A visit to "Safari" in Ramat Gan

Yesterday, for his birthday, I took David to Safari in Ramat Gan. Safari is a combination of a drive-through wild animal park and a more conventional zoo. When I got home and uploaded the pictures to my computer, I found that I had shot more than 270 of them! Here are just a few of the best, with some words about each:
It's a good thing that I had my window rolled up, because this ostrich was a determined pecker!

Here's that same ostrich before he started his pecking campaign. He was moving his head a lot, so I was lucky to get this great shot!

Even without the zoom, these two hippos were pretty close to the car, but the zoom on my camera really brings them in for us to see. Quite interesting animals, I think.

This zebra was right in front of our car. As you may notice, this picture was actually taken through the windshield!

I took this zebra's picture through my left window, which was rolled down. The wild animal park has LOTS and LOTS of zebras. Aren't they beautiful creatures!

Beautiful or not, some of them are definitely striped beggars!

Just a little reminder that this wild animal park is right in the city! Ramat Gan is the city immediately inland from Tel Aviv. In fact, the Ayalon freeway is really all that separates them. In this view, you can see some of the buildings of Ramat Gan, a big power line tower, and a pretty little deer, all in the same picture.

The King of the Beasts! David counted about 9 or 10 lions in the lion area, but this one seemed to be the king. Once again, a power line tower reminds us where we really are.

Here are some of the other lions in a nice group photo.

I thought these antelope with their wavy horns and their interesting coloration were very beautiful.

Hard to believe, but this is a real animal. It looks like some kind of strange morph between a primate and a poodle. There were quite a number of these in the same enclosure, and several of them seemed to enjoy sitting and posing like this for the visitors. I call them the Posing Poodle Primates -- it has a sort of a ring to us, doesn't it?

This was the biggest bird we saw at the zoo! Yes, I really did shoot this from right in the zoo, using the maximum optical zoom on my camera! As some of you may know, the final approach path to the Ben Gurion International Airport passes right over Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan. I don't know if you can see it in this somewhat reduced-sized photo, but the words on the plane spell out "Russia" in Cyrillic (Russian) letters!

This zoo has quite a large collection of various primates, and this gorilla family was one of the most interesting. The big one on the left had a gray back and seemed like the patriarch of the clan.

When I first saw these bears (there were several of them), I thought they were polar bears, but then I read the sign, which said that they were "Syrian brown bears", which used to be quite common in this area but which are now endangered. It also said that these were the kind of bears we read about in II Kings 2:23-24 regarding the prophet Elisha, shortly after his predecessor, Elijah, had been taken up into heaven in the fiery chariot: "He went up from there to Beth-el. As he was going up on the road. some young lads came out from the city and mocked him, saying to him, 'Go on up, Baldhead! Go on up Baldhead!' He turned around and saw them and cursed them in the name of HaShem. Two bears then came out of the forest and tore apart forty-two of the lads." So, I think I won't be messing with these bears, even though this one actually looks pretty nice!

We saw quite a number of giraffes at Safari, both in the zoo and out in the wild animal park. I took several pictures, of course, and I think this one is the nicest, at least partly because the dark background contrasts so nicely with his beautiful long neck.

Here's a nice ostrich picture where you can actually see the whole bird. Notice his daintily raised foot, and also notice the contrast between the ostrich and the crow. Normally, we think of the crows as one of the larger birds (and they are indeed bigger than most of the common birds we see -- although they are 2-toned here rather than solid black as in the U.S., they are the same size and they sound identical!), but this one looks incredibly small next to an ostrich!

Return to Gamla

Today, I made sure to feed the snakes first thing so that we'd have time for a little trip. So, we headed out once again to Gamla Nature Reserve. This time, we decided to hike out on the trail to the waterfalls (the highest in Israel, at 51 meters), about 45 minutes each way according to the guy at the gate. And, I think that's actually about how much time it took us. David didn't make it all the way, but sat he and waited for me while I walked to the place from which one can view the falls. The trail was rocky and somewhat muddy, which made it a little more difficult to walk on, but it was still an interesting hike. We also walked a short distance down a paved trail to the vulture lookout area, and, sure enough quite a few vultures were soaring over the canyon.

The following are several pictures that I took along the way, with some commentary on each of them. Enjoy!
These are some small yellow flowers that were blooming everywhere in that area.

This is an example of something called a "dolmen". There are thousands of these in the Golan, including about 700 around Gamla. They were erected 4000 years ago (!) during the period of the intermediate Bronze Age.

Here's a picture of the waterfall itself. In the background, in the upper left, you can see the round moutain (Har Peres), which we can also see directly east from our house.

In case the flower picture made you think of Spring, here are a couple of photos that will make you think of Autumn: a tree in full Fall color, near the parking lot, and a detail of some beautiful leaves on another tree, along the trail.

This is a picture of a fennel plant. These grow quite abundantly is this area.

Finally, a vulture. Although there were quite a few soaring over the canyon, it was very difficult to actually capture one in a picture with my camera, which is really not fast enough for this kind of photography. Nevertheless, I did get one fairly good picture, which you see here. The vulture is in the extreme upper right corner. In the lower left corner, you can see the Kinneret. The second picture is simply a detail from the first showing only the vulture.

A tiyul on the 25th of December

Yesterday, 25 December 2008, we decided to take a drive just to get out of the house. Local light showers were predicted for the day, so we didn't count on being able to get out and walk much. So, we decided to head for the קריון Krayon, a big mall in the קריות Krayot, the area northeast of חיפה Haifa along the sea. The area got that name because it is the plural of קריה Kiryah, and there are several towns in that area whose names begin with קרית Kiryat (which means "cluster of", "town of", or "suburb of"): קרית ים, קרית מוצקין, קרית ביאליק, קרית אתא. The name of the mall, קריון Krayon, is no doubt a contraction of the words קריות krayot and קניון kanyon, which means "shopping center" (and NOT "canyon" -- incidentally, there IS a mall in Haifa whose name is גרנד קניון Grand Kanyon!).

At any rate, when we got there we drove all over the parking structures and the open parking lots, but we could not find a single open parking space (and there were plenty of other cars looking for spaces, too!). So, after 45 minutes of this, we decided just to skip it and continue down the road to קניון לב המפרץ Kanyon Lev HaMifratz ("Heart of the Gulf Shopping Center"), where we have been many times and where we can ALWAYS find a parking spot!

Sure enough, we did find a place right away. We went into the mall and browsed a little. We considered trying to go to a movie at the new 23-theater complex that they recently added, but we weren't able to figure out which movies were actually playing, so we decided against it. After quenching our thirst, we decided to get back into the car and head for טבריה Tverya ("Tiberias").

