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לא ימוש ספר התורה הזה מפיך והגית בו יומם ולילה למען תשמר לעשות ככל הכתוב בו כי-אז תצליח את-דרכך ואז תשכיל
Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, arguably the greatest Torah Sage today, deep in study in Jerusalem, Israel.
Ethiopian-Israeli Haredi Rabbis talk amongst each other in Jerusalem, Israel. The Rabbi in the middle is the Chief Rabbi of the Beta Israel community in Israel.
(Thanks Fred)
Rabbi Meir Lau is one of the greatest men alive today. As a child, Rabbi Meir Lau survived the Buchenwald death camp during the Holocaust (השואה), afterwhich he moved to Israel (עלייה) and became Chief Rabbi of Netanya. Rabbi Meir has also served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, and is viewed as a leader of the Religious Zionist world (although he has strong ties to the Haredi/Ultra-Orthodox world). Rabbi Lau is a man I admire greatly.
Stained glass window produced in 1956 by master glazier Max Ingrand showing The Entry to the Promised Land, the earthly Paradise, Joshua stopping the sun, and the Flood.
“Rouen Cathedral is a Roman Catholic Gothic cathedral in Rouen, Normandy, France.
“A church was already present at the location in the late 4th century, and eventually a cathedral was established in Rouen as in Poitiers. It was enlarged by St. Ouen in 650, and visited by Charlemagne in 769.
All the buildings perished during a Viking raid in the 9th century. The Viking leader, Rollo, founder of the Duchy of Normandy, was baptised here in 915 and buried in 931. His grandson, Richard I, further enlarged it in 950. St. Romain's tower was built in 1035. The buildings of Archbishop Robert II were consecrated in 1065. The cathedral was struck by lightning in 1110.
“Construction on the current building began in the 12th century in Early Gothic style for Saint Romain's tower, front side porches and part of the nave. The cathedral was burnt in 1200. Others were built in High Gothic style for the mainworks: nave, transept, choir and first floor of the lantern tower in the 13th century; side chapels, lady chapel and side doorways in the 14th century. Some windows are still decorated with stained glass of the 13th century, famous because of a special cobalt blue colour, known as ‘the blue from Chartres’. The north transept end commenced in 1280.
“Some more parts were built in Late (Flamboyant) Gothic style, these include the last storey of Saint Romain's Tower (15th century), the Butter Tower, main porch of the front and the two storeys of the lantern tower (16th century). Construction of the south-west tower began in 1485 and was finished in 1507. The Butter Tower was erected in the early 16th century.
“The Renaissance spire was destroyed by lightning in 1822. A new one was rebuilt in Neo-Gothic style, but of cast iron instead of wood. The cathedral was named the tallest building (the lantern tower with the cast iron spire of the 19th century) in the world (151 m) from 1876 to 1880.”
Source: Wikipedia
Diakonikon-Baptistery and the ancient mosaics
location: Mount Nebo, Jordan
author: Jan Helebrant
license CC0 Public Domain Dedication
The Chapel of the Milk Grotto of Our Lady (Latin: Crypta lactea; Arabic: مغارةآلسثئ; Hebrew: מערת החלב), also called Grotto of Our Lady or Milk Grotto, is a Catholic chapel in Bethlehem, in the West Bank, erected in 1872. Since Byzantine times, the place has been a center of Christian pilgrimage, maintained since its last erection together with its Marian shrine and monastery by the Custody of the Holy Land of the Order of the Friars Minor of the Catholic Church in Palestine. The Status Quo, a 250-year-old understanding between religious communities, applies to the site.
History
The current Catholic chapel was built in 1872 on the site of a former Byzantine church from around the 5th century, of which only part of the mosaic floor remains.
Significance
Christian tradition says is the place where the Holy Family found refuge during the Massacre of the Innocents, before they could flee to Egypt. The name is derived from the story that a "drop of milk" of the Virgin Mary fell on the floor of the cave and changed its colour to white.
The space, which contains three different caves, is visited by some in hope of healing infertile couples, the shrine allegedly being a place where prayers for children are miraculously answered.
