Nearly Here; Nearly There

Our last full day in the Holy Land -- picture #1 is at the Shrine of the Book, the Israeli Museum that features a wonderful demonstration of the Dead Sea Scrolls and related arifacts from Qumran. Picture #2 is at the Garden Tomb, also known as Gordon't Tomb from its excavater in the late 1800's. This is the "Place of the Skull," or Golgotha, near the Garden Tomb. Do you see it?

Today we say a famous Menorah sculpture across the road from the Knesset, depicting great scenes and figures from Israel's past. Upsetting to the Orthodox Jews, who don't believe in this kind of art, but very expressive. Off to the Israeli Museum for the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit. None of the actual scrolls are on display, but exacting copies of them are -- very impressive. Astounding to be inches away from the Isaiah scroll, for instance, and see little mistakes and corrections made to the text, carefully noted, editted, and "fixed." And to know that through it all, the sense of the text had not changed in 1000 years of copying one scroll after another.

Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum, was next. It is >this< close to indescribable. The hall of the museum is a single corridor cut through a mountain in triangle form. We walk the floor; the walls come together in a glass peak above ground. There are eight (I believe) halls off the main corridor which depict the Holocaust from the rise of Hitler and the Third Reich. Our guide said that eight hours wouldn't be enough to do it justice. Four would be a decent minimum. We started with two. After the two hours, I had only gotten half-way through, and even then I passed by so much more that I should have attended to. Bill came to get me since everyone else was waiting. A day wouldn't be enough. So many displays, pictures, videos, stories, documents, etc. The people who claim the Holocaust never happened should be given a short tour here. The culmination is the Hall of Names -- records of 4 million (4,000,000) people whose life and death in the Holocaust is documented by file and computer there -- two million more whose deaths are known, but whose particulars may not ever be known. More are added each day, but as time passes, so to the memories and the connections. Many tears shed here.

When to the Children's Memorial -- 1,500,000 of the six million Jews who died were children. Moving memorial of gentle lights, mirrors, and a voice softly saying each child's name and country of origin. All I could wonder is, "How long will it take to say 1,500,000 names?"

Off to the Garden Tomb, or Gordon's Tomb. Access was not restricted when I was here in 1974 -- a little less lax this time around. We had a tour of the garden and view of the Skull, the Golgotha of the crucifixion. Had Eucharist, led by Jenni and Suzi, in a small chapel. Sang and prayed and shared; then had a few moments at the Tomb itself.

There may not be a blog tomorrow, since we will be in transit to Tel Aviv, supper, and off to the airport for the trip back home. We are all ready to come back to Denver and other points home. But this has been an amazing time. Good relationships all around, and deeper ones with those that already existed. I will finish the blog tomorrow, perhaps, or at some convenient time later on -- stay tuned!

We have appreciated your attention and prayers, and you have all been in ours. Thanks for your love. See you in a few hours, most of which will be spent on that delightful airplane ride!

Shalom!

Doug