I had seen a description in one of our atlases about a place called ארבל Arbel, which is a national park located on the top of some cliffs near Tverya, so we decided to check it out. By time we got into the area, we were beginning to get hungry, so we went down into Tverya first (remember, Tverya is next to ים כנרת Yam Kineret, also known in English at the "Sea of Galilee", which is more than 200 m BELOW sea level) and had French onion soup at a nice little restaurant there where we had eaten a couple of times before.

Then we drove back up to where the road to Arbel leaves the main highway (just above sea level) and headed out for Arbel. We got there at about 3:15, leaving us enough time to hike up to the top of the cliff and back to the parking lot before they closed, at 4:00. The 5 pictures accompanying this entry are ones that I took along this hike. In the first picture, you can see a view of the cliffs (looking northeast) as we approached them (where the sun is lighting the foreground and the cliffs but not the background). The second picture is a view with the sheer cliff that we went to the top of on the right. This is looking almost directly north, I think. The 3rd photo is a view ACROSS the gap (to the northwest). The fourth is a view of the Israeli Arab village at the foot of the cliff. Finally, the last picture is a view of the cliffs from BELOW, near the Kineret (looking southwest), which I took as we were driving home.

So, it was a lovely tiyul, the scenery was beautiful, and even the weather cooperated!

A visit to Gamla

Yesterday, I had some free time in the middle of the day, so we decided to take another trip to the Golan. We went to the Gamla Nature Reserve, which we had tried to go to once before, but it had been too late in the day, and it had been closed.

This national park is important for several reasons. First, there is the natural beauty. Three streams flow together in this area, and each has cut a canyon. The most impressive is Nakhal Gamla, a view of which you can see in the first photo. Several species of birds of prey and scavengers make their nests in the steep walls here. Perhaps the most important is an endangered species of vultures. Two thirds of the remaining individuals in the entire country live in this canyon! Up at the head of this canyon (probably near the clump of trees you can see) is the tallest waterfalls in Israel (which we didn't go over to see this time).

Also, although this is December and hardly the beginning of Spring yet, there were several flowers already blooming. The third picture is a close-up of a lovely blossom on a tree (probably a שקדיה "shkediah" almond tree).

In addition to its natural wonders, this park is also of great historical and archeological importance. In the second picture, you can see a bit of the ancient city of Gamla, which flourished from Hellenistic times until 67 C.E., when the Romans destroyed it. This city is known both from the Talmud and Josephus, who lived there at one time and who wrote about the battles. After its destruction by the Romans, it was never rebuilt, and its location was not known in modern times until it was discovered again in 1968! Its name, גמלא Gamla (which is probably Aramaic), by the way, comes from the Hebrew (and probably also Aramaic) word גמל gamal, which means "camel" (and from which we no doubt get our English word for this animal!), and this is due to the fact that the hill on which it sat looks somethings like the humps on a camel. If you look closely in this picture, you can see some of the ruins of a building in the city, some of the wall built to keep the Romans out, and, in the upper right, the northern end of the Kinneret (the "Sea of Galilee"), where the Jordan River flows into it.

A trip to the Golan

Today, one of my classes was canceled at the last minute. This is a "late cancellation", so I will still get paid. Anyway, this gave us some free time in the middle of the day, and it was a beautiful sunny day (after being rainy all day yesterday!). So, we decided to take a drive.

After crossing the Jordan River, we continued up into the Golan nearly all the way to Syria. Then we turned south on the main road that runs along the eastern side of the Golan. After a while, we came near a round mountain that we can see straight east from our house.

For some reason, the pictures are in the reverse order from what I intended. In the last picture, you can see a view of the mountain from our house (taken using the maximum zoom on my camera). In the next-to-last picture, you can see the mountain from up close.

Although there is a military on the top of the mountain, one can actually drive almost all the way to the top before getting to the entrance gate. In fact, before that, we drove around a crater, which is not so surprising since these peaks on the Golan are all volcanic. In the 3rd picture, you can see a view across the crater. On the other side is the gap through which we came on the road. Far in the distance, you can see Har Meron, the highest point in pre-1967 Israel, which is west of Tsfat.

I took the 2nd picture from the west side of the round mountain looking west towards Tsfat. It's actually rather hard to identify Tsfat, because Har Meron is taller and is directly behind Tsfat in this view.

After returning to the main road, we continued south. Eventually, we took a road to the west and down to the Kinneret (the so-called "Sea of Galilee"). On the way, we stopped at a little rest area where we stretched our legs a little and I took some more pictures. The first picture is one that I took from here. Tsfat is in the upper middle of this picture, Har Meron is on the left, and you can see a little bit of the Kinneret in the lower left. Isn't this a pretty view?

Relocating "Spot"

This is Spot, a male cat in our neighborhood who was mean to the other cats. He used to challenge a yellow male, whom we named "Ts'hovi", even though Ts'hovi didn't seem to want to fight at all. He also chased a beautiful and sweet female, whom we named "Blackie". In fact, all the other cats seemed nervous when Spot was around. Spot was friendly to people, but I kept chasing him away because of the way he treated the other cats. Both Blackie and Ts'hovi sometimes missed the morning feedings because they were afraid of Spot.

We called our vet, Roi, who is also the city vet. He said he would lend us a trap so that we could relocate Spot. On Thursday, I picked the trap up, and on Friday morning, David managed to catch Spot in it.

He remained in the trap (actually a cage) on our porch until I finished teaching for the day. Then we loaded him and the cage into the back seat of our car, drove down the hill, passed through Rosh Pinna, continued on across the Jordan River, drove up the other side of the narrow river valley, turned right on a road towards the south, and then turned left on a narrow side road. A little ways down this road, we stopped, took the cage out of the car, and let Spot out to run away across the empty field. He seemed glad to be out of the cage and away from us. I don't know what has happened or will happen to him, but he has at least a chance of making a new life for himself, and he will definitely not be returning to bother the other cats.

We felt a little sad for him, because, in many ways, he is a nice cat, at least to people. But we knew that he needed to be removed from this area.

Tour of Banias, a.k.a. Caesarea Philippi

Last Wednesday, I had some time in the middle of the day without classes, so we decided to do a little tiyul to Banias. This city was established in about 3 B.C.E. and was known then as "Caesarea Philippi". Those of you who have read the Christian Bible may recognize this name.

