel. It was pretty dark so I didn't get too many good shots, but here are a few:

Reception at the Dan Panorama. The background color rotates between blue, purple, and red.

Nostalgically recreating that early 90's "laser" style school portrait:

All set up for wedding and reception. The wedding was called for 6PM so Mordu and I showed up at the hotel so we could clean up and be ready by about 5:30. We didn't quite get the memo on Israeli weddings; the huppa (wedding ceremony) began about 7:40.

That's ok, I amused myself by trying to take pictures of the night skyline out the window. Then I took more pictures of myself reflected in the glass:

And of the DJ's red computer for Jonah.

And, of course, the food:

Ok, wedding is beginning. But this guest doesn't care, he's going to start dinner NOW (as the family is processing in through that doorway behind him!):

Here comes the bride. Sadly, this is the most focused picture I got!

Masada Street

One of my advisees at the Writing Center, Rea, is Israeli and told me I should meet his friend, Ido, a PhD student at Bar Ilan University who studies the social history of psychedelics. He lives in Masada Street, in what he describes as the "Arab Intellectual/Hipster" neighborhood of Haifa. He graciously invited us over for lunch and conversation. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture with him in his apartment, but we took a few pictures on his street.

Food stand at the end of the street:

Zebra cafe:

Street sign in German. (?)

Ido's apartment building:

Laundromat called "Brain Wash":

Wall art in a back alley:

This picture taken in the "Carmelite," a subway that runs up and down the mountain. Mordu's shirt fits right in:

Here comes the train:

Bahai Gardens

Last Thursday, spent the day in Haifa, touring the Bahai gardens, visiting a new friend who lives on Masada Street (the trendy "Arab Intellectual/Hipster" part of town), and attending the wedding of Mordu's friend Michelle.

The Bahai Gardens in Haifa are an elaborate setting for the tomb of the religion's Persian founder, the Báb (literally "gate," most likely cognate, I suspect, with the Aramaic word "baba"). They cascade down Mount Carmel toward the Mediterranean in a series of 19 beautiful and immaculately groomed terraces, one each for the Báb and his 18 disciples. The garden circulates water in a series of fountains and is lit 24/7, by the sun during the day and by numerous lights at night. The tomb, which until about a decade ago was a simple rectangular building, has been recently encased in a grander structure with godlen dome and marble arches with inlaid tiles reminiscent of the Taj Mahal (an even more famous tomb).

View of the gardens from above:

One of the lovely terraces, this photo gives you a feel for how you really are on the side of a mountain:

Water circulates through a channel on the edge of the stairs:

 Two other visitors on our tour, Eric and Bruce. We were all late for the tour because we  made mistakes on the various buses in Haifa, and ended up sprinting a good quarter mile together to make it in time (tours given only once a day). The sprint accounts for our unfortunately shiny appearance...

Now we've descended several terraces; this view still looks down. (Views looking uphill didn't work well because I was shooting right into the sun.)

Recently constructed building for the Bahai archives. I wish our tour guide had more information about the architectural choices made in the garden. The tomb itself looks Islamic-inspired, and this is obviously neo-classical.

This is about as close as we could get to the Báb's gold-domed tomb which was gated and locked on the afternoon we visited:

One of the lower terraces:

Another view of a lower terrace:

"It's my industrial strength hairdryer; and I can't live without it!"

I'm not sure why this amuses me so much...it's a gallon (4000 סמ''ק) of conditioner!

The case of two Mordu's

Mordu woke me up this morning. He called gently across the room, "It's 11AM, Rachel, you might want to get up now." I had been dreaming and in the dream Mordu had been telling me something else (what it was I can't remember). In my half-awake-half-asleep state, I was confused about which Mordu I should listen to. If I did what the wakeland Mordu asked and woke up, I would be irrevocably foresaking the dreamland Mordu who, after all, had the prior claim on my attention. So, reasonably, I went back to sleep. When I got up 30 minutes later, I told Mordu that it was for his sake I had gone back to sleep.

Mac Repair - notes from the trenches

Three weeks, one day, and two trips to Tel Aviv after a computer meltdown, I'm happy to report that my computer is once again in my possession and in good repair. You can now look forward to more frequent scintillating blog posts in the near future.

PSA: If anyone ever needs help figuring out Mac repair in Jerusalem, I can especially recommend the services of Jonathan and his colleagues at http://jerusalem-computers.com/. They are pleasant, honest, and capable. DO NOT got to iDigital in Tel Aviv; I had a truly unpleasant experience with them in which they were not only dishonest but also refused to even attempt to restore the data I lost in the crash (which Jonathan was able to do).

Homemade turbo ginger ale for stomach ache

When I was a kid, ginger ale was a common home remedy for a stomach ache. However, ginger ale these days is made with almost no ginger, and the ginger (along with the carbonation) is the primary analgesic. Today I came up with a way to make your own ginger ale with real ginger. Here's the idea:

Ingredients:
1) 3-4 inch piece of ginger, peeled and chopped fine or grated.
2) 2 T honey
3) 1 c water
4) Seltzer water

Directions:
Boil the ginger and honey in the water for about 20 min until you have a highly concentrated ginger infusion. You can add a pinch of salt so that your ginger ale will supply electrolytes, which can also help with stomach ache. Allow the mixture to cool, strain out the pieces of ginger, and then pour it into an ice cube tray and freeze. Keep the resulting ice cubes in your freezer; store the seltzer at room temperature in your pantry. When you have  stomach upset, plop a few of those ice cubes into room-temperature seltzer and you will soon have a cool, true ginger ale that may soothe your tummy ache. (I find that to get the best analgesic effect from the ginger, I need to make my drink pretty strong, though not everyone may like that taste.)

