A quandary and a queue at the Holy Sepulchre

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Queue is a queer word,  with too many letters.
I prefer to just say line.
But what to do, today is Q Day at ABC Wednesday. 

Most hours of the day there is a long queue of pilgrims wrapped around the  edicule, the structure built over the tomb of Jesus inside the rotunda of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The entrance is narrow and the clergy on duty regulate the flow, allowing you only a brief minute inside.
There is room for only 3 or 4 inside, next to the tomb.
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The news broke this week that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is in trouble.
They owe 9 million shekels (2.3 million dollars) for back payments on the water bill.

Apparently they had a tacit agreement with the late Teddy Kollek z"l, who was mayor of Jerusalem from 1965 to 1993, that the church would get free water. 
But now the water company says that under  law the company cannot do this. 

And now,  the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which has extensive and valuable property holdings in the Holy Land and maintains a headquarters in the ancient church, had its bank account frozen. 

The Greeks threatened to close the doors to the church for a day  in protest. 
If that were to happen, it would be a sad day in the Holy City. 
'Tis a quandary. 
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Read the whole story in the Jerusalem Post  and more at Ynet.  
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(A last contribution  to Taphophile Tragics.)
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Marking 17 years since Rabin's murder

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Yesterday the nation remembered Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the 17th anniversary of his assassination.
Youth movements organized the evening gathering in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square, national leaders gave speeches at the grave site on Mount Herzl, the Knesset had a session to talk about Rabin, and Galei Zahal, the army radio, brought Rabin's family together with musically talented soldiers for a night of reminiscing and of singing the moving and appropriate songs. 

This picture of the grave was taken early one January morning when no one was there.
Someone had brought a painting and left it.
Others had put stones or memorial candles.

It was mentioned yesterday on the radio that Rabin's grave is under constant surveillance, lest vandals get any ideas.
Just two weeks ago someone defaced Moshe Dayan's tombstone in Nahalal.
The red paint said "Sar hamechdal, beshem hanoflim," meaning the minister of the failure, in the name of the fallen.

Both Yitzhak Rabin and his wife are buried here, in the cemetery of  Israel's leaders on Mt. Herzl, the Mount of Remembrance. 
Their  grave is covered by the unusual tombstones which Rabin's widow commissioned from architect Moshe Safdie.
Yitzhak Rabin is written in Hebrew on the black marble, Leah Rabin on the white.
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 A touching story was revealed by Prof. Leonard Fein of Boston and was picked up by Israel's Haaretz when Ted Kennedy died in 2009:

After Prime Minister Yitshak Rabin was assassinated (in 1995), Senator Edward Kennedy dug up some earth from the Arlington graves of his brothers John and Robert, who had also been gunned down. 

He carried the dirt onto the plane to Israel. 

After Rabin was buried on Mount Herzl, Ted waited for the crowd and the photographers to disperse. 

Then, on his hands and knees, he gently placed the American earth onto the freshly-dug Israel earth.

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May they all now rest in peace.

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A previous year's story about the Rabin remembrance day:

 http://jerusalemhillsdailyphoto.blogspot.co.il/2010/10/for-tree-of-field-is-mans-life.html

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(A post for Taphophile Tragics and Our World Tuesday.)

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Cute? Conversation piece? Macabre humor?

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Oi veh, now I've seen everything!

Remember those large ancient coffins from Deir el-Balah in Museum Eretz Israel and also those in the Israel Museum?
I showed you the pictures for Taphophile Tragics meme.
The Deir el-Balah cemetery was south of Gaza,  a stronghold established by the Egyptians on the main route from the Nile Delta to Canaan.

Now, for only $37, you can have a 7 inch/ 18 cm high coffin pencil holder for your desk!
The clay adaptation of the real coffins comes with a certificate of authenticity from the Israel Museum.

If you don't believe me take a look at
http://www.judaicawebstore.com/-anthropoid-cofflin-pencil-holder-adaptation-deir-el-balah-13th-century-bce-P1134.aspx# 
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"The last great cavalry charge in history"

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These are pictures I took in Sydney, Australia,  in 2009.
Written in the concrete wall is

TO THE HORSES OF THE DESERT MOUNTED CORPS 

Erected by members of the Desert Mounted Corps 
and friends 
to the gallant horses who carried them 
over Sinai Desert  into Palestine
1915 - 1918

They suffered wounds, thirst, hunger and 
weakness almost beyond endurance but never failed.
They did not come home. [*]

We will never forget them.

