Personification of Israel through names and stories of places

Personification or Anthropomorphism is attributing human characteristics to animals and various objects.
This is one of the most characteristic features of the human species. Humanity attributed human qualities to many external objects from the dawn of civilizations.
Basic human actions are handling the body: clean, health care, eating, etc.. This inner reality is a means through which it is possible for anybody to examine the external reality.
Thus, even in these days a very common thinking is about external objects as having human like features.

The Zodiac is a clear example of the tremendous power of anthropomorphic features in human culture.
Sky stars map is the earliest anthropomorphic map. Man at the dawn of history connected the constellations with human experience: figures, animals, and objects.

Pagan religions had many deities which had human traits such as: jealousy, hatred and love.
For example, the gods in Greek mythology, even the important ones such as Zeus and Apollo, were described as wearing human figures.

Monotheistic religious belief see, in general, as incorrect to describe the God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam as human. God has completely abstract properties.
However, it is most difficult for the average person to describe God as having no character.
Bible's creation story describes that God himself created man in his image.

The term 'image of God' is very important in Judaism, but specifies only spiritual qualities.
It does not call to simulate a physical person.
It does not connect to the Zodiac, or any other transcendent anthropomorphic expression.

Classical scholars called each map created as 'image of world' [Imago Mundi]
This name reveal the complex nature of Cartography.
Maps are a way of conveying messages influenced through culture-specific symbols.
Many ancient maps visually represented the essence of knowledge and perception of their creators’ world.

Although the modern scientific mapping use sophisticated measurement methods, it is still under the command of design aesthetic.
Accurate maps represent, against their purpose, a biased interpretation.
Any map, even the most scientifically advanced, is embedded in different content, including political, under the control of those who invited the map.
at the same time, wise use of artistic tools lets spectacular design of the maps - They are seen as works of art.

Land of Israel mapping activity was done for the longest duration in history compared to other places.
Overview of maps of the Holy Land shows that Cartography focused in one direction: an effort to be as accurate as possible in describing the landscape.
Partially successful map was created at the time of the Roman empire by Ptolemy [87-150 AD].

Despite the intensive mapping there is no trace of the possibility the land’s human figure, in any map or writing, since the Bible and up to our days.

Geography educated scholars who contemplated about the Land of Israel did so out of strict religious and scientific approach, ignoring the anthropomorphic approach.
Jewish sages drew only a few drawings of the map of Israel, especially as a simple square.
Rashi drew, in the 11th century, the country as a square with mostly the boundaries of the twelve tribes. He began a tradition which lasted until the Gaon of Vilna at late 18th century.

The ancient inhabitants of Israel did not have satellite images or even proper measurement tools to accurately map the area.
On the other hand, they were much more attentive to sounds of nature, intuitions covered the gap, and they absorbed the country's anthropomorphic image.

Land of Israel studies prove that it was an ancient tradition handed down from generation to generation.
Residents of the land throughout the ages gave names for many places according to the concept of the human form of the Holy Land. Stories of the Land of Israel, among them many Bible stories, express this.
It was a popular way to express love of country, not recognized by the educated.

To Hebrew speaker who lives in Israel today its seems that names of many places, both ancient and modern, are according to the human figure of the Holy Land. Arabic speakers will surely find many more.
Local news and events are perceived often as occurred as a result of their location according to the map.

Here are some examples of ancient names and stories of places in Israel in the spirit of Israel's human figure:

Jerusalem - rear mouth area
Phrase which the city is identified more than any is: ‘Word of God from Jerusalem’.

Jaffa - lips area
‘Yaffo’, the name pronunciation in Hebrew, is very similar to ‘Pah’ [mouth]. Whale swallowed Jonah who sailed from Jaffa.

Jericho - ear area
City of Jericho was conquered by the Israelites through the blowing of trumpets which toppled the walls.

Gaza - chin area
Meaning of ‘Gaza’, 'Aza' in Hebrew, is ‘courage’. It is appropriate to the firm chin. Samson died there a hero's death.

Haifa - nose area
‘Haifa’ is very similar to the Hebrew word ‘Af’ which is ‘nose’.

Jebel Livni - heart area
‘Livni’ is very close to ‘Lev’ - the Hebrew word for ‘heart’.

Litani River - head's top area
‘Litanis’ is prayer in Latin.


Anthropomorphism is Ergonomics both simple and sophisticated.
The Human Factor finds in it full expression.
It sends branches to all areas of life.

Human Form of the Holy Land is genuine and natural personification map.
Golden Ratio is a main way to create dialouge between man and world.
You can find the Golden Ratio in the map.

Pool of used fuel is stored on an upper floor of the reactor building in Fukushima

A design flaw by the Japanese builders appear to be at the heart of the crisis at Fukushima:

The extraordinary practice of putting the pool where the highly radioactive used fuel is stored on an upper floor of the reactor building, instead of, as is normal, having it at ground level.

This has made it particularly hard for workers to try to fill it with the water needed to isolate the fuel, keep it cool and stop it from melting – and is one reason why helicopters have had to be used.

General Electric "Mark I" Boiling Water Reactors comprise five of the six installed at the stricken complex in Japan, and all those so far hit by the world's first multi-reactor nuclear disaster.

General Electric offers in its instruction manual that the pool "is not above the reactor vessel and not designed to drain to the reactor vessel".

