Foto Friday – Beating the Heat at the Biblical Zoo

June 18, 2010 - 3:55 PM by Rachel Neiman · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Art, education, Environment, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Life, Religion, Travel

This little fellow, a Grey-headed fruit bat, makes his home in the Tisch Family Zoological Gardens in southwestern Jerusalem. Popularly known as The Biblical Zoo, it was recently named Israel’s top tourist attraction.

The zoo was in the news today because of the hot weather that’s keeping the animals indoors or – in the case of the resident hippos – in the water.

The zoo collection features animals from the Land of Israel, with special emphasis on those species mentioned in the Bible. For example, this Black python (Desert Cobra), mentioned no less than 25 times in the bible.

And the leopard, famous for this quote from Isaiah 11:6: “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.’

Exodus 19:4: “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles‘ wings and brought you to myself.”

The Bible doesn’t specifically mention elephants, but Chronicles 2:9, 17 does mention their still treasured but now contraband byproduct: “Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold.”

Photo: Ruthie Shuler

Our little pal the fruit bat, by the way, is mentioned in Leviticus 11:19, rounding up the list of flying birds of prey and scavengers that are absolutely unkosher and not to be eaten by Jews. So Mr. Bat can continue his peaceful daylight sleep. At night, he’ll have to duke it out for mice with the local owls — and there are many here. We’ll meet them another Friday.

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Tags: Foto Friday, heatwave, photography, summer, warm, zoo, zoological gardens

Nostalgia Sunday – Heaters

October 12, 2008 - 5:05 PM by Rachel Neiman · 7 Comments
Filed under: General, Israeliness, Life

Heaters! Kerosene, electric coil, space heater, oil radiator, electric blankets – I’ve had every single kind of heating device you can get in this country and I’m still cold when the chill wind blows in. Here are some pictures of some of the ridiculous contraptions I’ve had to put up with in my never-ending quest to stay warm in the Israeli winter.

Kerosene heater

Radiant coil heater

Many of the above two were manufactured by a company called Friedman, which also made those squat little fridges so popular with the hipster retro crowd today because they never had to actually use one.

Just for laffs, here’s a picture of the natural gas heater I could never afford to own: glowing ceramic plates heated by pricey blue and orange flames. Ahhh…

Gas heater

They haven’t yet been able to make a heater that can warm an apartment built from porous sandy bricks (1920s to 1930s) or holey cinderblock (1940s to 1960s), not to mention moisture-absorbing Jerusalem stone (a favorite building material from time immemorial). Certainly this kind was tried and found wanting.

Radiator

I’ve never yet had the pleasure of living in an home built from Ytong, the insulating cinderblock, but I’m doubtful it works. Because people here don’t really believe its cold. Basically, Israelis refuse to accept the reality that it is not really a hot country. Israel is a cold country with a very long hot season.

Over the years, my wintertime philosphy has become: seal up the windows, move into the bedroom, get under the covers, crank up the heat and hang the expense — sort of. I cannot still, in good faith, run the A/C on heat continually for 3-4 months, so the best solutions I’ve found, to date:

Space heater