Herodium

Regrettably, the concept of diversity has been so thoroughly co-opted that I have all but eliminated it from my vocabulary. On occasion, however, no other word will do and exceptions must be made.

My summer semester at Pardes wrapped up yesterday. We were asked to submit an evaluation, and in response to one of the questions I had no choice but to answer "diverse". There was a diversity of classes, instructors and most of all students. It was very unusual to be with 20-somethings. Other than at the gym, where I out-last and out-perform them, it's a demographic I know nothing about. That hasn't really changed. But I did learn a few things from teachers who were remarkable and introduced me to areas of study and practice that were compelling. Most important of all I met people who I hope will be lifelong friends.

On Tuesday we had a tiyul (outing) to Herodium, one of King Herod's palaces - the one he chose as his final resting place. It was a place I'd wanted to visit for years. To give you an idea of how controversial Herod was, there is not one street in Israel that bears his name. He was brilliant and paranoid, an egomaniac and self-promoter, manipulative and ruthless, a contemporary of Anthony and Cleopatra, an adroit politician who knew how to balance competing domestic factions while simultaneously keeping his Roman overlords happy enough to remain in power. He was a visionary planner who built palaces, ports and aqueducts. His greatest architectural achievement was the Second Temple, one of the most spectacular in the ancient world. It was so well constructed that the outer retaining wall, the only part of the Temple compound that wasn't destroyed by the Romans in 70CE, survives to this day. That's what the Western Wall is. And to this day no one has figured out how the multi-ton blocks of limestone that support the structure were quarried, transported and put in place. The engineering required for the Temple and projects such as the port of Caesarea and the winter palace of Massada are marvels to this day.

Like Massada, Herodium was considered the invention (and exaggeration) of Josephus, himself a very controversial character. Prior to the Six Day War, when the purported locations were under Jordanian occupation, no one could even explore to verify his writings. Post the '67 War, the Department of Antiquities turned loose the best and brightest to find these fabled palaces. Herodium was identified in the early 70's and the excavations are on-going. But the real prize was the tomb itself, which was located in 2007. There is a very sad story attached to the tomb. In 2010 Ehud Netzer, the archaeologist who spent 35 years of his career working at Herodium, tragically fell to his death at the site, just days before it was to be opened to the public. He was giving a press tour, leaned on a wooden railing which wasn't secured and fell to his death. How ironic that he died in the very place where Herod was buried.

Lower Herodium. It's hard to tell, but this was actually a pool with a large platform in the center.

At the model of the site. 

The model.

The hike up. Way easier than Massada.

Overview of the site.

Our guide. We were sitting in what was originally a banquet hall, but later converted into a synagogue by soldiers of the Bar Kochba revolt.

You have to use your imagination, but this is actually a domed ceiling, one of the tallest for its time.

One of the cisterns.

My soldier boy finished his second week in the army. As always it was a very good experience for him, and invaluable to Israel. I'm very proud of him.

Shabbat shalom from Jerusalem,

Peggy and Sid

Borrowed Time

We've been coming to Israel for 2-1/2 to 3 months every year for the past 5 years. We've always stayed in the same neighborhood, Kiryat Shmuel. It's a lovely area, a 20 minute walk to everything, with good shopping, cafes and bakeries, great public transportation and a good vibe. Coincidentally we know several people who live in the neighborhood.

This time, well let's just say we're not in Kiryat Shmuel anymore. Not that we're in a bad neighborhood ... not by a long shot. Rehavia is one of Jerusalem's nicest. About 10 minutes closer to downtown, which also makes it 10 minutes farther to Pardes, and very quiet. There's no supermarket in the immediate vicinity, but there are three small grocery stores, several cafes, a pizzeria and the all-important gelateria around the corner. There are several bus lines but the stops are farther away. Our old neighborhood only had 2 bus lines, but the stop was almost across the street, and it seems we could get anywhere we needed to go on one of them. After 4 weeks we have concluded that we prefer the old neighborhood.

So imagine my surprise when on Tuesday night about 11PM I heard a racket that sounded like maybe someone was taking a building down. I went out to investigate and there was a bulldozer digging up the street. The city is replacing water pipes, and the work is done at night, 11PM to 4AM. So for two nights it was like being in a battlefield, but it was only two nights.

The apartment itself is very nice. Totally renovated. Two bedrooms and two bathrooms, one ensuite. This one has a washer AND a dryer, which isn't the norm in a country whose climate allows clothes to line dry in a couple of hours. And yes, people do hang laundry out to dry. I'm still stymied by the appliances. I can't figure out what all the symbols mean. All I know is that at home we have 3 temperature options - hot, warm and cold - and 3 types of laundry - dirty, really dirty and delicate. Here you need a decoder ring to figure how what settings to use. I decided the best way to go about this would be to use the setting that seemed the most reasonable in terms of time, which is one hour. At least it's not the 9 hour machine we had a few years ago. And I set the bar pretty low. If it's cleaner when it comes out than when it went in, that's good enough. The oven is also giving me grief. Too many symbols to figure out. And the landlord isn't much help, so I take my best guess and hope nothing blows up.

Sid completed his first week in the army. Once again he's at the central medical supply depot, packing kits and lifting cartons. He's with the same manager, in a group of about 30. He doesn't like his roommate, apparently no one else does either. This is unusual. I've never heard of anyone who participates in this program who isn't nice. I guess there always has to be an exception.

You probably don't hear about what's been going on here because the media can't bring themselves to report anything sympathetic about Israel. This past week a new treatment for Crohn's Disease was announced. This is on top of a string of recent advances in early detection and treatment of cancer.

