Passover

I've done a little research into the holiday and I'm suprised at how little I actually knew about this holiday. I also find it interesting that I've never thought to look more into this holiday before moving to Israel. The Last Supper was supposedly a Passover meal. I say supposedly because the Synoptic Gospels have the meal at a different time than the Gospel of John and scholars have been arguing over this for quite some time.

The Passover story is found in the book of Exodus chapter 12. Preparation for Passover actually begins a month before the holiday. The entire house must be cleaned thoroughly. The house must be entirely rid of Chametz which is any food made of grain and water that has been allowed to ferment or rise. All crumbs must be cleaned out of the cabinets and eating is restricted to the kitchen so crumbs don't get into the other rooms of the house. The Chametz that is in the house is to be sold or given away to non-Jews. During Passover they eat bread called matzah which is unleavened. Many families have special sets of flatware, silverware and pots and pans that are only used during Passover. The kitchen has to be specially cleaned for Passover in what seems to me a fairly involved process. Here is an article about koshering utensils for Passover to give you some idea of what koshering involves.

There is a special level of kosher food for Passover. Weeks before Passover started I noticed products in the grocery store starting to have special labels saying they were Kosher for Passover. Even the bottled water I buy has the kosher for Passover label. The picture to the left is pepper flavored Doritos the purple is the special label for Passover. The chips do taste a little different than they have the rest of the year. Passover is one of those holidays that even if you aren't a praticing Jew this is the one time of year you will probably keep Kosher.











Last Wednesday Claire went to the grocery store and came back in culture shock. She told me I had to take my camera with me. So I took my camera into the grocery store, I felt like an investigative reporter. There weren't many people in the store and only one other customer saw me take a picture. They looked at me funny and I smiled and said in Hebrew "I'm from America". They laughed at me shook their head and walked off. To the right we have the alcohol section of the store. The alcohol that is not kosher for Passover is behind the plastic. The sign says "Leavened Food Please do not touch". I found it interesting that Pepsi is not kosher for Passover but Coca-Cola is.





These pictures are all going to look similar since its the same sign and plastic but I wanted to give you an idea of how much of the store is covered up. Pictured here is the cereal aisle. Just in case you are wondering the plastic is taped down so I couldn't just reach around the plastic and take a box of cereal they really aren't selling anything that is behind the plastic. The bread aisle was completely empty. Lucky for me I had a loaf of bread in the freezer from the week before Passover. I think I may have the only loaf of bread in Israel right now.











Here is one of my favorite aisles in the store the cookie, brownie,cakes and candy aisle. So sad to see it all covered up.














So what is a girl with a sweet tooth to do during Passover? I found these cookies available on another aisle. The ingredients list gluten which is in wheat and should be forbidden but I guess it was not fermented since it bears the approved label. I think these cookies might be for a special ceremony. I haven't translated the package because I don't want to know if I'm committing some sin by eating them as a snack. I like the taste of them they remind me of the chessmen cookies I ate when I was younger only less buttery. They were on sale the sign said 1+1 which I've learned means buy one get one free so I got two packages. One has already been consumed however. :)









Not all of the kosher for Passover items have special labels some times the store just puts a label in front of the section. I'm grateful that my hot tea bags are kosher.










This post mainly dealt with the special food I haven't covered the special rituals and meals involved for the holiday. I think I'm going to leave those topics for Passover next year.

From the last post:
Mom- The scaffolding next to the woman's section of the Western Wall is part of some sort of construction/ restoration project. I've heard locals mention that it has been there for quite some time and it makes the woman's prayer section smaller.

Uncle Joe- The lighting in the tunnels was very dim so in order to get my pictures to turn out I ended up having to use the night pictures setting. Unfortunately this made the lighting look yellow. Some parts of the tunnels were creepy but not as creepy as the yellow light makes them look.

Nikki- Most of the walls didn't appear to have mortar between the stones but some of the walls did appear to have mortar like the picture from Herod's street level. Either way the walls are impressive.

