Dressing up and Drinking

It's Purim today in most of Israel, and tomorrow in Jerusalem (because it's a walled city and fighting went on longer in the walled city where the event that is being commemorated happened).  Both days are holidays -- not shabbat type holidays, but Western weekend type holidays. Some shops are open, schools are closed.

Purim commemorates the saving of the Jewish people in Persia, the story is in the book of Esther. It's a bit like Hallowe'en, everyone is dressed up -- well, not today, for now it's just the really keen folks and children. Firecrackers are going off. Festivals and public parties are the order of the day. Instead of candy, it's cookies for Purim. They are called Haman's (the scheming Persian prime minister whose plot to kill the Jews Esther, and her adoptive father Mordecai, foiled) ears -- triangles of dough filled with poppy seeds or prunes. Yum!

And, get this, it's the one day of the year that you are meant to get drunk...drunk enough that you lose certain cognitive functions, like the ability to distinguish the phrases "cursed is Haman" and "blessed is Mordecai"...whether you lose those functions because you are sleeping or blotto is a matter of some debate.

 If I get some pictures tomorrow at the street party I'll post them here.

street party in Nachlaot

a carrot and bunny i know

Purim - Jerusalem February 25, 2013

beer, beer, beer

News & Views

I'm just back from a long weekend roadtrip to the North and the Golan. It's still winter in the Golan but we (Theresa and I) had a great time. More on that soon when I have the pictures sorted.

This week coalition talks continue and things are not getting any clearer. Bibi is in the trenches to make the coalition he wants -- it's looking like he might have to cede more than he ever has before. It's also looking like the Palestinian issue (or in Hebrew the "diplomatic issue") is going to be far more central to this government's (when it is formed) mandate than the elections would have had us believe.  Bibi has until March 15 to make a coalition government. If he cannot, President Peres will invite someone else to form a coalition. If he or she fails then there will be another election in mid-July. Meanwhile, Bibi's taking the heat for the saga of "Prisoner X" (and the attempt to censor the story) and for his ice cream budget! It was such a scandal that Netanyahu has cancelled his ice cream contract (USD 2800 per year). I feel a bit badly for him; I can imagine that a regular supply of pistachio gelato helps to soothe the life of the PM.

In weather news we are getting warmer daytime highs and feeling the heat of the sun again, but the nighttime lows are lower than they were in most of January. I continue to get good wear out of my down jacket!

This weekend we drove back to Jerusalem through the Jordan and Bet Shean valleys where spring is about to give over to summer (at 200 m below sea level the seasons are ahead!). It was a treat to be so warm. As we climbed out of the Judean desert and back into the Judean hills the mercury dropped and we remembered -- at 800 m above sea level it's a bumpy ride through spring! 

Jerusalem the Green & Mount of Olives

Everything is green.

From Mt Zion, looking north to Mamilla (Yemin Moshe on L)

 
Jerusalem really looks completely different after a winter of heavy rains.  These pictures were taken last Monday when Theresa and I took the morning off and walked up Mount of Olives and over to Mt Scopus (where the university is). (Photo credits: TT)

The route to the Mount of Olives from the German Colony goes by a boatload of historic and sacred sites, not all of them were on our itinerary.

From the Cinematheque bridge looking north toward Jaffa Gate (Yemin Moshe on L)

Yemin Moshe was the first Jewish neighbourhood outside of the walled city. Built in 1891, it was constructed to relieve crowding in the Jewish Quarter. Today it's considered a premiere neighbourhood in Jerusalem, but it's not always been so desirable. When the City was divided from 1948-1967, Jordanian snipers often volleyed shots into the neighbourhood!

Yemin Moshe

The Dormition Abbey is a Benedictine abbey just outside the Zion Gate on the south end of the Old City on Mount Zion. [ed. note. Mary is meant to have died at the Dormition Abbey]. King David's tomb is also on Mt Zion. And, the Last Supper is meant to have been served at Mt Zion.

Mt Zion - Old City and the Dormition Abbey (04.02.2013)

At the Dormition Abbey

The Dormition Abbey

We passed a bar mitzvah celebration. Some families celebrate by coming to Jerusalem, hiring some musicians and dancing into the Western Wall.