The city was set right by a vertical stone cliff with a shallow but tall cave near one end, and several temples were built at various time right next to the cliff. The patron saint of the city was Pan, the goat god, so there are temples to both him and his consort, Echo. Pan was also the god of sudden fear, from whose name we get the word "panic".

It's a perfect place for a city because there are plentiful springs of water there. We followed a trail alongside the main stream, called "The Banias", that flows from there. The trail led us under a Roman arched bridge, past a no-longer-used flour mill, and on to the palace of Herod Agrippa II. The palace was quite elaborate, including various passageways under its main level. We walked through one of these which passes right under the modern highway 99 (the highway leading from Kiryat Shmona to Har Khermon (Mount Hermon) and the northern Golan), which runs right through the ruins of the palace!

I have included 3 pictures from Banias. The first shows the Roman arched bridge. The second shows the highway through the palace (with a car on it). The third shows a view of the area next to the cliff, where the temples were located. In it, you can see a capitol of a Roman column and the opening of the cave.

My new blog in Hebrew!

This morning, I just set up a new blog here which will be totally in Hebrew. I haven't posted anything to it yet, but I plan to do so later today. Here's the URL for those of you who are interested:

http://harpatkaot-beretz-haniflaot.blogspot.com/

By the way, its title is הרפתקאות של ארלן בארץ הנפלאות harpatkaot shel Arlan b'eretz ha-niflaot ("Adventures of Arlan in Wonderland" or "Adventures of Arlan in the Land of Wonders").

Tel Megiddo

As it so happened, I didn't have any classes this morning. In fact, my first class for the day was at 3:00. So we decided to take advantage of the free time to go to Tel Megiddo, a national park that we had not been to before. When we had visited Tel Khatzor, we had read that these two together with another one constitute the 3 most important archeological sites in Israel. And Tel Megiddo certainly lives up to that.

Nearly 30 different cities were built on this site, ranging from about 4000 BCE (before the common era) to 400 BCE. It's strategically located along the main route between Egypt and Mesopotamia, and from it one can see the entire Jezreel Valley. It was apparently also considered a holy site for several millenia, since many temples were found there.

Perhaps the most dramatically interesting thing there, though, was the water works, which is similar in concept and design to that at Tel Khatzor and was probably built in roughly the same era (probably at around the time of King Ahab, of the northern kingdom of Israel). Both are solutions to a serious problem for a sizable city: how can the people be supplied with vital water when the city is under siege? In both cases, vertical shafts were cut deep down and connected to horizontal or sloping tunnels that led to hidden springs outside the city walls. In this way, water could be brought into the city without opening the gates and letting enemies in. But the engineering involved in creating these was quite phenomenal. They had no modern digging or blasting equipment, and the tunnels go through rock and are tall enough for me to walk through without stooping! And they are deep in the ground: 183 steps down (I'm trusting the brochure and the signs on this one; I lost count). Quite impressive!

Hebrew-English-Italian

The other day, while I was waiting for prescriptions to be filled at the pharmacy, I looked around me for interesting things to read, as I usually do. Here's one that I found. It's a detail from a small box (well, actually there were quite a few of them) on the counter. Before I even noticed the Roman letters (well, it's not exactly English, is it?), I was trying to decipher the Hebrew. First, there's גרון garon, which I knew meant "throat" (not a surprising word to see on a medicine package!). But I didn't recognize אק ache until I peaked at the words below. Finally, of course, there's פורטה forte, which is simply a transliteration of the well-known Italian word, "forte", which means "strong". So, although the literal meaning seems a little garbled (strong throat ache?!?), the bigger implication is, I guess, clear: this is strong medicine for your sore throat. I still didn't buy any! :-)

Reflections on my 56th year

Yesterday was my birthday, so I think I'll take this opportunity to reflect a little on my 56th year, the one I just completed.

It was generally a pretty good year. I enjoyed my teaching and my students, and we got to take several interesting little trips around the North here. We made some new friends, and we got closer to some ones we had only known a little before.

Last winter, David was in the hospital at Rambam Medical Center, in Haifa, and that was probably the closest I have come to losing him in the 13 years that we've been together. We had even gotten to the point of beginning to say "good-bye" to each other. But, thank goodness, he is doing SO much better now!

Towards the end of the year, I realized something interesting that I'm glad I did NOT think about last winter. Both my father AND my mother lost a spouse during the year that they were 55. My dad was 55 at the time that his first wife, Mary, was killed in the tragic car accident (some of you may remember my grandfather's account of that, which I posted here a while back). Nearly 23 years later (when I was 20 years old), my father himself died. He was 78, but my mom was 55. So, I'm glad that history did NOT repeat itself for me during this past year!

Voting for mayor and city council

So, yesterday was the big day for local elections here in Israel. I was teaching all morning, so we planned to go to vote in the afternoon. Our builder, Zion, had called me to make sure that we would vote (for his party, of course!). I called him back when I was done teaching to get directions to the polls. Then we set out with our voter cards. There was a lot of traffic near the area, so I turned down another street and parked a very short distance away. Then we set out on foot, but clearly the directions were not complete. So I called Zion and told him where we were. He came over there in his car to take us to the right place. Or so he thought, at least! It was the same place where we had voted in the national election in the Spring of 2006, but it turned out NOT to be the right place for us for this election, although it WAS a polling place.

At this point, we just decided that the local elections were simply not THAT important and started to walk back to our car. But a young man from Zion's party apparently overheard us talking and understood enough to realize what we were doing. So, after verifying that we really were planning to vote for צפת 1 Tsfat 1 (Zion's party -- he's 2nd on their list of candidates, I think) and for עודד המאירי Oded HaMeiri for mayor (David was carrying their campaign booklet to make sure that he would vote correctly), he offered to lead us to our polling place, which was not far away. The fact that he was very easy on the eyes didn't hurt any, either! ;-)

Here's how the voting works: only one of us at a time was allowed in the room (which was a school library, I think). The election board consisted of maybe half a dozen or so young women. They checked our voter cards and our תאודות זהות t'udot zehut (national ID cards) and handed us 2 envelopes, a white one and a yellow one. Then we went to the voting booth, where we selected a white piece of paper for the party we wanted to vote for and put it in the white envelope. Similarly, we selected a yellow piece of paper for our mayoral choice and put it in the yellow envelope. After sealing the envelopes, we brought them out and put them in the ballot box in front of the election people.

As we walked back to our car (which was parked quite close, actually!), we both commented on how good it felt to have voted, even though I must admit that we're really not too clear on the issues in this election.

Later, in the evening, when we went to the supermarket, we passed 2 fairly large rallies and thousands of posters for various mayoral and city council candidates. These elections happen every 5 years, and it seems to us that Israelis make a bigger deal of these than of the national elections!

