Holidays of all shapes and sizes

Last week was eventful with field trips, a birthday, two lost teeth, and two holidays.  I think the tooth fairy didn't have our address in her GPS, because she was tardy for the first tooth but finally delivered the goods.  The second tooth came out a few days later, and the tooth fairy had no problems that time.

We celebrated Christmas on October 31 in Shepherd’s fields (timed to coincide with the class discussion of the Savior’s birth).  But first we toured the ruins of the Herodian, King Herod’s retreat, fortress, and burial site.  In the photo below, we are sitting on an "island" in the middle of Herod's immense swimming pool at the foot of the volcano-shaped Herodian--no water in the swimming pool any more.

The juxtaposition of King Herod and Jesus Christ made a vivid contrast:  The first, a monument builder whose paranoia and excesses destroyed the lives of his kinsmen and subjects, was buried in an elaborate tomb of his own design, which was later defaced by vandals; his infamy has outlived all his beautiful buildings.  On the other hand, the King of Kings came to earth in humble circumstances, served and saved all mankind, and lay in a borrowed tomb until His glorious resurrection.  His life changed the world, and His life continues on. 

We shared testimonies and sang Christmas carols (Lisa sang Guard Him, Joseph) until well after dark.

The other holiday was Halloween, which we celebrated on November 2 after the students' exams ended.  So for once in his life, Frank's birthday was actually after Christmas and before Halloween! His students surprised him with a party, complete with an original song and a framed photo of a shepherd with sheep by Kevork Kahvedjian (He may sell his photos in Utah next conference.  Mr. Kahvedjian is pictured in the Faces of Jerusalem link below).

   After trick-or-treating and a dinner of cornbread and chili, we enjoyed a carnival with facepainting, veggie carving, and a cakewalk.  

We visited the Kotel Tunnel, "Kotel" referring to the Western Wall, which is the beginning point of the tour.  The tunnel goes north along the west side of the temple mount, passing through ancient arches, cisterns, excavations, and even a reservoir full of water.   One cool feature was to see the massive stones that support the foundation of the temple mount.  Lisa is pointing to one end of the monolith, and the stone extends just as far in the other direction!

Here the tunnel is at the level of the ancient street.  Lisa and Amanda are sitting on a rock that should have been fitted into the street, but construction suddenly stopped for some reason, even leaving the rock behind them partially chipped away.  We followed the tunnel all the way to the reservoir at the north end, then we returned the way we had come back to the Western Wall.

Modern Olive Processing

After seeing our ancient olive press, you might be wondering what modern inhabitants of the Holy Land do with their olives. 

My friend Sahar shared photos from her family's 2009 harvest.  First of all, picking olives is not an hour-long novelty, like it was for me, but a week-long endeavor for the whole family.  The best olives are tapped with a rock, packed with peppers, lemon or lemon leaves, and salt water, and stored for 10 days before eating. My friend Samia helped me pack two bottles of olives using this process, and I get to taste them in a few days.

 The rest of the olives are taken to a state-of-the art olive processing machine. "Within half an hour, about 119 kgs of olives were pressed into 18 liters of extra virgin olive oil."

Treasures

I haven't been an avid yard-saler since my North Carolina days, but some friends were heading to the Association of American and Canadian Expatriates yard sale, and I tagged along.  Actually the story is more complicated than that.  Our yard sale expedition was nearly cancelled due to rat poison.  But after some tense moments and medical consultation, we headed off, prepared with a wad of shekels and a GPS. 

Listening to the  GPS narrator mispronounce Hebrew and Arabic street names would be quite entertaining, if we weren't straining so hard to read street signs, anticipate lane changes, and recognize landmarks among the buildings made of uniform local stone.  As my friend and I were heading into the city to retrieve a lost cell phone from a helpful stranger, I asked the lady to describe her apartment building.  She said, "What can I say?  They all look the same."  Even GPS didn't help because we were spelling the street name Betsal'el instead of Bezalel. 

Anyway, back to the yard sale: it was in an open courtyard deep in the Jewish area of West Jerusalem, and people milled about just as at any other yard sale, except with more headscarves and hats.  I was on the lookout for Christmas gifts, some wardrobe variety, and shoes.  My Ecco shoes have been disintegrating faster than I can duct tape the soles back together.  I didn't find any shoes that fit, and I have no comment at this time about the Christmas gifts, but I had a great time looking at merchandise and hearing English mingled with Hebrew, Russian, and Brooklyn.

 At one table full of beautiful greeting cards, I saw a what I thought was a magnified photograph of a snowflake, but as I looked closer, I could see it was lace.  I stopped to talk to Ruth Guthrie and her husband, and she told me the story of the lace. 