There is also a plaque in the ground, unveiled on October 31, 2007,

"commemorating the 90th anniversary of the charge at Beersheba which took place at 4.30 pm on Wednesday 31 October 1917.
The success of the charge led to an earlier conclusion of the Desert Campaign in the Middle East in World War I.

             In memory of
the gallant men and horses of the 4th and 12th Light Horse Regiments that took part in the charge and those that made the supreme sacrifice."

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Update 2024:  See more about this memorial in Sydney at 

https://historyservicesnswblog.blogspot.com/2015/04/australian-war-horses-remembered.html
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* Over 29,000 horses were shipped to the Middle East for the war but at war's end, they could not be returned to Australia.  See what was done with them here.

I tell you all this because October 31, 2012 will be the 95th anniversary.
The Australian Embassy in Tel Aviv kindly sent me the invitation partially copied below.

If anyone can attend, the Embassy would like you to RSVP by tomorrow.
I hope to be there for these very special events.

Be’er Sheva Commemoration

Annual Memorial Service

Wednesday 31 October 2012

 

The Australian Embassy and the Municipality of Be’er Sheva invite you to the commemoration of the 95th anniversary of the battle of Be’er Sheva.  The commemoration marks the fall of the Ottoman controlled city of Be’er Sheva to British and ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) troops on 31 October 1917. The historic charge of the 4th Light Horse Brigade of the Australian Mounted Division played a critical part in this major battle.

 

 

The service will take place at the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery

at 10:30 on 31 October. (Ha’atzmaut St. Be’er Sheva)

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 Other commemorative events:

31 October

Pratt Foundation

8:45   Refreshments and morning tea

9:30  Tribute to the Australian Light Horse Brigade

Park of the Australian Soldier

(Abba Ahimeir St. Be’er Sheva)

Enquiries: Mr Peter Adler, Pratt Foundation 

Be'ersheva Municipality

11:30 Commemoration service

Turkish Memorial Monument

(Tuviyahu St. Be’er Sheva)

Enquiries: Ms Malka Reisner, Be'ersheva Municipality  08 6463910

Society for the Heritage of WWI

15:00 Re-enactment of the charge of the Australian Light Horse

Beit Eshel

Enquiries: Mr Ezra Pimental, Society for the Heritage of World War One -  054 9413155

Be'ersheva Archaelogy Museum

12:00 - 15:00 Temporary exhibition by Sgt. Thomas Henry Ivers, an artist who served in the Australian Light Horse

The Archaeology Museum

(60 HaAtzmaut St)

Enquiries: Mr Goel Drory, Museum Curator - 052 2767113

28th October 

Kinneret Academic College

16:00 Ceremony in Honour of The Australian Light Horsemen at the Battle of Semakh

(Kinneret College, the Sea of Galilee near the historic Semakh Train Station)

Enquiries: Mr Ziv Ofir, Deputy CEO, Kinneret Academic College
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Dear readers, see also Beersheva's Park of the Australian Soldier 
and about this month's re-enactment: The Light Horsemen Ride Again.
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I hope to bring photos of the  war cemetery for Taphophile Tragics  in two weeks.
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Archaeologist, beware!

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Now that you are fortified with yesterday's post's pomegranate juice, let us get back to a weightier subject for today's Taphophile Tragics.

"The Kidron Valley is the boundary between the living . . . and the dead . . ."
So begins the City of David's sign perched on the side of the valley.
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Kindly click on the photo to read about Jerusalem's cemetery from 2,000 years ago.

The photo above can be enlarged too, so you can see the ancient inscription found in the burial cave.
The inscription, discovered in 1874, may relate to the Prophet Isaiah's words (22:16).

It says

This is [the grave of ] [... iahu] who is over the house. There is no silver or gold here, but [his bones (i.e. the deceased's)] and the bones of his maid servant with him.
Cursed be the man who will open this.

The City of David interpretation suggests this may refer to the royal overseer at the court of King Hezekiah, Shebna, whom Isaiah castigated for carving himself an opulent tomb in Jerusalem.

In this zoom shot you can make out at least five of these tomb entrances in between the houses in the Arab village of Silwan.
With a click on the photo and then another click, you should see some kids tending their goats.

Just to the left of Silwan begins the huge Mt. of Olives cemetery.
Jews have been, and continue to be, buried there for thousands of years.
The rows of graves stretch from the Kidron all the way up to the top of the mountain.
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(Isaiah, inscription, interpretation, and interment are all "I" words for today's ABC Wednesday meme.)
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Holy work (on a ladder)

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Holy work!
Today for the first time I saw how they fill the oil lamps on the edicule, above the entrance to the tomb of Jesus.