Paving our road (finally!)

Today, they finally got around to actually paving our road, now that we've been here nearly 3 years! We were pretty sure that it would be happening soon, since they hauled in a lot of gravel last week and rolled it all down flat and nice. But we still hardly dared to hope, since they had, after all, put in the sidewalks and curbs way back last December! Anyway, the road is finally paved now, although I think they still have some more work to do, including finishing some of the other roads nearby.

They started this morning before we left on a little trip to Har Khermon. When we came back, we parked the car some distance away and walked in, since we knew they would still be paving. When we got back to our house, we were a little dismayed to see that they were using OUR garden hose to refill the water tank on one of their machines. Then they started filling another one! I went out and told them, in Hebrew, that that was MY water. The man said that they had no other source of water and the it wouldn't be a lot, so I (mistakenly) relented. However, when the hose was still filling the tank some 20 minutes or so later, David simply went out, turned off the water, and prepared to disconnect the hose from the faucet. When they confronted him, he told them, in English, that it was OUR water and to get off the property. And they did! Later, though, they tried to convince us to let them use the water, and offered to pay us 10 shekels (about $3!) for it. I'm sure that they had already used water costing considerably more than that! We did NOT relent this time!

Elections!

If you read the title, you're probably thinking that I'm going to write about the elections LAST Tuesday in the U.S., but I'm not!

NEXT Tuesday, we have elections here in Israel (all over the country, I believe) for local officials: mayor and city council members. Now this might seem like pretty small potatoes, but we have had huge billboards and many, MANY posters all of town now for MONTHS! Nearly alway, there is the face (usually NOT smiling) of a mayoral candidate or, somewhat more recently, a candidate for city council. There is also generally some kind of slogan. For example, יש תיקווה לצפת yesh tikvah liTsfat "There's hope for Tsfat", or צדק חברתי tzedek chevrati "social justice", or בשביל התושבים bishvil ha-toshavim "For the residents" (the latter being the incumbent mayor's slogan).

In recent days, the number of posters has intensified, naturally. And one can hardly park one's car in any parking lot in town (such as at any market or at the pharmacy) without getting campaign literature on the windshield. People are also handing out materials at the markets, along the streets, and at the Wednesday shuk. It's hard to believe that a mayoral race or a city council race could generate so much campaigning!

As I understand it, we vote directly for the mayor, but for the city council it's like the elections for the Knesset (the national parliament), where we vote for the party we want, and the parties are apportioned seats on the council according to the percentage of votes they get. Anyway, we plan to vote for the only mayoral candidate that I've actually met personally and for his party list, as well. The first person on that list is the builder of our house. On their brochure, which I have in front of me, it says (among other things): עדיין יש עתיד adayn yesh atid "There is still a future" (who knew?!), עיר בשקיעה או עיר בתנופה? ir bishki'a o ir bitnuvah? "A city on the decline or a city with momentum?", and אתה המחליט! atah ha-makhlit! "You (masculine singular!) are the one who decides!".

Vignettes from the pharmacy waiting line

This evening, I went to the pharmacy to pick up a few prescriptions. Here are a few vignettes from my time standing in line:

Despite the take-a-number system that they have implemented, there is always someone who tries to argue why he or she should be served in spite of having neglected to take a number! This provokes a somewhat heated argument every time, but it always cools down before long.

Someone mentioned Obama's big win in the U.S., and a small political discussion ensued (all in Hebrew, of course!). Everyone seemed surprised when I told them that I had voted(also in Hebrew, although I later realized that I had said בחרתי bakharti, "I chose", instead of הצבעתי hitzba'ti, "I voted" -- the word בחירות b'khirot, "elections", does, however come from the same root as the verb "to choose"), since Israeli citizens who live abroad (or even who happen to be traveling abroad on election day!) cannot vote!

A man wearing a kippah (so he must be Jewish) went up and warmly embraced the head pharmacist, an Arab (most the pharmacists in our local pharmacy are Arabs), with kisses on both sides. Would that "Peace" could actually be that easy!

The same head pharmacist a little later was patiently serving a couple of Ethiopian women, one with a baby wrapped onto her back. He carefully explained to them how to take the medicines correctly. I think they were able to get the Hebrew well enough to understand what he had told them, too!

Another Ethiopian woman, also with a baby wrapped on her back, was still waiting in line while I was being served (by another Arab pharmacist). Her baby began to cry a bit, but when I looked at him and made faces, it distracted him, and he quit crying. I might add here that, although I don't think this woman even noticed much what I was doing, if women do notice that one is paying attention to their children here, they do NOT become paranoid and wonder if the person is some kind of weirdo. Instead, they smile and seem genuinely happy that someone cares about their children!

A full Sunday

We had a busy day today. As I mentioned in my previous post, we contacted ביטוח לאומי Bituach L'umi (Israel's equivalent of U.S. Social Security) to get some necessary documents.

After that, we called our friend, Golan, about a couple of baby snakes that we have who have been refusing to eat. Then we took them over to him to see if he can get them to eat.

Today, we had the first real rain that we've had since Spring. It first started after quite a bit of thundering while we were in town. Then it let up for a while, but, just as we were driving out the driveway to take the baby snakes to Golan, it began raining again in earnest. All the way down the hill, it continued to rain quite hard. But by the time we got to Meron (about 5 or 6 miles away), it began to let up, and after Gush Khalav it quit entirely. Even though I really don't like rain, I'm glad to see this because we really need the water. Israel is approaching a pretty serious water crisis, the Kinneret is getting dangerously low, and we really need to get a lot of precipitation this year, including snow on the Golan and, especially, Har Khermon.

After leaving Golan's place (at Kibbutz Metsuba, near Shlomi and not far from Nahariya), we drove over to Nahariya and ate at Greg's. David had fettucini and I had yam ravioli, both of them with Alfredo sauce. It was delicious!

A friend of ours from synagogue, Rose, who is in her mid-80s, is in the hospital because she fell and broke her pelvis. So, while we were in the area, we went to the hospital to visit her. She was glad to see us, and we were very happy to see how well she is doing. She is insisting on getting physical therapy and is determined to get back to walking again. We had a delightful conversation with her and were very pleased with her positive and sparkling attitude.

After leaving there, we drove to Karmiel to check on the cost of renting musical instruments from a store there. Basically, the answer is that it's really too expensive, but it's good to know, anyway.