In addition to the danger caused by the building design, there are safety problems in the Mark 1 reactor type:

In 1976, three General Electric engineers resigned because: "the effects of a loss of coolant to the reactor core had not been fully taken into account. The result could tear the containment apart and create an uncontrolled release.

General Electric says that The Mark I meets all regulatory requirements and has performed well for over 40 years.

New reactors have been designed to be much safer, with the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), planned to be built here over the next few years, especially so.

But official documents show that the EPR will produce several times more of the radioactive iodine and caesium that would be rapidly released in an accident than do present-day reactors.

Source: The Telegraph

Unique Distortions in the Holy Land Map

The relation between any two following numbers in the Golden Ratio mathematical series is always a permanent number: 1.618…

This relation is not an integer. It is irrational. It continues into infinity with numbers after the point.

This is one of the reasons why a systematic thinking of the Golden Ratio brings the philosopher to thoughts of constant change, chaos, randomaliy, and the origins of the universe.

At the same time that it creates harmonies, the Golden Ratio creates change, restlessness, obsession, and search.

One of the attributes of people who lead life of constant change is their ability to dream and imagine.
In order to live a satisfying life it is necessary to imagine and dream, and arrange the will and thoughts according to this.

The Holy Land Map is not an exact duplicate of the human body.

The comparison between Geography and Anatomy reveal many distortions against the model of an adult human figure.

These distortions are unique and can inspire.

They can teach us a lot about ourselves.


Here are some of the distortions in the Holy Land Map:

Fetus
When following the exact lines of the landscape, the human figure which comes as a result resembles that of a fetus.
This is of course very interesting, but can be repulsive for representation.
So the final drawing is much more stately.

Jordan Valley
Jordan Valley's Sea of Galilee and Dead Sea are the eye and the ear in the map.
Together with Jordan River, these three water bodies can form an independent shape which reminds of an entire human figure, or at least a living creature with head, neck and body.
This personification drew the attention of poets and a special article is dedicated to it.
The eyes' nerves are about quarter of the brain, and the ears' bones are completed in the fetus.

Their being in the map as small organs and as an independent body is very interesting.
It gives the map its balance between right and left.

Face and Torso
The face in the map, the land between the river to the sea, is in an elongated, skinny form.
The Torso, Sinai Peninsula, is much more wide and fatty.
The face of the Holy Land Map appears in its external appearance: You can see the eye, ear, cheek, nose, mouth, etc.
The torso appears in its interior appearance: You can see the internal organ systems of the heart-lungs, liver-stomach, and intestines.
This double dissonance is according to the biblical descriptions of the fertile land–face as a narrow passing-through place, where the observation of the rules is dominant.
Sinai-desert is a vast and empty space where the direct inspiration of the Lord is much more feasible.

Hair
East Jordan Mountains, or the Red Mountains, are the hair because of their relative place and shape, and their appearance from the Jordan Valley.

These mountains create a wall between Land of Israel and Jordan deserts. They mark the path for countless scouting birds in their yearly migrations.
The biblical related story is that of Esau, twin of Jacob, the hairy guy who inherited part of this land.
The hair of the map-character is bountiful. It suggest that God is not a male nor a female but both.

Angel Rays
Hermon and Lebanon mountains have a V shape. Their snowy peaks are more then two kilometers above sea level and form between them the misty Baaka valley.

These ranges continue north to Asia Minor.
The stories about them are related to the tribe of Dan, whose land was in their southern intersection.
The meaning of the name 'Dan' in Hebrew is 'Judge'. The intersection a focal point, a logical optimum.
Abraham had his covenant with God at this point.

Energy Lines
Seven powerful energy lines cross the Land of Israel, in accord with the human body's energy lines.
The primary and strongest line is vertical, along the Jordan Valley.
The other six lines are horizontal, meridians, crossing from east to west along major mountain passes.
These seven lines reminds of the six days of the week and Shabbat, or the Divine lamp with the seven stems.
The distance along the Jordan Valley between each mountain pass is almost exactly 100 kilometers.

This precision can integrate between Healing and Geography.

Skin

The need to add colors and textures on order to enrich the character with details made it necessary to rely on the landscape as the human skin.

The primary lines-skeleton of the human shape of the Holy Land where covered with earth-skin in the Biblical sense of man's creation in the sixth day.

The Holy Land Map is a source of inspiration for the imagination. It encourages living according to dreaming.
It is a physical reality engraved in the soul to raise it from earth to heaven.

Illustration of the Great European War from a Japanese Humorous Atlas

Illustration of the Great European War, from a Humorous Atlas of the World

This map was created and published in Japan at the time of the First World War - 1914-1918.

The map focuses more on Asia then on Europe.

Russia-bear and China-pig are the most dominant nations-figures on the map.

It is amazing how the artist could give unique anthropomorphic attributes to almost any state in the old world.

List of some correlations:
China - pig
Russia - bear
India - elephant
Tibet - yak
Turkey - tiger
Egypt - woman
England - fish
Portugal - puppy
Germany - wild boar
Persia - cat

Land of Israel appears as a paw of Turkey-tiger.

Source: BibliOdyssey

Satirical Maps of the First World War

BibliOdyssey Blog post spectacular examples of Anthropomorphic maps of Europe from the First World War - 1914-1918.

