Salt/Art, the Market, Soufganiyot, Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Israel Museum

 I have to tell you about today, out of order, because one of the last things I saw was really moving to me.  Artist Sigalit Landau, to call attention to the Dead Sea as an environmental and humanitarian issue, has a special exhibit at the Israel Museum.   Called The Burning Sea, the exhibit features sculptures created by immersing objects in the Dead Sea to contemplate the minerals clinging to and covering familiar things.   She has been filmed floating in the Dead Sea in an unspooling chain of watermelons.  During the pandemic, she asked isolated seniors to embroider happy scenes which she then immersed in the Dead Sea and displays those images, covered in salt.  And stunningly, she sculpted barbed-wire into ornamental shapes (yes, you know this is coming) which hang, covered in salt crystals.  I didn't expect that the Dead Sea would occupy so much of my experience, but I keep returning to it and this exhibit was thought provoking and deeply probing of the connections between nations, people & the environment and the objects that surround us.

 Chanukah was also a major theme today, as I'm told in Jerusalem you can get donuts (soufganiyot) during this time of year but not particularly at any other times.  There were traditional jelly donuts at bakeries and some fancy (American-style?) donuts at fancier shops.  I not only had to have a traditional donut but I also had another Chanukah moment in the Israel museum where their display of Judaica includes menorahs from around the world.  I loved that too! 

My jelly donut

this is a menorah from Poland, with the hand gesture of the Kohanem, which looks a lot like "Live long and prosper" from Mister Spock

The other activities today -- which were no less amazing  -- started with a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the last stops of the Via Dolorosa.   The church is beautiful and significant as the site of Jesus's crucifixion.  The Calvary is what brings worshippers from all over the world to see and touch the actual rocky earth where the crucifixion took place.  Mosaics decorate the ceilings and walls of the room where people line up for their turn to kneel and put a hand to that spot.

The middle of the day was spent at the Machne Yehuda market, which is very busy on a Thursday with shoppers getting ready for shabbat.  I tasted samples of halvah at several shops and I suppose it's no surprise to people who know me that the coffee flavored halvah was my favorite.  I had stewed eggplant for lunch in the market and an eggplant sandwich from a shop near my hotel for dinner today.

tea blends

halvah

This was my last day with a guide in Jerusalem and I'm so grateful to Elana!   I didn't expect to need to speak or read Hebrew but many times I needed her help (Note to Gett, the taxi app -- if a person selects "display in English," it's not helpful to only show the name of my hotel and places I want to go to in Hebrew.) but also her wisdom about the history of Jerusalem.  Tomorrow I'm on my own to go to Yad Vashem (the Holocaust museum) and to wrap up other loose ends as I'll be heading out of the city after that.