Finally, we drove home, staying in the car for a few minutes after backing it into the driveway to watch the lightning to the north of us. Here at home, though, it was clear, and we could see stars. More rain is expected over the next 2 or 3 days, though, accompanied by thunder storms and high winds.

ביטוח לאומי Bituach L'umi ("National Insurance")

A couple of stories today about ביטוח לאומי Bituach L'umi ("National Insurance"). First of all, this is basically Israel's equivalent to Social Security in the States. Anyway, we should be able to get a discount from the city on our ארנונה arnona (something like property tax, except that it's a tax on residents which renters pay rather than the owner of the property, unless the owner lives there) because David is on נכות n'chut (disability). However, we need documents from ביטוח לאומי Bituach L'umi certifying that David really is on disability and also that he does not work.

Molly, the sister of our קבלן kablan (building contractor) who works in his office and who had gone with us to the city office previously to help us, had listed the things that we needed, so we called her to help us with ביטוח לאומי Bituach L'umi. However, when we got to the local office, we found that there was a שביתה shvita (strike), and the office was closed. I don't know if it was only the local office or more widespread. At any rate, this seemed a little odd to me. I think that, in the States, if workers in a major government office went on strike, the dispute would have been in the news for weeks in advance and it would have been quite controversial. But here, I had read nothing about it. Did someone have a dispute with their boss about coffee breaks???

I just figured that we'd have to try another day, but Molly, being Israeli, was more persistent. She called them for us on the phone, and, in the end, was able to get them to mail us the necessary documents! She put it on the speaker phone and, of course, they had music while we were waiting for a human to answer. But here was the other interesting thing: they had a song specially composed and sung for THEM! The words were ביטוח לאומי הביטחון שלי Bituach L'umi ha-bitachon sheli ("National Insurance in my security"). In Hebrew, though, it's a bit more catchy, since the root for the word ביטוח bituach (insurance) is the same as for the word ביטחון bitachon (security). Anyway, can you imagine calling Social Security and getting a song about them, especially such a self-congratulatory one! Amazing!

Meeting a חלוץ khalutz (pioneer)

Last evening, before the beginning of the service, T'khia, the president of the congregation, came up to us and asked us if we could take a man home afterwards who needed a ride, since he lives near Cynthia, whom we were already taking home. Of course we agreed, and she introduced us to him. His name is Meir. We had seen him many times at services, and he usually reads the תפילה לשלום tfilah l'shalom (prayer for peace) which comes after the עמידה amidah (central prayer of the service, during which we stand -- it actually means "standing"). We had not met Meir before, however. It turns out that he doesn't speak English. However, between my Hebrew and Cynthia's and David's Yiddish, we were able to communicate with him. We learned that he made aliyah (moved here) from Germany in 1938! He used to live at Kibbutz Metzuba, where our friend Golan has his snakes. We must be sure to talk to Meir more, since he is a true חלוץ khalutz (pioneer), having immigrated 10 years before the founding of the State and having lived here now for 70 years!

Tiyul to the Hills of Gilboa

Today is Hoshanah Rabah/Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah (3 holidays all in one, and it also marks the end of Succot!). After a nice meal with our neighbors, Mordechi and Avigail, in their sukkah, we decided to hop into the car and drive once more to the Hills of Gilboa, which are located right next to Shomron (the northern part of the misnamed "West Bank"). I have been there twice before and David once, but it was too hot those times for hiking. Today, we had perfect hiking weather -- not too hot, with a nice cool breeze.

First, we hiked a 300-meter loop (about a tenth of a mile) called האירוסים Ha-Irusim ("The Irises"). We must be sure to return there in late March or early April, when there will be many flowers, including irises, blooming.

After that, we drove a very short distance further along the road and parked in the parking lot for הר ברקן Har Barkan ("Mount Barqan"). On the top, a short walk from the parking lot, is a look-out tower which is primarily for use by the foresters. But it was open, so I walked up the 65 steps and took several pictures from the top. Actually, the view from the ground is pretty good, too, but I'm an acromaniac, so a tower (or just about any other high place) is nearly irresistible for me! :-) David, on the other hand, waited patiently for me at the bottom of the tower.

Anyway, I'm including a couple of pictures here that I took from up there. The first is the view across to the next ridge, where you can see a Muslim village (with at least 2 minarets), which I'm sure is the other side of the "Green Line" (the 1949 armistice line that, at that time, separated Israel from Jordan). In the valley, you can see something that looks like a road but is almost certainly the barrier, a temporary fence/wall built to prevent terrorists from infiltrating and killing random civilians.

The second picture is also taken from the tower. In it, you can see Beit She'an (a modern Israeli city) in the Jordan River Valley. On the horizon are hills on the other side of the Jordan River, which are in Jordan. By the way, there is a very interesting national park in Beit She'an where a significant part of an ancient Roman city (one of the 10 making up the "Decapolis") has been unearthed, including a large amphitheater and two bathhouses. On the nearby tel, there are also ruins from a much earlier time: an Egyptian outpost from Canaanite times!

One more note: today was a somewhat clear day, but on a really very clear day it would probably be possible to see Tsfat from Har Barkan!

Outdoor cats

As I think I've mentioned before, we've been adopted by 4 outdoor cats. Every morning, we feed them on the front porch near our front door. We've named them Beatrix, MiniMe (Beatrix's growing kitten who looks almost identical to her), Blackie, and Ts'hovi (from the Hebrew word צהוב tsahov, which means "yellow" -- of course, he's a yellow cat!). A few days ago, we went out for a walk, taking the camera with us. Three of the four (all except Ts'hovi) came out to great us, as we left and when we returned. I got some very cute pictures of Blackie and MiniMe. I've inserted 4 of them here: Blackie, MiniMe, Blackie and MiniMe together near our front door, and David and Blackie (she's sitting on the wall and David is standing on the sidewalk right in from of our house, next to the driveway).

