Israel Trip-Day 6

On Tuesday we began at the Western (“Wailing”) Wall where we could touch the stones and leave a prayer.  We entered the Old City at the Dung gate and walked through the “Rabbi’s tunnels” along the Western wall which empty out into the Muslim Quarter.  

 Then we visited St. Anne’s Church (pic below) where we sang a couple of hymns and looked at the ruins of the Bethesda pools (pic above) where Jesus healed the lame man.  St. Anne's was the childhood home of Mary, Jesus' mom.  

  After this we boarded the bus for Yad VaShem (the Holocaust Museum pictured above) where we ate lunch and beheld Schindler’s actual “List”, real train cars used for transport to concentration camps and the trees planted in honor of those who helped save the Jewish people from the camps (on the Avenue of the Righteous, pictured below), among many other moving displays.

 A very moving section to me was the section dedicated to the children who were killed in the camps.  Below is a tribute to them, a future that was cut off.  There was another area where the names of the children who died are continually read aloud in a dark room with many mirrors and only 5 candles but the mirrors made it look like there were millions of stars in the sky.  We only had a short time to see this museum but I could have spent all day there.

 Finally, we concluded at the Israel Museum where we visited the Shrine of the Book where the Dead Sea scrolls are housed (pictured below).  It was designed very uniquely depicting the jars in which the scrolls were found and the inside feeling like you are entering a cave.  We also saw the massive model of Herodian Jerusalem, and the museum.  Some of us went various ways to see items of interest in the museum, and Ken guided a large group in the Archaeology wing where we saw many interesting things including the "house of David" inscription found at Dan where Ken is currently digging.