From the official IAA press release - and light up with prideful joy:


A Stone Bowl Engraved with a Rare Hebrew Inscription – “Hyrcanus” – Dating to the Hasmonean Period was Discovered In the archaeological excavations of the Israel Antiquities Authority in the Givʽati Parking Lot at the City of David, in the Jerusalem Walls National Park.


“Hyrcanus” was a common name at that time, as well as the name of two of the leaders of the Hasmonean dynasty 




According to researchers, "This is one of the earliest examples of the appearance of chalk vessels in Jerusalem. In the past, these vessels were widely used mainly by Jews because they ensured ritual purity”.




Who was "Hyrcanus" whose name is engraved in Hebrew on a stone bowl from Jerusalem 2,100 years ago? In 2015 a fragment of a bowl fashioned from chalk (a type of limestone) was unearthed in the Israel Antiquities Authority archaeological excavation in the Givʽati parking lot at the City of David, in the Jerusalem Walls National Park. The vessel was published today and immediately aroused the curiosity of researchers.

According to Dr. Doron Ben-Ami of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Professor Esther Eshel of Bar-Ilan University, "This is one of the earliest examples of chalk vessels to appear in Jerusalem. These stone vessels were extensively used by Jews because they were considered vessels that cannot become ritually unclean".

The bowl was discovered during an archaeological excavation beneath the foundations of a miqwe dating to the Hasmonean period, which was part of a complex of water installations that were used for ritual bathing. 





The Givʽati ​​parking site in the City of David is among the largest excavation areas opened so far in Jerusalem. The excavations at the site, sponsored by the ʽIr David Foundation, have so far uncovered a wealth of artifacts from different periods...


Was Hyrcanus, whose name is engraved on the bowl, a high-ranking person, or perhaps simply an ordinary citizen during the Hasmonean period? According to the researchers, it is difficult to ascertain. Since there are few vessels in the archaeological record of this period which are engraved with names, it is not known whether this type of engraving was a routine act or a special tribute. "The name Hyrcanus was fairly common in the Hasmonean period," say Dr. Ben-Ami and Prof. Eshel. “We know of two personages from this period who had this name: John Hyrcanus, who was the grandson of Matityahu the Hasmonean and ruled Judea from 135–104 BCE, and John Hyrcanus II, who was the son of Alexander Jannaeus and Salome Alexandra; however, it is not possible to determine if the bowl belonged specifically to either of them”.


Have a happy and historically-significant Jewish narrative-filled Hanukkah (or however you spell it).

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A small street off of Zichron Yaakov neighborhood in Jerusalem

She's endured kangaroo penis, eat pig's brain and cockroach mead,



camping out in the jungle, competing in a bikini against a former Playboy model, tests of endurance and other na'arashkeit (silly things) and is even a favorite to win the "I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here" program (more na'arashkeit) - but will she do something for the tribe? The Tribe of Israel?




Will Stacey Solomon light Chanukkah candles, even though Shabbat candles, as far as I know (the show broadcasts on Friday nights in the UK), she hasn't? Will she even sing Maoz Tzur?

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No?

Then read here.

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Go here to understand this

نابلس 29-11-2010 وفا- وضع مستوطنون، قبل قليل، شمعدانا ضخما على مشارف مدينة نابلس بالضفة الغربية.

وقال شهود عيان إن الشمعدان وضع بواسطة رافعة قرب مثلث زعترة على بعد عدة كيلومترات جنوب نابلس، وأشاروا إلى أن هذه المنطقة تعتبر مركزا لتجمع عدد من المستوطنات اليهودية المتطرفة.

يذكر أن الشمعدان غالبا ما يستخدم في الطقوس الدينية اليهودية، ويسعى المستوطنون لفرض أيدلوجيتهم في مناطق الضفة الغربية من خلال هذه الأعمال.

ـ

ج.ض

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Jews who are funny, who have the flare of the comedian in them, the smart, clever and flippant variety, are a problem. For them, the case usually is, the most funniest topics and situations they can make fun of are....Jewish ones.

Now, I am not against making fun of one's self, or family or the whole gantzeh tribe. But when Howard Jacobson, author of “The Finkler Question” which won this year’s Man Booker Prize, takes on Hanukkah, with expected results, it is all so disappointing.

In his Hanukkah, Rekindled, written in Dublin of all places, he makes this point:-

...But how many Jews truly feel this narrative as their own?...Hanukkah — at least the way it’s told — struggles to find a path to Jewish hearts...it doesn’t quite feel authentic.

Isn’t there something a touch suspicious, for example, about our defeating the Syrian-Greek army? It lacks equivocation...Exodus played to our strengths. Similarly, Esther — who had married out of the faith, remember — turning the tables on Haman. In our best stories, we lose a little to gain a little. We use our heads. Trouncing the Syrian-Greeks sounds worryingly like wish fulfillment...

Of course, being a galut Jew, it doesn't occur to him that it is not wish fulfillment but motivation to fulfill our national responsibilities and obligations. Heaven forbid that Jacobson should think of the IDF in this context, not to mention (he is British, you know) the Irgun, Lechi or Palmah.

A Jew a soldier? A hero? A brave, self-sacrificing individual? And tens of thousands of them now? Jacobson can't be proud of that so he puts down the who thing with a smirk.

And he adds,

...The cruel truth is that Hanukkah is a seasonal festival of light in search of a pretext and as such is doomed to be forever the poor relation of Christmas. No comparable grandeur in the singing, no comparable grandeur in the giving, no comparable grandeur in the commemoration (no matter how solemn and significant the events we are remembering...those Hasmoneans — who sound too hot for this time of the year — don’t have a chance of engaging our imaginations.

So what’s to be done? Either Hanukkah should merge with Christmas — a suggestion against which the arguments are more legion even than the Syrian-Greek army — or it should be spiced up with the sort of bitter irony at which the Jewish people excel.

Irony?

Mr. Jacobson, that even isn't sardonic wit.

It's a manifesto of the League of Trembling Israelites who are embarrassed by their own kith and kin and our heritage and tradition.

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