The Western Wall Tunnels

This post is mainly going to be about a tour I took way back on March 11th but haven't had time to post until now. This past Thursday was the start of our two week Passover vacation. Passover is going to be the subject of another post. Like always since we have a break I got sick. It started the weekend before the break with a sandpaper/burning feeling in my throat and developed into a full cold. However I was determined and made it to the two days of classes I have this past week. Though I'm not sure I could tell you what we discussed in Archaeology late Tuesday night. The past several days I've been drinking lots of lemon tea and sleeping at least 12 hours everyday. I'm still stuffed up but I at least feel coherent enough to try to post.

First a little story. Wednesday night I took some NyQuil and went to bed early with the intention of sleeping in late. Around 8am Thursday morning the speaker outside my room made a musical chime that indicates an announcement. I flipped the Hebrew switch in my brain and listened. I caught some of the message. A minute or so late the chime repeats and the message is in English this time. Now at this point I am half awake and still in a NyQuil induced haze. The message was as follows "There has been a water explosion in the student village. The water will be off for the whole day." At the word explosion I'm fully awake and trying to figure out what is going on. It takes a minute for me to remember that this is the phrase they use when there is a problem with the water. I really should go down to the office sometime and teach them the phrase "water main break" that phrase wouldn't be as jarring at 8 in the morning.


Now begins the tour. Here we have the Western Wall which I've mentioned before in this blog. The area you see here is where people come to pray. This was not a typical Friday morning normally there would be more people in the picture but it was raining that day and so there was less of a crowd. What many people don't realize is this section of the wall that people pray at is only 50 meters long. The entire wall is actually 500 meters long you can't see the entire length because of modern buildings. But you can see the entire wall if you go underground.




Here we are a little ways into the tunnels. This picture isn't very good because I was still trying to figure out which mode on my camera would work best for the dim light in the tunnels. I wanted to show this picture to give you an idea of just how big the area is underground. Some of these tunnels are believed to have been used by the priests to get up to the Temple Mount. Many of these tunnels were first discovered by Charles Warren. As I was walking through these tunnels I tried to picture what it must have been like for Charles Warren with only a candle for light and having to dig through centuries of debris to get through the tunnels.



We can't have a tour without a model. Here we have a model of the Temple Mount. Click on the picture to enlarge it. The LED lights show the length of the tunnels underground. That is how far I was able to walk underground on this tour. I was amazed at how extensive the tunnels were.











This is one of the more impressive shots from the tour. I am standing at the top of a staircase. The people at the bottom of the picture are standing right next to the wall. This gives you a little perspective on just how tall the wall is. Notice the area around the people's heads and how it is all one block. That block of stone is one solid piece weighing in at 550 tons! The amazing thing is this huge stone was moved to this location and archaeologists have no idea how they were able to move it. There are two massive stones like this that archaeologists have no idea how they were moved.



Standing at the base of the wall and looking up you can see different styles of masonry with different sizes of stones from when the wall was repaired in various time periods. The guide told us that despite all the different sizes of stones over the centuries this wall has survived several minor earthquakes and has not cracked or shifted.















The next part of the tour we really got to walk the tunnels. This is a picture looking back at the narrow tunnel. I couldn't take a picture in the tunnel because I would have held up everyone walking behind me. The tunnel was very narrow and very short. I'm 5 feet 7 and a half inches tall and I had to duck a little while walking through the tunnel. I do not recommend this tour if you are claustrophobic. I'm a little claustrophobic not the paralyzing kind more of the wow I can hear my heart beating in my ears, I'm breathing a little harder than I need to be kind. But I got over it just for the history that was all around me. Going through the tunnel you could easily see the changes in masonry style.








After emerging from the tunnel we were in a more open area thank goodness. Here I am standing on a street from the time of King Herod. I took the picture up towards the ceiling so you could see how far underground I am. This shows how much accumulates over time and how different places can look years later. The electric fan is not from the time of King Herod however. ;)















Then we walked through more impressive tunnels. This tunnel was used to bring water to the Temple Mount. I think it was carved out by hand. We exited the tunnels by walking back the way we came. Which meant I had to go through the scary claustrophobic tunnel again but I made it.
