A post from my grandfather

This post will be different from the others. This is a piece written more than half a century ago by my grandfather (my mother's father), Claude E. Eldridge. But, first a little background. A very important part of my family's history is something that we generally refer to as "The Accident". This is Grandpa's account of this seminal event, written only months after it happened. Actually, I don't know precisely when, because it includes no date, but I can tell from the content that it couldn't have been much more time than that afterwards. My grandfather was a retired minister of the Seventh-day Adventist church, so some of his religious ideas were different from mine, of course. Nevertheless, I think you'll find this quite a moving story. I typed the entire piece in exactly as I found it (typed, perhaps by someone else for grandpa) except for 2 or 3 very minor spelling and punctuation corrections. In a few places, I have added some comments of my own, always enclosed in square brackets, like this: [ ]. These are only to fill in additional background information, such as how the people were related to me; what happened to some of them in later years; and some of my own connections to some of the places, people, institutions mentioned. So, here it is:

The Tragedy
[an account by Claude E. Eldridge, my mother's father]

Early in April, Lois Ruth [my mother], who was training as a nurse in Loma Linda (Calif.) Sanitarium [where I was later born], was taken very sick [with her second bout of tuberculosis], and was confined to her bed about three weeks. Our older daughter, Florence (Mrs. Lloyd R. Wilkins), lived about 15 miles distant, in Arlington, Calif., close to La Sierra College [my undergraduate alma mater, which, when I attended was known as the La Sierra Campus of Loma Linda University but is now known as La Sierra University], where she was teaching some forenoon classes in Physiology. On the afternoon shift she worked in the Loma Linda Sanitarium, where she had recently been appointed head nurse over a department.

Because Lloyd had a new Kaiser car, Florence planned to bring Lois Ruth (about 350 miles) to Phoenix as soon as she became able to be moved. Friday, April 28 [1950], about 8 a.m., they started, and we were expecting them to arrive here about 4 p.m. But they never arrived.

Around 5:30 p.m. our phone rang, and the operator said, "Indio is calling Claude Eldridge." Instantly I sensed trouble, knowing that Indio was en route.

"Hello, Dad," came Lloyd's voice. "Get seated. There's been an accident." I was prepared for that, but not for what followed.

"Lois Ruth is all right," said Lloyd. "Her legs are injured, but they'll be all right in a few months." That was very bad news, but I never dreamed of what was coming.

"There were four in the car," said Lloyd. "Flossie [Florence's nickname], Lois Ruth, Mrs. Keyes, and Mrs. Wareham [my father's first wife, Mary]. Lois Ruth and Mrs. Keyes are here in the hospital in Indio. I am speaking from the hospital."

"Where are the others?" I asked.

"In the mortuary," he replied. For a split second I didn't grasp it. Then it struck me like a shot.

"In the MORTUARY?!" I almost screamed.

"Yes," replied Lloyd, "They're dead -- Flossie is dead!" Then I DID scream.

"Shall we have the services in Arlington or Loma Linda?" asked Lloyd. "What do you think?"

"I can't think," I managed to gasp.

"Well, call me again in an hour here at the Indio hospital after you have had time to think things over," he said, giving me the phone number.

Meanwhile my wife had been standing there, listening to my end of the conversation, but knowing very little of what it was all about. I was literally overwhelmed and fell on the floor, as Abbie (Mrs. Eldridge) [my mother's mother] seized the receiver, soon getting all the details. But my outcries were so loud that she had to tell me to keep quiet so she could hear Lloyd. Florence and Mrs. Wareham were both dead, and the others, terribly injured and then in the Indio hospital, were about to be transferred immediately to Loma Linda, about 75 miles.

We planned to go immediately. Abbie phoned to Delight Clapp [a distant cousin] to ask her to look after Norma and Lawrence, Paul's children [Paul is my mother's brother], who live with us. Delight and Pauline Hopkins, both teachers at the Academy [Arizona Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist high school in Phoenix at that time, which later moved and was re-named Thunderbird Academy] and both special friends of Lois Ruth, were soon at the house, and it was decided that Delight would take care of the two children. Then the teachers both left.

We were phoning about trains (our car was not dependable) when Delight and Pauline returned, bringing with them Lucille Haskins, another teacher from the Academy and an old Atlantic Union College [my mother's undergraduate alma mater] friend of Florence's. They had a new plan. Lucille would take care of the children, and Delight and Pauline would take the new Chevrolet car belonging to the principal of the Academy, George Smith, and drive us over to Loma Linda at once! The offer was spontaneous. We never dreamed of such a thing. It was marvelous how helpful friends were.

We were soon packed and on our way. The two teachers had both worked hard all that day. but they alternated and drove all night. At Indio we stopped at the hospital and learned that the injured had left for Loma Linda about suppertime. It was around 3 a.m. We also went to the mortuary and asked to see Florence, but they persuaded us not to. They assured us that her face was not too badly mutilated.

Inquiring of the police we saw on the street in a prowl car, we learned about where the crash had occurred, and as we drove along we came to the overturned tank trailer on the right side of the road, about eleven miles west of Indio.

It was just about 6 a.m. Sabbath morning when we arrived at the Loma Linda Sanitarium. Lois Ruth looked ghastly. We feared she would not last long. She had been in shock, and soon went into another shock. They had given her plasma at Indio, and they gave her four transfusions in a few days. For eight days she ate practically nothing but vomited a lot. Her sufferings were unspeakable. Both femurs were fractured. The right side was a clean break, but the left was badly shattered -- a compound fracture. For thirteen days we lingered around, wondering for a time if there might not have to be another funeral. Most of those days we stayed with Mrs. R. L. Ward [her husband, Dr. Ward, was our family doctor in subsequent years when I was a child] and family, in Redlands. (It was that family near whom we had lived in Buckeye for about 18 months when we first came to Arizona.) Redlands is about five mile from Loma Linda, and Sister Ward ["Sister" is an honorific that used to be used frequently to refer to Adventist women; "Brother" was similarly used for men] had to drive her two children every day over to the Loma Linda Academy [where I later attended from 1st through 12th grades], so it made it handy for us. We can never forget the kindness of the Wards.

Nine days after the accident, Lois Ruth was encased in a cast which reached from her armpits to her toes. Later the bones slipped out of place in her left leg, and they had to open the cast and the flesh and put a plate on the left femur. She said that operation caused her the worst suffering of all. Then the bones in the right leg slipped, and they decided to discard that cast, so often disturbed, and put her into another. Six times she had to go to that operating room. Dr. Vernon Nickel, orthopedic specialist of Los Angeles, did the work.

She is supposed to stay in this last cast for three months; and many more months may elapse before she will be able to begin to start to try to learn to walk again, if she ever does [She did walk again, and quite well, but not until nearly a year after the accident, and, for the rest of her long life, she could never bend either knee more than about 90 degrees]. Only time can tell. Friends tell us that she must have been spared to do some great work for God. But for several days, she hardly wanted to recover. "Why couldn't it have been me to have died?" she said. Because the trip was started all in her behalf, she has felt to blame herself for it all. And then it was she who had invited Mrs. Wareham to go, and Mrs. Wareham was killed. But she has finally gotten hold of herself, and is strong in faith and trust in God. Mrs. Wareham, about sixty, was a special friend, and the mother of Bethel Wareham [my half sister, who was 30 years older than I], a former student of Lois Ruth's at Canadian Missionary College [located in Lacombe, Alberta, Canada, and now known as Canadian University College]. Bethel is now a missionary nurse in the Juliaca clinic in Peru, the very place where our Florence used to nurse in South America. Mrs. Wareham lived at Loma Linda, where she used to be a nurse, and where her husband [my father] is now a male nurse.

