Jerusalem, Israel – what is really happening
The United Nations has marked January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Home and belonging and ordinary people are the themes this year, in 2023.
The 27th falls on a Friday. Therefore, along with remembering, also, wishing all a Shabbat Shalom.
This section of the Western Wall of the Temple Mount Compound was underground, excavated, and soon to be opened to the public on the new Western Wall Tour.
שבת שלום
The tourists are arriving!
Finally, after two years of corona closings, the spring holiday season is starting to feel normal again. However, there are some people who, after a few days, realize they are not suffering from allergies but go into isolation after testing positive for corona. The virus is still a part of life on the Jerusalem streets as is the annual spring pollen count.
Oh, what a day in the Old City it should be! Sunday, April 17, 2022, Passover, Ramadan, Easter, and Orthodox Palm Sunday are to be celebrated.
In this busy time preparing for Passover, I decided to share some of what’s new with the old on the Jerusalem streets with you.
The Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives goes back thousands of years but was not accessible from 1948 to 1967 because of Jordanian occupation.
Har Hamenuchot opened in 1951 instead as the main Jerusalem Jewish cemetery. It was visible on the right side of the road as one drove up to Jerusalem on the old winding Route One. Today there are new modern highways to arrive in Jerusalem.
Rising above the expanded Route One, are those new “buildings” on the hilltop. New apartments under construction below near the highway, and burial sites rising high above cover more of the mountain top.
With land scarce all over Israel, other cemeteries have also built new above-ground burial structures.
This was a regular Sunday morning at Damascus Gate, before the start of Ramadan. Did you hear of trouble there at night as thousands of Muslims come out after breaking their daytime fasting?
A regular Sunday morning at the Kotel, Western Wall, men’s section.
A regular Sunday morning at Kotel, Western Wall, women’s section.
On a regular Sunday morning at Kotel, this is the Western Wall egalitarian section in the distance. They started working on the section where the Second Temple stones were left at the bottom of the western wall of the Temple Mount.
This view of the work being done next to the women’s section shows why the sections were not connected and expanded in the past.
New is the excavation of the Kotel Plaza exploring what is above ground.
At the Givati parking lot nearby, the excavation has gone down exposing centuries of history just outside of the Old City walls.
Coming soon, there will be a new restaurant on top of the current visitor’s center at Ir David, the City of David.
Work has progressed under the Jerusalem streets, on the Pilgrim’s Path.
The route is being prepared for visitors to Jerusalem.
Remember the story from a visit in 2017?
Now one can go up the steps up from the Shiloah spring without wading through the water.
Along the new/old route taken by visitors to Jerusalem is a shop, a model of the shops that were available for the pilgrims who went up to the Temple Mount.
There is more old and new in Jerusalem for you to see than in the Old City beside the new tunnel tours.
France Square’s dedication was in last week’s Tips for Touring in Jerusalem.
A new dedication stone was placed near the previous location,
with the former mayors’ names in Hebrew and French and the 2008 date.
Not all vacant lots in Jerusalem are building sites; some are prepared for much-needed parking spaces.
There are so many more cars and trucks on the Jerusalem streets!
The new tunnel from Gush Etzion is open and the old one is being repaired.
The new Pesach, Passover festivals, and activities are beginning soon.
New signs are posted to welcome visitors to Jerusalem for the holidays.
The last old wrecked house in Yemin Moshe along my photo walk route is being renovated, with the new roof resembling the old Templer tiles.
Visitors will be surprised to see so much new with the old.
Also, they should be pleased that behind those old post boxes in the Yemin Moshe parking lot, is one of the new public toilets. An important new and welcomed addition to those spending time on the Jerusalem streets.
Many challenges this past week, but also many good events to celebrate.
Hope to see you soon!
After a week of wet winter weather in Jerusalem, Israel, the sun came out on Thursday morning, and I finally had a chance to walk to the Old City.
