Sunday, March 24, 2013

Joppa/Ioppa/Jaffa, it's all the same...

Hebrew is such an interesting language.  As we all know from The Last Crusade (Raiders of the Lost Ark), J and I are interchangeable.  "J" is also interchangeable with Y and H.  P and F are basically the same letter.
So Joppa can be Jaffa at different times in scriptural writing. Joppa is the city Jonah set sail from as he fled his assignment to preach to Nineveh; and his 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of the whale was later referred to by the Savior as the sign given to Israel of how long the Christ would lay in the tomb.
Joppa is also the city Peter was in when he had the vision of the sheet descending from heaven
with all manner of unclean animals, of which he was commanded to eat.  
Now, Joppa is a part of Tel Aviv, the "capital" of Israel.
Since the 1967 war when Jerusalem was taken under Israeli control, Jerusalem has been the declared capital. But most embassies are still in Tel Aviv.
 Jacob's dream of a ladder, portrayed in sculpture.
 The Tel Aviv skyline, north of Joppa.
 Everywhere we went in Israel, cats were in great abundance.  Sleek, well-fed, but with a feral look.  
Many, many calicoes!  While waiting a few minutes in one line, we watched cats come and go, fighting for some garbage.  We counted about 20 different cats in 5 minutes.  
No dogs.  None.  Anywhere.
And I don't know why, in either case.

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