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Post by louise on Jul 13, 2023 8:41:44 GMT -5
What’s on your mind — how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.
Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:
Frieda
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy
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Post by louise on Jul 13, 2023 8:45:28 GMT -5
My apologies but the jet lag has been difficult for me. Tuesday and Wednesday I went to the office – all okay but wiped out by the time I got home. Also, pain in my legs in the evening. Anyway, I realize these are not serious problems but once again I could not post last night and am fatigued. So all I have for you today is another story from my trip, not a grand theme.
This will be about an archeological dig at Bet Guvrin-Mareasha. Not a lot to see in the way of ruins above ground there but the area is high up and near enough to water to make is a desirable dwelling site. Therefore several different villages had been built there (on top of each other) over a period of several centuries and Hellenistic, Roman, and Judean artifacts abound in the many caves (along with baths, cisterns, wine press, olive presses, etc). We were brought to a cave with the goal of bringing up buckets of dirt and rocks. I didn’t do the descent into the cave – rough hewn steps and rope hand rail – I went down a few steps and turned back – not my thing. But most went down and were given buckets and shovels. When they had filled all the buckets they were passed back up fire brigade style. I was able to participate in the next part which consisted of emptying the buckets a bit at a time onto a wood frame fitted with a screen. We sifted the dirt away and then examined the remaining stones looking for pottery shards, pieces of bone and charcoal, all of which we put aside for the archaeologists to evaluate. Amazing that we found quite a few small artifacts!
At the end we were invited to take pottery shards that previous groups had gleaned that were not deemed archaeologically significant. I took a little baggy of shards from the Hasmonean period. I sent a picture of a few to our stained glass artist wondering if she could use them in any way even though they were opaque. Turns out she does have an idea for a window that will show themes of destruction in the torah and may be able to work these in at the bottom of such a window – what a hoot that would be!
I want to also mention that at Caesarea we saw huge ruins including an amphitheater where besides the usual chariot races it is said to be where Rabbi Akiva was flayed – I hate to mention that but this figures as part of the martyrology sequence on Yom Kippur (maybe not in all prayer books and maybe later in the day than some of you stay at services but it has been in the last few mahzorim that we use) so may be familiar to you.
So that’s today’s history story. Please feel free to comment on any of this, on anything it reminds you of, or on the events of your own day.
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Post by peachymom1 on Jul 13, 2023 9:36:21 GMT -5
What an interesting story! And what a cool thing about the shards for the stained glass artist. I hope you'll let us know what comes of that as well.
It's going to be almost 100 degrees here today, so I'm taking my lunch break at 9 a.m. to go run a couple of errands, then I'll just take a short break at lunchtime to eat. Not a busy workday for me today, just routine stuff, and that's OK. It gives me a chance to catch up on things I've been putting aside for just such a time.
Everyone stay cool and hydrated!
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lee058
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Posts: 23,299 
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Post by lee058 on Jul 13, 2023 13:19:20 GMT -5
Good afternoon everybody! Hope you are all well and SAFE! It is sunny and hot (feels like almost 100 degrees outside) here in NOVA; fortunately, DS and I got our errands done before it got so hot. Re today's topic: louise, I'm really enjoying hearing about your trip! Have you ever read anything by Elizabeth Peters? I think you'd enjoy her fictional archeological adventures. BTW, DS and I both got "brain freeze" from eating some ice cream. I guess this proves how long it's been since we had any. Have a peaceful rest of the day, Lee |
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