Back outside the tunnels it was still raining. I took this picture while we were waiting for the bus to come and pick us up. The stones on the ground at the bottom of the picture were pushed off the top of the wall by Roman soldiers in 70 C.E. while Titus conquered the city and they have been there since then.








Other than being sick I'm enjoying my break so far. I've been using the time to read for fun. I'm currently reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I'm enjoying it so far.

From the last post:
Akkadian is a very old very dead language. You may remember studying Hammurabi's law code in school. The whole eye for an eye thing? That law code was written in Akkadian. Akkadian was the lingua franca of its time so many important documents and literature was written in Akkadian. You can read more about it here

So its Spring now

Wow I haven't posted in a while and midterms are next week. Grad school is difficult for me and as always school comes before the blog. I have several posts planned in my head I just haven't had the time to write them down. Next week starts midterm exams so we are already halfway through the semester and I haven't even posted about what classes I'm taking. So first things first my schedule for this semester:
Monday 8:30-10:00 Modern Hebrew
10:30-12:00- History of Israel and Judah through the Assyrian Sources
12:30-2:00 Biblical Hebrew
4:30-7:00 Akkadian
Tuesday 8:30-12:00 Modern Hebrew
6:30-8:00 Archaeology
Wednesday No classes
Thursday 8:30-12:00 Modern Hebrew
12:30-2 Biblical Hebrew
4:30-7 Akkadian
As you can see some of the classes did not change from last semester. The Archaeology class this semester is taught by Dr. Ben-Ami however this class does not include tours. Dr. Ben-Ami did say that we would have one day of excavations in the City of David! I'm really looking forward to that. The History of Israel and Judah through the Assyrian sources is particularly enlightening. In that class we are discussing the book of Kings in the bible. We compare the information in kings about a certain ruler then check the sources we have from the Assyrian empire at the time. In some cases we are able to fill in more information that the writer of kings left out. Sometimes the sources add more information that we wouldn't otherwise know. Not all of the kings are also mentioned in the Assyrian sources but the ones that are mentioned are interesting. The text book for that class is called The Raging Torrent by Dr. Mordechai Cogan who is also my professor. I love the title if I just told you the title I bet you would never guess its a history book.

I want to mention a Jewish holiday that I had March 20th and 21st off from school. This holiday was called Purim. I had heard of Purim before coming to Israel but I didn't know it was a holiday still celebrated today. Purim celebrates the deliverance of the Jewish people from the Persian Empire more specifically Haman. The book of Esther is read and people cheer when Mordechai and Esther are mentioned and boo and the name of Haman. Traditionally people dressed up as Mordechai and Queen Esther but these days Purim is more like Halloween with all the different costumes. I think candy is given out based on the candy displays that appeared in the grocery store before the holiday but there is no treat or treating that I know of. I don't have any pictures of the holiday because I used the days off to write a paper.

Earlier today I was on campus for a seminar by the Accordance Bible software company to learn how to use my new software. The campus is mostly closed down on Friday so I was rather eerie walking through the abandoned hallways and closed down cafes. After the seminar was finished I wandered around campus taking some pictures. It was easier with no one that would look at me strangely for taking pictures. I was mainly taking artsy pictures of plants. There are some very interesting looking plants on campus and I have no idea what they are called.




This was more impressive looking earlier in the semester now it's a little wilted.















This is a view of the pathway that runs through the middle of campus.



















I'm rather proud of this picture. I managed to capture a bee on the flower. I got away without being stung by the other bees in the area.














I believe this one is lavender. I love the color. This was a brief tour of the plants around campus. I haven't taken pictures of the plants in the botanical garden yet. I'm planning to do that soon.


