Yad Va Shem

Yad Va Shem is a memorial to Holocaust victims. The name means "a memorial and a name," from Isaiah 56:5, "And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off." This is one of the most important places you should visit if you come to Israel.

This building is bigger than it looks. You go through room after room, and in every room you learn things you can hardly believe but you need to know



This monument says "I will put my breath into you, and I shall set you upon your own soil" from Ezekiel 37:14

I Can't Catch Up

I'd really better get busy and post all my old pictures. I should put them up right away while I remember what they are. But when necessary, one can always ask Jeshurun.
Here we go with pictures of the botanical garden at Hebrew University. It wasn't blooming much, but it was still pretty. I'd love to go back now or in the next couple weeks in it's in bloom. But of course, I won't have time.

Views from the university.




Eucalyptus trees.

Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus up close. I never noticed, when I was there, all the red berries on the ground.


A very ordinary sedum, but it's nice to have everything labeled.








I like the way this tree is holding on.


Moss and ferns--with labels! If I had several lives to live, in one of them I'd be a botanist.


What you can't tell from the picture about this grass is that's over 15 feet tall.




Figs.


Caves.


Caves for birds?


With all these pictures, and all the different places we have been to, it makes it seem like I live a very interesting life. In actuality it is same-o, same-o, week after week, until someone comes to visit. Then we cram as much as possible into one day. Or in this case, two weeks. A most glorious two weeks it was, with Jeshurun here.

Horns and Horses

And tons of other stuff. The Israel National Museum. At one point they told us "no photos," so this is only a hint of what's there.

Do you know what this is? If you don't, ask Jeshurun.

"All the pretty little horses" (MWB)



Or if you prefer...

Views from the University

These walls just boggle my mind. Can you imagine having to put a wall between Indiana and Ohio?

Hebrew University Plants

I am told this is called Brugmansia. It's in the Solanum family, same as the horse nettle we had in Indiana, which was small and ugly. Other Solanum get 15 feet high. A "family" in the plant world is a pretty broad family.


Al took this picture in November.


And I took this one in January, after the rose bushes had been pruned. Nobody prunes cactus, as far as I know.


This is a cyclamen, also called a rock plant, because they love to grow amid rocks. They bloom in white and in shades of pink and red.

Mandel

At the University is also the Mandel Institute:



If you want to know what they do there you can look on the internet. But the internet won't tell you about this nice hanging sculpture with beautiful greenish glass rocks--the photo doesn't show how translucent they really were. Ok, I know some people think I have rocks in my head, but I think's it's pretty neat.

I suppose there's no right way to take a picture of stairs. Maybe not take one at all? Why take a picture of stairs? Because they're there?

This mosaic has on it the words, "I am Joseph; doth my father yet live?" and "God did send me before you to preserve life."

Hebrew University

Here is where Al goes to school.
And here is what he studies:



Just kidding. Even if he took Legos 101, or 909, I don't think he would come up with this:


Here is an amazing sight--clean walks. The University is probably the cleanest place in all of Israel.


Rothberg likes the pomegranate symbol, for some reason:



The pomegranate is said buy some to symbolize righteousness because it contains 613 seeds, and there are, in the Jewish religion, according to some, 613 commandments. This shows a misunderstanding of pomegranates and of the law. It depends on where you buy your pomegranates. The ones in South America are smaller, and other countries have various sizes. (There is a guy that actually counts seeds in pomegranates, and he says the average is 613, but obviously he doesn't count too many from Venezuela, or that would skew the figures.) And as for the law of God, how can it be limited to a certain number--"Thy commandment is exceeding broad." The best explanation of the law I read in a book by John Bunyan. If I had a copy of that book, I would post that chapter.