{"id":11996,"date":"2015-04-17T00:08:14","date_gmt":"2015-04-17T07:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=11996"},"modified":"2015-04-16T18:28:08","modified_gmt":"2015-04-17T01:28:08","slug":"writing-is-really-on-the-walls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2015\/04\/17\/writing-is-really-on-the-walls\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing is really on the walls"},"content":{"rendered":"

An inscription on a water fountain built by Suleiman the Magnificent. (photo by Ariel Fields)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to Jerusalem, the writing really is on the wall. The problem is, some people (easily recognized, as they go around saying \u201cit\u2019s like talking to a brick wall\u201d) will try to convince you walls can\u2019t tell you anything. Don\u2019t listen. If you ignore Jerusalem\u2019s walls, you\u2019ll miss out. The following matryoshka\/babushka<\/em> story (or story within stories) shows that \u201cwalls are the skin of the residents,\u201d as the muralist cooperative Cit\u00e9Cr\u00e9ation is fond of saying.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, you might initially doubt whether writing on the wall matters. To quell your uncertainty, here is what Tel Aviv University\u2019s Prof. Jonathan Price has to say: \u201cInscriptions are an important and unique historical source. They provide information in many areas no other source can provide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus, while there\u2019s no CD of the trumpet\/shofar playing, we know that trumpet blasts from the southwest end of the Temple Mount indicated the beginning and end of the Sabbath. How? In his extensive history, The Wars of the Jews<\/em>, Flavius Josephus writes about this practice.<\/p>\n

The truly astounding physical evidence, however, is a stone carved sign now located in the Roman\/ Byzantine section of Jerusalem\u2019s Israel Museum. The inscription on this first century CE stone reads, \u201c\u2018To the place of the trumpeting.\u201d The stone directed the Temple kohain \u201ctrumpeter to the high point on the Temple Mount, where he would announce the beginning and end of the Sabbath.\u201d<\/p>\n

An archeologist described its discovery. It was found in the \u201cdebris from the dismantled walls, engraved on an eight-foot-long piece of limestone. The stone has a rounded top indicating it was a kind of parapet situated on top of the wall or the tower at the southwest corner of Herod\u2019s giant Temple Mount. Unfortunately, the clearly readable inscription is broken off, so we only have the beginning of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trumpeter\u2019s corner had a distinct vantage point. From his post, the trumpeter looked out over ancient Jerusalem, from the City of David to the Upper City in the West. When he gave a blast, even the merchants and shoppers in the markets heard.<\/p>\n

Moving slightly away from the Old City, we come to an ornate Ottoman inscription just above the southern end of Sultan\u2019s Pool. It reads: \u201c[There] has ordered the construction of this blessed sabil, our master the Sultan the greatest prince and the honorable Khaqan, who rules the necks of the nations, the sultan of the [land of] Rum, the Arabs and the non-Arab [\u2019ajam<\/em>], the Sultan Suleiman, son of Sultan Selim Khan, may God perpetuate his reign and his sultanate. On the date of the tenth of the month of Muharram the sacred, in the year of 943 [29 June 1536].\u201d (Ottoman Jerusalem<\/em>, Auld and Hillenbrand, eds., 2000)<\/p>\n

This sabil<\/em> (drinking fountain) served the many passing pilgrims. The Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent built five more sabils inside the walls of the older city. Moreover, several other sabils (the earliest dating back to the Byzantine period of the sixth\/seventh century) have been excavated at this same location.<\/p>\n

The drinking fountain\u2019s water came from an aqueduct originating at Solomon\u2019s Pools, near Bethlehem. Importantly, this aqueduct primarily serviced the Temple Mount area. To insure an adequate water supply, Sultan\u2019s Pool (today an outdoor concert venue) was a floodwater reservoir. Just a few years ago, archeologists uncovered a Second Temple period bridge that stood over the adjacent ravine of Ben Hinom Valley. The original bridge maintained the elevation of the path along which the water coursed. In 1320 CE, the Mamluks rebuilt the bridge. Two of the original nine arches supporting the bridge were excavated to their full three-metre height.<\/p>\n

A relatively short walk from the fountain, but with a significant leap in time, we arrive at the Hebrew year 5694 (corresponding to 1933-1934). At that time, builders completed work on a structure at 6 King David St. As the country was still controlled by the British (the Mandatory period lasted from Sept. 29, 1923-May 14, 1948), the Hebrew stone dedication might be termed both prophetic and Zionist. The inscription from Psalms 102:15 reads: \u201cYour servants take delight in its stones and cherish its dust.\u201d Heads up, however, to view this stone, as it is high on the right side of the entranceway.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
In 2001, the French art group Cit\u00e9Cr\u00e9ation painted a mural depicting the Jerusalem Light Rail system, which didn\u2019t start running until 2011. (photo by Ariel Fields)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No matter what you think of the Mandatory period, most people will agree that the British constructed attractive and made-to-last Jerusalem streets and boulevards. Although King George Street has changed tremendously since Israel gained independence, the stateliness of the road\u2019s 1924 commemoration is visible in the dedication stone on the side of what is now a woman\u2019s clothing store. The esthetically pleasing inscription is carved in the languages of the time: English, the official language of the British Crown has a central spot on the stone. It is flanked by slightly smaller Hebrew and Arabic translations.<\/p>\n