Earlier today there was an earthquake off the coast of Greece. We felt a little tremor here too. The building shook for a few seconds. A few minutes later Claire came in to ask if I had felt the building shake too. I was tempted to look puzzled and say no, but I admitted I had felt the building shake too. :)

Exams and How to cope with stress

I've been working on packing up my suitcases today. I'm looking forward to flying back to the states tomorrow night. I will be back in the states for about 16 days. I've made lists of everything I want to do and all the American foods I want to eat while I'm at home. Those will probably be the subjects of a few posts. But I wanted the share with you the experience of taking exams in Israel.


The set up for exams here is a bit different from what I was used to at Texas A&M. Here exams are taken in a different room from the one the class is usually held in. If you class is a small one you might be sharing the exam room with another class. They have exam proctors that run the test, most of them only spoke Hebrew with very limited English. The front of the exam booklet where you fill in the information about the class and you ID number is completely in Hebrew. So there is a moment of panic in your first exam while you try to figure that out. Its made worse because they use some abbreviations and I don't know Hebrew well enough to figure them out quickly. Eventually I got it all filled out. The exams are held from 2:30pm to 5:30pm. For some tests they extended the time. Because unlike the exams I took in the states the professors seem to want you to be there for the entire exam period. Here you are not allowed to leave the exam room during the exam for any reason. In only one exam they were nice enough to let us leave to use the restroom but only one student at a time. The rest of the exams we couldn't leave the room.


Before taking my first exam which was my Hebrew level exam they handed us a brochure. It was meant for the mechina students. The mechina program is for students who have just graduated high school but aren't quite ready for college, its kind of like a prepatory program from my understanding. The brochure gives helpful tips about how to cope with stress. It did help me cope with stress but not because of their tips...some of them had me laughing so hard I did feel less stressed out. Somehow I don't think this is what they had in mind. Some of the tips are legitimate and some of them sound like there were put in an online Hebrew/English translator and they didn't turn out right. This brochure is such a gem I decided to share with you along with my commentary. The points from the brochure with be bullet points my commentary will be in italics. The bullet points have been typed exactly as they appear in the brochure.

• Get up 15 minutes early So far we are off to a good start

• Prepare for the morning the night before This is a good tip I already pack up my backpack the night before
• Avoid relying on chemical aids This made me laugh because that week I was so nervous about my modern Hebrew exam I had taken sleep aids several nights in a row.
  
• Don't rely on your memory...write it down Another good tip except you might forget where you wrote everything down
  
• Set priorities in your life Another good tip
  
• Avoid negative people Gee why?
  
• Use time wisely This is a good tip for undergrads that usually let their new found freedom from their parents go to the head
  
• Always make copies of important papers I read this as use the copy machines, give the university more money
  
• Repair anything that doesn't work properly I'm not sure what this means exactly. I've never seen this mentioned as a stress relief tip.
  
• Ask for help with the jobs you dislike Yes ask for "help" trick others into doing the things you don't want to do.
  
• Break large tasks into bite size portions
  
• Look at problems as challenges Change you outlook on life!
  
• Look at challenges differently Then immediately change it again!
  
• Smile!!! I smile because I have no idea whats going on right now. :D
  
• Be prepared for rain How exactly does this relieve stress?
  
• Pet a friendly dog/cat Get rabies. Seriously this isn't a good idea in Israel all the cats are feral. I do feed them a lunch but I don't ever try to pet them.
  
• Don't know all the answers Fail your exams raise your stress level...
  
• Say something nice to someone I like your shoes....how does this relieve stress?
  
• Walk in the rain But you told me to be prepared for rain earlier? So am I prepared for rain and walking in it or am I just walking in the rain and getting wet which would stress me out. It doesn't rain here that often anyway so I was surprised to see two references to rain in this list.
  
• Schedule play time into everyday Well there is a playground in the student village for the families that live here. Somehow I think they would look at me funny if I tried the swings. I don't think they could hold my weight anyway.
  
• Take a bubble bath The apartments in the Student Village only have showers I'm not sure why this is on the list.
  
• Be aware of the decisions you make I am aware...now what?
  
• Believe in yourself Don't stop Believin'...
  
• Stop saying negative things to yourself So earlier it said to avoid negative people but if you are negative should you avoid yourself too?
  
