Today was the day before our second exam so it is labeled as a free day on my calendar. I guess that means we are free to study. I took my freedom a bit further than that and took the light rail train with a couple of friends to Yad Vashem which is the Israeli Holocaust Museum. It was a very, very sobering, moving and powerful experience. Sorry, no pictures since it didn't seem to be the place for picture taking. One holocaust victim wrote before he died that the just hoped that someday someone would remember that [insert his name] once lived. That quote moved this museum to try to gather some basic information on each of the 6,000,000 Jews who were murdered as a memorial to each victim and as kind of a "headstone" so that people will remember that they once lived. I walked on a ramp into the middle of a huge circular room with shelves on the wall all around both up above me and down below me. These shelves are filled with black boxes holding this information alphabetically. The sheer amount of information is overwhelming...and they only have information on 3,000,000 of the 6,000,000 who were murdered. More than once as I walked through this museum did I choke up.
As I sat and reflected towards the end of my time there, I wondered how it is that human beings can possibly treat other human beings like that. They must have been convinced that they were not human or at minimum not worthy of being treated as a human. Isn't that the same attitude our own country had that allowed slavery to flourish? It took a war to change the laws and then a powerful Civil Rights movement to begin to change attitudes and actions (and that process is still going on today). And I wondered how we can still today allow others to be destroyed without lifting a finger to do anything about it. Are the people of Syria who are being killed not worthy of being treated like human beings? Do we not consider them fully worthy of being treated as humans and that is why we can virtually ignore their deaths? It was sobering for me to think about how I can fall into very similar perspectives on people who in some way aren't like me and aren't a part of my daily life. Do I afford everyone I see, encounter, or even just hear about the dignity and value of being a human being created by God and loved dearly by God?
On our way home we stopped by the Garden Tomb. This is the Protestant's attempt to get into the religious "place" business. Since there wasn't room for them inside the Old City, they went outside. Back in the 1800s someone (I can't remember his name right now) found a stone formation in the side of a small cliff that resembled a face or a scull and believed he had found Golgotha -- the place of the scull. Very nearby was an ancient tomb which he suggested could be the tomb where Jesus was buried. It was interesting to see, but I wasn't very convinced. (And it does bother me when the only way out is through the gift shop...)
Since we had missed lunch we stopped in the Old City for a very late shwarma lunch. A shwarma is a pita filled with some kind of meat (we decided it is better not to ask what kind) and veggies and sauce. It is messy and good! I did take a picture of that to make you jealous.
I've been studying all evening and will wrap up soon. Tomorrow is exam and class in the morning and then the afternoon off to get ready for our move up to the Galilee Region for next week's study.
As I sat and reflected towards the end of my time there, I wondered how it is that human beings can possibly treat other human beings like that. They must have been convinced that they were not human or at minimum not worthy of being treated as a human. Isn't that the same attitude our own country had that allowed slavery to flourish? It took a war to change the laws and then a powerful Civil Rights movement to begin to change attitudes and actions (and that process is still going on today). And I wondered how we can still today allow others to be destroyed without lifting a finger to do anything about it. Are the people of Syria who are being killed not worthy of being treated like human beings? Do we not consider them fully worthy of being treated as humans and that is why we can virtually ignore their deaths? It was sobering for me to think about how I can fall into very similar perspectives on people who in some way aren't like me and aren't a part of my daily life. Do I afford everyone I see, encounter, or even just hear about the dignity and value of being a human being created by God and loved dearly by God?
On our way home we stopped by the Garden Tomb. This is the Protestant's attempt to get into the religious "place" business. Since there wasn't room for them inside the Old City, they went outside. Back in the 1800s someone (I can't remember his name right now) found a stone formation in the side of a small cliff that resembled a face or a scull and believed he had found Golgotha -- the place of the scull. Very nearby was an ancient tomb which he suggested could be the tomb where Jesus was buried. It was interesting to see, but I wasn't very convinced. (And it does bother me when the only way out is through the gift shop...)
Since we had missed lunch we stopped in the Old City for a very late shwarma lunch. A shwarma is a pita filled with some kind of meat (we decided it is better not to ask what kind) and veggies and sauce. It is messy and good! I did take a picture of that to make you jealous.
I've been studying all evening and will wrap up soon. Tomorrow is exam and class in the morning and then the afternoon off to get ready for our move up to the Galilee Region for next week's study.
Hi Tony, your pictures and stories continue to captivate my attention and even, imagination. I wonder, for instance, if the only way out of Jesus' tomb is through a gift shop. I see some symbolism there. Just think, He walked out with the greatest Gift of all. Amen.
ReplyDeleteCarry on! Brenda