Jogging Jerusalem

I try to jog when we are at Nasuli but it's nice and flat there. I've been trying to do a 20-40 minute jog here in Jerusalem most days, but it sure uses muscles differently running up and down hills!

It's not the easiest place to jog, because most of the footpaths/sidewalks have cars parked on them. I've discovered that some of the plants/trees are quite prickly if you try to squeeze between the cars and fences. But it's also difficult running on the road, because the cars parked on each side have two wheels on the road, so they streets are already narrow and I don't want to get hit by a passing car on my last couple of days here.

I guess like most places, cars were once fairly rare, then every family got one, and now every family has two or three. Most houses in this suburb don't have parking on their property, although some have built parking areas into the rock (if their house is above the road) or on raised platforms (if their house is below the road). Indeed, the next building project where I'm staying is to do exactly that: build a garage on a platform and change the main house entrance into the second floor, rather than using the front door of the original one-level house on the ground.

However, one place that is nice to jog is in the many back alleys. Some of these are just walkways; some are wide enough to squeeze a car into. But there's no traffic to worry about, and the trees and walls of the houses on the high side provide shade.

An interesting Shabbat in Yerushalayim

Or in English: "An interesting Sabbath day in Jerusalem".

Israelis use greetings similar to us like "Good morning" (although they don't have a simple word for afternoon, so the afternoon greeting is quite long). You can also use "Shalom" (roughly "peace") as a greeting at any time of the day, or answering the phone, etc. However, from Friday afternoon onwards, you use the special Sabbath greeting "Shabbat shalom".

Shops start closing down by 3pm on Friday afternoon, and the Sabbath officially begins at sunset. A religious community in the next neighbourhood sing songs (amplified) just before sunset and then blow the shofar (ram's horn) so we heard that from the house. Public buses stop on the Sabbath, but you can still get taxis -- although they might ask a higher price since they know you have less choices for travel.


The family I am staying with would not call themselves very religious. However, they do have a special meal together on Friday evenings -- often the only meal they have together in the week. Donning a yarmulke, the father stood and read the blessing from a laminated sheet. Then a silver goblet of wine was passed around the table to drink from. Then he lifted a beautifully decorated special cloth from the basket of bread, broke off a piece, put some pepper on it and ate it. He then broke off a piece for everyone, peppered it, and passed it to us to eat. Then the special items were cleared away, the rest of the bread was sliced and put on the table, and the normal meal began.

This family does eat "kosher", which of course means no pork or shrimp, etc. It also means not mixing a meat meal with milk products (including cheese or mayonnaise containing milk). Also, Israelis don't seem to have milk in their coffee -- perhaps because they might have coffee after a meat meal??? Fish is not classified as meat, so it's okay to have a cheese sauce on your fish. Chicken is now classified as meat.

More religious Jews have many more regulations which they adhere to. For instance, you cannot light a fire on the Sabbath. So the candles are lit by the mother right at sunset before the Sabbath is announced. (We didn't have any candles in this household though.) In the modern culture, turning on something electric is regarded as using "fire". So if you want to use electric lights (including torches/flashlights), you also have to turn them on before the Sabbath begins. Of course you can't use the gas or electric stove on the Sabbath. Opening the fridge causes the light inside to come on, so if you want to use the fridge, you have to disable/remove the internal light before the Sabbath begins.

Walking by an automatic security light and causing it to come on (e.g., if you are coming home from the Friday night synagogue service) is breaking the Sabbath, although there are exceptions for accidentally failures. But the "kohen" Jew (i.e., of priestly/Aaronic heritage) who told me this, said that he has learnt where the automatic security lights are and crosses the street as he walks home from the synagogue to avoid setting them off.

But the family I am with here don't concern themselves with these things. In fact, they took me for a pleasant drive in the car on Saturday morning. They do attend synagogue, but mostly only on special holidays like at Passover or Yom Kippur.

So Jerusalem is mostly closed on Saturday -- all the way from the little dairy to the restaurants to the huge Jerusalem mall. However, if you would like to eat out, it's popular to go to some of the Arab neighbourhoods and get a nice meal there as their Friday holy day/holiday is already over. But apparently Tel Aviv is much more secular than Jerusalem and has much more open.

Then in Jerusalem, things start to open again after sunset on Saturday evening. In the summer like now, that's after 9pm, but much earlier in the winter. So the socialites go and eat out then or go to the mall to shop or socialize. So from 9:30 or so until midnight or so, Jerusalem comes alive again.

This family ordered pizza for dinner (which we started around 10pm). It's also kosher, so meatless since it has cheese, but tuna pizza is ok. We had it with wine -- they drink it quite a bit -- just a glass with the meal.

Then Sunday morning is busy traffic and everyone's back to school and work. It takes a little bit of getting used to when you've considered Sunday as a rest/church day all your life.

Sugar and spice and all things nice

I had a free afternoon here in Jerusalem before the rest of the group arrives this evening, so I went for a walk through the markets in the old city. It was absolutely fascinating to see all the things for sale, but what intrigued me most was the bins of spices.


Also, they sell something called dried yoghurt. I'll have to find out if that's something you chew on or what.


I accidentally ended up at the Western Wall, but I'm sure I'll have better photos of that tomorrow when we go there on the first day of our official tour.


Finally, some sweets for those looking for the sugar bit from the title.

Up in the hills

Most cities (like Auckland, Wellington, Manila, Davao) are near an ocean port or beside an important river or highway crossing. However, Jerusalem is stuck up on the hills in the middle of nowhere. It doesn't even have an airport. Yes, it's hard to see why Jerusalem is such an important city unless you understand that the temple (i.e., the presence of God) was here.


The Gloria Hotel is in the Old City, so you have to go through a gate in the city walls to get in. In this case, it's just inside the Jaffa Gate. (Hopefully you know that you can click on any of the photos in this blog to view them in more detail -- then just click on the Back button in your browser to return here.)

I was a bit disappointed to find that there are three of us sharing a room as most of the rest of the group only have two to a room. Hopefully it's a bit cheaper for us??? But at least there's wireless Internet so I can publish this :-) It actually has a bath too (with the shower over it), although I can't imagine taking the time for a good soak unfortunately.