You see the monk's assistant holding up a little "tool kit," containing tweezers for the wicks (I would assume).

After his work on the tall ladder in the dimness inside the Holy Sepulchre, the Greek priest stepped out into the bright sunlight of the church's parvis and happily posed with many members of a tourist group.
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(A contribution to Our World Tuesday and Taphophile Tragics.)

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A serious no-no

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It was dark outside, nearing closing time; the cavernous Church of the Holy Sepulchre was almost empty.
Suddenly this boy took off his T-shirt and rubbed it on the Stone of Unction, holy to Christians as the place where Jesus' body was prepared for burial.

I'm not sure if it was an act of great devotion or just a request for the other young man, his companion, to snap a photo as a souvenir.

Just when the boy stood up and turned around to walk out--a tall, strong, and very angry priest of the Holy Sepulchre came in the door and said "WHAT are you DOING?!!"
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Anthropoid coffins from Deir el-Balah

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The 13th century BC anthropoid coffins again, this time close up!

Last month I blogged about the ones standing in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

These two here are at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv.

Please click on the photo below to get a reminder of their history.


A post for Taphophile Tragics and Our World Tuesday.
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Oi what a schnoz!

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Here is a "cute" ossuary I saw at the Eretz Israel Museum near Tel Aviv.
It was discovered in Peki'in, in northern Israel.
The bone box is from the Late Chalcolithic period, i.e. about 4000 BCE.

The museum calls it a "double-faced ossuary, modeled and painted."


They write

The human figure is distinct for its head sculptured in the round with a marked mouth.
The exaggerated nose, typical of the selective facial features of the period, possible symbolized the breath of life.
In the ossuaries it may have been an expression for the dead person's revival in the afterlife.

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A post for Taphophile Tragics and Our World Tuesday.
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Three together in life and in death

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An unusual grouping of tombstones from World War I.
The reason for it: the three men died together when their vehicle was blown up.
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Please enlarge (click once and then again on the photo that opens) and see and say the names of the British soldiers who died fighting a war far from home.
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To see more of the [British] Jerusalem War Cemetery (of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission) please click on my ANZAC Day label.
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A post for Taphophile Tragics.
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Going out in style

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This elegant carved and painted wood carriage was made in Szarvas, Hungary, in the 19th century.
Would you believe?--it was used for funerals!

The sign next to it at the Israel Museum says this about the Chevra Kadisha (Jewish burial society) carriage:

Accompanying the dead on their final journey towards burial is part of the tradition of honoring the deceased and is already mentioned in Rabbinic literature as one of the essential deeds "for which one is rewarded in one's lifetime and also earns a reward in the world to come."
Funeral processions were held with due ceremony, and the deceased was carried in a special vehicle, such as this majestic carriage from Hungary.

Please enlarge the photo to read about our Jewish way of death and mourning.
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Julie's Taphophile Tragics is about cemeteries and the interesting stories in them, but I think this wagon might qualify for the meme.
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Putting a face on death

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Welcome to the archaeology wing of the newly re-done Israel Museum.
Behind the glass wall and reflected in the floor are six anthropoid clay coffins standing at the entrance to greet you.
(Enjoy the big version by clicking on the photo and then once again on the photo that opens. )

A 2005 Israel Museum publication explains these tall sarcophagi:

Late Canaanite period, 14th-13th century BCE

South of Gaza city, at Deir el-Balah, some fifty pottery sarcophagi were unearthed from a large, ancient cemetery.
Located near the sea, the site had been protected from plunder by massive sand dunes.
The sarcophagi were fashioned by hand, using the coil technique, the method employed for creating large vessels.
They were then fired with their lids in an open fire.
The lids were later refired in kilns located nearby, which accounts for their darker color.
Similar cemeteries have been discovered near the Nile Delta.

Several features of the Gaza sarcophagi shows clear signs of Egyptian influence.
At times the lids bear depictions of mummy-like figures, indicating the face, wig, arms, and hands of the deceased.
Many of the faces have small beards, perhaps symbolizing the beard of Osiris, the Egyptian god of death, into whose realm the deceased was about to enter.
The bodies of the dead, usually more than one, were laid unembalmed in the coffin, along with funerary gifts such as pottery food bowls.
If the deceased was wealthy, elaborate jewelry and vessels made of stone and bronze were also added.

You can see some of the jewelry masterpieces here.

Be sure to check this link to see the amazing faces of the sarcophagi.

The partial excavation at Deir el-Balah in the Gaza Strip was done in 1972 by Trude Dotan.
This review of her recent book, Deir el-Balah: Uncovering an Egyptian Outpost in Canaan from the Time of the Exodus, has some interesting gossip about the dig.