WOW w/ Annie

Quick 411 for those who may not be familiar: The Kotel (also called "Western Wall" or sometimes "Wailing Wall") is one of the most religiously significant sites for Jews. It is the retaining wall of the platform that held the 2nd Temple after it was reconstructed by Herod the Great in the 1st century BCE. As the largest and most tangible relic of the sacrificial cult, which was the predominant mode of Jewish worship for about a millennium, the site is an important holy site for Jews today.

Special laws apply to holy sites in Israel, including a prohibition against holding, “a religious ceremony not in accordance with local custom.” Currently, this is interpreted to exclude liberal forms of Judaism in which women where tallitot (prayer shawls) and read from a Torah scroll. Women of the Wall (Hebrew grammar nerds note the unusual pluralization:  נשות הכותל), a group that is trying to change the current law, has been holding monthly women's prayer services on the site since 1988. They wear prayer shawls and (because it's too controversial to do on site) re-locate to nearby Robinson's Arch to read from a Torah scroll. Sometimes they are subjected to violence and always disapproving looks and comments. Annie and I joined them this morning. Four women were arrested (pretty par for the course), so the group re-located for the Torah service outside the police station at the Jaffa gate where these women were being held (so the women being detained could hear them).

I could not for myself determine why certain women were arrested and others not -- it appeared to be random. It turns out that the Israeli police only recognizes tallitot that are white with black stripes as prayer shawls. Women wearing this style were arrested; women wearing more effeminate patterns were not.

A quick tour of the Israeli media coverage suggests that WOW do not, at the moment, have the sympathy of the public. Consider this and this -- two articles concerning the prayer service that Annie and I attended this morning. Here are a few pictures:

Women praying at the back of the women's section at the Kotel. In the foreground, a police officer videotapes the entire service (likely as evidence for current court case).

The women have now re-located outside the police station for the Torah service.

Police hanging out at the station, casually observing the women's service. (Outside the police station is simply public space, so the women cannot legally be asked to leave. However, they are sometimes forced to leave there as well.)

One of the women arrested went to the bathroom and peeked out of the window at the women continuing the service outside the police station.

Because it's Rosh Hodesh Elul, it is traditional to blow a shofar. Here, Anat Hoffman (a founding member of WOW) blows the shofar and expresses a wish that it will knock down the walls of the police station. (Hey, Jericho ain't that far away!)

Annie re-united with camp friend and incoming HUC student, Ari, who came out to support WOW.

Monastery of the Cross w/ Annie

Now located in the middle of one of Jerusalem's largest public parks, the Monastery of the Cross is one of the oldest Christian sites in Jerusalem and still a working Greek Orthodox church, school, and monastery.

The monastery claims to be built where the tree that furnished the wood for the cross once grew. According to Syriac Christian tradition, the three angels who visited Abraham left their staffs with him when they departed. Sometime later, Abraham's nephew, Lot, committed incest and subsequently came to Abraham to seek advice on how he could make right his sin. Abraham gave Lot the three angelic staffs and instructed him to plant them at the outskirts of Jerusalem and water them from the Jordan river. If they blossomed, Lot would know that God had forgiven him. Despite some interference from the Devil, the staffs blossomed into a single tree of pine, cedar, and cypress. This tree would ultimately be cut down to make the cross.

Also according to legend, the site was discovered by Constantine's mother, Helen, who took a trip to Jerusalem (then called "Aelia Capitolina") to seek out relics from the life of Jesus. While features of the current structure date to the 4th century, the main structure was built by Georgians in the 11th, and handed over to the Greek Orthodox (who still occupy it) in the 17th.

Some shots taken in the courtyard:

  

 

One of several exotic birds owned by the monastery that hang out in the courtyard:

 The main chapel. 11th century wall paintings and 6th century mosaic floor.

Annie taking pictures:

 

Inscriptions in this chapel were in two languages. They are Georgian (left) and Greek (right). Since the monastery was handed over to the Greeks in the 17th century, several Georgian inscriptions have been painted over in Greek.

 

The mosaic floor:

Close-up:

 Annie and I posed with our favorite wall-paintings. Mine seems to be two saints. We think the one on the right is John the evangelist, who's named is in a medieval Greek script. The one on the left is labelled in Georgian and we really don't know who it is. The little guy between them (as I learned later from Wikipedia) is a 12th century Georgian poet, Shota Rustaveli, and this is the only extent medieval portrait of him. It was defaced in 2004, and at the time the Georgians blamed the Greek Orthodox for doing so (apparently this was not the first such incident of that kind). It has since been restored. 

 

Close-up of Shota Rustaveli:

 Various niches with statuary were to be found all around the monastery:

Inexplicably short doorway:

Late afternoon light coming in one of the recessed windows:

 Dining hall with solid stone tables built in:

 Oddly plastic-looking plant with green flowers:

Very tall, straight tree in the courtyard. Cypress?

Lemon tree:

Another one of the exotic birds owned by the monastery:

One of the guys who works at the monastery showed us how to make this bird "dance." He clapped his forearms together and called loudly: "Lulululululu". The bird fluffed up his crown feathers and starting dancing around like a nut!