All the maps shows the nations as human beings or animals fighting each other.

Holy Land Map: Anatomy - Geography Correlations

Correlations between the human body and the Geographic regions of Israel

The map of the Human Shape of the Land of Israel was created and refined through a long creation process.

The correlations between the human body and the geography of Israel were developed according to the well known principle that there is a continuous dialogue between mankind, his landscape and Nature.

This is a dynamic sublimation processes which create an image in practice.

A complicated metamorphosis process was needed to change the topographic map into a human shape.

This is naturally an infinite process of the imagination, which act to disintegrate obsolete formal images and reshape them as fresh dynamic ones.


The main tool in creating the map was comparing aerial photographs and maps with anatomy drawings and models.

Art and cultural sources were also used to expand the associations.


The level of correlation in this map is much higher then that in other anthropomorphic maps.

It is a correlation which calls for a scientific research.


Many viewers of the Holy Land Map find it difficult to identify the human figure which is hidden in the landscape.

They believe that they look at an ordinary map of the Land of Israel and do not see the human figure that has a shape parallel to that of the landscape.

The reason is the numerous Geographical details of the picture, which force the eyes to focus on them and loose the hidden view.

The aim of the map is to be clear at a first glance.

The visual features of the connection between the landscape of Israel and the human shape are intersting enough and there is no need to complicate them by Optical Illusions.


The major correlations in the Map of the Human Shape of the Holy Land are:
Head - From Mt. Hermon to Negev Plateau and from Jordan River to Mediterannean Sea
Neck – Negev Plateau
Torso – Sinai Peninsula


List of correlations:

Head - From Mt. Hermon to Negev Plateau and from Jordan River to Mediterannean Sea
Head Top - Litany River
Forhead Top - Tyre
Brain - Galillee Mountains
Eyebrow - Acre
Eye - Lake Kinneret
Nose – Carmel Mountain
Dead Sea – ear
Mouth, back - Jerusalem
Samaria – upper cheek
Judea – lower cheek
Mouth, front - Ayalon, Shorek, and Haela Streams
Lip, rear - Vadi Hevron
Lip, upper - Ayalon Stream
Lip, lower - Bsor Stream
Chin - Gaza
Chin edge - Vadi El-Arish estuary

Neck – Negev Plateau
Thyroid Gland - South Dead Sea
Nape - Arava Basin to Eilat
Trachea - Kadesh Barnea
Esophagus - Ramon Crater and Vadi Faraan
Vertebra - Vadi Zin

Torso – Sinai Peninsula
Ribs - Negev to Sinai parralel north-east to south-west mountains ranges
Heart and lungs system - Vadi El-Arish Basin
Liver and Stomach System - A-Tia Plateau
Horizontal Colon - A-Tia Cliffs
Intenstinal System - High Mountains of Sinai
Pelvis bottom - Sharm-a-Shech
Spinal column - Eilat Bay Mountains
Kidneys - Nueiba
Spinal column curve - Dahab
Sternum - Rus Sudar


There are also spiritual Geography - Anatomy correlations:

Spiritual organs around Israel
Angel Rays - Mount Hermon and Lebanon mountains
Hair - Golan and East Jordan mountains
Fear Chakra - Red Sea
Balancing Aura - Mediterannean Sea

Human Shape of the Holy Land

Human Shape of the Holy Land

God had created man in his shape.

in his spiritual life man tries to get closer to god's virtues.

At the same time, Man's body proportions are according to the Golden Ratio, the Divine Proportions.


How can the Holy Land combine this?

What is the reason for the longings to the Land of Israel in all Monotheistic cultures, longings that find their expression as a strong physical and emotional experience in religious hymns throughout history.

The connection in this hymns between the geography and the celestial is much stronger then in a simple metaphor.


The answer is amazing:

The Land of Israel has a Shape Similar to that of the Human Body

It is a physical reality with a particular relief, which engraves and raises the spirit.

The correlation between the Land of Israel and the human body is accurate.

The landscape can almost serve for anatomy lessons.

The figure includes:

The land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as faceת

The Negev Plateau as neck.

Sinai Peninsula as the torso.

It is a commentary of the Bible, Judaism and the borders of Israel.

The map is a message of social Humanism, global progress and personal freedom.


In the process of creating the map, the landscape was examined with photographs and maps, in relation to the human anatomy and other figures.

The level of correlation is much higher then that in other anthropomorphic maps.

It is a correlation which calls for a scientific examination.


The idea of the correlation human body and the geography of Israel was developed according to the principle that there is continuous dialogue between mankind and landscape, as a dynamic sublimation process, and as an image in practice.

Our Living Legacy - The Survivors’ Declaration

Our Living Legacy

The Age of Holocaust Survivors is drawing to a close. Before long no one will be left to say, "I was there, I saw, I remember what happened." All that will be left will be books of literature and research, pictures and films, and multitudinous testimony. This will be a new era. The dark inheritance of the Shoah that was so indelibly stamped on the survivors' souls and hearts will become a sacred mission imposed upon humanity.



In the spring of 1945 the great thunder of World War Two was silenced. In the eerie stillness that followed, we, the last vestiges of European Jewry emerged from the camps, the forests, and the death marches. We were ragged, bitter and orphaned, without friend or relative, without a home. We were secretly wondering in our hearts if after the Ghettos, transports, and Auschwitz we would still be capable of rekindling a spark of life within us? Could we ever work again? Love again? Would we dare begin a family again?