To discover Hershel Shanks' idea about Joseph being buried in such a coffin, see this blog.
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(A post for Taphophile Tragics and Weekend Reflections.)

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In the Russian bell tower

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Ascension Day was my first time to visit the Russian Monastery of the Ascension.
(I showed you some of the graves there last Tuesday.)

Everyone knows its tall landmark bell tower; you can't look toward the Mount of Olives and not see it rising on the crest of the mountain.

And guess what!
This was the only way up the tower.
Needless to say, I climbed to the first level and not to the very top.

Right next to the convent we saw this big Muslim cemetery and a mosque.

Beyond, one sees the modern tower of the Hebrew University Mt. Scopus campus.
(You can enlarge all the photos here.)

To its right is the tower of the Lutheran Augusta Victoria.
Off to the top right, in the haze of summer heat--the eastern desert.
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While we were up there looking out in all four directions, our tower's bells rang!
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The guidebook says

Sent from Russia to the Holy Land port of Jaffa [on the other side of the country] in 1885, the bell weighed eight tons and was too heavy to transport by horse.
In the end a special wheel-shaped wagon was built to house the bell, which was pulled, pushed, and rolled by Russian pilgrims--most of them women--all the way to the Mount of Olives.
The trip took three weeks and several pilgrims fell by the wayside.
But eventually, singing hymns, the group reached Jerusalem and the bell was lifted into the tower.

Aviva Bar-Am, Beyond the Walls: Churches of Jerusalem

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I hope you enjoyed this tour for Our World Tuesday and just a glimpse of a Muslim cemetery for Taphophile Tragics. Shalom!
Linking also to inSPIREd Sunday.
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Head west, feet east

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Welcome to the Russian Orthodox Convent on the Mount of Olives.

Thursday, Ascension Day, was my first time to visit this welcoming place, also known as the Russian Monastery of the Ascension.
Now that I am one of Julie's many Taphophile Tragics taphophiles, I paid special attention to the graves.
You can click on the photos to have a closer look.


A few tombs of VIPs were inside, or next to, the church, but there were more graves in the courtyard.

And some not far from the well.

The monastery was built between 1870 and 1887.
I think the old Made in Czechoslovakia Sigma pump is from those early days.
There are many underground cisterns in the big compound and it looks like some are still being used for the garden watering.

Many nuns were buried in a fenced graveyard.

I noticed some of the gravestones were "backwards," I mean facing the cross, facing eastward.

Now I knew that this monastery in the Arab village of A-Tur is the highest point on the Mount of Olives at 818 meters (2,683 ft) and the ridge is the watershed, its eastern side being the beginning of the Judean Desert.
But I rather doubted that the spectacular view toward the Dead Sea, the mountains of Moab, and Jordan was the reason the dead were looking in that direction.

Back home, I googled.
One source said that Orthodox Christians bury the body facing east [i.e. the person's head on the west] because when Jesus was born the guiding star was in the East.

An older source, a William Tyler Olcott, writing in 1914, explained the custom thus:

The funeral rites of all people reveal the universal belief that the east is the source of all that men hold dear, light, life, warmth, and happiness, while the west, on the contrary, is said to be the abode of darkness, death, cold, and sorrow. The worship of the Sun cultivated and strengthened this idea, and down through the ages the influence of this belief has swept, retaining even to-day much of its ancient force and vigour. . . .
It is said that the body of Christ was laid with the head toward the west, that the risen Lord might face the eastern realm of eternal life and glory, and the Christian custom that sprang from this belief led to the usage of digging graves east and west, which prevailed through mediæval times, and is common with us to-day.
In the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew's gospel we read: "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." From the literal interpretation of these words there arose the belief that Jesus would, at the resurrection, appear from the east, and hence that those buried with their faces upward and their heads to the west, would be in readiness to stand up with their faces toward their Judge.

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(This cemetery mini-tour also joins Our World Tuesday.)
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"A parched land, weary, without water"

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The beautiful Psalm 63 today, joining PsalmChallenge in Athens.

1. A psalm. Of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah.

2. God, You are my Deity; I seek You—my soul thirsts for You, my body yearns for You, in a parched land, weary, without water.

3. Yes, I envision You in the sanctuary, beholding Your might and Your glory.

4. For Your loving-kindness is better than life. My lips glorify You.

5. Yes, I will bless You all my life; invoking Your name, I lift up my hands.

6. My soul is sated as with rich food, with lips of joy my mouth praises.

7. When I recall You, upon my bedding, I meditate upon You through the watches of the night.

8. For You are my help, and in the shadow of Your wings I will sing with joy;

9. my soul pursues You; it is I whom Your right hand supports.