No one can account for the accident. Florence had been driving twenty years, and never had an accident before. She had been driving every day, and all over the roads in that part of the state, and had been over that very road only a few weeks before, when, early in March she and all her family came over to Phoenix for a short visit with us.

Some have thought that the left front tire blew out, causing her to lose control of the car. It has been suggested that the tie-rod might have come apart. And that very day there was a terrific wind, tending to press her car towards the wrong side of the road. But the Kaiser was so terribly demolished that it was impossible to tell just what had taken place. The crash occurred at about 10:45 a.m., Friday April 28, on a straight and almost level stretch of road, right out in the desert. It was not a head-on collision. The Kaiser, traveling east, was meeting the truck and trailer, traveling west. But according to the driver of the truck, the Kaiser suddenly swerved and smashed into the rear wheels of the truck, stripping all those eight rear wheels clean off the chassis, and overturning the trailer tank. It was an oil truck and trailer outfit. The driver of the truck was unhurt; but the Kaiser on the left front end was smashed together like an accordian.

Mrs. Wareham was sitting next to Florence, and Mrs. Keyes was on the extreme right end of the front seat. Lois Ruth was lying down on the back seat, with her head to the right side of the car. She and Mrs. Keyes were thrown clear out of the car onto the pavement. The others were apparently killed instantly. Just before leaving the Sanitarium that morning, Lois Ruth was lying with her head to the left side of the car, but she reversed her position before they started. Had she not done so, it is probable that her head would have received the impact that fractured her legs, and she would have been killed.

Mrs. Wareham was sixty years of age, but Mrs. Keyes is very much younger, and a special friend of Florence's. The two women were going for a nice trip. Mrs. Keyes was not so seriously hurt, and is now up and around and making good progress towards recovery.

Florence's funeral was conducted by Pastor F. L. Abbott of the La Sierra College church at 10:00 a.m. Wednesday May 3. It was a large funeral. One of our friends said he counted over nine hundred persons who filed past the casket at the close of the service. Among them were the members of the faculty of the college, several ordained ministers and hundreds of children and young people. Marjorie Schweder, assistant superintendent of nurses at the White Memorial Hospital of Los Angeles, and Myra Kite of Tacoma Washington, were also there, both girls being long time friends of Florence and our family. Many magnificent floral tributes represented many groups and individuals, among them a huge broken wheel, made of flowers, from the New England Sanitarium where Florence trained.

Lloyd's sister, Viola (Mrs. Milton Walker) who sang at Florence's wedding in Worcester, Mass., church, rendered two solos, "Sometime We'll Understand," and "Beyond the Sunset." They were beautiful. Every word was clearly distinct; and those who know "Vi" will know the quality of her music. She was a stranger to practically that whole congregation, which includes many talented musicians; but she held them almost breathless with her artistry. How could she do it? Well, she sang from her heart; for she had long known and loved Florence, even before she became her sister-in-law, and the Lord certainly helped her at that time.

The Walkers live in Mountain View, Calif., where Milton is machinist at the Pacific Press [a Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) publishing company which has since moved to Idaho]. Viola has been helping Lloyd with his three children--Carol, 8 1/2, David, 6 1/2, and Cherie, 3 1/2. Lloyd plans to sell out at Arlington and move to Mountain View close to his sister, Viola, who will help him with those motherless children.

After returning to Phoenix, Abbie (Mrs. Eldridge) had to go to bed for more than two weeks. She is still not really well. It has been a devastating experience for us both, and we are still feeling it deeply, especially at times. But we do trust God. We love Him, and believe Romans 8:28 ["We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose." RSV]. We recall Job's loss of ten children at one stroke, and we, too, can say, "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

Florence was in good health, talented, trained and experienced. At 38, she had many years' expectancy for usefulness, as an asset to the cause [the SDA Church] as well as to her family. We cannot help wondering, "Why?" But we recall that the apostle James, one of the three special apostles, shortly after receiving the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, when the young church needed him so much, was killed with the sword of Herod (Acts 12:2) "Why?"

And there was John the Baptist, to whom Jesus bore such a great testimonial, (Matt. 11:11) beheaded to satisfy the peeve of an adulterous woman. But in the chapter in "DESIRE OF AGES" [a book written by Ellen G. White, one of the founders of the SDA Church] dealing with that story, we read on page 225, "God never leads His children otherwise than they would choose to be led, if they could see the end from the beginning, and discern the glory of the purpose they are fulfilling as co-workers with Him." We must believe this.

We believe Florence was ready. We found her over-night case, containing a few things she needed for two nights away from home. There on top of her garments was her Bible. She knew that we have many Bibles around our house, but she didn't want to be without her very own copy of God's holy word, even for two nights.

Verily, the second coming of Jesus and the resurrection of the just are something to look forward to. No wonder the apostle called it "the blessed hope!" May God help us all to be ready--ready without an instant's warning, always!

Tsfat juxtapositions

This post is about interesting things I have seen and heard recently here in צפת Tsfat, one of Israel's 4 holy cities, which correspond to the 4 elements recognized by the ancients (Tsfat corresponds to Air because of its elevation; the others are ירושלים Jerusalem, connected to Fire because of the temple sacrifices; חברון Hebron, associated with Earth because of the graves of the patriarchs and matriarchs there; and טבריה Tiberias, linked with Water because of its location next to הכנרת the Kinneret, also known as "The Sea of Galilee").

The other day, I had gone to the bank to deposit some money. When I came out, I saw a sign that I hadn't noticed before (although it's likely that it's been there for some time). It said, in English, "Body Piercing Studio". I think perhaps I've seen some of their artistry around town, all on people under 25 (and some under 18, I'm sure). Anyway, I thought it was an interesting sign to see on רחוב ירושלים Jerusalem Street, which is the main road in "downtown" Tsfat.

Today, we went into town again on a couple of errands. Since we were heading for the pet store, we took the shortest route, which led us right through Tsfat's only real mall (yes, there is another one, but it's virtually empty). Anyway, this mall is so small that the whole thing would probably fit inside some large Gap stores in the States. It does have "elevator music" playing over the speakers, however, like a proper mall. The song that was playing caught my ear, so I listened a little more closely. Sure enough, it was אבינו מלכנו Avinu Malkenu, one of my favorites, the well-known High Holiday song. In this case though, it was being belted out by a female singer with full instrumental accompaniment in a pop music style perhaps somewhat like Mariah Carey!

