Dormitian Abbey

The most recent free Saturday tour was supposed to visit the neighborhood of Abu Tor, which is interesting for several reasons. First, it is named for a general in Saladin's army who preferred to ride a bull rather than a horse -- hence his name "Abu Tor," which literally means "Father of the Bull." (According to this naming logic, I am considering changing my name to Abu Honda, or better yet Abu 10-Speed, since Emily usually is the one driving the car.) When the Muslims retook Jerusalem in AD 1187, Abu Tor's military leadership was so important that Saladin rewarded him with the land on which the modern-day neighborhood sits.

Secondly, it is one of the few neighborhoods in Jerusalem that still houses Jews and Muslims. I was interested to hear more about the neighborhood on the tour, but unfortunately the guide wasted almost the entire two hours pointing out things along the walk to Abu Tor that we only had 15 minutes in the neighbood itself. It was a real disappointment, so I decided to make another stop that afternoon at a church I have been meaning to visit.

The Dormitian Abbey sits atop Mt. Zion and commemorates the death (Lat. dormitio = "sleep")of Mary, the mother of Jesus (though her tomb is at the foot of the Mount of Olives), as well as the site of the Last Supper:
There's been a church at this location since the 4th century AD. Emily and I visited the church last fall, but it was closed to tourists because there was a service going on. This time I was more fortunate.

Here is what I think is the coolest part of the church: its mosaic floor, which features concentric circles of prophets' names, then apostles' names and then the signs of the zodiac. The zodaic, though a pagan design, was a popular decoration in synagogues of the first centuries AD, and those synagogues were possibly the inspiration for its appearance in this floor.

I was especially excited to see that Andrew the Apostle's name was right below the Aquarius symbol.

The other coolest part of this church is the crypt beneath the church which has this statue of Mary in her eternal rest. It is covered by a six-pillared canopy, whose ceiling has a mosaic of Jesus in the middle, and he is surrounded by six important women from the Bible.
I especially like these six mosaics because they include women who are rarely showcased so prominently. For example, here is Jael, who famously helped the Israelite army defeat its northern enemy:

As Judges 4:17-22 and 5:24-27 tells it, the northern general Sisera fled from his defeat by Deborah to the tent of Jael, thinking her to be an ally. Instead of helping him, she drove a tent peg through his head. It's nice to see she still keeps a peg and hammer handy!


And here is Miriam (I think), the sister of Moses who, after the defeat of Pharaoh's army at the Red Sea, picked up a tambourine and sang of Yahweh's triumph (Exodus 15:20-21).

And finally here is Ruth, fresh from gathering sheaves of grain and probably catching the eye of Boaz.

At long last...

Apologies, my friends, for the long break since the last post. Unfortunately, I can't blame the hiatus on any writers' strike -- the union left bloggers out of the contract talks, so I am left writing in the same pitiful working conditions as before.

In fact, the situation has only worsened since my Dell Inspiron could not be roused out of sleep mode two weeks ago. Because it was still under warranty I searched for the nearest Dell service provider, who happened to be based in Ramallah. I decided to check for the second closest and found one who was based in Herzilya, a town just north of Tel Aviv. Why there is no service provider in Jersualem -- not a single one -- I still do not understand. Long story short I rented a car, drove to Herzliya, got extremely lost when I decided to try a short cut and now two and a half weeks later I am still without my laptop. Today Asher from Dell delivered the unhappy news that the motherboard they ordered and had hoped would fix the problem was itself defective and they would have to order a new one. In a cruel irony, the name Asher in Hebrew means "happy"!

The other reason for the long delay between posts is that the past few weeks have been crazy. The first week of March I met Emily in Italy, then I came back here and had a week to put the finishing touches on my Albright presentation that would summarize my research here in Jerusalem, and then my mom and our family friend Elizabeth arrived for Holy Week here.

It would be too much to describe my trip with Emily and my adventures with mom and Elizabeth in Jerusalem, but here are some captioned photos to give a little taste of the fun:
Here is Emily in front of the Venice train station just after our arrival. Behind her is the Grand Canal.

Here is some charming public art in Venice: Bring on the carnivale!

Emily was very enthusiastic about the pizza in Italy!

Here we are looking out over the Florence skyline.

And later on the Ponte Vecchio with the Arno River in the background.

Me in Rome enjoying a cappuccino for breakfast.

Emily sitting in front of the Gesu (Jesuit) church in Rome.

Sometimes I feel like the Vatican is always looking over my shoulder...


Emily waiting in line to enter the Vatican Museums.


Emily makes a new friend.

I am overcome with violent jealousy.


Here are my mom and I at Tel Dan in the extreme north of Israel with Lebanon stretching out behind us.


Here are mom and Elizabeth making their way down the steep Mount of Olives.

And finally here is mom and me in the Garden of Gethsemane.

It's been an awesome few weeks, and these pictures are just the beginning. Hopefully, I'll get back to posting regularly on the blog now that things have settled down a bit. In the meantime, here's to a happy Easter!