Fresh Bread

A number of bakeries in the Old City produce fresh, yummy bread daily.

Shabbat Shalom

You Don't See This Very Often

Here's a woman smoking a cigar while reading her Bible.

Arabic: One Reason I'm Studying Arabic

The guys in the photo below are refugees from Sudan. They are becoming the leaders of the Sudanese Church in Tel Aviv, and our church has adopted them.

Besides some financial help, we are trying to train them to be leaders of the church. We recently finished a Bible study methods course, and are now beginning to study the qualifications of a church leader found in I Timothy 3 and Titus 1.

The studies are interesting in that we use English as the teaching language, but Arabic and Dinka are used as well. Hopefully, my Arabic studies will help me be a better teacher for them.

My Guardian Angel

Since I started studying Arabic in the Old City, I've become friends with a man who I call my guardian angel. Almost immediately upon meeting, we connected in a way that predicted that he would become a very important friend to me.

I have been very surprised at how he has taken me under his wing. I see him almost every time I'm in the Old City, and he always has something to tell me. Our conversations are often cut short because I need to get to school, but they are always enjoyable. He has warned me about certain areas of the market where drugs are prevalent, given me the background on a number of individuals in the area, and a variety of other pieces of information that are helpful for me to know. 

He's a Muslim, a father and grandfather, has lived in Silwan (aka City of David) since the beginning of time, and seems to enjoy talking with me in any language: Arabic, Hebrew or English (in that order). His formal education ended after 3rd grade, but he has a PhD in street education. As a boy, he sold souvenirs to tourists. He also worked in the family bakery in the Old City. Now he works in the Old City. His story is fascinating, and I'm interested to hear more.

Twins Separated at Birth

I've said many times that there are so many parallels between the two groups, that Judaism and Catholocism must be twins separated at birth. Clearly there are fundamental differences, and some will say those differences demonstrate how wrong I am in my assessment.

Many don't realize that Judaism has its own form of intercession of the saints, but here's an example from an Arutz 7 mailer I just received - note the words in the white highlighting:

Arabic: Learning to Read Arabic

Some 17 years ago, I was standing in the kitchen at Jerusalem University College talking with one of the cooks. I had a can of something in my hand that had Arabic writing on it. I asked him what was inside, and was amazed that he could read all the scribbly lines. To me, they really appeared to be scribbles, but to his eye, they said much.

In the last 3 weeks, things have changed for me. I'm not going to say that I'm amazed that all those scribbly lines now have meaning to me, but I am happy to say that I can actually read in Arabic. Most of the time, I still don't know what the words are, but I can read them. Sure, in many cases, I'm still sounding out the letters like my 5 year-old daughter does in Hebrew, but I can identify the letters and the sounds they make.

Though I don't mean it as such, it may sound like bragging when I say that I can actually read Arabic better than many of the Arab men who sit at Damascus Gate throughout the day. It was actually somewhat of a surprise to me, to find out how many older men and some teens can't read. Obviously, they know what the word means when I read it, so they are still FAR ahead of me. Let's be clear about that!

After class, I had some time before I had to be at my daughter's school, so I decided to sit in the shade outside Damascus Gate and do my homework, which was to translate some sentences from English to Arabic. For example, I am Karim and she is Rina.

The assignment wasn't difficult, but I wasn't certain how to spell some of the words, so I asked a 40-ish year old man sitting next to me if he could help me. He was interested until I asked him how to spell I, you ( m, f), he, she, we, you (pl) and they in Arabic. I never considered that he might not know how to spell those words, but felt bad when he didn't. He directed me to another 40-50 year old man, who also didn't know how to spell. Without going blow by blow, I can say a number of men couldn't spell, so I was directed to a teen age boy who had trouble going beyond the first three words: I, you (m), and you (f). Now, this wasn't one of the boys who quit school and went to work at 9 or 10. He simply couldn't spell these basic words. I thanked him for his efforts and did the best I could.