Monastery of the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
A monastery of the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is attached to the chapel. The red-and-white clad nuns practice perpetual Eucharistic adoration, and are also uninterruptedly praying for peace since 2016, when a 'Queen of Peace' tabernacle was installed in their Eucharistic Adoration Chapel.
The tabernacle was donated by the Polish community 'Queen of Peace' to the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. It was originally designed for the Fourth Station of the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, but was eventually moved to the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration at the Milk Grotto in 2016, because they were better prepared to ensure the continuous prayer for peace.
The Polish artist who designed the tabernacle, Mariusz Drapikowski, explains his work as inspired by the Apocalypse of St John: the closed tabernacle depicts earthly Jerusalem, with the twelve Apostles and the twelve Tribes of Israel surrounding the image of Jesus on the cross, while the open shrine is representing the heavenly Jerusalem, brightly shining and flanked by a pair of olive trees which symbolise the two witnesses of the Apocalypse. Their branches are filled with a variety of different crosses, symbolising the various Christian professions emerging from the common trunk of Christianity. At the centre of the open shrine stands the monstrance showing a Madonna holding in her hands the Eucharistic Christ, depicted as a large host.
Bethlehem (/ˈbɛθlɪhɛm/; Arabic: بيت لحم, Bayt Laḥm, pronunciation; Hebrew: בֵּית לֶחֶם Bēṯ Leḥem) is a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank of the State of Palestine, located about ten kilometres (six miles) south of Jerusalem. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate, and has a population of approximately 25,000 people. The city's economy is largely tourist-driven; international tourism peaks around and during Christmas, when Christians embark on a pilgrimage to the Church of the Nativity, revered as the location of the Nativity of Jesus.
The earliest-known mention of Bethlehem is in the Amarna correspondence of ancient Egypt, dated to 1350–1330 BCE, when the town was inhabited by the Canaanites. In the Hebrew Bible, the period of the Israelites is described; it identifies Bethlehem as the birthplace of David. In the New Testament, the city is identified as the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth. Under the Roman Empire, the city of Bethlehem was destroyed by Hadrian, but later rebuilt by Helena, and her son, Constantine the Great, who commissioned the Church of the Nativity in 327 CE. In 529, the Church of the Nativity was heavily damaged by Samaritans involved in the Samaritan revolts; following the victory of the Byzantine Empire, it was rebuilt by Justinian I.
Amidst the Muslim conquest of the Levant, Bethlehem became part of Jund Filastin in 637. Muslims continued to rule the city until 1099, when it was conquered by the Crusaders, who replaced the local Christian Greek Orthodox clergy with Catholic ones. In the mid-13th century, Bethlehem's walls were demolished by the Mamluk Sultanate. However, they were rebuilt by the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, following the Ottoman–Mamluk War.[8] After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, it became part of Mandatory Palestine until 1948, when it was annexed by Jordan during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. During the 1967 Six Day War, Bethlehem was occupied by Israel along with the rest of the West Bank. Since the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority, Bethlehem has been designated as part of Area A of the West Bank, nominally rendering it as being under Palestinian control. Movement around the city is limited due to the Israeli West Bank barrier.
While it was historically a city of Arab Christians, Bethlehem now has a majority of Arab Muslims; it is still home to a significant community of Palestinian Christians, however it has dwindled significantly, mostly due to difficulties resulting from living under the Israeli occupation. Presently, Bethlehem has become encircled by dozens of Israeli settlements, which significantly hinder the ability of Palestinians in the city to openly access their land and livelihoods, which has contributed to the exodus of Palestinians.
The West Bank (Arabic: الضفة الغربية, romanized: aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; Hebrew: הַגָּדָה הַמַּעֲרָבִית, romanized: HaGadáh HaMaʽarávit), so called due to its relation to the Jordan River, is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip). A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the Levant region of West Asia, it is bordered by Jordan and the Dead Sea to the east and by Israel (via the Green Line) to the south, west, and north. The territory has been under Israeli occupation since 1967.