No, we didn’t turn into wild animals, hungering only for vengeance. This is a testament to the principles we possess as a people imbued with enduring faith in both man and Providence. We chose life. We chose to rebuild our lives, to fight for the establishment of the State of Israel, and we chose to contribute to society in Israel and in a host of other countries.

The majority of the Holocaust survivors came to Israel - the Jewish State. This was, for them, an existential imperative arising from the Holocaust. The foundations of the State of Israel were built not only on the memory of six million of our people who were murdered, but with the historical lessons of the Shoah in mind, namely that a Holocaust will never happen again. Since then, we have chosen to contend with the most resounding and perplexing issues relating to the Shoah: Why and for what purpose was the horror perpetrated? Why did the Germans single out the Jew as a danger to all humanity who must be exterminated? How is it possible that amongst the German nation, a people of such apparent intellect and modern culture who produced great artists, thinkers and teachers of ethics, murderers could arise who fashioned and operated this unprecedented killing machine?

The survivors are a pluralistic lot, with myriad opinions, convictions and doctrines. But we share a deep desire to transmit to the future generations what we lived through, and what we learned during that dark time, before we bid farewell to this life that showed us so much bitterness. It is from here, from Har HaZikaron - the Mount of Remembrance - from Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, that we the survivors choose tell our story. And it is now, that we raise our collective and individual voices.

In Jewish tradition, the command to remember is absolute. But its obligation does not end with the cognitive act of memory - it must be connected to both meaning and action. Today, we for to the next generation. We pass to you as well, the fundamental lesson of Judaism, that memory must be accompanied by action of ethical and moral intent. This must be the foundation and the focus of your energies toward the creation of a better world.



“Thou shalt not murder!” This basic tenet of human morality was trumpeted to all humanity from the heights of Mount Sinai. The memory of the murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazis and their willing helpers obligates us to act on this injunction. Life is a gift of creation, its form and essence a statement of ultimate equality among all those created in God’s image. With this in mind, it would seem obvious and indisputable that this fundamental commandment obligates all of humanity. And yet it is being mockingly violated in every corner of the world. As a part of the legacy of the Shoah we must be relentless in our pursuit of solving human conflict, between states and between people, in ways that prevent unnecessary bloodshed.



For us, who experienced the degradation of cruel racism and prejudice, who were condemned to death merely for being born Jews, we call on humankind to adopt principles of equality among men and nations. Tyrannical despotism, political and religious oppression, economic deprivation designed to destroy human dignity must be seen by the world community as grave sins that will not be tolerated. There is no real alternative to coexistence between people and nations. All must be done to resolve differences not through the spilling of blood but through discussion and mediation, in the Middle East and in the entire world.

Anti-Semitism and all other forms of racism present a danger not only to Jews but also to the community of nations. These days the “new anti-Semitism” is directed simultaneously against Jews, against Israel and against Zionism. By equating these terms the danger for Jews as a whole is exacerbated. This phenomenon is also common in propaganda emanating from the Arab world. The Holocaust showed the world the extent of the destructive power of anti-Semitism and racism. Holocaust denial, as well as minimization and banalization of the Holocaust provide a means of avoiding the evident conclusions and learning the lessons for the future. We, the survivors, call upon the world to wipe out these phenomena and to combat them relentlessly.

The memory of the Shoah is contentious and dark, exposing the ugly and naked face of consummate inhumanity that threatens the very nature and stature of civilization itself. We who staggered through the valley of death, only to see how our families, our communities and our people were destroyed, did not descend into despondency and despair. Rather, we struggled to extract a message of meaning and renewed purpose for our people and for all people, namely: a message of humanity, of human decency and of human dignity.

The Holocaust, which established the standard for absolute evil, is the universal heritage of all civilized people. The lessons of the Holocaust must form the cultural code for education toward humane values, democracy, human rights, tolerance and patience, and opposition to racism and totalitarian ideologies.

From Har HaZikaron in Jerusalem the words of Rabbi Hillel need to ring out loud and clear: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow human being!”

====================

The Survivors' Declaration was first read out by Holocaust survivor journalist and writer- Zvi Gill at the closing ceremony of the international conference held at Yad Vashem on "The Legacy of Holocaust Survivors: The Moral and Ethical Implications for Humanity." The ceremony took place in the Valley of the Communities at Yad Vashem.

Judaism and the Golden Ratio

Judaism in its initial, biblical form, emphasized the connection between man and nature.

Relationship between God, human society, individuals and Land of Israel in the Torah scrolls are woven into one system of religous order.

The Holy Land is the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Sabbatical law is one of the most important in the Torah.
It allow exile punishment to the people, to complete the Sabbatical years not been fulfilled properly.

In the Jewish holiday of Sukot people live in huts for seven days, to be close to nature.
This is to celebrate the renewed reading of the Torah from Jenesis.

In Pagan religons priests established a similar religous system, linking man's behavior to that of nature.

But the Golden Ratio, which was used widly for aesthetics, and imposing a combination of natural and religous order, almost does not appear in the entire Torah, which is full of numbers and measures.

This is in contrast to the Pyramids, Parthenon and Pantheon, with their sophisticated Golden Ratios.