• Visualize yourself winning Find that special mirror from Harry Potter stare into it and slowly waste away
  
• Develop your sense of humor This list is definitely helping with that.
  
• Stop thinking tomorrow will be a better today O.o This is my favorite tip on the list I think it was originally in Hebrew and put through an online translator or something because wow that's just awful!
  
• Have goals for yourself Are these different than the priorities I set for myself above?
  
• Say "hello" to a stranger Another tip that is not a good idea in Israel just my luck the person wouldn't speak English. Or if I spoke to a man they might be offended that I was talking to them.
  
• Ask a friend for a hug I need a hug....this does not relieve stress
  
• Look up at the stars I live in the city not possible
  
• Practice breathing slowly I don't think this would make me less stressed out.
  
• Learn to whistle a tune I can't whistle. Frustrate self by attempting to whistle then get stressed by my lack of ability to whistle
  
• Do a brand new thing I don't have time I'm studying for exams!
  
• Stop a bad habit Exam week is not the time to try to break a bad habit I think this would just increase your stress level
  
• Take time to smell the flowers There aren't too many flowers to smell here...
  
• Find support from others Good idea a support network can help
  
• Ask someone to be your "vent-partner" The idea of asking anyone to be my vent partner makes me laugh just picturing the expression on their face.
  
• Do it today or else!
  
• Work at being cheerful and optimistic Fake it until you make it!
  
• Put safety first This is halfway down the second column instead of you know....first?
  
• Strive for Excellence NOT perfection Decent tip
  
• Stretch your limits a little each day
  
• Stand up and stretch Just not during the exams because you can't although it would help relieve stress during the exam.
  
• Always have a plan "B" Is a plan "B" different than a plan B?
  
• Memorize a joke Israeli humor is different than American humor they won't understand your joke.
  
• Be responsible for your feelings How is this a stress relief tip?
  
• Learn to meet your own needs But earlier tips seemed to suggest building a support network?
  
• Become a better listener Huh? Sorry I zoned out there for a moment.
  
• Know your limitations and let others know them,too I'm really bad a math....and I'm still stressed out even though you all know!
  
• Exercise everyday I walk up and down the hill to school every day does that count?
  
• Go on a picnic In the winter get sick right before exams.....
  
• Take a different route to work There is only one way from the dorms to campus....
  
• Leave work early (with permission) I'm glad they added the with permission...they will not be responsible for any consequences of you leaving work early!
  
• Write a note to a far away friend Why far away why not a close friend?
  
• Recognize the importance of unconditional love Recognized....I'm still stressed....
  
• Remember that stress is an attitude No its not its an actual physiological response...isn't it?
  
• Keep a journal or a blog :)
  
• Remember you always have options Except failure that is never an option!
  
• Quite trying to fix other people Unless you are a counseling major
  
• Get enough sleep Just remember to set your alarm so you get up in time for your exam!
  
• Talk less and listen more
  
• Freely praise other people I really appreciate everyone that reads my blog. I love you guys! And I'm still stressed !

Hopefully my own style of humor and sarcasm translated okay. I thought you would enjoy knowing how to cope with stress.

City of David

As always I meant to write this post sooner but I just didn't have time. I finished up my final exams this past week. There will be a separate post about exams and how they are done differently than exams in the states.

Here we have a picture of the City of David and a artist rendering of what the City of David might have looked like during the first temple period. Dr. Barkay said its not entirely accurate but it gives you a basic idea.












This picture I'm at the City of David on a lookout point looking south. The mountain in the center of the picture is the place from our first tour in my post titled Geography of Jerusalem.













On the same lookout point turned the opposite direction we have the Mount of Olives. This is the famous burial ground outside the Old City. Everyone wants to be buried here because when the Messiah comes(or returns depending on your religion) the people buried on the Mount of Olives will be the first ones resurrected. People have been burying their dead here since the Intermediate Bronze age (2200-1950BC). The mountain is very crowded now and I've heard that burial plots are very expensive. The valley below the graves is the Kidron.









