Shabbat Shalom!

Alright, we made it through day 2.  Today was another great day.  The food here is suprisingly good.  Dessert was pretty awesome- they have these things that look like brownies that taste like dark chocolate.  I know you are thinking why are you writing about brownies, but if you had experienced them you would understand.

Today we started out at the Holocaust Museum, Yad Vashem.  This is a really emotional place to visit.  If you ever questioned the depravity of man this would be a horrific reminder. We started out in the Childrens' Memorial.  You walk into this dark area with names of children continuously called out.  The guide said that it takes 3 years for every child that is documented to be read aloud.  Seeing the kids faces on the wall as the names are read gives you an  incredible sense of grief.  The main part of the museum is designed in a unique way to demonstrate the immense trial and difficulty the Jews endured.  Even the floors are not straight making it difficult to walk correctly.  Throughout the museum there is video testimonials of individuals who went through the agonizing suffering.  As you wind through making it to the end you look out and see how modern day Israel is thriving today.  It is an amazing testimony to the faithfulness of God.

From there we went over to the Shrine of the Book.

This place is unreal.  This place houses one of the greatest archaelogical finds of all time.  This is where you have many of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  These scrolls were found in an area down by the Dead Sea known as Qumran.  In Qumran there was an eccentric group of people that lived there known as the Essenes.  The Essenes desired a higher spiritual life and a removal from the secular and worldly.  They developed this community and focused on a life of seperation and purity.  Many of their writings are found here along with the copies found at Qumran of almost every Old Testament book.  One of the really cool things to look at is a copy of the entire book of Isaiah.  This absolutely verifies the authenticity of the book.  Scott and I were talking how amazing it is that the book that was found it its entirety is one of the clearest of all prophetic books pointing to Jesus as the Messiah.  In fact in some of these very books that were found contain the prophetic writings that prophesy of the Jews one day returning to the land.  Although in many ways this is yet to be completely fulfilled, you can't but help see that the very reason we are visiting this land is due to the faithfulness of God keeping His promise.

From the Shrine of the Book we went over to the Knesset.  This is Israel's parliment building. 

Across from this is a giant Menorah.  This was given to Israel by the Britains' in welcoming them to the League of Nations.

We then went over to this giant replica of Jerusalem from the second temple era (the time of Jesus).  This place gives you a great perspective of where things happened in biblical times.  It was a great overview of where things are located before we begin to visit many of these sites.

We then went over to an overlook of Jerusalem.  What is really amazing is that the golden top building known as the Dome of the Rock is where the temple stood.  It gives you chills thinking of the amazing history of what you are looking at. 

Then as we closed out the day we headed over to the wailing wall.  I had totally forgotten what time of the day it was.  It was Friday and getting close to sundown.  What this meant is that Shabbat or Sabbath was quickly approaching.  The wailing wall is of such great importance to all religious jews.  It is the closest place that they can get to the original Holy of Holies.  The excitement and anticipation in the air was breathtaking.  People began to rush to the wailing wall in excitement of Shabbat. 

We couldn't get any pictures by the wall due to it being Shabbat.   There seemed like thousands of people there.  The guys in our group went down to the wall.  I wish you could have seen us with our head coverings.  Scott's was unbelievable.   As you entered into this area there were orthodox jews everywhere.  We went down into the synagogue where they were praying.  Then as we came out and stood there watching people give their prayers and reading the Torah we began to hear a loud commotion.  Looking back there was what seemed like 100 Yeshiva students arm in arm singing and dancing coming into the area.  It was a really amazing scene. 

Well, that is about it.  Tomorrow we head to the Galilee.  Here it is now officially Shabbat.  In Israel approaching and during Sabbath you are supposed to say, "Shabbat Shalom".  So "Shabbat Shalom yall".  Have a great night!