And the rockets' red glare...

To be honest, I skipped class today. I decided that I wanted to go see the Dead Sea Scrolls while I could, should something happen which requires I leave earlier than expected. So I did. I had a great day! The Israel Museum and the Museum of Bible Lands were truly phenomenal. I can't even get into all the amazing things I saw today. The collection of artwork that Israel has is truly impressive. So many VERY famous sculptures and paintings...Rodin, Moore, Chagall, Cezanne, VanGogh, Warhol, Monet, the best of the best...

And as far as archeology is concerned, there's no place like Jerusalem! I saw the only piece of archeological evidence for Roman crucifixion...namely, a segment of bone from a man's heel with an iron nail in it found in an ossuary here in J'salem. Stuff from Caiphas, Pontius Pilate, King David and Solomon...not forgetting the Shrine of the Book where the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Aleppo Codex are housed. The Aleppo Codex, for those who don't know, is considered to be the most accurate extant text of the Hebrew Bible from the Masoretes on which all Bibles worth their salt (get it? Dead Sea!) are based on. The Dead Sea Scrolls for those who don't know corroborate the accuracy of today's Bible. Before their discovery, the earliest texts of the Tenakh were from 900CE making our Old Testament archeologically younger than our New Testament.

Anyhow, after that I wandered up to the Knesset which is the Israeli equivalent of our Capitol Building slash White House. There, quite in concert with Sam's bizarre life of coincidence, I was able to be among a small handful of lucky people who happened to be in the right place at the right time and saw the Israeli Military Generals and Prime Minister get out of their tinted-window cars and hop into camouflaged helicopters. Oh yes. You don't have to say what we already know. I am special.

On a less happy note, today in J'salem they apprehended a 25 year old Palestinian at the Jaffa Gate who had a rather large explosive in his bag. It's the first time in a while that a suicide bombing has been attempted. Fortunately, with routine security in just about every place you can fit more than two people, they found it before he got to where he was going.

SoOo...looks like J'salem is not completely in the clear. The coming days will tell whether this attempt was an independent one or something more orchestrated. Mind you, I rode the bus right at the Jaffa Gate today...just typing that out makes me feel like I need to really process that whole thing later tonite. I don't exactly feel moved by any of that...but maybe I should.

On a much lighter note, I feel I must again take this opportunity to profess and confirm that Israeli men make me want to be cautious about which bus I board lest my life end without one. Sigh.

Not the Israeli men with wide-brimmed hats and black coats with tassels, but the ones with deep mysterious black eyes, espresso colored hair, and olive skin...

...features which, in spite of the Good Shepherd's holiness, have mischieviously fueled conflicting passions for Jesus as centuries of nuns (and priests) pressed their sexual frustration into each bead as they prayed for merciful relief from their human nature. The bronze Judean still gazes innocently at His secret admirers from over the altar. Sigh. Sigh squared. Although, I think we can all agree that Jesus needs a haircut. Right?

Exactly.

Peace from the City of Peace. Out.

Pictures from today.