the oldest hebrew writing ever ?

apparently, just down the road from jerusalem, is khirbet qeiyafa, a new archaeological site being uncovered, which appears to be a fortified forward city from the early iron age (i.e, time of David and Solomon), designed to protect jerusalem from attack. among the discoveries was a potsherd, with some proto-hebrew grafiti.

if looks like the site might end up being a counterpoint, across the valley of elah, from the philistine city of gath (birthplace of goliath, where i dug this summer). the director of the gath dig, aren meir, is quoted in the nyt and jpost articles.

on the other hand, the financing of the khirbet qeiyafa dig may be coming from questionable sources, and i'm not sure what to do with that dichotomy. i really hope that the dig doesn't get wrapped up in problematic politics, the same way as the city of david in the east jerusalem neighborhood of silwan.

everyone loves a parade?

who knew that the feast of tabernacles, known to me as the jewish holiday of sukkot, was the perfect time for evangelical christians from all over the world to have solidarity missions to israel, and parade down the street, waving flags, singing, and shouting that "...for the sake of jerusalem, i will not be silenced"?

well, apparently it was.





the parade is the brainchild of the international christian embassy jerusalem,

The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem was founded in 1980 as an evangelical Christian response to the need to comfort Zion according to the command of scripture found in Isaiah 40:1-2: "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem..."

besides the parade, the organization also organizes a whole slewload of other events throughout sukkot.

i personally missed the parade, which traveled down the street right outside our apartment building, but a certain someone took pictures for me, which you can see here. (also take a look at the crazy picture over here).

as far as i could tell, the whole thing seemed pretty benign, but don't tell that to the orthodox folks protesting against it. it seems that christian missionizing is bad, while jewish mitzvah mobiles are sanctioned by God. who knew? go figure...

shake, shake your lulav... shake it all the time

you may have noticed the beautiful lulav and etrog that i bought for sukkot



and then wondered, how did he acquire such a set? well, right before sukkot, a special market opens up near the machaneh yehudah shuk, called the shuk arbah minim, the market of the four species. the four species being the etrog, and the palm, willow and myrtle branches that make up the lulav.



it's especially busy the day before sukkot



some of the etrogim were on display, but some stayed in boxes. we just finished the shmitah year, in which the land is supposed to lay fallow, and therefore no profit is supposed to be made from agriculture in israel. there's some complicated loop-holes, but the bottom line for etrog purchases, is that some folks say that you weren't allowed to choose your etrog, and had to buy them from a closed box...



but for the lulav, you're supposed to check it out beforehand, before finalizing the purchase



it's gotta have just the right thickness on top, and don't forget the "shake" factor



to find the perfect set ....

olive picking, and a donkey...

yes, that's me, on a donkey. it was the culmination of a morning of olive picking in the west bank with rabbis for human rights. this effort is intended to help palestinian farmers gather their olives without the need for them to hire additional laborers, and make sure that nearby settlers stay on their best behavior.







more olive-picking pictures are online...

sukkot!

although the holiday of sukkot is now offically over, my blogging on it has just begun!

take a look at my beautiful lulav and etrog:



in leviticus 23:42-43, the torah says that we should ...

live in sukkot seven days; all citizens in israel shall live in sukkot, in order that future generations may know that I made the israelite people live in sukkot when I brought them out of the land of egypt, I the Lord your God

therefore, where better to see lots of sukkot everywhere than in the land of israel, itself?

at home:







at hotels:



and at restaurants:









and even one made out of recycled plastic bags:



lots more sukkot photos are online, enjoy!

funky fruit

dragon fruit, officially known as pitaya have just started to hit the israeli marketplace with abandon. unfortunately they're kind of bland, but very funny-looking.



and also star fruit, yum!

dr seuss on sukkot

now that i'm about to head back to the holy land, after high holidays in upstate new york, and making the great schlep to cleveland, it's time to start thinking about where to find the best etrog in jerusalem. meanwhile, i was just forwarded this email ... enjoy!