For those who are still interested in the process of learning to read in Arabic, the first thing to know is that Arabic is read from right to left. You should also know that there are 28 letters, which have four forms, depending on where they come in the word. They have a stand alone shape, and then a shape if they are the first letter, a middle letter or the last letter in the word. Since the shape for the last letter position is basically the same as the stand alone shape, some say there are only three shapes for each letter. I say four because it sounds like I've learned more.

Here is an example of the letter nun (N in English) in four forms:
1. Stand alone: ن                        
2. First letter: نبيل        
3. Middle letter: كنيس           
4. Final letter: شن

(NOTE: Mixing English and Arabic on the same line will probably affect spacing in your browser.)

Okay, I'll stop the language lesson here. Don't confuse me for an Arabic teacher: I just thought some may like to know something basic about the language.

I have formally studied English, Spanish, Russian, Hebrew and Arabic, and I believe Arabic is a bit harder than Russian because it is more tonal. But these are the two hardest I've studied.

Abu Sa'ad

This is Abu Sa'ad. We recently met in the Old City of Jerusalem. He initiated our meeting by doing a few things that no one has ever done to me in the Old City: First, as I was chimping the photos I had just shot, he stuck his head over my shoulder to see what I was looking at. He seemed to appreciate the shots (which may appear here at some point in the future), and gave me an open door to speak.

I tried to use some of my newly acquired Arabic, which went pretty well. I told him that I was learning Arabic and he was happy to engage in small talk with me. Mostly he told me about himself like where and when he was born: His identity card says he was born in 1926, though he insists it was really 1925. He also showed me his business card and made a little more small talk before moving along.

When he was about 25 yards from me, it dawned on me that he was going the same way I was going, and that I might be able to get up ahead and snipe a shot of him. So I gathered my things and tried to get ahead of him.

However, I attracted his attention as I tried to pass him in the narrow alley, and he started to talk to me again. Then he did the second thing that has never happened to me in the Old City: He asked me if I wanted to take his picture. In elementary Arabic, I clarified if he had just asked if I wanted to take his picture. I had understood him correctly, and happily said yes. He struck a pose and waited patiently as I made a few adjustments and openly took the shots I had hoped to snipe.

After I took the photos, we continued to walk together for about 5 minutes. As we talked, he revisited the year of his birth with me, even showing me his identity card to verbally correct the date that was shown there. I asked him where he was going and found out that he prays at Al Aqsa Mosque every day. I asked how many times he prays there each day, but his answer was long and drawn out and not understood by me. We talked about the prayer beads he was carrying, but I didn't really understand what he said about them either. I did the best I could, but didn't understand much of what was said. However, I did enjoy seeing that the new words I was using were understood by my new friend.

I hope that as my language skills improve, I'll see Abu Sa'ad again. I'm sure he is filled with interesting stories, and I want to understand some of them.

Old City Facelift

Many people don't stop to consider that a city the age of the Old City of Jerusalem needs to constantly undergo repairs. But it does. On any given day, there is some type of maintenance being done on the ancient portions of the city.

Currently, the Old City walls (completed circa 1540) are being shored up above Shimon Gibson's Zion Gate excavation.

Over the last year or two, this same type of restoration has been done around Jaffa Gate (north of the gate), along the western city wall between Jaffa Gate and Zion Gate, at the Western Wall (aka Kotel and Wailing Wall), and on both the southern and eastern walls at the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount. I'm sure there are other places, too, but these immediately come to mind.

About 300 yards north of the wall repairs, inside the Old City, the southern Cardo is undergoing some work, too.

Oranges: Ready to be Squeezed

These oranges are in season and on their way to the various juice stands in the Old City. However, beware, they are still a little tart.

Shabbat Shalom

Arabic: Langauge, Coffee, and Culture

I dropped my daughter off at school at 07:30, ninety minutes before my Arabic class was scheduled to start. I say, "scheduled to start" because we have yet to start on time, or even close to time. Never mind, we usually go over at the end, so I guess I'm getting all I paid for.