Nothing like the view from above the Kotel, Western Wall, with winter clouds hovering above. Sadly so few people were there to be able to enjoy it.
I was not early enough to see Santa on his camel at Jaffa Gate. But I did spot the last lone tree in the annual giveaway. The Municipality, along with JNF, gives away small pine trees each December to residents who arrive early.
I was on my way to see what was happening in the Old City, during what usually is a very busy time of year.
I decided not to share the empty streets this week. The lack of tourists, the closings, and corona news are all well known by now. The latest bad news – bird flu – may cause an egg shortage.
Looking into the Beit Midrash at Aish on the way to the roof view, the study hall was an impressive scene filled with young men studying.
The Torah has guided the Jewish people for millennia.
Exploring new ways to integrate its ancient words and writings into the skeptical 21st century has become a topic of lively and varied discussions.
Thursday Bar Mitzvahs were being celebrated in the egalitarian section of the Western Wall. It was good to see this section being used.
As you can see, the repair scaffolding has been removed. This is where a stone fell in the summer of 2018. Afterwards, the entire section was checked and the wall repaired.
In the Artist Colony, Kol Haot strives to impart Jewish values, texts, and history using a creative synthesis of the visual and performing arts.
Kol Haot was another venue for the 5th Jerusalem Biennale. The exhibition for Jewish Contemporary Artists concludes at the end of December.
Lining the gallery walls were works from 48 Jewish artists done last year during the time of the corona closings and quarantine.
There were various media used and artists with various experiences, backgrounds, and locations, but the subject of the Creative Quarantine was the same – Torah is acquired in 48 ways.
What connected them all together was a list found in the sixth chapter of Pirkei Avot in the Mishnah – a list of 48 ways to acquire the Torah. Each artist began by taking an item from the list.
Number 1 was Talmud, study, followed by attentive listening, proper speech, an understanding heart, awe, fear, humility, and joy, and so on.
One evening in the gallery surrounded by the 48 artistic works, two more recent approaches of this generation relating to Tanach were discussed.
Yael Unterman explored the technique of Bibliodrama, first-person group role-playing based on a text. Rachel Sharansky Danziger demonstrated how modern Israeli authors are using the Hebrew Bible to join in an ancient conversation and at the same time rebel against it.
Both women contribute to 929, the program began seven years ago to read Tanach: one chapter a day, every day, in sequence. 929 is the number of days to study a complete cycle of all the books. Now there is an English 929 version as well.
BC, before corona, President Rivlin hosted large 929 groups regularly.
This week on Thursday evening, the Herzogs, at Beit Hanasi, the Israeli President’s Residence, are slated to host Rabbi Benny Lau’s 929 for the 38th time.
Each night at midnight, the chapter on the 929 website changes, and the next chapter appears, along with interesting information, brief explanations, video clips, pictures, and even narration of the text, for those who prefer to listen.
The project to learn a page of Talmud a day, Daf Yomi, has grown in popularity.
In addition, there is a new cycle to learn two Mishnayot a day, Mishnah Yomit, and finish the entire six orders of the Mishnah in under 6 years.
And for those new-gen and tech fans, there’s an All Mishnah App, that you can download for free to help you stay on track with your study.
The Tiferet Israel Synagogue was destroyed by the Jordanians in 1948. Today work on its reconstructed dome can be seen rising over the buildings in the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem’s Old City.
From the innovation of outreach to the young and unaffiliated to Talmud study begun by Rabbi Weinberg z”l in the Old City at Aish HaTorah, times have changed, moving to online groups and apps.
Will the young audiences on Tik Tok, Instagram, Netflix, and YouTube in the new generation attend synagogues and have the Jewish knowledge to appreciate their history and Torah sources? They will, if they take advantage of the seemingly endless digital resources at their disposal to study Torah.
Menachem Begin announced he would lead a “Jewish style” government.
Will future generations be Jewishly literate?