Three pictures from an eventful day

It's passover, and for seven days Jews are not allowed to eat anything fermented. Including beer, which is why Yesh (the supermarked, e' as the Hebrew letters looks like to me) have put a plastic cover over it. And over the bread, the bakery, the crackers, the cornflakes, the meat coated with bread crumbs, and some other things I couldn't identify. Thanks to the Arabs for still baking and selling bread!

This might soon be our new neighbour in Bethlehem (we hope!). The name sounds wrong in my ears, even though I haven't watched the silly tv-show on Danish tv.

Techno-party at Jaffa Gate, entrance to the Old City, where we saw orthodox Jews with long curls, golden holiday robes and big hats dancing side by side with youngsters and old people with white hair. It's Passover (and Easter) and the city is full of life, which is nice, but there're so many people!

Shabbat dinner with friends

One of the clarinets from the Israeli orchestra had invited us for shabbat dinner tonight. I had been rehersing in Birzeit with the ESNCM symphony orchestra (more to come on that!) so we were a bit late. But couldn't call and tell her, because Jews apparently aren't allowed to use (cell?)phones during the shabbat, starting from sundown friday, maybe because they are electric and that they hence contain sparks, which are fire, and Jews are not allowed to light fire on shabbat.

It was nice to eat and talk together all seven of us, to hear about their lives and oppinions. At the end of the meal they prayed the end-of-eating-prayer (it's called something proper, but I forgot it), which to me sounded like they were all murmuring something in Hebrew very fast for a long time. They also sang some Jewish songs in Hebrew, first with original melodies and then with alternative melodies like the Adams Family and one by Beach Boys. It was funny to hear profane and religion mixed this way, but nice that it's allowed to play in Judaism (though I don't know what the rabbis would say to it).

When we biked through the orthodox area going there, a lot of Jews dressed in traditional black coats and big hats or golden holiday robes muttered "shabeeesh!" after us, which is shabbat in Yiddish, and by that they meant we were not allowed to bike on a shabbat. Also the traficlights in the area were shut down and the roads blocked by police fences, so nobody would break the shabbat and drive a car in the area. I think it's too restrictive, but let them do it if it makes them happy.

Purim and colourful people

Today is Purim Holiday in Jerusalem (it's a walled city and therefore the Purim falls a day after everywhere else...), the festival were Jews dress up and celebrate that Haman, who wanted to destroy the Jewish people, was defeated by Queen Ester and her uncle Mordechai, as writtin in the Book of Ester. This is done by drinking a lot of wine and eating (because the victory was done through a lot of banquetts with the king), bringing presents to each other, often on big trays or dishes.

I went on a bus through the city (my legs and behind didn't want to bike after our 3 day trip to Galilee) and was amazed by all the people dressed up, not only kids but every one! I saw lots of princesses and animals (these were mainly the younger ones), but also Darth Vader, a Viking with horns on the helmet and long, blonde braids, angels (black and white), monsters, or people just wearing a funny hat or wig or Hawaii necklace.

I didn't get to take any pictures, but Kristeliigt Dagblad has a good series of pictures from Puirm, find it here.

The art of drinking and Purim

Tonight A and I attended a "Pizza Talk" at the Hebrew University (though I don't have security clearing to go there, the guards let me in after seeing my passport and the poster I had for the event and some talks and smiles from both me and A) about what this Purim Holiday coming up on Sunday and Monday is about.

I had heard that this is the day in the year where Jews are supposed to get drunk, and most do so. This is a bit weird, normally religions don't encourage their followers to drink. But the rabbi tonight explained why. Purim is a holiday to celebrate a miracle in Persia, as it is told in the Book of Ester - grab your Bible and read it, it's actually quite fun and not so long. The short of the story is that the king's councellor Haman wants to kill all the Jews, because Mordecai the Jew doesn't want to bow down to him. But Mordecai's (apodted) daughter is Ester, whom the king has just taken as his Queen. Queen Ester asks of the king to not slay his people and he grants this, and the same time he orders Haman hanged in the gallows he had built to hang Mordecai from.