Rules of the Sukkah
by Rabbi Arthur E. Gould

You can build it very small 1
You can build it very tall 2

You can build it very large 3
You can build it on a barge

You can build it on a ship 4
Or on a roof but please don’t slip 5

You can build it in an alley 6
You shouldn’t build it in a valley 7

You can build it on a wagon 8
You can build it on a dragon 9

You can make the skakh of wood 10
Woud you, could you, yes you should

Make the skakh from leaves of tree
You shouldn’t bend it at the knee 11

Build your Sukkah tall or short
No Sukkah is built in the Temple Court

You can build it somewhat soon
You cannot build it in the month of June 12

If your Sukkah is well made
You’ll have the right amount of shade 13

You can build it very wide
You can not build it on its side

Build if your name is Jim
Or Bob or Sam or even Tim

Build it if your name is Sue 14
Do you build it, yes you do!

From the Sukkah you can roam
But you should treat it as your home 15

You can invite some special guests
Don’t stay in it if there are pests

You can sleep upon some rugs
Don’t you build it where there’s bugs

In the Sukkah you should sit
And eat and drink but never…

If in the Sukkah it should rain
To stay there would be such a pain 16

And if it should be very cold
Stay there only if you’re bold

So build a Sukkah one and all
Make it large or make it small

Sukkah rules are short and snappy
Enjoy Sukkot, rejoice be happy.

____________________________
Notes
1 Maimonides (RMBM) Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Sukkah, Chapter 4, Section 1. The minimum height of a Sukkah is 10 tepachim. A tepach is a measure of the width of the four fingers of one’s hand. My hand is 3 1/4 inches wide for a minimum Sukkah height of 32 1/2 inches. The minimum allowable width is 7 tepachim by 7 tepachim. This would result in a Sukkah of 22 3/4 inches by 22 3/4 inches.

2The maximum height is 20 Amot. An Amah is the length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. My Amah is 15 1/2 inches for a maximum height of 25 feet. Others say that 30 feet is the maximum.

3 According to RMBM the Sukkah can be built to a width of several miles. Shulchan Aruch also says there is no limit on the size of the width.

4 RMBM Hilchot Sukkah Chapter 4, Section 6.

5 RMBM Hilchot Sukkah Chapter 4, Section 11. RMBM states that one may construct a Sukkah by wedging poles in the four corners of the roof and suspending scakh from the poles. The walls of the building underneath are considered to reach upward to the edge of the scakh.

6 RMBM Hilchot Sukkah Chapter 4, Section 8-10 discusses the ins and outs of building your Sukkah in an alley or passageway.

7 There is a location referred to in the Talmud called Ashtarot Karnayim. According to the discussion there are two hills, with a valley in between where the Sun does not reach. Therefore it is impossible to sit in the shade of the roof of the Sukkah. I can’t find the reference…hopefully next year.

8 RMBM Hilchot Sukkah Chapter 4, Section 6. You can go into a Sukkah built on a wagon or a ship even on Yom Tov.

9RMBM Hilchot Sukkah Chapter 4, Section 6. OK, RMBM says a camel but dragon rhymes with wagon a lot better, don’t you agree. Anyway, RMBM says you can build your Sukkah on a wagon or in the crown of a tree, but you can’t go into it on Yom Tov. There is a general rule against riding a beast or ascending into the crown of a tree on Yom Tov.

10 Chapter 5 deals with the rules for the scakh. Basically, you can use that which has grown from the ground, and is completely detached from the ground. So, for example, you cannot bend the branches of a tree over the Sukkah to form the scakh. But you can cut the branches from a tree and use them as scakh.

11This would be a violation of the rule cited in the prior footnote.

12 Shulchan Aruch, Hilchot Sukkah, Perek 636, Section 1 The Sukkah should not be built sooner than 30 days before the Hag. However, if the structure is built prior to 30 days, as long as something new is added within the 30 days, the Sukkah is kosher.

13 Of course it’s a well known rule that you must sit in the shade from the roof of the Sukkah and not in the shade that may be cast by the walls. It seems that this might affect the height of the walls, depending on the longitude of the location where you are building your Sukkah.

14 Traditionally, women, servants and minors are patur from the Mitzvah of Sukkah. In our day we hope we know better than to read out half the Jewish people from the observance of Mitzvot. Of course, that’s just a personal opinion of the author.

15 RMBM ibid Chapter 6, Section 6 explains that you should eat, drink and live in the Sukkah for the 7 days as you live in your own home. One should not even take a nap outside of the Sukkah.

16 RMBM ibid, Section 10 If it rains one should go into the house. How does one know if it is raining hard enough? If sufficient raindrops fall through the scakh and into the food so that the food is spoiled—go inside!