At this time of year (between ראש השנה Rosh HaShana and יום כיפור Yom Kippur), one can hear people all over town greeting each other with גמר חתימה טובה Gmar khatima tova ("May you finish with a good sealing!"). Of course, this is a religious phrase referring to the final heavenly outcome at the end of the High Holidays, but even very secular people often give this greeting.

A Sunday at Rambam

On Shabbat, David was really feeling quite awful. He ached all over and had hardly any energy. Also, his blood sugars were running unusually high. At some point, he remembered that he had a card in his wallet that comes in every package of one of his HIV medicines, Kivexa. When we took it out, it seemed possible that his symptoms could be related to this drug. So, on Sunday morning he called Dr. Shachar, his HIV doctor at Rambam Medical Center, in Haifa. Then we drove down there to get the problem checked out.

Dr. Shachar took blood for a number of tests. David's veins are always difficult to find and get into, and, before they could complete getting all the blood they needed, David got nauseated and vomited all over. It was quite a surprise to all of us, including David!

Anyway, they sent some of the samples for immediate analysis to the lab, and the results that came back (we waited in the doctor's office) showed that he had lactic acidosis. His blood pH was lower than the normal range, and the amount of lactate in the blood was above the normal range. So, Dr. Shachar decided to send David to the ER (in Hebrew it's חדר מיון which means literally "sorting room") so that these levels could be tested a little later.

Because of some construction that is going on at Rambam, the ER (or at least the part of it, internal medicine, that he was sent to) is in the basement and the room was really crowded. They managed to find a place for his bed near an emergency exit (well, at least that's what the sign said, but that didn't keep all manner of traffic from going in and out that way while he was there!). During the course of the afternoon and evening, they often had beds in the aisle between where they were supposed to be, and, even along the walls, the beds were packed in more than they were designed to be.

The staff there were really good, though. His main nurse, who, I'm pretty sure was native Israeli, asked him right off about what language he preferred to speak in (English, in case you were wondering!) and then proceeded to talk with us fluently. She could even joke with us in English! And she was a good nurse, too. She managed to get a good IV in so that they could take any blood samples that they needed and so that they could get a liter of IV fluid into him.

Early in our stay there (which lasted from sometime in the mid-afternoon until after 10:30 at night!), there was some kind of confrontation with the husband of a woman patient. They made him leave the room, but he began to argue and started to fight with the Ethiopian security man. The security guy was obviously well-trained and was able to control him quite well until reinforcements (at least 3 more security guys) could get there. But the man was still yelling in the hall right outside, and, before long, his wife (the patient) was also hysterical! Anyway, the whole situation eventually calmed down, and the man stayed there peacefully with his wife until she was released, a little while before we left.

As is true in most places, I think, the ER has an interesting cross-section of the local population. And here in Israel, especially in Haifa, it can be quite interesting, indeed! The 2nd most common language heard was certainly Russian (unless it was actually FIRST, before Hebrew!). I certainly heard quite a bit of Arabic as well, though, including doctors and nurses. Although most doctors here seem to be pretty good in English, the one assigned to David didn't speak much English at all. I was able to communicate well enough with her in Hebrew, though, and she was definitely a good doctor.

Eventually, David was sent for the obligatory visit to צילום (imaging). It must be some kind of a policy, because ALL ER patients are sent at one point or another to x-ray or ultrasound. In this case, we went to both, first to אולטרהסאונד ultrasound and then to צילום רנטגן x-ray. When we got back to the ER, his original place, of course, was taken, and his bed had to be one of the ones in the aisle for some time, until a place opened up. Even then, his bed was right against that of an older man, who was mostly sleeping.

Across the aisle from us, a bit of drama unfolded. A seriously overweight young man (maybe 30-something) was wheeled in. He seemed to be in quite a bit of pain, but the source didn't seem too clear. What WAS clear was that the pain increased significantly whenever a nurse or doctor was around. On the other hand, when it was just his family, he could even laugh and joke (in Arabic). I think, though, that he got the medicine that he wanted, and then they sent him on his way.

Next to us (on the opposite side from the afore-mentioned older man), there was an older Arabic woman (with her head covered except for her face) who had a serious problem with swelling in her ankles. Her son, who was probably 40-something, hung around most of the time, too. When they left, a little before we did, they both wished שנה טובה (a good year) and חג שמח (happy holiday) to the staff and to us, in Hebrew, of course. This is a little like Jews wishing people "Merry Christmas" in December in the States. :-)

So, yes, David WAS released from the ER, since the acidity of his blood had reversed and was even little ABOVE the normal range. His lactate level was still a little high, though.

When we got home, he took the problematic medicine (which he had skipped Saturday night), and, sure enough, today he felt achy and very tired, almost like on Shabbat. I called Dr. Shachar again, and they will now have to find a different medicine to replace this one, which, as I have now read, is known to cause lactic acidosis in some patients.

Tel Khatzor

Today, we decided to visit a national park near us (in fact, it's probably the nearest to us of any national park) called Tel Khatzor. We had never been there before, although we had, of course, driven by many times. It's located just down the hill, a little north of Rosh Pinna and Khatzor HaGlilit (the modern-day city).

In the Canaanite Period, Khatzor was the largest and most important city in this entire country, with about 15,000 inhabitants. The city and one of its kings are mentioned in the Tanach (the Bible), and it is also mentioned in documents from Mesopotamia and from Egypt. According to the Tanach, the Israelites conquered and destroyed Khatzor by fire, and, indeed, archeologists have found the the city was destroyed around that time by a major catastrophic fire.

Later, part of the city was re-built, by Solomon, according to the Tanach. We also saw some of this part, including the foundations of the main gate of the city. Later still, King Ahab, of the northern kingdom of Israel (whose wife was the infamous Jezebel) enlarged the city considerably. He also dug a huge pit within the city walls with a tunnel connecting it to the ground water. This was so that the people in the city would have access to water even during a siege, a very important factor in such a situation. The original steps around the side of the pit are still visible, but a pair of spiral staircases has been constructed so the modern visitors (including yours truly) can go down and see the bottom of the pit and the tunnel to the water source (which was dry today). I'm attaching 3 pictures of this amazing piece of ancient engineering (not to mention the cool modern spiral staircases!), which, according to the signs there, is similar to several others found in this country by archeologists. Enjoy!