The territory first emerged in the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War as a region occupied and subsequently annexed by Jordan. Jordan ruled the territory until the 1967 Six-Day War, when it was occupied by Israel. Since then, Israel has administered the West Bank as the Judea and Samaria Area, expanding its claim into East Jerusalem in 1980. The mid-1990s Oslo Accords split the West Bank into three regional levels of Palestinian sovereignty, via the Palestinian National Authority (PNA): Area A (PNA), Area B (PNA and Israel), and Area C (Israel, comprising 60% of the West Bank). The PNA exercises total or partial civil administration over 165 Palestinian enclaves across the three areas.
The West Bank remains central to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians consider it the heart of their envisioned state, along with the Gaza Strip. Right-wing and religious Israelis see it as their ancestral homeland, with numerous biblical sites. There is a push among some Israelis for partial or complete annexation of this land. Additionally, it is home to a rising number of Israeli settlers. Area C contains 230 Israeli settlements into which Israeli law is applied and under the Oslo Accords was supposed to be mostly transferred to the PNA by 1997, but this did not occur. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal under international law. Citing the 1980 law in which Israel claimed Jerusalem as its capital, the 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty, and the Oslo Accords, a 2004 advisory ruling by the International Court of Justice concluded that the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, remain Israeli-occupied territory.
Palestine (Arabic: فلسطين, romanized: Filasṭīn), officially the State of Palestine (دولة فلسطين, Dawlat Filasṭīn), is a state in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Founded on 15 November 1988 and officially governed by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), it claims the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip as its territory, all of which have been Israeli-occupied territories since the 1967 Six-Day War. The West Bank contains 165 Palestinian enclaves that are under partial Palestinian rule, but the remainder, including 200 Israeli settlements, is under full Israeli control. The Gaza Strip was governed by Egypt but conquered by Israel in 1967. Israel governed the region until it withdrew in 2005. The United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and various human-rights organizations still consider Gaza to be held under Israeli military occupation, due to what they regard as Israel's effective military control over the territory; Israel disputes this. Hamas seized power after winning the 2006 Palestinian legislative election. This has since been ensued by a blockade of the Gaza Strip by Israel and Egypt.
After World War II, in 1947, the United Nations (UN) adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine, which recommended the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. Immediately after the United Nations General Assembly adopted the plan as Resolution 181, a civil war broke out in Palestine, and the plan was not implemented. The day after the establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948, neighboring Arab countries invaded the former British Mandate and engaged Israeli forces in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Later, the All-Palestine Government was established by the Arab League on 22 September 1948 to govern the All-Palestine Protectorate in the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip. It was soon recognized by all Arab League members except Transjordan, which had occupied and later annexed the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Palestine is currently recognized by 138 of the 193 United Nations (UN) member states. Though jurisdiction of the All-Palestine Government was declared to cover the whole of the former Mandatory Palestine, its effective jurisdiction was limited to the Gaza Strip. During the Six-Day War in June 1967, Israel captured the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria.
On 15 November 1988 in Algiers, Yasser Arafat, as Chairman of the PLO, issued the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, which established the State of Palestine. A year after the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was formed to govern (in varying degrees) areas A and B in the West Bank, comprising 165 enclaves, and the Gaza Strip. After Hamas became the PNA parliament's leading party in the most recent elections (2006), a conflict broke out between it and the Fatah party, leading to the Gaza Strip being taken over by Hamas in 2007 (two years after the Israeli disengagement).
The State of Palestine's mid-year population in 2021 was 5,227,193. Although Palestine claims Jerusalem as its capital, the city is under the control of Israel; both Palestinian and Israeli claims to the city are mostly unrecognized by the international community. Palestine is a member of the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the G77, the International Olympic Committee, as well as UNESCO, UNCTAD and the International Criminal Court. Following a failed attempt in 2011 to secure full United Nations member state status, the United Nations General Assembly voted in 2012 to recognize Palestine as a non-member observer state. On 26 February 2024, the Palestinian government collapsed, with the entire Palestinian government resigning, including the prime minister.