© Rabbi Arthur E. Gould, Sukkot 1999 - 2001.

the great schlep

while "the great schlep" might be referring to my recent 11 hour flight, but now that i'm briefly back in the states, the "great schlep" instead, is sarah silverman's idea of how to rock the bubbe vote.

pre-sunrise selichot

today turned into an early morning. instead of waking up at 4:30 am to catch the end of a late-night football game, we were up at 4am to check out 5am selichot services at the ades synagogue - בית הכנסת עדס in jerusalem's nachlaot neighborhood.

the synagogue was built 100 years ago by a community of jews from aleppo, syria. this jewish community had been the guardians of the aleppo codex, the 1000-year old biblical manuscript that is now in the israel museum. the synagogue is sephardic/mizrachi, so selichot services take place during the entire month of elul, not just the last week or so, as is the ashkenazi practice.

you can listen to a melody used at the synagogue here. (click on the "play button" in the upper-left part of the page, and then a pop-up window will start playing the piyut).

there's also an interesting article on ynet news (in english) about early morning selichot services in nachlaot, including a video (in hebrew). the first synagogue featured in the video is ades, the one we visited.

afterwards, following some much-needed caffeinated beverages at aroma, we were off to the nearby shuk. mmmh... shopping for fresh pita and veggies goes so well with repentance ...

obama's rabbis

though i wasn't yet able to be part of it, yesterday obama convened a conference call with over 900 rabbis, from across the denominational spectrum. it was live-blogged by rabbi danya. כן אנו יכולים !

tasty teshuvah

last night we took a break from talmud, sleep, and high holiday prep, and went to the taste of jerusalem - food festival, on the heals of the jerusalem beer festival held in late august. i had a really good kosher chicken burrito.

maybe tomorrow i'll head into the old city for a late night selichot service and get in some good old-fashioned repenting, along with a cacophony of shofar tekiah-ing, before the big day...

but, i guess if that doesn't excite, there's always the evening laser light show to bring on the (shock and) awe. what better way is there to say "teshuvah", than writing it with lasers on the darkened white stone walls of jerusalem?

soulful davening in a bomb shelter

last night we attended services and had a delicious shabbat dinner in the captivating neighborhood of nachalot:

referred to by some as “jerusalem's soho” area, nachlaot it is home to a diverse population, which includes the jerusalem hareidi-religious population, followers of the late rabbi shlomo carlebach, members of the national religious community and many non-sabbath observant residents. There are members of both the ashkenazi and sephardic communities.

it is one of the city’s older and more colorful neighborhoods, retaining much of its original 19th century architecture, narrow alleyways and cobblestone streets. the neighborhood was planned to accommodate the yemenite, kurdish, jerusalem sephardi (including the famous banai family), greek, and galician Jews. the communities had their own synagogues (many still exist today) and were each housed within a walled compound, built around a common courtyard and a water cistern in the center.

the residents of the community serve as an example to am yisrael (the jewish people), living side-by-side in harmony, including sabbath observant and non-sabbath observant families and singles. “tolerance and good vibes” would well describe life in this increasingly popular area of the capital.

located in the heart of jerusalem, opposite the well-known machane yehuda outdoor marketplace, nachlaot is situated in the heart of downtown jerusalem, serving as a gateway to the government complex and sacher park, as well as being situated in easy walking distance to major downtown hotels, the city center, and neighborhoods including Rechavia and shaare chesed.

there are many synagogues, including kol rina, an orthodox synagogue which offers prayer services modeled after the tunes and spirit of the late rabbi carlebach, with spiritual leader rabbi aaron leibowitz, who is bilingual, making a concerted effort to make his house of worship a comfort zone for all those who visit and worship regularly.

nachalot was the neighborhood where the movie ushpizin was filmed, which in itself was an attempt to bridge some of the secular-religious divide in the city and israeli society. there are apparently free mp3 walking tours of the neighborhood available at jerusalemp3.com.

we attended services at kol rina, the carlebach-style shul mentioned above, which meets in the neighborhood bomb shelter. the diversity of the minyan attendees matched the neighborhood - with folks wearing rainbow kippot happily sitting next to shtreimls, their voices all joining together in the many yi-di-di-di and yi-bi-bi-bum refrains.

however, with the mechitzah that created a women's section behind that of the men's, i felt like the women were relegated to praying in the "back of the bus" (even though i know that other folks might disagree with me).