These were the temples of the enemies of the Jewish people in ancient times, and enemies of the rising monotheistic belief.

Yet Judaism and early Christianity were percieved as more advanced and capble of handling human life.

How could that be without the science of Golden Ratio?

Surely the religous scholers were aware of its importance, even in times of religous persecution and times of change to urban life style.

Judaism had to adjust to modern life its tradition of man's links with natue, but instead a sparation process started.

The immense interpretations of the Torah’s laws didn’t recall the Golden Ratio or even nature's importance.

In the Diaspora, the concept of ignoring nature, and aesthetics, had become even stronger as a central motif for Jewish scholars.

The only imortant thing were moral values and the detailed religous laws.

Human Beings in their flash and blood, with their full neuances, captured the imagination.

Imagination refute formal images and recreate them as dynamic ones.

People were considered brothers and friends, illuminated by God's light and capable of moral attributes, and this was the only important thing.

They asked for Resurgence as a dynamic sublimation process, in an unceasing dialogue between Mankind, God and Earth.

How could Judaism and early Christianity detach themselves so confidently from the values of nature, science, and aesthetics?

There isn't any inherent contradiction between monotheism and the Golden Ratio.

Morality and science should co-exist as vital bricks for building society.

Truth and beauty are simply two differnet ends for the same people.

Perhaps Land of Israel, the original geographical base of Judaism and Christianity, had special properties which allowed scholars to extend their range of interpretation of human life, to a degree uncommon in the Pagan world.

The Golden Ratio

Leonardo's Human Golden Ratio

Fibonacci, the greatest Mathematician of the Middle-Ages, was a genius who reached the summits of thought and dream. He described a Mathematical series: the Golden Ratio, known also as the Divine Proportion.

In this series any number is the sum of the two previous numbers. It goes on: 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144,233,377,610, 987, 1597, and so on.

The ratio 1.618… is a constant between each two following numbers.
It is always an irrational number without an end.

This series has fantastic qualities, mathematical and accordingly geometrical.

The occupation with the Golden Ratio is so exiting, the formed harmonies so wonderful, that it can create a full world perception.


The Golden Ratio is credited as having great influence on the development of human history and knowledge.

The architects of the pyramids in Egypt proportioned it with a Golden Ratio between the mast and the side lengths.

In the Parthenon in Athens the front is a Golden Rectangle, one of the best manifestations of the Golden Ratio.

The holiest shrine of the Roman Empire, The Pantheon, was also designed according to the Golden Ratio.

Renaissance men like Leonardo de Vinci and Michelangelo used it in their famous works of art.

Composers like Mozart, and modern artists like the architect Le-Corbusier, created their works of art using the Golden Ratio.


The importance of the Golden Ratio in Nature is even bigger.

This ratio appears in countless natural phenomena, which are amazingly different in their outlook appearance.

Few examples are:
The D.N.A shape, the numbers of leafs in plants, the sub divisions of mountains ranges and rivers, the distances between the solar system planets.


The human body organs are proportioned according to the Golden Ratio.

It appears in many of the facial, body and limbs proportions.

This was one of the foundations of Classic Hellenistic sculpture.

Le-Corbusier designed the 'Modular', a drawing of a man with Golden Ratio proportions as a base for his Architectonic plans.

The Holy Land and world culture

Gustave Dore - New Jerusalem

The people of Israel had re-established their state in Land of Israel after two thousand years of exile and the Holocaust. One of the lessons of the Holocaust is that a strong Israel is a moral obligation of the free world.
But the Promised Land borders are not defined precisely in the Bible. The Bible says that God, the people of Israel, and Land of Israel, are a consolidated entity. This definition has already decided the fate of the Jewish people. But unlike the people's clear concrete rules, the boundaries were vague and undefined.

Research has determined that there are different border settings of Greater Israel. These territorial definitions were created at different times by different people, and caused absolute misunderstanding. There are also those who claim that the country's borders expand and contract as needed.

Lack of clear map has always been an obstacle for the Zionist idea. Jerusalem became abstract term, one that reflects value and is intangible, in the eyes of the Jews themselves in the Diaspora, from the destruction of the first temple and later.

In modern times, the lack of a map defining the boundaries of Greater Israel influenced crucial political decisions. For example, Sinai Peninsula was given to Egypt casually, because it was not considered by the government of Menachem Begin as part of Greater Israel.

The Catholic Church announced a few years ago, based on an Israeli scholar's research, that Mount Sinai is in the Negev plateau.


In contrast to its mental cancellation as a tangible object, the Land of Israel has always evoked the deepest feelings in all Western and Monotheistic cultures. Longings to Israel, the Holy land, find their expression as a strong physical and emotional experience in prayers, hymns, and works of religious art throughout history.

Gospel songs expressing longing to the Holy Land are major assets of Western Culture. They are earthy level of religious poetry. In them, religious and folk poetry is combined in an inseparable connection.


An American Gospel song:

I'm a Pilgrim

I am a pilgrim and a stranger,
Travelling through this wearisome land,
got a home in that yonder city, oh Lord,
and it's not, not made by hands.

I got a mother, sister and a brother,
who have gone to that sweet land.
I am determined to go and see them
oh Lord,
all over on that distant shore.

As I go down to that river of Jordan,
just to bathe my weary soul.
If I could touch but the hem of his garment,
oh Lord, well, I believe it would make me whole.