Caleb. Numbers 13:30
Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
Numbers is full of rather dense people. I think Balak excels himself in believing that God is going to change his mind depending on the mountain he and Balaam stand on. The most significant moment for the Isrealites isn't really there stupidest, to be fair. Having sent out spies to check out the land which God has said he is going to give them, they decide that it's a bit scary and they don't want to play that game. To be fair to most of the Isrealites, all they are hearing from the spies is doom a gloom about how big and butch the chaps in that land are.
Today's photo is a tribute the Caleb-the-spy. He struck me as a glass-half-full kind of person. I'm sure he'd seen the same scary natives but he choses to focus on the rewards for victory and says "We can do it". Sadly he doesn't attribute the "we can do it" part to God, because then I'd have more reason for having picked him as my subject for today. I think I chose him because he did stand out in the Book of Numbers as someone positively doing the right thing. Balaam does pretty well mostly, Aaron is a good chap, but gets it wrong a couple of times and even Moses messes up. Caleb is one of the two over-twenty-when-the-Isrealites-started-wandering to make it into the promised land. Joshua was the other one, but he gets "bigged up" in children's bibles/songs etc. and I might get to talk about him later. So I picked the Caleb.
The really "duh" moment comes a bit later when having grumbled and been told by God that they've blown it, the Isrealites then decide to have a go at taking the land by force and get properly whooped. I wonder if God ever considered trying reverse-physcology on them to get them to do what he really wanted?
The photo
I wasn't really thinking. I guess this should have been a glass half-full of milk. But I got myself a port instead, of which this is a half-full glass. I did try lighting it on a table, but decided the black material base would be easier for the effect I wanted. Note to self: Must clean the glass next time.
SB-800 strobe off camera, manual mode, 1/2 power with a cardboard&drinking straw snoot. 70mm @ f10 1/60s ISO 200
"Now and forever in memory of those who rebelled in the camps and ghettos, fought in the woods, in the underground and with the Allied forces; braved their way to Eretz Israel; and died sanctifying the name of God."
Illustration from "La Sainte Bible : Ancien Testament . . . / Compositions par J.-James Tissot"; with preface by Antonin Gilbert Sertillanges (1863-1948), introduction by Maurice de Brunoff (1861-1937) and the translation into French of Isaac-Louis Lemaistre de Saci (1613-1684). 2 volumes. Paris: M. de Brunoff & Cie, 1904. The illustrations were originated by James Tissot (1836-1902) who sketched as he read Scripture.
The edition, of which 561 copies were printed, contains 360 mounted colour, black-and-white and duo-tone illustrations in the text and 40 plates in three states: sepia-tone, partly hand-coloured, and finished coloured state. The plates are protected with captioned tissue-guards. The paper size is 15.75 x 13 ins; image size varies (circa 8.5 x 5.5 ins).
The paintings for all 400 Illustrations were based exclusively on the complete sketches (the inspiration being entirely Tissot's). The first 200 illustrations covering the Book of Genesis through to the story of Jephthah's daughter in the Book of Judges were painted by Tissot. The last remaining 200 illustrations were painted after Tissot's death in 1902 by Henri Bellery-Desfontaines, Auguste François Gorguet, Charles Hoffbauer, Louis van Parys, Michel Simonidy and Georges Bertin Scott.
Photos by Philip De Vere: Tissot in Brunoff at John Rylands www.amazon.co.uk/clouddrive/share/kq7jBR4DkA1VIbQ5isRelyH...
Samaritan Priests with their Torah. The Torah of the Samaritans differs from the Torah of Mt. Sinai in certain areas. The Samaritans are not quite Jews, but close (and related).
Olive trees are both essential for survival and symbolic of the land to those that live here. The villagers of Yanoun have seen their trees uprooted and cut down. They have also been denied access to their orchards, and if the land isn't cultivated in 2 years, then it can be declared "absentee" and is "returned" to Israel the state of Israel. This is just one of many ways land is exchanging hands in the West Bank. Yanoun, Palestine.