10. And as for them, those who seek my soul for ruin—may they end up in the depths of the earth.

11. May they be spilled by the sword; may they be repast for jackals.

12. And as for the king, may he rejoice in God. All who swear by Him shall merit praise, for the mouth of liars will be muzzled.
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Photos
1. The Judean Wilderness. The sign on the fence warns "DANGER -- MINES!"
2. A jackal in my neighborhood. Photo by friend Kristine Schnarr.
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Translation by Rabbi Benjamin Segal. See his Psalm blog for ideas about the Psalm and for the Hebrew original.
Especially interesting and appropriate for Taphophile Tragics is Rabbi Segal's note that

Jackals (v. 11) are scavengers (and therefore “foxes,” found in some translations, is inappropriate). The implication is non-burial, a cursed fate in both the Bible and the surrounding cultures (stretching to ancient Greece).

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Etruscans resting in peace

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This old bone box at the Bible Lands Museum touched my heart.

The deceased couple is depicted on the lid of the ossuary.

The panels show winged genii leading the dead away.

(Click on the photo and then again on the enlarged photo to see it up close.)

This is an Etruscan ossuary from Etruria, central Italy, dated 400-300 B.C.E.

This is the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem with a modern statue of the tower of Babel in front.

It is located on "museum row," across the street from the Israel Museum and just up the hill from the science museum.
Just to the BLMJ's left I was excited to see the progress of the National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel.
I posted about it two years ago when they were just putting up the sign about its future construction.
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I hope the folks at Our World Tuesday enjoy this tour and that the taphophiles at Taphophile Tragics appreciate the bone box.
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Dancing on his grave

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This little group of huts and tents marks the tomb of Shimon HaTsadik in the Sheikh Jarah neighborhood in Jerusalem.
Shimon (or Simeon the Just) was a Jewish High Priest somewhere around 300BCE.

On a quiet day the women's side of the prayer place looks like this.

Quoted on the velvet cover is Shimon's famous maxim from the Talmud:
"On three things the world stands [exists]--on Torah, worship, and acts of lovingkindness."

The gate was locked or I would have gone down to explore what probably is more tombs inside the cliff.
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OK, so that is the scene on a normal day.
But tonight is the holiday of Lag BaOmer and hundreds of very religious Jews should be at the tomb right now, dancing and singing and praying and lighting bonfires.
Oh yes, and they will also do the upsherin, giving 3-year-old boys their first haircut.

Hundreds of thousands will be doing the same thing all night at another tomb of another Shimon, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai on Mt. Meron.
But people who can't travel all the way to the north have the alternate site here in Jerusalem.
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Meanwhile, I am in my house in the hills with windows and shutters closed, trying to keep out the smell of smoke from all the bonfires in my village.
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Take a look at how Lag BaOmer was celebrated at the tomb of Shimon HaTsadik 90 years ago at the wonderful blog Israel's History--A Picture a Day.
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The Treasure Room!

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With two clicks the images will enlarge and reveal the details.

These birds stand guard over something very rare and special to many Christians:

-- a fragment of the True Cross! [although some say, "as legend has it . . . .]

The icon shows Emperor Constantine and his mother, St. Helena.
Queen Helena went to the Holy Land in about 326, searched for, and [some say] found, the three crosses that had stood on Calvary.
Mother and son then had the Church of the Holy Sepulchre built on the site.

To commemorate this, Jerusalem Catholics today (May 6-7) celebrated the day of The Finding of the Holy Cross.

My trusty calendar says that "On the day of the feast, Mass is celebrated, followed by a solemn procession through the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, led by the Custos holding a relic of the Holy Cross.

I assume the Franciscans have their own relic of the cross; however, what I show you in this post is the one belonging to the Greek Orthodox.

Getting back to our walk through the Treasure Room, which is only rarely open to pilgrims . . . in the photo above you see the glass-covered wooden cases along the walls of the tiny room.

They contains relics of early Christian saints, such as this hand.

And this forearm.

The lid of the reliquary is open to reveal a fragment of someone's skull.

During my brief visit to the Treasure Room I saw women crossing themselves and bending to kiss the glass over each of the relics.

Next time you are in the Holy Sepulchre look for this door into the little Treasure Room.
It is a very strange and special experience [I say, speaking as a Jew].
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In fact, let's see if Julie will take this post for Taphophile Tragics.
It is also a one-room tour for Our World Tuesday.

See also my post.St. Thérèse's relics on pilgrimage in Israel.
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