A philosophy that deals with human beings must adjust to the images of poems and continue their flow. Philosophy must learn poems honestly, because poetry is the peak of contemplation and expression, the climax of thought and dream.

The connection in this poem between the physical Jordan River and the abstract celestial city is too clear and strong then required for a simple metaphor.
It arouses questions regarding the intimacy between religious and material experiences.

The consistant relationship between the personal religious experience and the physical Holy Land calls for examining its sources.

18 * 18 ratio between Sinai Peninsula and Sea of Galilee

Sinai Peninsula dimensions are 383 by 237 kilometers.

Sea of Galilee dimensions are 21 by 13 kilometers.


Dividing the length of Sinai Peninsula with that of Sea of Galilee gives approximately the result 18:

383/21 = 18

Dividing the width of Sinai Peninsula with that of Sea of Galile gives approximately the result 18:

237/13 = 18


You can include Sea of Galilee in Sinai Peninsula 324 times:
18 * 18 = 324

324 AD is a very important year historically and religiously.
This year the global hegemony passed to the Christian Byzantine Empire.
The Byzantine Empire, whose capital was Constantinople, finally won the war this year, against the pagan Roman Empire, whose capital was Rome.

Extended Reading:

The Holy Land and the Golden Ratio - Chapter 8 - 18 * 18 ratio between Sinai Peninsula and Sea of Galilee

Sea of Galilee as Golden Rectangle

The length of Sea of Galilee according to the rectangle enclosing it is 21 kilometers.

The width of the lake is 13 kilometers.

21 and 13 are two consecutive numbers in the golden ratio series.

The result determines the astonishing fact that the Sea of Galilee dimensions are of a Golden Rectangle.

Extended reading: The Holy Land and the Golden Ratio - Chapter 7 - Sea of Galilee and the Golden Ratio

Sinai Peninsula as Golden Rectangle

The length of Sinai Peninsula according to the rectangle enclosing it is 383 kilometers.

The width of Sinai Peninsula is 237 kilometers.


The size ratio between length and width is approximately 1.616.

383/237 = 1.616


The exact relationship between two consecutive numbers of the golden ratio series is 1.618.

The result states that the dimensions of Sinai Peninsula are of a Golden Rectangle.


Extended reading: The Holy Land and the Golden Ratio - Chapter 8 - The Golden Ratio and Sinai Peninsula

Paleo-Future - A look into the future that never was

Post card show the year 2000 [circa 1900] - Personal Flying Machines

The Paleo-Future blog was started by Matt Novak in January of 2007. Matt has since become an accidental expert on past visions of the future, and has amassed an enormous library of media related to the study of retro-futurism.

20 Dynamic Paintings From The Italian Futurists

Shaking Flight [Tullio Crali, 1939]

CreativeCloud blog presents 20 Dynamic Paintings From Italian Futurists in a time line which shows how Futurism became synonym to Fascism.

Autumn migration of cranes in Hula Valley, Israel

Sabina Spielrein

Sabina Spielrein , born 1884, died August 12th 1942 (both in Rostov-on-Don), was one of the first female psychoanalysts. She studied under Carl Gustav Jung, with whom she also had a romantic relationship.

Born 1885 into a family of a Jewish doctors in Rostov, Russia, her mother was a dentist, her father a physician. One of her brothers, Isaac Spielrein, was a Soviet psychologist, a pioneer of labor psychology. Sabina was married to Pavel Scheftel, a physician of Russian Jewish descent. They had two daughters: Renate, born 1912, and Eva, born 1924.

Before enrolling as a student of medicine in Zürich, Spielrein was admitted in August 1904 to the Burghölzli mental hospital near Zürich, where Carl Gustav Jung worked at that time, and remained there until June 1905. While there, she established a deep emotional relationship with Jung who later was her medical dissertation advisor. The historian and psychoanalyst Peter Loewenberg argues that this was a sexual relationship, in breach of professional ethics, and that it "jeopardized his position at the Burghölzli and led to his rupture with Bleuler and his departure from the University of Zurich".

Spielrein graduated in 1911, defending a dissertation about a case of schizophrenia, and was later elected a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. She continued with Jung until 1912 and later saw Sigmund Freud in Vienna.

In 1923, Spielrein returned to Soviet Russia and with Vera Schmidt established a kindergarten in Moscow, nicknamed "The "White Nursery" by the children (all furniture and walls having been white). The institution was committed to bringing up children as free persons as early as possible. "The White Nursery" was closed down three years later by the authorities under false accusation and it was accused of practising sexual perversions on the children (in fact, Stalin actually enrolled his own son, Vasily, into the "White Nursery" under a false name.

Sabina's husband Pavel perished during Stalin's Great Terror, as did her brother Isaac. Sabina and her two children were probably killed by an SS Death Squad, Einsatzgruppe D in 1942 in Zmievskaya Balka.

While Spielrein is not often given more than a footnote in the history of the development of psychoanalysis, her conception of the sexual drive as containing both an instinct of destruction and an instinct of transformation, presented to the Society in 1912, in fact anticipates both Freud's "death wish" and Jung's views on "transformation" (Bettelheim 1983). She may thus have inspired both men's most creative ideas.

Spielrein's letters, journals and copies of hospital records have been published, as has her correspondence with Jung and Freud.