The mountain where the trees are marks the location of the high places King Solomon built for his foreign wives(1 kings 10). King Josiah later destroyed these high places but they lasted for 200 years. This is also the place that Jewish tradition says the dove got the olive branch from to give to Noah.









Here is the Temple Mount from the City of David. As you can see I am at a lower elevation from Temple Mount. This is the only place that you ascend to the Temple Mount which makes the Psalms of ascent make more sense. As Dr. Barkay was giving this tour there was a rooster in the yard of one of the houses below us. The rooster kept crowing during the tour. I guess Jerusalem has different laws about farm animals in the city than we do in the states.







This one is going to be harder to see in the picture but I'm going to try to describe it. Towards the middle of the picture near the front there is a house that looks like its on stilts if you look just above that there is a single tree in the middle of the houses. Under that tree is a tomb that archaeologists believe may be the tomb of the steward Shebna mentioned in Isaiah 22:15. There is an inscription on the tomb that comes close to the words of Isaiah. I love when I can match up verses to the archaeological evidence. On the rocky cliff face below the houses notice the square holes those are tombs from the 9th century officials(upper class) they were alive during the time of King Jehoshaphat.



Here is a good view of the rest of the City of David you can see that it is a sloping hill.

Now for one of the most famous and most controversial remains of archaeology in Israel:The stepped stone structure. The reason its controversial is different archaeologists have dated it to different time periods. The earliest date is the 13th century BC the latest date is 10th century BC. The two pillars in the middle are the remains of a house that was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC(2 Kings 25). The houses were built on the steep slope when the Babylonians came the houses toppled down the hill. This is the area mentioned in Nehemiah 2. When Nehemiah took the night tour of the city he mentions have to get off the animal he was riding and go on by foot because there was no room. The stones from these houses were in piles on the slope and he couldn't pass. Near this area archaeologists found several clay seals. These seals were used to well...seal papyrus documents the seals contain the signature of the people who wrote them. During the fire of the destruction it baked the seals preserving them for archaeologists to study. One of the seals found is from a known Biblical figure Gemariah son of Shaphan (Jeremiah 36).



This is a little to the right in the above structure. One of the most exciting pictures I've ever placed on my blog. That square stone with the hole in the middle is a toilet seat. Just what you've always wanted to see an ancient toilet seat! All kidding aside though its an important find because these house represent the middle class. In the surrounding nations of the the time toilet seats are usually found only in palaces and the homes of the upper class. This means that the Kingdom of Israel was a pretty advanced civilization to be concerned with sanitation. Archaeologists analyzed the ....stuff in the pit below and discovered they were eating a lot of lentils and they suffered from the same intestinal parasites we do.


For my last picture from the tour we have several different city walls from different time periods. The little white and grey specks at the bottom of the wall are pigeons which is ironic because they are right in front of an ancient dovecot. The pigeons were used as sacrifices in the temple. Towards the top of the picture notice the vertical concrete pillars in between those pillars is a garbage dump from the time of King Herod.






The adventures in cooking continue. I made these I think two weeks ago. They are pigs in a blanket...sort of...you see the little cocktail sausages do not have pig in them because our grocery store is kosher. I got the recipe for biscuit dough off the internet and gave it a try. They turned out pretty good thought if I make them again I need to grease the pan better they got stuck. These were made in celebration of the grocery store finally having butter in stock again.







Claire made chicken soup! Can you tell we were both feeling rather homesick?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Today's post is going to be a little bit of catching up since I haven't had the time to post in a while. Its been hard to mark the passage of time here. I don't feel like it should be Christmas already. I think part of the reason is because the holidays that usually help me mark the passage of time are not celebrated here. The other reason is because we haven't had much variation in the weather. In the first week of December we still had temperatures in the 80's.