i guess i have the year to continue to reflect on what it means to have male privilege here in jerusalem, and to have access to prayer spaces from which others are excluded.

jazzing it up on emek

on monday night, a friend told me about the opening/rededication of a new progressive community center, called מרכז תרבות העמים , in the emek refaim neighborhood of jerusalem. the center aims to create a pluralistic environment for cultural and social activities for all of the diverse residents of the "garden neighborhoods" of jerusalem.

the event featured:

Marsh Dondurma - The street band is known to change a humdrum day of wandering up and down Ben Yehuda street into a festival when they wip out their drums (as well as percussion instruments.) To avoid being accused of favoritism, the Marsh Dondurma plays gypsy traditional, Jewish klezmer, Latin beats, Middle Eastern tunes, and more. They've also played at art festivals all over Israel and the Serbian Guca Trumpet Festival. The group covers much ground at this festival first playing on Emek Refaim (the street itself) and then at 20:30 inside the new center.

• 19:30-Reception
  
• 20:00-Fixing of Mezuzah
  
• 20:30-Marsh Dondurma at the new center
  
• Special guests: Rabbi Benny Lau, Professor Ariel Hirschfeld, and poets Haim Gouri, Almog Behar, and Benyamin Shvili

let me just tell you that the group, מארש דונדורמה, is awsome. imagine a 8-10 piece new orleans-klezmer-funk brass band, complete with trombones and a tuba, imported to israel. i'm now a big fan. music clips are available on their webpage, and on their myspace page, and via the youtube clips below:

the best way to reach the western wall is through the shopping mall

yep - that's the case. in the ten years since i last was in the old city of jerusalem, the mamilla promenade leading from west jerusalem into jaffa gate has become a shopping mall, touted by some as jerusalem's rodeo drive. it is being built using aged-looking jerusalem stone, giving it an old-looking facade.

previously, mamilla was part of the no-man's land between jordan and israel between 1948 and 1967, and then home to jewish immigrants from mostly arab countries, until they were evicted to make way for the new development.

i'm not sure why this particular mall bugs me so much. in some ways it's just a modern version of the arab shuk (market) that you have to pass through to get to the various historic and religious sites in the old city.

but instead of spices, cheap t-shirts and menorahs, in this new mall we can drink gourmet cappucinos, buy nautica shirts and castro jeans. maybe it's because it reminds me too much of the gift shops that you're forced to walk through after exiting the rides at disney world.

i also discovered that the historic hurva synagogue, which was destroyed in 1948, and then only rebuilt as one symbolic arch after 1967, is nearing complete reconstruction.

i guess the old city is where the old becomes new and the new becomes old all over and over again.

prayers for new orleans

as the mother of all storms now approaches new orleans, my thoughts and prayers are with the people of louisiana and the gulf coast.

now that i'm here, i wonder if praying in jerusalem works any better than philadelphia? (interestingly, the "kotel cam" below only shows the men's side, so maybe it only works better if you have a y chromosome?)



how can we connect to the power that makes for salvation, especially in times of potential crisis, and when we're so far away? right now, hopefully it'll be found guiding everyone's efforts, ensuring a successful evacuation ...

jerusalem beer, בירושלים הבירה

last night was the jerusalem beer festival, held at the old train station. what could be better way to celebrate the move from tel aviv to jerusalem (and the arrival of a special someone) than homemade oatmeal beer and beer tasting contests?!

mmmh... בירה ...

beer on the roof = good times

bauhaus architecture in tel aviv

on friday, i went on a walking tour of north tel aviv, looking at the many buildings built in the 1920s and 1930s in the bauhaus style. in 2003, unesco declared tel aviv's white city a world cultural heritage site:

the white city (hebrew: העיר הלבנה, ha-ir ha-levana) refers to a collection of 4,000 bauhaus or international style buildings built in tel aviv from the 1920s by german jewish architects who immigrated to pre-state Israel after the rise of the nazis. tel aviv has the largest number of buildings in this style of any city in the world. in 2003, unesco proclaimed tel aviv's white city a world cultural heritage site, as "an outstanding example of new town planning and architecture in the early 20th century." the citation recognized the unique adaptation of modern international architectural trends to the cultural, climatic, and local traditions of the city

click here to view a slideshow of my photos. many of the buildings reminded me of fallingwater and other works designed by frank lloyd wright, who preceded and was contemporaneous with this movement.