The Excommunicated of Rechavia

 

Not long ago the Van Leer Institute in our neighborhood had a viewing of a documentary about Spinoza followed by a discussion. The poster used to advertise it, when I saw it there in front of the Van Leer, puzzled me at first.  I thought some hot-head had attacked the poster with red paint.  But in reality the poster was made with the defacement already included. Reading the Hebrew you see it means “The Excommunicated.” His name was in fact crossed out of public records by people who strongly objected to his philosophical views. Which of his statements led to his excommunication? Nobody seems to know. For someone who talked so much about God, you wonder why he was called an atheist by so many.

Go here and you can see a brief preview of the movie in Hebrew, but don’t worry, it does have English subtitles. I learned that a death mask was taken when he died. Of course they used to do this a lot, still it was very striking to see how he must have looked. It seems very alive, to tell the truth. I was fortunate to live awhile in Leiden, not far from some of the places where he lived out his life, and I suppose that was the reason I read a biography of him not too long ago.

Meanwhile, I noticed in our neighborhood a defacement of a different image, that of the illustrious Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, believed by some to be an up and coming savior, or at least he will be if he can manage to come back from the dead.

The back side of a traffic sign on Gaza Street, Rechavia

Another question is, Who done it? Both [1] the (historically) unbelieving population of Rechavia as well as [2] the increasingly visible religious believers in other branches of Judaism besides the Chabad could have their motives. I might have never looked up to see the defaced posters if I hadn't seen the blood-like color splattered on the sidewalk.

Both the Philosopher and the Rabbi were condemned by a lot of people around them. That much they had in common. Best would be if we could see them as inspirations for developing our toleration and attempted understanding while leaving to one side our own fixed views — inspirations, not targets of our vilification. And of course not as targets of vandalistic zealotry like we see here. Today the real excitement in Rechavia is in the demonstrations every Saturday night. Stop and take a look at the time, it’s nearing the hour for the next one to begin. The newspapers are saying it will be the biggest one yet. Be well and keep safe.

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May 4, 2023:

Oh, and now you can see the complete documentary here. Just double click on the sentence preceding this one.

May 31, 2023:

At another location in the neighborhood, a sticker appears as a countertag on those Chabad posters. It reads as I translate it, “Chabad is a Lie.” Notice that someone tried, without much success, to tear those stickers off. I’ll let you know if more layers are added. And off to the side, notice the high-rise insanity taking place near the city's western entrance (more on that another time).

Stickers reading “Chabad is a Lie” tagged on posters pasted on the
back of a street sign in Rechavia

Update, July 3, 2023

In an i24 News video entitled, “How important is Chabad to the Jewish world?” are some empassioned statements for and against the Chabad movement made by various Rabbis and community leaders. See if you can spot Rebbe Schneerson’s face among the many painted faces in the new mural that went up to be admired by arriving passengers at Ben Gurion International Airport in Lod.

Jackal in the Botanical Garden

This blog is for dad on Father’s Day with a lot of love and appreciation,
& hope you got the cheese.

Mid-June in Jerusalem’s Botanical Garden is wonderful, but I say that mainly because of its huge pond full of lotuses and waterlilies. In the rest of the garden there are not as many flowers blooming as there had been in May. The hollyhocks are nice, and you can see some amazing huge magnolia blossoms:

It was late, drawing close to closing time, so we were winding our way down the hill toward the entrance, walking slowly, taking the narrowest of trails, when we reached a 3-way junction and started to turn down a stone paved path when we caught sight of it just a few meters away. It caught sight of us at the same time and let out a frightening low growl. My digital camera was turned on and in hand, so I had just enough time to snap one photo before it vanished:

Double click on the photo and it ought to enlarge

My first idea was that it was a fox, but over the next days, looking over the photo, I became convinced our friend Masha was right, and it must be a jackal, even a golden jackal, the type most common in these parts. I found some photos on the internet to compare, including this sample of a smiling golden jackal:

As I said, the jackal did let out a threatening growl, but it also had its tail between its legs.  It absolutely did not express any friendly attitude, just the opposite. It was shocked by our sudden appearance. As far as we could tell it was not part of a pack, as jackals prefer to be, it looked somewhat weak and hungry. Jackals usually feed at dawn and dusk, I understand.

Its fear could have turned to aggression, but he wasn't cornered, and we didn't try to get any closer.

They say canids won’t attack anything bigger than themselves unless they are running with their pack. But exceptions take place when they feel cornered or have pups to protect.

A few years ago, I looked into dholes (Asian wild dogs) a bit because of somebody’s idea they are a kind of cat... I found the very idea that a dog could be considered a cat strange, it made me wonder. But... dholes are catlike in some ways... 

Foxes have cat eyes with the vertical slit-shaped pupils. I had thought that jackal was a fox at first. But at second look, those are not cat eyes, so not a fox.

As wild dogs go, Jackals are so much less frightening than hyenas. I remember how packs of hyenas used to whip through the tall grass in Lumbini at sunset, not far from the library where we stayed, making a frightful racket. But in my mind hyenas might better belong in the family of bears. Well, there are ways of making categories, and human minds are always working on that. If fruits grow only on trees, doesn’t that make bananas berries? Are blackberries not berries?

There have been some news stories in the local papers in the last decade about how golden jackals have been gradually moving into western Jerusalem, in part attracted by the food kind people leave out for the street cats. I don’t feel like blaming anyone. Fault finding is another human tendency that so often gets us all worked up. On a day like today I’d rather contemplate the over-done beauty of the lotus pond.

Wow!  See that?

Read more

“Nine People Treated in Hospital for Jackal Bites,” Jerusalem Post (Feb. 3, 2021).

Sue Surkes, “Snacks for Stray Cats May be Feeding a Rash of Jackal Attacks,” Times of Israel (Feb. 8, 2021).

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) put in their online newsletter a brief story “Jackals in Jerusalem” (Nov. 13, 2013).

Moshe Gilad and Ofer Vaknin, “With Israelis in Coronavirus Isolation, Jackals Are Taking Over Tel Aviv’s Main Park,” Haaretz (April 8, 2020). Great photos give the impression of handsome and noble creatures with families of their own. Perhaps the stories about them occasionally attacking humans have been overblown. After all, even domesticated dogs have been known to attack humans sometimes, right? Relationships come with a certain level of risk, even among us humans. Excuse me my anthropomorphizing, we all commit pathetic fallacies every now and then.