I enjoy wandering around the Old City for lots of reasons, but one of them is that I get a chance to use my Arabic as I'm gaining it, little by little.

This time, I was in the Old City earlier than usual and found myself in the company of a friendly man. I told him that I was studying Arabic and he was all too happy to speak (much too fast) to me in Arabic.

The conversation started fairly normally: "Where are you from?" he asked. "Jebal Abu Gneim," I said, offering the Arabic name of my "settlement." In my thinking, that's a little olive branch toward those who might be offended that I live in an area that is considered by many to be stolen land. We were both surprised to discover that we are neighbors: he from Um Tuba, I from Har Homa (Jebal Abu Gneim). Two villages sitting next to each other, one Arab, the other Jewish. One considered native, the other considered a settlement. However, he didn't seem worked up about where I live. In fact, he was impressed that I know of his village, Um Tuba.

After about 90 seconds of nothing about where we both live, he wanted to know where I'm really from. So, I told him Texas. "Oh, Bush!!!" he gushed. Then, he went into a long discourse, mixing Arabic, Hebrew, and English, according to his assessment of what I was understanding. "Bush has a gold brain, but a black heart" he said with conviction and the assumption that I would understand what that meant. I didn't. And I just stared back at him with what I thought was the "I have no idea what that means" look. (Unfortunately, it wasn't until AFTER our conversation that I asked how to say, "I don't understand" in Arabic.)

I did have an idea that my new friend wasn't being complementary about President Bush, but I wasn't certain how badly he thought of the former President. After a few moments of dead time gazing at each other, he said it again, but with less Arabic and more - can I say this? - Hebrew. In this part of the Old City, most men seem to be able to speak Hebrew, but they want to do it in whispers, so that others don't hear them. I'm totally fine if they speak to me in English, but they tell me (in a whisper, of course) that they are more confident in their Hebrew than their English.

Anyway, he began to use the story of Cain and Abel from the Quran to explain what he meant. Because I didn't catch "Cain and Abel" in Arabic, he offered them to me in Hebrew, so it took him longer than he had hoped it would to get me on track. "Cain who killed his brother Abel," he clarified, "also had a gold brain and black heart." And with that, his assessment of President Bush was finished.

I'm not sure if he felt the freedom to share his assessment of President Bush because we are neighbors, or because I'm learning his language, or simply because I was willing to listen.

I suppose it is open to a variety of interpretations as to exactly what he meant. But, I didn't pursue it because long ago, I stopped being defensive of the President of the United States, whoever may be President. I don't see much, if any value in going down that road. I do want to understand better what people mean, and find that Arab men that are older than me often use word pictures that they think will clearly communicate to me, but actually only puzzle me.

After the "gold and black" thing, he insisted we have coffee. Now, I don't drink coffee. Let me say that again, but more clearly: I DON'T DRINK COFFEE. More than once, I've explained to people, "I'm not being modest by saying no; I REALLY don't like coffee. I don't like the taste, and it usually burns my tongue." Well, no matter: out came the thick coffee in the thimble size cups. I went ahead and accepted it since I didn't really have a choice at that point. I held it for a moment and then took the smallest micro-sip possible, valiantly fought off the natural reaction toward severe bitter tastes, and swallowed the unbelievably rancid brew. After that, I just held the cup in my hand with NO intention whatsoever that it would come near my mouth again. He was happy to see that I enjoyed his coffee, which is to say that I must have had better control of my facial gestures than I thought possible. 

He needed to get going, so he bid me a "mah-salami" ("see you later"), but didn't get away before I had him write his name out for me. I hope to wander over to his village on a Saturday or Sunday to visit. But, I'll make sure it is time for tea, not coffee.

It seems to me that there are three major currencies among Arab men: coffee, cigarettes, and politics. Unfortunately, I don't care for any of the three. However, I'm hopeful that my Arabic studies combined with Arab hospitality will give me some good in-roads into this community.