But why drink wine "until you cannot tell the difference between Mordecai's blessing and Haman's curse", as one of the old rabbis put it? Because this "miracle" was done through wine drinking - the king, Ester and Haman was eating and drinking for all their meetings - and therefore Jews should do the same; but only to get merry and fall asleep, not get so drunk that they accidentially kill their friend (there're not so many getting revived these days).

And the day before Purim is a day of fasting, because Ester and Mordecai was fasting - but if this fast would fall on a shabbat, then it's the day before; and since shabbat starts on friday evening, this year the Fast of Ester is on (tomorrow) Thursday.

The kids get dressed up for Purim (like Danish kids do for Fastelavn),
and there's a lots of sweet, coloured cakes. This part I hope to see more
of on Sunday/Monday.

Danish hygge

The Danish priest and his wife had invited us over for dinner and "hygge" tonight, and it was nice to get inside a home with lots of books - many of them belonging to the church, but we were more than welcome to borrow them, so now "Son og Hamas" by Musab Hassan Yousef lies on my bed table - with a comfortable inside temperature, because their two girls shouldn't freeze, and get food in Danish style. It's a very musical family; the priest playing the guitar (also at services), his wife playing piano, and their oldest daughter (5) sang a Purim song in Hebrew for us - very cute, though she didn't know what it was about, she just knew the words.

The priest showed us a video about the conflict in Israel between Messianic Jews (who believes that Jesus in the Messiah, but they are NOT Christians) and the Ultra-orthodox Jews, who accuse the Messianic Jews for being undercover Christians, who want to carry out Hitler's mission to destroy all the Jews; because getting a Jew to convert to something else is like killing a Jewish soul. The video can be found here.

Backyard nature

I know it's not nice to take pictures of people without their concent, but this scene was just too great not to share. I was walking the dog we're "babysitting" (annoying little thing when he barks and whimpers all morning before we've got up, but I enjoy the few walks we've taken), and in the green valley in our backyard I saw this highly religious Jewish man sit on his chair in the middle of all the green reading the Torah. And he was not the first I'd come across on the walk.
Wonderful that there's green retreats around, and wonderful that people are using them!

Shabbat dinner

Our roommate made delicious shabbat dinner for us today. Our landlord joined the dinner (landlady in Tel Aviv, and other roommate out with some musician friends so we were just the four of us), and they did "the full thing" for us; reading from the Torah (I assume) and joining in with "Amen" (the only word I understood in all the Hebrew!). Then filled a glass with wine to it spilled over, to symbolise that God makes everything plenty on this table, that it will never miss anything, and everybody drank from it in turns, by age. Breakiing the bread and dipping it in salt, giving to everybody, and then we were ready to start the main dinner.
And of course the men wore yarmulkas (the Jewish scull cap) to be decent. We forgot the singing, our roommate said afterwards, but we'll do that another time.

Next friday the other roommate has invited us for Kabbala shabbat, which is more singing, mysticism kinda shabbat. I hope I can join a bit late, after my oud lesson.

Weather report

Rain and showers. Third day now - and we're SO happy we've moved indoor in a house, and don't live in the bungalow on the roof of Citadel Hostel any more, it would have been very wet. And I don't like that.

I'm glad I brought my rain clothes! So I could go shopping today in the old city; where I wondered why umbrella in Arabic is called "shamsiyya" from shams=Sun, when it's against rain, so shouldn't it be called matariyya? - and in the city centre; where I was amused to see a Jewish guy with a platic cover over his traditional hat, but otherwise nothing special against the rain.

It seems like the rain tries to catch up with the expectance for it; norm for Jerusalem in January is around 130mm, and according to those we've talked to, it hasn't rained properly i January. Before now.
But it's also kind of homely. ;)