Whew, this was almost an information overload day! I think I would like to do this whole day over. My mind was still contemplating everything I saw yesterday. I didn't do a great job of taking in all the information and sites today. Because we were going to spend time near the Dome of the Rock, security would not allow us to carry anything other than our phones with us which means I didn't have my notebook to write down all my notes. I'll still try to explain what we saw and did though.
We started by going back to the Temple Mount which is currently controlled by Muslims and is where the Dome of the Rock sits. The Dome is really quite lovely from the outside; we are not allowed inside since we are not Muslim.
As we walked towards the Jewish Quarter of the city from the Dome, we passed the other side of the Eastern Gate. One, this helped me see just how far it actually is from the Mount of Olives which was a good perspective from yesterday. Two, it is really amazing to see how thick it is right now, but know that it will be reopened at some point, and Jesus will return through it. Third, it is actually pretty easy to see how the Temple can be rebuilt in the future with the entrance right near this gate. There's plenty of room on the Temple Mount for both the rebuilt Temple and the Dome to stand.
As we continued walking, we saw the Church of Saint Anne; she is the mother of Mary, and this was supposedly Mary's birthplace. We sang a couple of praise songs in here and noted what wonderful acoustics it has.
We continued walking and came to the Pools of Bethesda. Here is where Jesus healed a lame man on the Sabbath which really upset the Pharisees.
We then began the walk on the Via Dolorosa which has "the 14 stations of the cross." Much of this is actually Catholic tradition more than Biblical fact. It was interesting to see for us, but it really didn't mean much to us. This walk ends at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which is where Catholics believe marks where Christ was crucified and buried. The Bible seems to point to another place though, so Ryan and I didn't spend much time inside here.
From here, we walked to what is believed to be the Upper Room which is above King David's tomb, and it is where Jesus had His last supper with the disciples. It's believed the disciples gathered here after Jesus' resurrection and the Holy Spirit came upon them.
After lunch, we returned to the Garden of Gethsemane, but this time we went in to a private section. Bryant was able to teach on Jesus' time leading up to His time in the garden, including the last supper.
We had a little bit of time to explore the garden and quietly reflect and pray. Ryan and I sat by this tree together to do exactly that. It was really lovely.
We ended our day at Yad Vashem which is a Holocaust memorial museum. It was incredibly well done. It was humbling, emotional, and sobering, and I wish every single person had the chance to visit here. I also wish we'd had many more hours here to take it all in. Moshe asked us as we arrived "Who is a Holocaust survivor?" I would have defined that as any Jew in Europe during World War 2 who survived. He answered that it is all Jewish individuals. In their eyes, Hitler's goal was to annihilate the Jews, so any Jew is a survivor because they beat his goal. That kind of blew my mind a little to consider it that way.
We started our walk at the Avenue of the Righteous to the Nations. It is an area dedicated to the individuals who helped any Jew survive World War 2. There were several recognizable names such as Oskar Schindler and Corrie Tin Boom, but it also honored those who helped in smaller ways because all actions were appreciated, whether it helped one Jew or many. The picture below is of the tree planted in honor of Oskar and Emilie Schindler. As I often do when I think about that awful time period, I wonder how I would have responded as a Christian at that time. Would I have been bold enough to help?
Rightfully so, photography is not allowed inside the memorial. I'm actually glad for that as people jockeying for great pictures would have been a big detraction. Every area shed new light on the horrors of this atrocity. Even the architecture made you think. The further along you went in the museum, the smaller and more crowded the areas. It's meant to give the feeling of being shoved and pushed along in a cattle car, like many people felt as they were transported by rail to camps. Towards the very end, there's a round room where there are black files all around. The goal of this room is to have a file for each of the six million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. They've already got over four million in there, and they believe they will be able to get another million through research. However, they believe around a million will never be discovered and honored. Entire villages were destroyed and no one was left to tell of the individuals there.
We needed to leave, so we didn't have time to go visit the children's area which is a memorial to the 1.5 million Jewish children who were killed. Honestly, I'm not sure I could have seen it without crying. My heart breaks just thinking about it.
As we walked out, this is the beautiful view we saw from the back of the memorial.
This was carved in stone at the back exit of the memorial. Tell your children, and let them tell their children, so that things like this may not happen again.
After ending the day at Yad Vashem, Ryan and I really weren't very hungry. We had taken in a lot today, so we needed some time to decompress a little. We walked from our hotel to the nearby Arab market, and I bought a beautiful scarf (a souvenir I love getting from each country). Then we stopped in the Jewish market area for some ice cream. Lastly, we met up with Brian and Katherine to walk around and catch up with them. Katherine had actually missed out on the day as she stayed to take care of Bryant's wife, Anne, who was sick. Just before bed we were able to FaceTime with our girls, so that was a great way to end the day.
Lots of things to take in today. Beautiful and interesting things for most of the day, but what an emotional memorial to visit as well. I am so thankful we had the chance to see Yad Vashem. May I never forget my time there.
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