A documentary, My Name was Sabina Spielrein, was made in 2002 by the Hungarian-born Swedish director Elisabeth Marton and was released in the United States in late 2005.

There is a biopic, The Soul Keeper, directed by Roberto Faenza, with Emilia Fox as Spielrein and Iain Glen as Carl Gustav Jung.

Spielrein figures prominently in two contemporary British plays: Sabina (1998) by Snoo Wilson and The Talking Cure (2003) by Christopher Hampton, in which Ralph Fiennes played Jung on the London stage. Both plays were preceded by the Off Broadway production of Sabina (1996) by Willy Holtzman. Hampton has adapted his own play for an upcoming feature called A Dangerous Method, which is being produced by Jeremy Thomas and directed by David Cronenberg.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Europe's Alcohol Belts

This map shows Europe dominated by three so-called ‘alcohol belts’, the northernmost one for distilled spirits, a middle one for beer and the southernmost one for wine.

Source: Strange Maps

Airplane on Water

Many men drowned in front of mirrors. - Gaston Bachelard

photo: axiepics

Chicago's Annual Air and Water Show

Near water, light takes on a new tonality; it seems that light has more clarity when it meets clear water. - Gaston Bachelard

photo: Chaseism

Air and Water

To disappear into deep water or to disappear toward a far horizon, to become part of depth of infinity, such is the destiny of man that finds his image in the destiny of water. - Gaston Bachelard

photo: ms4jah

Drifting Toward Defeat - The French Air Force in Second World War

Amiot 143 and Potez 540 - Two Bomber-Combat-Reconnaissance

French aircrafts of Second World War.

Exploring counterfactual history is always a risky business. French soldiers and airmen did not expect to lose the war against Germany in 1940. Thus, Historians must view their preparations during the 1930s with an appreciation of the context that shaped their decisions. These decisions had a rational basis that passed the reasonability test among government leaders and military professionals alike. Nevertheless, at several points in the 1930s, French leaders could have chosen other options. The most important areas under direct Armee de l'Air control were technology, organization, and operations.

Technologically, the decision to procure the Bomber Combat Reconnaissance aircraft series to modernize the Armee de I'Air by 1936 proved fatal. Although the decision soothed interservice political concerns, it provided modern technology only briefly. Production problems and an ongoing technological revolution saddled the air service with useless materiel. But was this decision the only reasonable alternative at the time?

French aviation industry experts could have advised the Air Ministry to procure specialized bomber and fighter airplanes. By 1933-1934, it had become clear that fighter engine designs were well on their way to providing better performance than those for bombers. The advent of high-octane fuel, superchargers, and high-performance wing designs, increased the single-seat design advantages dramatically. So, why would Cot and Denain, French air ministers at that time, choose a design that was obviously on the wane? The answer lies in the pressure brought to bear by the economic and political crisis and by the army. Since Cot and his chief of staff had limited credits to spend on modernization, the army and navy could not allow the aggressive air leaders to procure pursuit of bomber airplanes that were not suited for observation or close air support missions.

Moreover, industry leaders wanted to produce airplanes that appealed to commercial as well as government customers. Investments in fighter designs would lock the industry into a narrow military market, and the 1920s 'politique des prototypes' had proved this to be fraught with uncertainty, as the government allowed firms to undertake research and development without ordering enough airframes to permit them to recoup their investments. Thus, leaders in the senior services and in industry held the Air Ministry hostage. Aircraft firms would not build planes unless the government ordered enough to ensure they turned a profit, and the army and navy would support credits only for airplanes that fit their notions of how airpower should perform on the battlefield.

In retrospect, the first generation of BCR aircraft (1934-1935) should have been the Iast. lnstead, French firms continued to make incremental improvements in the designs until 1938. Again, the reasons are obvious. The Armee de l'Air had created an entire organization and training system based on employing formations of BCR type battle planes. Abandoning the designs and the accompanying service structures probably would have spelled the end of the airforce as an institution. The airmen became caught in a trap that forced them to try to perfect a flawed system in the face of increasing evidence that their technological gamble was bankrupt. To recast the air service into one that was better able to meet the Luftwaffe on more or less equal terms would have required greater courage and large amount of political capital. The British managed to pull off such a feat when the minister for the coordination of defense forced RAF leaders to shift procurement emphasis from heavy bombers to fighters and radar. As late as 1938, the French could have attempted a similar technological shift, but the institutional battle lines had ossified to the point that all the Air Ministry could do was attempt an incremental solution to the problem. The result was the D-52O, a technological solution that the Armee de l'Air could have used to compete effectively against the Luftwaffe had the war occurred in 1941 or 1942, when sufficient numbers would have appeared in the squadrons.

