Day 21-23

Another great (and too short) weekend has passed! We went to Jerusalem both yesterday and today (Saturday and Sunday). But, before I blog about the weekend, let's talk about Friday.

Friday completed our 3rd week of digging. It has been tough all week. The temperature has been rising all week . . . seems like our wheelbarrow runs have been getting longer (actually they are, as we dump debris and dirt over the hillside, we are slowly changing the topography of tel gezer; we have extended the original dump path by 15-20 feet!). Nothing sounds better than when our beloved Gary (director of Field A) bellows in his melodic voice, "Secoooondddddd Brrrreeaakkkkfaaaaast!" or, "Fruuuuuiiiiiittttt Breeeaaakkkkkk!" or, "Thiiiiirrrtyyyyyy Minnnuuuuutessssss!" All of which indicate that either a much needed and celebrated break has arrived or the end of our toil for the day.

Gary is a pretty interesting guy. I do not know him very well since he is directer of Field A and I work in Field B, but I have visited with him a few times. He is a professor at Golden Gate Seminary (but doesn't not look the part). He gave a lecture last week on the Iron Age and it was amazing. He has a great, energetic teaching personality.

My director is Elliot. He is an Israeli citizen and an expert in the field of archaeology. It has been interesting to learn from him and listen to his explanations. He has a big whiskbroom of a mustache that obscures most of his lower face. He has this funny expression that we have begun impersonating and randomly saying. If someone gets in his way when he is trying to take elevations (someone is standing between him and the laser that reads the stadia/meter stick) he will say (in a heavy Jewish accent), "Is your father a glassier?" Phonetically it sounds like this, "Is your faaatheeerrrr a glaaaasieerrrr?" It is very funny in person, but not so funny on a blog. Nonetheless, it is kind of a slogan that gets passed around all day long. Someone will randomly say it about every 10 minutes and then 4 or 5 people feel compelled to repeat it immediately, it's just a spontaneous.

Our square uncovered another 4 loom weights on Friday, all in pristine condition. That brings our total to 8 or 10. Since we have found so many we apparently have the fruit of the loom! (I am hysterically funny!) We have removed the mudbrick wall that had collapsed as a result of being torched by the Assyrians and now we are ready to see what's underneath! Tomorrow should be pretty exciting. There just has to be material culture items within our square! We'll see!

Another comment about food over here. I haven't talked much about the kosher laws, but it is very much prevalent. One kosher law is that dairy and meat cannot be eaten at the same time. Let me repeat that . . . DAIRY AND MEAT CANNOT BE EATEN AT THE SAME TIME!!!!!. This goes back to God's command to Moses regarding not cooking the meat of a goat in its mother's milk. Here is an except from a website on the issue for those who are interested . . .

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/kashrut.html#Separation

On three separate occasions, the Torah tells us not to "boil a kid in its mother's milk." (Ex. 23:19; Ex. 34:26; Deut. 14:21). The Oral Torah explains that this passage prohibits eating meat and dairy together. The rabbis extended this prohibition to include not eating milk and poultry together. It is, however, permissible to eat fish and dairy together, and it is quite common. It is also permissible to eat dairy and eggs together. According to some views, it is not permissible to eat meat and fish together, but I am not certain of the reason for that restriction.

This separation includes not only the foods themselves, but the utensils, pots and pans with which they are cooked, the plates and flatware from which they are eaten, the dishwashers or dishpans in which they are cleaned, and the towels on which they are dried. A kosher household will have at least two sets of pots, pans and dishes: one for meat and one for dairy. See Utensils below for more details.

One must wait a significant amount of time between eating meat and dairy. Opinions differ, and vary from three to six hours. This is because fatty residues and meat particles tend to cling to the mouth. From dairy to meat, however, one need only rinse one's mouth and eat a neutral solid like bread, unless the dairy product in question is also of a type that tends to stick in the mouth.

Think about this for a second . . . fajitas (beef or chicken with grated cheese and sour cream!), pizza (pepperoni and cheese; Canadian bacon and cheese; Supreme!), sandwich (turkey and swiss, ham and provolone, smoked chicken and gouda, etc.), bacon and eggs!; beef fajita nachos!; spaghetti and meatballs with Parmesan cheese! . . . are you kidding me! It's a culinary/dining nightmare! We went to the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem today and ate lunch in their cafeteria. Actually, they have two kitchens/cafeterias: one dairy, one meat. We had to decide which line we wanted to go in. And, no, before you even ask, you cannot go through one line and then go get in the other and get food from both. You can't bring food from one area into the other. I went through the meat line and then after our tour I went and got chocolate ice cream from the dairy line!

Well, it's about time to get ready for bed. It's 9:37 pm and 4:00 am comes pretty quickly. I haven't downloaded my pics from this weekend, so I'll save my comments about the tours until tomorrow when I get them downloaded.

Shalom!

Trey