Where are the Door and the Window?

A few weeks ago Dana and I were cleaning up the floor of the house (we have cleaned the floor a number of times since then and clean it more often than every few weeks). In the process Dana could not find the spool of thread that had fallen on the floor earlier in the morning. I also was also not able to find the door and window to Ilan's Baby Einstein Puzzle Book, which he received as a gift from Batya Levi, and the elephant to his safari tractor. After vacuuming and cleaning the floor we were still unable to locate any of these items. The next day Dana found the spool of thread in its proper place, in the drawer. She asked me if I put it there, which I had not. Dana did not think that she had put it back and wondered if Ilan had possibly put it there. Later that day, after Ilan had awoken from his nap, I asked him if he knew where the door and the window from his puzzle book were. Without skipping a beat, he walked over to the sewing table, which also doubles as a television stand, lifted up the cloth covering the table and opened one of the top drawers. I looked down and there inside were the door and window to his puzzle book. I was shocked that he intentionally placed them in the drawer and that he remembered where he placed them over a day later. It also solved the mystery of how the thread was in the right drawer. Incidentally, we still have not been able to find Ilan's elephant.
 

Walking in the Footsteps of ...

Chaco. 

During our nearly five months in Israel, we have have tried to explore every region of the land. Each year thousands of tourists travel to Israel with the hopes of walking in the footsteps of Jesus. While the land has changed over the last two thousand years and there are only a couple Roman streets in the country dating back to the first century, our travels around Israel have at certainly left their mark on my feet. This picture is from over a month ago (they are even darker now). At the very least, my feet are a tribute to my Chaco sandals. I should probably send a picture of my feet into their website.

Haman's Gallows Raised Again

News Flash!

Final in Euro 2008 Football Championship

Spain 1 - 0 Germany 

Germany loses in a poetic defeat!

See previous post for explanation.

Football and Haman's Gallows?

This evening the Euro 2008 Football Championship will take place at Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna between Germany and Spain. (For those Americans who are woefully illiterate, "soccer," is what the rest of the world refers to as "football," which is much more appropriate nomenclature, since in this sport the players actually use their feet, unlike American "football"). Yet, this stadium does not have such an honorable past. Nearly sixty-nine years ago, in September of 1939, the Gestapo imprisoned over 1,000 Jewish men in the stadium, in order to conduct racist anthropological studies on them. Of the over 1,000 men imprisoned in the stadium, only 26 survived the war; most of the prisoners were sent to Buchenwald, where they were eventually murdered by the Nazis. This horrific incident was only the beginning to the Nazi genocide of the Jewish people, in which they murdered 6 million Jews. Despite Hitler's attempt to annihilate the Jews, his Third Reich crumbled and he died the death of a coward when he killed himself in his bunker under Berlin.
The Jewish people survived the war, including my grandparents, who were both interned in Auschwitz, but the Nazi regime suffered the fate of every other nation that has risen up against Israel. Pharaoh, Babylon, Assyria, Rome, Antiochus IV and Nazi Germany have all attacked us, but only we have survived and they are forgotten, except in the annals of history. During the Persian period, Haman decided that he would destroy the Jewish people and erected gallows, in which he intended to execute his adversary, Mordechai. In the end, it was not Mordecai, but Haman, who lost his life in his own gallows.
Will Ernst Happel Stadium serve the same function for Germany as Haman's gallows did for Haman about 2500 years ago? While I don't have a habit of rooting for Spain, tonight I will be eating tapas and cheering on Spain in hopes of seeing Germany ironically suffering defeat in the same stadium the Nazis used nearly sixty-nine years ago for their racist experimentation. Although I don't think God gets involved in the outcome of sporting events (the Dodger's 20 year draught is evidence enough), I think that it would be poetic justice to see Germany lose tonight; therefore, I am rooting with the Murphy's for a Spanish victory. 

*If you are interested in this period of history pick up Gershon Evan. Winds of Life: The Destinies of a Young Viennese Jew 1938-1958. CA: Ariadne Press, 1999.

Tiyulim Around Israel

Here are some pictures of our recent travels, obviously not all nor the most notable, since we have well over 3,000 pictures from the last few months.

Ilan handing Ima her shoe in the gate at Tel Dan. 

For the significance of this event see the book of Ruth (Ruth 4:1-12) and the Jewish ceremony of Chalitzah (Tractate Yevan).

The Nassau and Vaccaro families in Acco.

Abba and son under a waterfall at Ein Gedi.

Overlooking Qumran

Ilan placing a stone on Ben Gurion's tomb, a Jewish tradition.

Ilan and Abba in a cave at Bet Guvrin.

Cave 128, the cave I helped excavate ten years ago. Bet Guvrin is one of my favorite sites in Israel, sadly many tourists miss it.

The Nassau Mishpocha at Ein Afek.

Ilan at Tel Avdat, an ancient Nabatean trading post.