A second, perhaps more telling turning point occurred in February 1940, when Air Minister La Chambre and Chief of Staff Vuillemin surrendered their service's organizational structure to the army. If there was a single area in which airmen were responsible for the defeat, this was it. French military aviation had operated since 1933 by attempting to follow the principle of concentration of forces. Air leaders had succeeded in gaining the army's acceptance of the necessity of having an air commander to advise army and navy commanders on the proper use of aviation assets. Since 1933, annual exercises and war games had reinforced the concept that only by concentrating scarce airpower resources could commanders expect to achieve maximum effect on the battlefield. Therefore, the decision to change how aviation command and control would function, occurring after the French declaration of war and three months before the Germans attacked, amounted to the air leaders' abandonment of their duty to employ air capabilities correctly.
This decision amplified the shortcomings that the airmen knew existed in their service. The weaknesses of the alerting networks, the poor readiness of the reserves, and the inadequacy of the logistical systems all came under greater stress as the reorganization and later the pressures of combat dismantled the geographic command structure. After seven years of doctrinal development and experimentation that emphasized the operational and strategic utility of airpower, French air leaders allowed the army to force it into a mold that, at best, gave the air service only a tactical role. In their country's hour of greater need, airmen chose to restrict their vision of the war to the cockpit. This loss of operational vision and the inability to present the unique aviation options to the supreme war council deprived France of one of its most potent weapons.

Finally, the French failed to operate their part of the national defense structure in ways that would lead to effective combat performance. The clear lack of trained, proficient aircrews limited the operational capability of the Armee de l'Air. This Stemmed, in part, from a willingness to accept the army's view that the pace and scope of warfare had not changed appreciably since the last war. Airmen chose to ignore lessons they could have learned about airpower from the various small wars of the interwar period. They underestimated the efficiency of fighter airplanes, they overestimated the effectiveness of ground-based air defenses, and, curiously, they overestimated the effectiveness of their own aerial striking capabilities while simultaneously under estimating the same capabilities of their adversaries. There were clear intellectual and operational shortcomings that professional aviators should have avoided.

In the final analysis, the Armee de l'Air deserves a considerable amount of the blame for the German conquest of France in 1940. Was the French air service the primary culprit in the defeat? Was it the subversive element that conspired to open the doors for Germany by purposely failing to do its duty? The answer is no on both counts. French airmen exhibited failings that were similar to those of their surface warfare counterparts in the army and navy. They served honorably in combat, and many of them died attempting to counter forces that were better suited in terms of technology, tactics, organization, and operations.

Analysts seeking to learn from the Armee de l'Air's interwar experience should recognize that political, interservice, and economic pressures; technological constraints; and organizational decisions came together to force hard decisions that military and civilian authorities did not necessarily want. Leaders, however, often have to make suboptimal choices to carry out their duties in the politically charged realm of national defense. Such decisions may reflect the only choices, and they may even be "right" choices. But when a number of suboptimal choices come together in a time of crisis, such as occurred in the 1940 Battle of France, institutions and individuals find themselves at a loss to explain how they could have been so blind.

from: Why air forces fail: the anatomy of defeat

photos: Airminded

Why Air Forces Fail - Anatomy of Defeat

Biggest test of government is whether or when war occur it is able to maintain a strategic reality on, through resources, manpower, etc, by understanding the nature and vulnerability of both the enemy and of itself.

Air Force is particularly vulnerable in this context, because of the relatively small part of the warrior section, because of the vulnerability of bases, and of course the high technology and the level of complexity. This creates a dependency of the Air Force and binds the whole civil defense system.

Air Force failures in history come from, as a result, not so much from due date, but due to circumstances. Not technology but foresight caused the failure. Understanding and managing air equation correctly, recognition of the importance of the factors that support, played a central role.

Despite that defeat of air forces may be fast, and instill the feeling that they are fragile, the simplicity of the ultimate end is only a tip of the iceberg of the many complex factors. Therefore two immediate questions arise: Is the loss of air superiority caused the loss of protection for the entire country, and whether it was the only reason.

So for the leaders of the war the question of what are the security margins of air superiority is critical. When the state in war felt that she was going to lose its air space superiority she certain will take every step possible to prevent it.

Air Force can hurt each and every place. At the same, the sense of flight is central to the human soul. As a result, a sense of vulnerability intensifies as a result of air superiority among the citizens, making them full partners to the leadership upheaval. The birds carrys the voice, and a slight change in the balance of air superiority immediately finds expression among the citizens.

Air historian described it this way: "The fact is that bombs from the sky has the unique power of terrorism. When bombs are dropped from a great height, it seems that, quite accidentally, they seem to fall on top of everyone ... exposed to uncontrolled destruction feeling soldeirs fear, as in natural holocaust, that they are tempted to feel that they are completely defenseless, though in reality, if someone is hiding in a trench or even lay on the ground, he is protected fair enough from explosions."

Nazi Germany had strategic failures in grand scale. You can connect the strategic blunders to the moral: The inability to understand the nature of war in the air, as well as incorrect management of the war economy, were bound with her inability to understand human nature, whuch led to the order of final solution and the Holocaust.

The main strategic failure of the Nazis was a lack of evaluation of the potential strategic bomber, born passionately during war, and causing shrinking German space so that every plant had become vulnerable, so the German air defense demanded unlimited resources of manpower and weapons.

Heavy bombing on German soil began some time before the order of final solution was signed. You can see that the trigger of strategic bomber was the last drive for Goering about it. Terminology of the imagination suggest that air bomber harbinger thick clouds of terrible storm, a powerful sense of vulnerability. No wonder Goering felt the need to defend himself in any way, including meanest way.

When the war was before his eyes in the context of rumors, some of which may be based, local Jews directed the Allied bombers at the important goals in Germany.

These days, attempts of al Qaeda to blow up airplanes are parallel to Nazi attempts to gain dictatorial power worldwide through air superiority.

Bibliography: Why Air Forces Fail - Anatomy of Defeat