Onward

Last day in Tveriya with the excavation. Tomorrow I go to Jericho and Jerusalem with the team. But, when they head back to Galilee, I spend the night at Notre Dame and then catch a 4AM shuttle to the airport, catch a flight at 7AM, spend a 9-hour layover in Athens, catch a flight to Rome and hope that Br. Samuel is there to pick me up. These pics represent my leaving 1) sightseeing, 2) revering the holy sites, 3)spending quality time with friends, 4) swimming at the Magdala Beach, 5) running geophysical tests, and 6) digging in the dirt in order to go to 7 and 8) this statue.

Polish Pride

Today, I went to Mass at St. Peter's at the Franciscan Casanova - I go regularly with Marisa and Danielita. Today after Mass, the happy Italian priest, noticing some Poles in the crowd, explained that there was a shrine to Our Lady of Czestochova in the courtyard. I went out and took these photos. I think the best part, other than the Virgin Mary and Christ child, of course, would have to be the name of the artist in the bottom righthand corner. Doesn't that name look familiar? This artist also designed the stone relief at the Third Station - except, there they spell his name incorrectly with a 'y'. Here they get it right.

Hope you had a miserable Tisha B'Av

Today is the Tisha (9th) of (B') Av (a month in the Hebrew calendar). This is the day the First Temple was destroyed. It was also, coincidentally, the day the Second Temple was destroyed. It was also the day that the twelve scouts that Moses sent into the Promised Land returned with pessimistic reports, causing the Israelites to cry out against the Promised Land, so that God cursed the generation so that they could not enter the Promised Land, resulting in the forty years of wandering in the desert. Also, in 132, the Romans crushed Bar Kohkba's Revolt, capturing Betar on this day and killing over 100,000 Jews. In 133, the Romans destroyed the remains on the Temple Mount after capturing Jerusalem. These are the five main events mourned on Tisha B'av. It's also thought that on this day in 1095, Pope Urban II declared the First Crusade, resulting in the death of 10,000 Jews in the first month alone. In 1290, Jews were expelled from England. In 1492, Jews were expelled from Spain. In 1914, World War I was declared. In 1942, the Warsaw Ghetto was deported to the concentration camps. In 1994, the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires was bombed. In general, just a lot of bad things. So, the Jews take the day off to fast (no food or water whatsoever for the entire day). They also cannot bathe, apply creams or ointments, or wear leather shoes. They also refuse to greet each other. In effect, happiness is absolutely prohibited. They may gather in synagogues in order to read the book of Lamentations or Job. The only positive aspect of this day is the widespread thought that the Messiah will be born on Tisha B'av - amidst the history of suffering will spring salvation.
So, to commemorate the day, I bought a Coca Cola and Hebrew candy bar and walked to the Tomb of Maimonides. Moses Maimonides was a Jewish philosopher in the 1100's. By his tomb there are also the tombs of three Jewish sages. By the tomb of Maimonides, I took out the Spanish Bible I borrowed from one of the volunteers (it was the best I could find) and read the Book of Lamentaciones.

Este Fin de Semana

We went to Masada, the Dead Sea, Qumran, and Jerusalem. I met the governor of Colorado at the Notre Dame Center. I went to the Temple Mount and the Rockefeller Museum. I went shopping and pretended to be Argentinian and for the most part it worked.

A Third Person Perspective

These are some pics that I stole from other volunteers. Many of these shots I couldn't get because either my camera was dead or I was trapped within my body and unable to walk a couple feet away to take a picture of myself. In the first category, there's Tabgha Peter's Primacy, and the Mass with eight Legionary priests celebrated by Fr. Juan Solana, the director of the Notre Dame Center in Jerusalem. In the second category, there are group pics at Caesarea Maritan and me performing the electric resistance test.

Credit for the last pic to Simon. To Meztli for the penultimate. And Daniela for the rest.