They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words, so here goes: Across from the above inscription, where King George, Strauss and Jaffa Road intersect, look up to see what was for 10 years regarded as a \u201ctime-warp\u201d fresco. In 2001, the French art group Cit\u00e9Cr\u00e9ation painted a long exterior building wall depicting the Jerusalem Light Rail system. Since the light rail only began running at the end of 2011, for years Jerusalemites considered this painting a bad joke. Like many other Jerusalem projects, this one finally came into being years after its original promised inauguration.<\/p>\n

Despite a violent summer and fall, the Jerusalem Light Rail demonstrates that the city\u2019s ethnic and religious groups can \u2013 and do, literally \u2013 come into close contact. Jerusalem\u2019s train is an example, albeit a fragile coexistence.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Gavriel Cohen\u2019s 1976 mural on the Gerard Behar building. (photo by Orli Fields)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In sharp contrast to the slow development of the light rail, the wall project on the Gerard Behar Theatre (its address is 11 Bezalel St.) shows how quickly things can get done, if one really works at it. In 1976, Gavriel Cohen painted a huge building mural in just 92 days. Humorously, this 18-metre-wide painting is entitled \u201cAround the World in 92 Days.\u201d When you see the painting, you will understand its \u201cplay\u201d on the title of Jules Verne\u2019s famous adventure story.<\/p>\n

Like Verne, Cohen was born in France. Moreover, the Jerusalem Foundation donor who underwrote the building\u2019s renovation was himself a millionaire French Jew. He named the building after his son, Gerard Behar. Today, the wall has added significance, as many French Jews are making Israel their home. The Jewish Agency reported nearly 7,000 French Jews made aliya in 2014, doubling the number of the preceding year.<\/p>\n

We now move back in time to the Hebrew year 5632 (1872). In the tiny Jerusalem neighborhood of the House of David \u2013 the fourth neighborhood built outside the walls of the Old City \u2013 there is another inscription above the doorway of what (with controversy between different religious blocs) has recently become a yeshiva. David Reiz, a Jew from Jonava, Poland (today the Republic of Lithuania) donated the money to build this area. The Hebrew stone dedication contains a description of the 1872 purchase of the lot and the subsequent building of the apartments and a study house (bet midrash<\/em>). The home of Rav Kook (first chief Ashkenazi rabbi of Mandate Palestine) and the popular dairy restaurant Ticho House (currently undergoing repair) are a few steps away. The square courtyard in which the inscription is found still has the wells residents used for their household needs. Reportedly, today\u2019s residents are a mix of doctors, artists and yeshiva students.<\/p>\n

Even if they never took up residence in Israel, over the years people of different denominations have considered Jerusalem to be their centre of the world. Thus, in front of Jerusalem\u2019s City Hall, there is a large reproduction of Heinrich B\u00fcnting\u2019s 1581 map of the world. B\u00fcnting (1545-1606), a German Protestant pastor and theologian with a strong interest in cartography, created a map (included in his printed map book) featuring a three-leaf clover (which to this day is still part of his native Hanover\u2019s coat of arms). Europe is the western leaf, Asia is the eastern leaf and Africa is the southern leaf. Jerusalem lies at the centre of the clover.<\/p>\n

As Hebrew University\u2019s Prof. Rehav Rubin (1987) wrote: \u201cThese maps do not teach us anything about the appearance of the city in ancient times, but from them we learn how Christian Europeans and the map-makers themselves saw sacred texts and the place of Jerusalem in the sacred texts.\u201d<\/p>\n

So much of Jerusalem\u2019s history is laid out on its walls; come visit to discover it.<\/p>\n

Deborah Rubin Fields<\/strong> is an Israel-based features writer. She is also the author of<\/em> Take a Peek Inside: A Child\u2019s Guide to Radiology Exams, published in English, Hebrew and Arabic.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An inscription on a water fountain built by Suleiman the Magnificent. (photo by Ariel Fields) When it comes to Jerusalem, the writing really is on the wall. The problem is, some people (easily recognized, as they go around saying \u201cit\u2019s like talking to a brick wall\u201d) will try to convince you walls can\u2019t tell you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4329],"tags":[3588,3585,216,3589,3587,3586],"class_list":["post-11996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","tag-gavriel-cohen","tag-graffiti","tag-jerusalem","tag-jonathan-price","tag-rehav-rubin","tag-street-art"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}