On December 12th I experienced my first sandstorm! They didn't cancel school so I had to walk in the sandstorm. The winds that day reached forty miles per hour. I arrived at school with sand all over me. I feel like I had sand in my lungs for days afterwards. You probably can't tell but this picture was taken during the sandstorm. Walking to school that day was very different because visibility was reduced. If you look back to one of my first posts titled where I live from July 12th take a look at the picture with the Dome of the Rock on this day I couldn't see past the blue roofed buildings. I had trouble sleeping that night because the winds were really howling. The next day it rained pretty had and we had 20 mph winds. But at least the rain took the sand out of the air. The walk to school that next day was awful because it was cold and rainy. The wind was too strong to use an umbrella. Many people tried though and the walk to school became an umbrella graveyard.



Back to Christmas! Christmas in Israel is very different. This is the first Christmas I've spent in a country that doesn't celebrate Christmas. The only reason I have off is because Christmas eve and Christmas fell on the weekend this year. My semester doesn't end until the middle of January but if you recall we didn't start the semester until October. This is the first time in my life that I've still be in school for the holidays. I took the weekend off I haven't done any homework; I know I'll probably regret that decision this coming week.


According to an article I read in the Jerusalem Post only 2% of the population here in Israel is Christian, that works out to 153,000 Christians out of a population of 7.5 million. Most of the Christians here are Arab Christians. The number of Christians in Israel is shrinking, which I find rather sad since this is the land where Christianity began. So since there are so few Christians it makes sense why Christmas isn't on the school calender here. No Christmas decorations anywhere, no Christmas music playing its a very different experience from Christmas back in the United States.


Going to an international school I also have the opportunity to explain Christmas to those that have never heard of it. For example the students from China have never heard of Christmas, or don't know much about it. China is a communist country and religion is not allowed there. Try to explaining Christmas to someone who has never heard of it and you will discover how strange it sounds. We cut down perfectly good trees and bring them in the house, put lights and decorations on them for a month. At the end of the month we throw the trees away. Better yet try to explain the concept of artificial trees that just sounds stranger.


So this morning when I got up it was a beautiful 70 degrees outside with a clear blue sky. Really the weather today was absolutely perfect. It was rather jarring when I had Christmas music playing that was talking about snow and bad weather. I've watched several Christmas movies this weekend but it still doesn't feel like Christmas.


Claire and I tried our best to make it feel like Christmas. Claire made construction paper snowflakes for our place settings at the table. We had a Christmas meal with corn soup, toasted pita bread with garlic and onions, chicken (yes it had a neck) and veggies.











Everything turned out really well. Problem was we are used to eating small meals here. So we very quickly became full. I still can't get over the fact that they leave the necks on the chickens here. When Claire bought the chicken she asked for a large one, they gave her this one which is about 4lbs. Chickens are smaller in this country.









We also make gingerbread cookies. They do not sell gingerbread mix in Israel so we had to make the dough from scratch. We took turns stirring since the dough was really thick. These cookies have the only bottle of molasses in Israel in them. Okay well it was the only bottle for sale in the store so it might be the only molasses in Israel. ;) I had planned on making apple crumble but I couldn't. Because Israel is in a drought the cows aren't milking as well. There hasn't been any butter in the store, for a while they imported butter from Switzerland but it was really expensive. But for Christmas I guess the other international students beat me too it because there wasn't any substitutes on the shelf either.






And here we have another one of my cats. I've named her Lady because she has wonderful manners. She had lunch with me a couple of times this week. This picture was taken in the courtyard sitting area of our cafeteria. She just came up and sat beside me she never meowed she just waited for me to give her something. She is always sitting perfectly upright like this with her tail curled around her paws. I think she's very cute and she posed very nicely for my picture.




In archaeology class we went to the City of David last week. So you have that post to look forward too. I haven't had time to properly type up my notes from that tour yet so I'm not ready to make that post.


From the last post:
Amanda- I have to stay in Israel for the holidays since my semester isn't over yet. The winter weather has been pretty mild so far. Just that one sandstorm and a couple days of rain. It is usually chilly in the morning we get our high temperature for the day around 1 or 2 in the afternoon then it get chilly in the evening too. Not to bad really its just strange that Christmas day its 70 degrees.

