Israel 2014 #10

#10 … Tuesday – May 6^th  [Back in Jerusalem – Looking at reminders of worship and persecution]

Yesterday we spent a lot of time at the city of Beit She’an – Scythopolis. It must have been a remarkable place from the size and remains of the ruins. 

Scythopolis was at the intersection of the Jezreel Valley (runs from the N.W. to the S. E. between Galilee and Samaria) and the Jordan Valley (runs from the Sea of Galilee in the North to the Dead Sea in the South) --- and at the intersection, the Beit Shea’an Valley is formed. 

The city was built around an ancient Tel on which numerous civilizations have been identified.  Jesus would have walked through or by here many times as He traveled to Jerusalem for the various religious festivals (and on His way to the cross). 

I’ve read that every Jewish male was required by the law to go to Jerusalem for the three annual festivals of Passover (March – April), Pentecost (May – June), and Tabernacles (September – October).  That being the case, Jesus would have walked 70-90 miles one way for each of them … a total of 520 to 640 miles each year … just for these religious feasts. 

Today we began our final three days here in Jerusalem.  Each day will be packed with activity and learning experiences; so today for brevity sake I’m only covering three:

First – The Pater Noster Church.  This is the traditional site for the Lord’s Prayer – Luke 11:1-13.

In the courtyard of this compound stands a half-reconstructed Byzantine church on the Mount of Olives.  King Constantine’s architects first excavated at the Church of the Holy sepulcher.  Then they turned their attention to Bethlehem and then this site.  In the thinking of Archbishop Eusebius, each of these three sites was associated with a cave and also a key part of the Creed (Jesus’s birth, death/resurrection, and ascension). 

Here you will notice the Lord’s Prayer in over 200 languages.  The identification of this site as the place where Jesus taught the Lord’s Prayer came later, sometime before the arrival of the Crusader’s, but it is a dominant tradition ever since.

Second – Dominus Flevit Church.   This is a small Franciscan church located on the upper western slope of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

Bible trivia buffs know that the shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35, when "Jesus wept" over the death of Lazarus. But Dominus Flevit, which means "the cry of the Lord," commemorates a different occasion on which Jesus was moved to tears.

According to Luke 19:41, "As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it" because "the days will come upon you when your enemies will... dash you to the ground." (Christians believe this was fulfilled in 70 CE, when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem.) Dominus Flevit Church is believed to mark the place where Jesus' mourning over Jerusalem occurred.

The current Dominus Flevit Church was commissioned by the Franciscans, who still run the site, and designed by Italian architect Anton Barluzzin. Constructed in 1954, the church is in the shape of a tear drop to symbolize the Lord's tears.

The current church stands on the ruins of a 7th-century church, some mosaics of which still remain. The western window in Dominus Flevit provides a beautiful view of the Temple Mount.

Third – Yad Vashem – Holocaust Museum.

Yad Vashem is Israel’s official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

Yad Vashem is located on the western slope of Mount Herzl on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem, 804 meters (2,638 ft) above sea level and adjacent to the Jerusalem Forest. 

The Yad Vashem complex contains the Holocaust History Museum, memorial sites such as the Children's Memorial and the Hall of Remembrance, The Museum of Holocaust Art, sculptures, outdoor commemorative sites such as the Valley of the Communities, a synagogue, archives, a research institute, library, publishing house and an educational center, and The International School for Holocaust Studies.

Yad Vashem also honors non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust, at personal risk, as the Righteous Among the Nations.

Yad Vashem is the second most-visited tourist site in Israel, after the Western Wall. It receives some one million visitors annually.

Our group had a sobering trip here as we learned about the annihilation of 6 million Jews during World War II but even more sobering was the reality that Jews have been persecuted for literally thousands of years … even by those who call themselves “The Church.”

The Hall of Names containing Pages of Testimony commemorating the millions of Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust.

A great website to view key aspects of this museum is: http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/museum/index.asp