On the other hand, there has been a constant barrage of terrorist attacks from Gaza by means of, believe it or not, kites, balloons and condoms armed with Molotov cocktails. Several thousand acres of farmland have been destroyed; the devastation is unimaginable. This low tech terrorism is very difficult to counter. The missiles, which leave no radar signal, are nearly impossible to detect. The IDF has tried using drones and lasers, with minimum effect. As long as the prevailing winds blow from west to east, this is going to be something to deal with for a long time.

If they would only use their creativity for something good, like establishing the institutions that would form a functioning civil society and earn the public trust ... but who am I kidding? What they really need to do is find a better use for the condoms ...

The other event that grabbed the headlines this week is the series of earthquakes that have occurred in the Galilee near Tiberias. They've been relatively low on the Richter Scale. I think the strongest was 4.2. But Israel is bisected by the Great African Rift Fault, which causes a major quake every 90-100 years. The last one was in 1927 and claimed 500 lives. We're almost overdue.

We're having our first Shabbat guests tonight - my Krav Maga instructor and training partner. We do have to keep in shape, mentally, physically and socially. After all, we are on borrowed time.

Shabbat shalom from Jerusalem,

Peggy and Sid

The Week That Was

There was more going on this week than usual ... and usual is pretty busy.

Nir and his girlfriend Hannah arrived on Friday. There weren't enough brass bands in Israel to welcome them. We all gathered for brunch at Batsheva and Eli's to celebrate their arrival and to celebrate Moshe's birthday. So what does that mean? More food than usual and 3 cakes. If I don't put on 10 pounds on this trip it will be a miracle.

L to R
Nissim, Hannah, Nir, Batsheva

L to R
Moshe, Talya, Hila, Nissim

Sid & Hannah

L to R
Yonatan,  Tomer, Arel

Jerusalem has the most amazing and unusual cultural events imaginable. On Sunday we went to a light show in the Old City. We meandered the alleyways, following an incredible laser light show. We wound up at the Kotel, which is simply splendid at night.

The Western Wall at night

I started school on Monday. We were introduced to the Pardes Institute about 4 years ago, and have attended many classes and lectures there. It's a top notch academy with an exceptional roster of instructors. The course offerings were mind-boggling and it was difficult to choose which ones to attend. 

I didn't realize what I was getting myself in to. I'd been looking forward to summer school at Pardes for months, but I didn't realize it would be like going back to college. My brain hasn't had this kind of workout since, well, college. And when I walked in, all I saw were kids. Uh-oh. Me and 20-somethings. Great. But grown-ups started to drift in, and someone told me that roughly one third of the 100+ students in the program are over 50. They come from everywhere - US, Canada, France, Australia, South Africa and Israel.

The days are long; I leave the apartment at 8AM and don't get back till after 6PM. The classes are 2-1/2 hours each, and I'm taking four, two of which complement each other. By the time the semester ends I'll be an expert in the Book of Exodus. Plus additional tours, lectures and classes that get squeezed in. As an added bonus the school is across the street from a very nice mall, and I rewarded myself for surviving the first week by buying a nice pair of Teva sandals.

We had a tour on Tuesday afternoon. A walking tour. In 90 degree weather. We started at the top of the Mount of Olives, walked all the way down to the bottom of the Kidron Valley thru the cemetery, with a stop at the tomb of the prophets (where none of the prophets is buried) and Absalom's tomb (where Absalom isn't buried) and back up to the Old City. The Mount of Olives saw a lot of action during Biblical times, and not merely because it was the 50-yard line for watching the destruction of both Temples. There is a place that has a direct line of sight to the doorway of the Temple, and it was on this spot that the priest burned the red heifer. On Yom Kippur the two goats were taken to the same location. Neither had a happy ending; one was thrown off the mountain and the other was sacrificed.  The cemetery, which is about 3000 years old, is the final resting place of people from all walks of life. We visited the common grave of some of the defenders of the Jewish Quarter in the 1948 war. The youngest was a 10 year old boy. Most of the people buried there were civilians, but they were killed in combat, and they were enlisted in the IDF posthumously, given ranks and when the bodies were finally recovered from the Jewish Quarter after 19 years of Jordanian occupation, re-interred on the Mount of Olives. And it was from here that the operation to recapture the Old City in the 1967 war was launched. I had always understood that to be buried on the Mount of Olives today costs upwards of $50,000. Turns out it's not true. An Israeli citizen who resides in Jerusalem can be buried in any municipal cemetery. Hmmmm. Something to think about.

Mount of Olives Cemetery; my future home

Tomb of Nissim Gidi, the 10 year old defender of the Jewish Quarter in the 1948 War

Common grave of the last defenders of the Jewish Quarter in the 1948 War

Ossuaries, where bones are stored after removal from burial caves

But without the prophets. In fact a burial cave for the well-to-do

Inside the burial cave where the caretaker did his best to convince us that
Zacharia, Haggai and Malachi, the last three prophets are buried

Absalon's tome, but no Absalom

First Temple era burial site
Oddly reminiscent of Petra

Wednesday was the Fourth of July. It's a diplomatic event here, even among the many Americans who live in Israel. We attended a very interesting conference sponsored by the Middle East Forum. It was called the Israel Victory Project, which is a new approach to resolving our 100 Years War. The premise is that Oslo and the "Two State Solution" were destined to fail from the get-go, and the only way progress can be made on the "peace process" is by convincing the Palestinians that there is no way they will ever be able to take over the region and wipe Israel off the map. What none of the geniuses who run the world can grasp is, that's the core of the stalemate. As long as any single Palestinian believes that one fine day they will have a country from the Jordan to the Sea, as they like to chant, there will never be any kind of resolution. The idea has merit. But someone has to figure out how.

We should be so lucky

Maybe by next week I'll have an answer.

Shabbat shalom from Jerusalem,

Peggy and Sid