Monday was a strange day for us - LOTS of rain again, and only 2 museums on the schedule for the day. I was a little disappointed at first, but should have known better.
The first museum was the Holocaust Museum. I went to the one in Washington D.C. as a teenager and remember it vividly. I knew this would be a different experience, but had no idea how different.
An interesting side note, we unknowingly visited the museum on National Holocaust Day and the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The Prime Minister and several dignitaries were also visiting the musuem.
The name of the museum was the Yad Vashem.
"And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name (a "yad vashem")... that shall not be cut off."
(Isaiah, chapter 56, verse 5)
This was a 20 meter tower towards the beginning of our tour. It was swaying, it was so windy!
It is a beautiful place. The most amazing thing I saw we weren't allowed to photograph. It was the children's memorial. There was a very tall (at least a few stories tall) room that was full of glass and mirrors. There were 5 lit candles, but because of the reflections it looked like 1.5 million lights. That's how many children died in the holocaust. It was heartbreaking to see and try to wrap our minds around.
Something else that I had a hard time grasping wasn't mentioned at the museum in D.C.
I guess if I had thought about it before, I would have realized that our history was probably a little skewed in our favor. Turns out, that's an understatement. Because I had seen the atrocities before, it was still horrible, but a new horror overshadowed it for me here.
We turned them away.
The United States. There were ships of Jewish refugees who traveled to countries in North and South America, looking for safety. And we, along with others, turned them away. They had to return to Europe where they were put in concentration camps.
I'm not saying we need to brag on our stupidity and inhumanity, but how are we expected to learn from the past if we don't actually know it?
I'm thankful for the role the United States played in ending the murders, don't get me wrong. It was just very difficult to read, to look at photos of the ships in our harbors, full of innocent, beautiful people, that were turned away. And this was less than 70 years ago.
I'll never be the same, and I think that's the point.
Ok - off my soapbox and on to the rest of the trip.
MUCH lighter note - there were random silhouettes and sayings painted on several cement blocks around the city - I'm not sure if they're graffiti or what. This one says "Vote For Pedro."
Next was the Israel Museum
By this point it was POURING rain. It was pretty miserable. We walked around on our own a little, had some lunch, watched a video on the dead sea scrolls, shopped, etc.
Lunch - David had a feta cheese sandwich and I had some kind of pizza-ish thing with no meat - can I just say I was ready for some bacon and pepperoni when we got home? Kosher didn't do much for me!
Outside at the museum was an AMAZING model of Jerusalem that showed how the city looked the day before it was destroyed in 70 AD. I took a quick picture in the rain. The detail was incredible.
Under this onion shaped dome are the Dead Sea Scrolls. We checked them out but didn't take any pictures. They looked like old scrolls with Hebrew writing.
This is what the model looked like all together and after the rain - it was massive. *Sorry - I tried to make them sit happily next to each other but the pictures are not cooperating!*
We left the museum thinking we were heading for the hotel. We got the best surprise - the rain had let up enough for us to go to the Elah Valley - the location of the battle between David and Goliath!
I can't tell you how excited I was! We got out and our guides explained that this was a A+ site - this is absolutely without a doubt where it occured - how cool is that?
We looked to our right and were told that up there is where the Israelite army was camped.
To our left, on the hill that's in the far left of this photo, is where the Philistines were camped. This little creek is where David found 5 smooth stones.
Then that young boy crossed the creek and defeated a giant.
This rocked my world.
My boys would have loved this!
We listened to the story being read from the Bible and to say it came to life just doesn't do it justice. If I could go to every place the Bible talks about I would. It was so crazy awesome.
We got the boys some smooth stones from the creek. Yes, I'm wearing 2 scarves. It was stinking cold.
When we got back to the hotel - we agreed it was time to take a picture of the sign in the rotating door - it had been cracking us up for days. From the top - Caution. Hold Hands. No Playing Soccer. :)
One day left!
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