Holiday Prayer II

Here's another photo from the Feast of Tabernacle celebration:

Future Israeli Tour Guides

Here are some of Israel's next tour guides learning their craft.

Yesterday was tour guide training day in Jerusalem. Clearly, the students spend more than one day in Jerusalem, but yesterday was definitely one of those days. After my Arabic class, I ran into a horde of them at Station number V on the Via Dolorosa and wanted to listen in, but I had to get where I was going.

I needed to make an appointment for a group at the Garden Tomb, so on my way home, I stopped by and happened to run into another group of student tour guides. Because I overheard the explanation in Hebrew, I stopped for about 10 minutes to listen.

The Garden Tomb's best in-house guide was giving the group the presentation, which was good. I say he is the best, not because he is the most charismatic, but because he does the best job of balancing some of the more faulty arguments against the Holy Sepulchre like the "it's clearly inside the wall" argument.

Now, it must be said that Garden Tomb guides will not ever say, "This is definitely the tomb." That all changed by 1987, and is a downer for many who were there prior to the change and heard, "This is the place our Lord was buried."

Now, the presentation varies between "this could be the place" to "no one knows for sure" to "the place isn't as important as the truth of the resurrection." In spite of the definitive archaeological survey by Gabi Barkay* that firmly dated this tomb to the first temple period, about 700 years older than Jesus' tomb would have been, it is clear to me why the in-house guides can't say, "Based on the type of tomb, this obviously isn't the place." That wouldn't be good for business. And, I don't say that to put down the good folks who work there. Rather, it is to say: as much as protestants/evangelicals say, "the place isn't as important as the truth of the resurrection," there is still at least a small hope in most of them that this might really be the place.

Please don't be mistaken, I like to take groups to the Garden Tomb because it is a good teaching location - in that many of the geographic and cultural elements of the crucifixion are available there. No smells. No bells. No strange clerical garb. It's quiet, beautiful and relaxed, which makes it easy to meditate upon those most important events, Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.

Yesterday, I appreciated how the guide tried to walk through this issue without either completely giving up the farm or being dramatically dishonest. (Apparently they have found an archaeologist or two that don't follow Dr. Barkay's findings). Again, I think he is the best technical guide in the place. The only thing that bothered me was one of the guides in training. He was really trying to force the instructor's hand: "Well, which is it? Is this the place or isn't it?"

I can assure you he was the kind of tourist he will come to despise in short order. There always seems to be one in the bunch that has a hobby horse or knows just enough about something to be dangerous and a nuisance. They always try to stir things up and become the center of attention. And the group generally comes to dislike them just like the guide does.

Thankfully, I don't have to worry about him being my guide. :-)

* See Barkay, Gabriel, 1986 The Garden Tomb: Was Jesus Buried Here? Biblical Archaeology Review (March/April):40-56

Holiday Prayer

New Use for Tongue Depressors

I saw this new use for tongue depressors at the minor emergency center in Jerusalem. They had recently relocated and all the new equipment didn't quite fit. Never mind; a tongue depressor can have a variety of good functions.

In this case, the pedestal was about 10 tongue depressors low. No problem the emergency center has tons of those.

It has been our experience here, that the attitude in construction and finish work is, "That's good enough."

 

How Many Do You See?

Recently, I happened upon this Israeli military exercise. How many soldiers can you see making their way through this olive grove?

Shabbat Shalom

Texas Deer Season is Upon Us

Archery season has opened in Texas, so I thought this "shot" from about a week ago would be appropriate. This trio was 400-500 yards away from me, so they were out of range for anything but my Nikon. Oh yeah, I spotted them southeast of Jerusalem, about 6,900 miles away from Dallas, Texas.

Update: Ambu-cycle

Well, it seems that I prematurely published my photo of the ambu-cycle on Monday. Less than 24 hours after posting that photo, I was able to take a photo of an ambu-cycle in action.