Uncle Joe- I haven't heard of the soldiers referring to themselves as the prickly pear cactus but it might be true. I'll see if I can find someone to ask about it. I'm glad you like my style of writing. Some of the archaeology tours are hard to transfer to blog format there is just so much information.

Happy Hanukkah!

Hanukkah began this past Wednesday after sundown it is an eight day holiday. However I only have one day off from school. When I asked about this I was told it was because Hanukkah is not a religious holiday. After doing a little research I discovered that this means it is a holiday that is not mentioned in the Bible. I would like to mention the differences in spelling of the word Hanukkah you will also see it spelled Chanukah both are correct. The reason for the difference is the letter that begins the word in Hebrew is an h sound made at the back of the throat its hard to transfer this kind of sound to English. The picture above is of a Menorah. You can have a menorah with candles or the traditional ones that burn oil. There are eight candles in a row and one candle above the others. The candle above the others is called the shamash ("attendant") candle. You use the attendant candle to light the other candles. First you light the attendant candle then you say some prayers from the prayer book. The brochure we have is only in Hebrew so I'm not sure what they say. Then you light the first candle one additional candle is lit every night until the eighth day when they are all lit. The candles must burn for at least thirty minutes. On Friday evening they must be lit for one and a half hours. The candles are lit from the right side first then moving towards the left.

Hanukkah celebrates the rededication of the second Temple. The Temple had been desecrated by the Greeks. The Temple was recaptured by the Maccabees a rebel Jewish army. The Temple had a flame that was supposed to be lit eternally. But there was only enough purified olive oil to burn for one day. Miraculously the oil burned for eight days and nights, the time it takes to make more oil. The Maccabees founded the Hasmonean dynasty. The Hasmoneans ruled for 103 years before they yielded to Herod the Great. But Herod the Great felt the need to legitimized himself so he married Mariamne a Hasmonean princess.


During Hanukkah foods fried in oil are traditionally eaten to celebrate the miracle of the oil lasting for eight days. These dounguhts are called sufganiyot. They are dome shaped on top and flat on the bottom. Inside they have strawberry jelly. I don't really like the jelly though it tastes like they melted a strawberry lollipop. I love the doughnut part even though it tastes very different from the doughnuts made in America. These doughnuts are all over the place right now.




This is from my fourth archaeology field trip. The third trip we went to the Israel Museum and they do not allow pictures so I can't show you anything from that trip. We are at a site called the shoulder of Hinnom. Here we have several burial caves from the first temple period. This site was the topic of my professor Dr. Barkay's thesis project back in the 70's. My professor is pictured here. The area where my professor is standing used to be an enclosed cave but later generations quarried away the stone leaving it open now. The chamber to the right of the picture is a burial chamber. There are three benches where the dead would be laid out along with burial gifts. The circular depressions on the side are carved stone headrests. The bodies would be left for a year to decompose then the bones and burial gifts would be deposited in the repository. The repository is a hole underneath the right side bench. This chamber with the headrests is very important. Inside the repository they found two small silver scrolls that contained verses from the Bible Numbers 6:24-26 and some from Deuteronomy 7. These are the oldest examples of Bible verses ever found. They predate the Dead Sea Scrolls by many centuries. These graves are from the 7th century B.C. the time of King Josiah and the Prophet Jeremiah! Look in the direction of my professors elbow there is another chamber. The benches in this chamber have a groove in them that also has a place for a lid. Dr. Barkay believes this room was used for chemical treatments of the bodies. Since dead bodies are very dangerous they would need to chemically treat them. We have evidence for chemical treatment of bodies in 2 Chronicles 16:14.


Questions from the last post:
Uncle Joe-Yes those are led lights on the model. The model is in a small museum. Normally tourists come into the room and a show starts with a voice narrating the story of the city and the lights turn on to help people follow the narrator. In our case the professor was explaining it to us but they still turned on the lights in the model. The peanut shaped one is the City of David and the buildings in the upper right of that section are the Temple and Solomon's palace. The small section below that is called the neighborhood between the walls. Around this area is the gate between the walls that King Zedekiah used to escape the city. The large square area is called the Western Hill it has no name in the Bible