Jerusalem photos

Shemitta in Jerusalem Botanical Gardens

rjstreets

Most people know there are Jewish dietary laws

which require the separation of meat and milk.

But I just separated sweet potatoes, peppers and carrots,

from cucumbers and tomatoes.

Why?

image Shmitta in Hebrew

Shmita (or spell it shemitta) is Biblical law.

Shmita park sign with source

We are well into the shemitta year,

which takes on special meaning for those who live in Israel.

Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Rimon has written books on the subject.

He composed colorful charts and calendars to simplify the laws.

image Botanical Gardens Jerusalem Israel

Now in the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens,

Shimita park

Rav Rimon has initiated a special section

to show the laws of shemitta.

image Rabbi Lau talking to girls in Shmita park

For the opening ceremony, Chief Rabbi David Lau spoke,

and then took time to speak to a group of students who participated.

garden for shmitta

The park is aimed to get children’s attention,

image shimita park

 and to make things simple enough

image shemitta

for anyone understand.

image shemitta

With information in Hebrew and English,

image in shmita park

there are many examples of what is permissible

and what is not to be done in gardens this year.

shemitta

The Shemitta Park is simple to reach,

Jerusalem Botanical Gardens shmita park

and it is an attractive area

image shmita park

 with more interactive features to come.

Check it out if you are in Jerusalem, Israel.

The Botanical Gardens are a great place to visit.

Once  a garbage dump,

it is now a beautiful and educational outing.

Jerusalem Destruction and Return

rjstreets

A fascinating new exhibit has opened

at the Bible Lands Museum (BLMJ)

in Jerusalem, Israel, called

image sign Bible Lands Museum

 “By the Rivers of Babylon” or Al Naharot Bavel.

Though located across from the Israel Museum and near the Knesset,

image Museum

I had not been inside the BLMJ for a few years.

The new exhibit starts with the story of the siege of Jerusalem

found in the Bible

cuneifrom tablet

and  recorded on this ancient stone tablet.

image BLMJ video

This video begins with a warning

that there are indeed sad parts to the story.

image destruction first temple

 The end of Jewish kings and life in Jerusalem,

end of first temple

 and the end of the First Temple in 589 BCE.

image broken pottery

Destruction so complete,

ancient jug

that the intense heat of the burning of Jerusalem

 deformed this earthen storage jar.

 The Jewish people were exiled to Babylonia,

image return to Zion

and there on the rivers of Babylon told their story,

for generation after generation.

Many Jews returned to Zion with the prophets Ezra and Nehemiah,

but many wealthy families remained.

Now 2500 years later,

image ancient writing

these small cuneiform tablets finally tell us their story.

Though they look more like breakfast cereal or doggie biscuits,

these are well-preserved ancient business records of rentals, loans and taxes,

that parallel the names, places and dates of Biblical stories.

Over the centuries, Babylon became Iraq,

 where descendants of those exiled Jews lived until 1950-1952,

when their communities were forced to leave for their safety.

For the first time in over two millennia

there are no Jews in exile in Babylon,

as they have returned to Zion.

Israeli flags

As some try to rewrite history with “narratives,”

here are real records,

written in stone,

found and shown to public for first time

in this exhibit at the Bible Lands Museum.