The ambu-cycle stopped far enough away to allow the ambulance access, but was there to attempt to stabilize the situation as best as possible until the ambulance could arrive.

In this case, a pedestrian was hit by a bus. Apparently, the pedestrian darted out onto the street in an effort to cross to the other side. It appeared that the bus tried to avoid the man by swerving hard to the left, but still struck him.

In the photo below, the bus driver is explaining to the police what happened. The damage to the windshield is also clearly visible.

The driver was very calm after the victim was taken away. He seemed satisfied that he had done everything he could to avoid the pedestrian.

About 17 years ago, I was sitting in the front seat of a Jerusalem city bus that struck and killed an elderly lady who darted across the street in front of us. The visual of that event is still vivid in my mind.

The Arab Market

Over the years, I have noticed that in the Arab market in the Old City, no women work in any of the shops. It matters not what the shop offers for sale, no women work there. However, in the walkways - in front of the shops or other areas of the Old City - it is common to see women selling things from their gardens: grapes, grape leaves, olives, green almonds, etc.

First Responders

These ambu-cycles are some of the first responders in Israel. Often they have volunteers who ride them around town on the lookout for a car accident or something worse. Due to their size, they can naturally get around and through traffic quicker than traditional size ambulances, and that is sometimes aided by their siren and flashing lights, . . . but not always.

Hello, God?

During Succot prayers, I noticed this father and son team. The son was praying in the more traditional way: prayer shawl in place, prayer book in front, and facing the Western Wall. The father, on the other hand, appeared to be phoning in his prayer.

Shouldn't it have been the other way around? 

A Tourist's Delight

Shabbat Shalom

Peppers on the Vine

We were in the Elah Valley yesteday and found these peppers on the vine. But the best part of the day was the opportunity to teach my daughter the story of David and Goliath on location. 

The Four Species

Leviticus 23:40 (NKJV) - "And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the [1] fruit of beautiful trees, [2] branches of palm trees, the [3] boughs of leafy trees, and [4] willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days."

The four items noted above are called the Four Species and can be seen being used (in the photo below) in a celebration/prayer ritual at the Western Wall during the Feast of Tabernacles.

This Should Be Interesting

This is where I started an Arabic course, yesterday. I'm now learning Arabic for a number of reasons that I will likely share in more detail at some point in the future.

Anyhow, since Al Quds University is generally considered a core institution for sharing the Palestinian "reality" with the West, I expected to see and hear things from a different cultural, political and historical view. In one day, my expectations have been met, . . . and more.

This should be interesting in more ways than I can imagine. 

A Way to Help Those Without Clean Water

Michael Pritchard has invented a water filter system that is inexpensive, easily transportable, and apparently very effective. For those living in developed areas, potable water isn't a daily issue for you. However, in most of the undeveloped world, drinkable water is a matter of life and death. A number of organizations have become involved in sponsoring water wells in various parts of the world. This water filter system should not be over looked if you are interested in helping provide potable water for those that don't have easy access to such.

Things Kids Say

My 5-year-old daughter does not yet take the Lord's Supper, so she is very jealous and attentive to all that goes on during that event. In Israel we use matza for the Lord's Supper, and when it is broken, it comes out in random sizes; some larger, some smaller.  This past Friday night, I got a rather large piece of matza, which immediately drew her attention.

"What's that, Abbah?" she asked. I began to explain, "This is a picture of Jesus - how his body was," at which point I was interrupted with, "But it doesn't look like Jesus!"

Clearly, from a 5-year-old's perspective, she was correct. In fact, her reply caused me to take another look at the broken piece of matza resting in my hand, . . .  and to reconsider how I try to communicate important truths to her . . . and to others.

Shabbat Shalom

More Discounts: Sabra

These sabra didn't go out quickly, and have started to shrivel. However, they are still available for purchase . . . and at a lesser price.