McGregor Musings: 2 tours, 2 museums

Tuesday 25th April

On our first day we arrived with the Jewish throngs striding towards the western wall for the start of the Sabbath. Several days since we have walked past it. But this 50 metre stretch is just a small part of the western wall. The whole wall is nearly 500 metres long, and today we went under most of it, or rather walked along the part that has been covered for centuries. Part of what makes Jerusalem so fascinating to visit is that what you can see is just the top layer – there are so many layers, and archaeologists have unearthed so many of them. Today our guide (Jewish, French accent, English speaking) helped us to understand how Herod built the temple on top of the mountain, and then showed us the wall underground – you guessed it – another tunnel tour!

Herod’s stones were huge, and he wanted them to look good, so they were dressed and framed. The smallest stone weighs 2 ½ tonnes; the largest was 14 metres long and weighs 5870 tonnes!

The temple he built was the largest structure in the entire world at the time. We were amazed by the sheer size of the undertaking and the attention to detail. Of course king Herod must have been a very devout Jew to have devoted so much time to this. No, he wasn’t even Jewish, and he certainly didn’t live by the Jewish law; he just wanted to win over his subjects and impress everyone!

And why do the Jews focus so much on the western wall when there are three other perfectly good walls? Because the temple that the walls supported was destroyed nearly 2000 years ago and the western wall is the wall closest to where the temple would have been. In other words, this retaining wall is the closest thing they have had to a temple for the last 2000 years years. Indeed, the spot closest to where the Holy of Holies would have been is now underground, which is why there’s a synagogue there – upper level for men, lower level for women.

looking up at the men's synagogue, we walked through the ladies synagogue and could take photos

Not content with the first City of David tour and the western wall tunnel today, we were eager for another tour of the City of David site. Yesterday’s tour was all about the old city until the Babylonians destroyed it. Today was the modern tour – 400BC – 70AD. And how good is this? There was another tunnel! King Herod built a tunnel to divert the water around his immense western retaining wall, and we walked up through it. Discovered under rubble in the 19^th century, there hasn’t been any water in it for centuries, but it sure makes a good walk.

At one point there’s even a man hole for access from above.

Up at the surface we saw the burnt stones and the damaged pavement from the Romans’ failed attempt to destroy the wall in 70AD.

At the museum just next door we tried to make out ‘King Hezekiah’ on the tiny seal we had heard about yesterday.

2 archaeological tours … now 2 museums.

First, Yad Vashem – the holocaust Memorial (Museum). As the Lonely Planet Guide puts it ‘if there is a more moving and powerful museum experience in the world, we’re yet to encounter it.’ The main museum is housed in a long triangular-shaped building, like half the star of David – to symbolise the annihilation of nearly half the world’s Jews in the Nazi-led genocide between 1933 and 1945. The museum brilliantly tells the story of the origins and rise of antisemitism, the rise of the Nazi party, the collaboration or silence of so many in the persecution of the Jews, and the forcing of millions of Jews into ghettos and then into concentration camps as part of the Final Solution.

Some things that moved me to silent tears:

the proud letter of a son to his parents about the Jews they had murdered that day
the list of all the 11 million Jews through the countries of Europe which the Nazis compiled
a wedding photo of 64 family and friends before the war – only 14 of them survived.
the collection of shoes of the victims of the gas chambers
a graphic model of the procession of people through the camp to the gas chambers
footage of the emaciated survivors and the bodies of those who did not survive being thrown into mass graves.

Finally, and perhaps the most moving – a large circular room with photos of victims on the conical ceiling above, but also with shelves and shelves of ring folders around the walls. What was in these ring folders? Each one contains the record of 500 people killed in the Holocaust, all arranged in alphabetical order. So many folders – enough to hold the records of all the victims. But I noticed that there was space left on some of the shelves. Why was this? Surely they could have planned for the shelves to be full. No – they only have records for 4 millions victims, and they have left space in the hope that the details of the remaining 2 million victims will one day be filled. After more than 70 years on, why have the details of 2 million Jews not yet been recorded? Because no one amongst their family survived to do so.

Though I knew almost all of this overall narrative story, the images and stories of places and individuals were extraordinarily moving. Although we had not been able to fit in the Anzac day service here in Jerusalem, I was moved to say ‘lest we forget.’

(Although I understand the reasons why, I would have loved to be able to take photos at this museum to be able to remember the impact they had upon me and to share them with you).

Finally we caught the bus to the Israel museum. The shrine of the book displays the Dead Sea scrolls found at Qumran – the scrolls that recorded the religious life and viewpoints of this 1^st century Jewish sect.

Most importantly, the collection contained manuscripts of almost every book of the Old Testament. For years I have been telling my year 6 scripture class about how a shepherd boy found a copy of Isaiah 900 years older than any other copy in the world, and it was virtually exactly the same – showing how accurate the copyists were; and today I got to see it!

Next to the shrine of the book was the biggest model I have ever seen – a 50:1 scale model of Jerusalem at the time of the 2^nd temple (Jesus’ day). Covering 1 acre, it started life in a hotel and was somehow moved to the museum! The model really helped us to understand what we had been seeing for the last few days.