A bar mitzvah party

At the southeast corner of the Old City there are great views of Al-Aqsa Mosque. 

Theresa (Al-Aqsa behind)

Continuing east we descended into the Kidron Valley (in the Bible this is the Valley of Jehoshaphat).

Kidron Valley looking southwest toward Silwan

The east side of the Kidron Valley is the western slope of the Mount of Olives. This is where the burial sites start.  Observant Jews and Christians consider it an honour to be buried on the western slope of the Mount of Olives. Why? Because when the Messiah comes, he'll come here first.  King David and Jesus both ascended Mount of Olives as they exited Jerusalem.

Kidron Valley -- Tomb of Zechariah and Tomb of Benei Hezir

Here's another cemetery in the Kidron Valley. East beyond the walls of the Old City is the Temple Mount where you find the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Kidron Valley looking west to Old City

I'm not sure if this part of the cemetery has its own name. It's across the way from the Garden of Gethsemane ("oil press" named for the olive trees) and the Church of All Nations.
 

Church of All Nations - Garden of Gethsemane to left

The Garden is most famous as the place where Jesus and his disciples prayed the night before he was arrested.

On the way up the Mount of Olives there are more churches, including the Russian Orthodox Church of Maria Magdalene...

Church of Maria Magdalene

and more gravesites. This is the Jewish cemetery:

Jewish cemetery Mt of Olives

And then the view from the top of Mount of Olives:

Looking south -- at the centre top is the Dormition Abbey

Looking west to the Old City

Still looking west - wide angle

From the Mt of Olives we walked the rolling 2 km route to the Hebrew U campus on Mt Scopus. Right at the edge, where Mount of Olives turns into Mount Scopus there is a Lutheran Centre on the west side of the road, and a Christian Hospital on the east. The road narrows, acquires fencing and the sidewalk disappears. It's as if one isn't meant to walk from Mount of Olives to Mt Scopus. Thankfully, it's a short walk and the traffic was respectful of us on the road.

From Mount Scopus there is a spectacular view east to the Judean Desert (the West Bank) and beyond, the Dead Sea, and the mountains of Jordan. In the summer this view is of burnt desert -- it is astonishingly green right now. And you can really see how the amount of precipitation falls off precipitously! In the bottom right of this photo the road you can see disappears into a tunnel. This road links to Hwy 1, the Israeli road that goes to the Dead Sea; there's a checkpoint on the west side a bit east (around the hill on the right of the picture) of the tunnel [ed note: earlier I made an error in describing where the checkpoint is. I apologize for any confusion this may have caused!)

East to the Judean desert from Mt Scopus

The east side of Hebrew U's Mt. Scopus campus

Isawiya the Arab (Palestinian) neighbourhood that is on the eastern slope of Mt Scopus

Me, calling our friend Amit to meet us for falafel lunch

After stuffing ourselves with falafel for lunch we hopped on the bus and headed down to Mahane Yehuda (the shuk) to get some groceries.

What's with my name?

As it turns out, it's a bit funny introducing oneself as "Christina" in a predominantly Jewish town.  The nature of the Jewish diaspora is that I can pass as Jewish until I tell people my name.

I'm not and have never been a practicing Christian, but it is obviously the tradition I most identify with -- Christmas & Easter being the biggest events on my "religious" calendar. But, having a name that suggests fidelity to Christianity is meaningful when you live in the Holy Land. It means some folks identify me by religion first, which is really a new experience.

I am quite certain this happens to people all the time in Canada, in person and on paper. It doesn't happen to me though, because in Canada my name is not unique. But, names that suggest their carriers (people) are adherents to a certain religion and/or ethnic group that isn't -- I don't know -- quite "Canadian" yet probably have this experience regularly. I overheard some American-Israelis discussing Barack Obama's inauguration speech and someone said, "Isn't it scary his second name is Hussein?  ...Um, no.

But, is a name ever just a name? What is a name if it isn't a categorization, an identity, a memory of someone or something? And, does it ever mean the same thing to the holder of the name as to the hearer of the name?