Fri, April 2, 2010 10:03:32 PM
From: Linda Whittaker ~Email: olsvig2000@yahoo.com
To: Linda Olsvig-Whittaker ~Alternate Email: Linda.Whittaker@npa.org.il; Linda Olsvig-Whittaker ~Email: olsvig2000@yahoo.com
Hi everyone,
Today is Holy Saturday, one of the more interesting Easter celebrations in the Greek Orthodox calendar. (This year the Western and Greek calendars coincide, so Protestants, Catholics, and Eastern Rite Christians all celebrate holidays on the same days this year.) In the ceremony of the Holy Fire, the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem proceeds to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, enters the Holy Sepulcher, prays, and emerges proclaiming that the tomb is empty, with a torch in his hand which the faithful believe was just ignited by sacred fire descending on the Sepulcher from Heaven. The church is packed with believers holding large candles and lanterns, and there is a mad dash to light these from the Holy Fire. Faithful believers put the fire in little glass lamps which they take back to their homes and churches in Greece, the Balkans, and all over the world, where it is treasured in the coming year, until the fire is extinguished on Good Friday of the following year.
This is a high point of the Greek Orthodox year. When I first saw it many years ago, I thought the whole thing was very barbaric; gongs booming, masses of black-clad people surging around, incense, smoke pouring out of the church, the excitement and hysteria. All very Eastern and alien to the West. Over the years, I've come to understand that isn't the point. Yes, it's ancient and alien. And most likely the patriarch flicked his Bic to light that torch and the whole ceremony is a fake. But the feelings are not fake. I've come to understand that the factual truth is not important in religion; it is the feelings which matter. The Holy Fire has power to heal because people believe it, not because it factually descended from Heaven. Religions are full of sacred play-acting like that; it reaches a level in the human mind that rational intellect can never reach. Bread and wine become flesh and blood if it works for you; baptism is just another bath if you don't feel it. All these outwards forms have to do with an "inner truth" which is not scientific or factual, but a different kind of truth, a psychological one. For this reason, science and religion are two realms which can barely meet, and certainly cannot refute each other. Don't even try.
That said, I've enjoyed my Passover holiday very much, an entire week off work. Most of it I spent resting and catching up on work around the house: putting away the winter clothing, getting out the summer clothing, doing chores I put off all winter. I made one excursion, to the Eretz Israel Museum in Ramat Gan, just north of Tel Aviv. I seldom get to Tel Aviv on a day when things are open, which is a pity. While Jerusalem is academic, governmental and religioius, a city of institutions, the coastal plain has normal, western cities where people are more interested in having fun and making money than they are in pursuing grand goals of knowledge, power and eternal truth. In addition, most restaurants in Jerusalem are kosher; most on the coastal plain are not.
So I felt a breath of fresh air when I stepped off the train. Life is more simple in Tel Aviv.
The museum is about material culture, the use of metals, glass, ceramics, fabrics - all the craft work that people have done in Canaan from prehistory to modern times. It's a museum about "stuff", which I find delightful as a spin-off from archeology, one of my favorite subjects. There is even a pavilion devoted to the development of the postal system here, from the Egyptian pharonic couriers to modern Israeli stamps. There is a coin collection. There is an archaeological excavation on site of an ancient Philistine town. There are craftsmen making stuff using traditional methods for baskets, pottery, ironwork, etc.
The only flaw in this beautiful week has been that my blind and deaf cat, Homer, has been very sick. I came home from the Passover seder and found he had thrown up, which is common enough in cats, but he continued to throw up in the morning. I took his temperature, and it was very high, so I gave him Optalgin to bring it down. (You have to be careful which meds to give cats and dogs, who are allergic to some which work for people. Optalgin is safe.) After the first holiday of Passover, I took him to my vet, who found him very jaundiced, and diagnosed liver infection. He was put on antibiotics and fluids which I give every day, but didn't eat for four days. I was about to give up on him. But yesterday, after I had already made a decision to put him down on Sunday, he started to show interest in food. He is eating a little. A little is a lot better than nothing, so I am feeding him very soft food (it seems his throat hurts) and small amounts several times during the day. Let's hope.
Meanwhile it has been beautiful weather until today; I could sit in the garden every day. Sunday is Easter so I will have lunch with a Catholic friend, and the next day is the last day of Passover. Tuesday, back to work.
This has been a much needed rest, and a break from the stresses of winter to the easier life in summer. I slept 9 hours every day and feel almost normal again. Hopefully strength continues to increase; at least my cough of the last two months is gone.
shabbat shalom,
Linda
http://shabbat-shalom-jerusalem.blogspot.com/2010/04/shabbat-shalom-030410.htmlhttp://shabbat-shalom-jerusalem.blogspot.com/2010/04/shabbat-shalom-030410.html
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