"This lace belonged to my great-grandmother, and she wore it over a black shirt.  She always dressed like she was rich.  She came from Bosnia-Herzogovina, my grandmother brought the lace with her, not the first time she came to Israel (1954), but much later.  I kept begging her for it, but she said, 'Not for little girls.'  But when I got older, she gave me some of her laces little by little.  She loved me, and she was very good to me."  I asked Ruthi if she had written down her grandmother's story, and she said she hadn't yet.  But she has been telling them to her children and grandchildren. 

At another table I saw a beautiful silver plate not unlike the one above.  The Hebrew letters identify this as a Matzah plate for a passover meal.  I asked the lady behind the table if there was a story behind this plate.  She turned to the man next to her and said, "Is there a story behind this plate?"  

The man said, "Of course there's a story behind this plate.  The children of Israel were in Egypt, and they were in bondage and having a terrible time...." 

Elah, Elah, Goliath's Back

This weekend we took a trip with the Muhlestein and the Lewis families.  Kerry Muhlestein is the other BYU Religion professor here and Glenn Lewis works for the US Consulate.  Both Kerry and Glenn are counselors  in the Jerusalem Branch Presidency (Frank is the Branch Clerk).  Between our three families there were 16 children.  We left our home in the hill country of Judea and drove southwest to the valleys of the Shephelah (the low hills between the Judean hills and the coastal plain).   First we visited Sampson's neck of the woods in the Sorek Valley.  

We stood on Tel Beth-Shemesh overlooking Zorah, the birthplace of Sampson not far from where he burnt his enemies' fields with the help of 300 foxes (Judges 15).  This was also the location where the ark of the covenant was returned to the Israelites after the Hophni and Phinehas incident (1 Sam 6) .

Next we drove to the valley of Elah where the young shepherd boy David slew the mighty giant Goliath.  Between Azekah and Socoh you can still see a streambed, and you can still pick up stones, although the smooth ones are long gone, and if you bring along your sling, you can try to frighten the grasshoppers in the dry field to the left.  Or you can frighten your mother when the stone flies toward your sister instead of the grasshoppers. 

The hill behind Amanda is where Saul's armies would have encamped when they left the fortified city of Azekah and advanced toward the Philistine camp.  The Philistine chariots had a hard time penetrating to the hilly valleys of Judea, but they clung tenaciously to their territory on the plains. 

We thought about Uncle Mark and wished he were here to lead us in slinging.  (He returns home from Iceland in a month!)  According to Jeff Chadwick, the history teacher at the BYU Jerualem Center this year, a rock can reach 90 mph or more as it leaves the sling of an experienced marksman, which David certainly was.  From that perspective, the miracle was not that the stone killed Goliath, but that David hit his target on the first attempt.  David had perfect faith that with the Lord's help, he would succeed within five tries.

Notice how far apart everyone is standing.  There were no direct hits on each other, thankfully, and we all learned more about trusting in the Lord to overcome gigantic obstacles. 

The next valley south is Guvrin.  We explored some cool man-made caves at Beit Guvrin National Park.   The first cave complex was an ancient mine for soft chalky limestone, which could be mixed with water, heated up, and then applied to homes or cisterns to waterproof them.  This method of waterproofing cisterns was a crucial development in the region's history, allowing the winter rains to be stored for summer use and enabling people to live farther away from springs and rivers. The plaster was not permanent however, and the cisterns needed to be constantly repaired to make sure they did not leak.  Jeremiah told the wicked inhabitants of Jerusalem before the temple was destroyed that they had forsaken the living water of the Lord and were trusting in broken cisterns that could hold no water (Jeremiah 2:13).

   

The circular mining operation left behind bell-shaped caves with a circular opening at the top, and the bell caves eventually connected.  We walked from one cathedral-like dome to another.  In the soft limestone walls we could see carvings such as a Byzantine cross, the name of Allah in Arabic, and a reindeer!  We sang together, explored the rooms, and got dusty climbing on ledges.

Another cave complex contained empty Hellenistic tombs (built around the 3rd century BC), some of which were elaborately painted. 

These empty tombs provided for a fun game of sardines for the kids.  I'm not sure that those whose bodies anciently found a resting place in these tombs envisioned children one day "dancing" on their graves. 

The last place we visited on this trip was a Hellenstic dovecote with thousands of holes for birds to nest. The birds were raised for food, for fertilizer, and for sacrifices at the Temple of Herod (Luke 2:24).  Some of the doves raised here may have been used for the temple in Jerusalem.  The majority of the holes were twenty feet up on the walls, but there were a few holes lower down for some cute little turtle-doves.

We drove past eucalyptus trees imported from Australia to drain a swampy area, then we stopped for ice cream cones at a McDonald's before heading home up the Bab el Wad.

