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!

Kibbutz Sasa w/ Aviva, Zohar, and Danny

In the far north of Israel, one mile from the Lebanon border, is Kibbutz Sasa. I traveled up there to spend a few days with friends Aviva and Zohar and their adorable 13-month-old, Danny. Zohar grew up on the kibbutz, and his parents still live there. Most of these pics were taken on a fig-gathering mission in one of the kibbutz orchards. They don't grow figs commercially so anyone is welcome to come pick some whenever they want.

Heading out to pick figs

Taste-testing the figs:

Purple figs...

View from the orchard:

Thistles all dried out:

Wild blackberry bush:

So cute!

Yellow figs...

 

More thistles:

 Sunset from the orchard:

Another plant:

Aviva demonstrating some of the armaments leftover from one of Israel's wars. Maybe '67?

An early pomegranate:

The haul; about 6 kilos of figs plus one pomegranate:

So cute!

Here's what the figs look like split open:

Aharon and Ziva (Zohar's parents), Aviva and Zohar

Fig, carmelized onion, and camembert cheese tart. Basic approach: Make pizza dough, brush with olive oil, pile on the figs, carmelized onions and cheese with fresh thyme and rosemary and a sprinkling of salt, then bake. Aviva and I "invented" the recipe. Yum!

Aharon and Ziva's porch is covered in big, juicy grapes right now. These will soon be picked, and placed in an empty kiddie pool. Then various grandchildren will be called upon to stomp all over them and Aharon will turn them into wine. I didn't taste any of his grape wine while I was there, but he did serve me his lemon cordial and also a cherry wine that was quite delicious--all made at home from local produce. I also got to take home a jar of fig jam (made from our figs - half that load made about six jars of jam) and homemade skhug.

One of Danny's favorite gestures. You're supposed to reach your finger out to touch his.

View from Aharon and Ziva's home. Part of this picture is Israel and part is Lebanon, but I forget exactly where the border is.

While the kibbutz's major industry is a factory that manufactures armored siding for vehicles, they also have some agricultural products under the brand "Breishit" and one of the big ones for them is apples. Here, the apple trees are covered with netting so that the apples don't get a sunburn. Or something like that.