The weather is getting cooler, and the cloud cover made for a beautiful sunset.

Some strange creatures must have followed us home from the caves.

More photos from October

We walked to the Western Wall early one morning as Jews celebrated the end of Sukkot and the beginning of Simchat Torah.  Worshippers filled the courtyard, sang and waved branches overhead.  We saw several Torah scrolls carried in beautifully ornamented cases.  .

This was my second time at the Wall, but my previous visit was on the Sabbath so photography was not permitted, neither was using cell phones, nor writing.  But apparently it was still okay to place a pre-written note into the cracks of the walls even if it is Sabbath

At the Arabic Culture night, a father and son who work as muezzins at Al Aqsa Mosque sang the Call to Prayer and verses from the Quran for us, also demonstrating Islamic prayer.  We ate a delicious meal I can only compare to chicken chimichangas, but better, with amazing side dishes.  Then we worked off the extra calories with folk dancing in the gym.  Sorry for the blurry photo--blame it on the beat!

Emily talks with her friend Johnathan at the Seder or Passover meal at the Jerusalem Center.  The menu was salad, then fish, then soup, later chicken with mashed potatoes, then fruit, and finally Israeli sweets.

At the end of the meal Amanda found the hidden matza and was rewarded with a box of chocolate candies.  She shared them with us for family home evening.

We attended a Liberal Orthodox synagoge on Friday night with instructor Ophir Yarden.  The rabbi and congregation sang hymns and psalms to say goodbye to the old day and welcome in the Sabbath as a bride would be welcomed to her wedding.  We followed along in the song book as best as we could, and tried to learn a few more Hebrew letters as we soaked in the melodies and joined in the choruses.

A view of the October sky over West Jerusalem.

On October 17 we snorkeled off the stony beach of Eilat, the southernmost tip of Israel.

After chasing fish for 4 hours, we enjoyed dinner at the restaurant affectionately known as the "cow kibbutz."  We brought home a gallon of chocolate milk.



Olive Processing

For eight weeks we have viewed Jerusalem from beneath the branches of a lovely young olive tree on our patio.  Up until last week we were content to just look at its silvery-green thin leaves and sweep up the early fallen fruit.  Then the first rain of the fall signaled the olives were ready, so we climbed a ladder and used our fingers to comb the green and purple fruit from its branches.  The olives rained down among our roses, demonstrating exactly why experienced olive pickers spread a tarp first.  Our small tree yielded maybe a quart of olives.  The students gathered many buckets full, and these sat for a week and then were rinsed and soaked. 

Today we helped strain the olives out of a huge tank of water, pour them into the circular stone trough, and rotate the crushing stone by pushing on a beam.  Continuous shoveling helps move the unmashed olives under the stone. The object is to crush the pit of each olive, for this is where the most oil is located.

Hanni, our guide in this process, estimated the stone probably weighs over half a ton.  Hanni is on the left in the photo above.

If the words "Child Labor Laws" are crossing your mind right now, don't worry.  The grimaces in the photo are staged.  The beam is heavy, but three or four people can keep it going for 5 to 10 minutes.

And if you can't keep up with the big kids, you can just take a break.

After about 45 minutes of crushing, Hanni decreed that greenish-brown mush was ready..  Careful not to splatter our clothes, we scooped the fragrant mush into donut-shaped baskets. The baskets were stacked into a press, and everyone took turns twisting the screw. 

Screw-based presses have been in the Holy Land dating back1200-1500 years.  This technology influenced Johannes Gutenberg when he designed the printing press.  The other press on the property is a weights-based press, using technology twice as old.  For more photos and more commentary on the Jerusalem Center's olive presses, visit Chad Emmett's blog, Beit Emmett .

As the press forced the baskets to flatten, the oil and juice ran reddish brown onto the stone, then into the basins below.  After settling, the oil can be easily skimmed off from the top of the watery juice. 

Historically, olive oil was a source of light, nourishment, flavor, and healing. The mash left over in the baskets was used for fuel and food for animals.   Because our olives were exposed to sunlight, the oil will be bitter and not suitable for cooking, so it will instead be used for healing as consecrated oil used for anointing the sick. 

As the red liquid poured down, we talked about the symbolism of the olive press or Gethsemane ( "Gat Shemanim" means oil press in Hebrew).  One of our kids took the perspective of the workers in an olive press--having put in a lot of effort to help make the oil, they could imagine better how much work it took for the Savior to atone for our sins.  Through this experience, we hope our children can imagine the Savior voluntarily placing himself beneath the great weight of justice in our place and feel solemn gratitude that Jesus suffered for us, so that we might not have to suffer if we will repent.