Snow in Jerusalem?!

That is right, the first time in 4 years that it has snowed in Jerusalem and you guessed it, it was the first full day the Lehigh contingent spent in the city. I mean it is the year of the extreme anomalies for Lehigh, so why not bring them with us to a foreign country! After it took us about 40 minutes to go 10 miles in the icy snow up Mount Hertzel we arrived at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum. We spent the better part of the morning going through this amazing experience and for those of you who have been to the museum in DC this is equally as powerful of an experience, but in a very respectful way that honors the Jewish people while illuminating the horrific tragedy that they experienced, regardless of their direct connection to the massacre. I could literally write forever and not begin to hit the highlights from this morning so I think I will sum it up with the change to stay true to my blog's purpose. I want to live my life in a fashion that allows me to experience more totally bone chilling and awe inspiring moments. The moment today came for me in the Hall of Names at the end of the museum. Pages of testimonies were recorded in the Hall of Names, millions in fact to remember those that we slaughtered by the Reich. When you see something that well designed and executed, that is of the shear magnitude that it was, and knowing that at least 1/2 to 1/3 of it was left empty because whole communities were killed with no one to testify to them or remember them it gives you (or me at least) goose bumps for minutes on end. Y'varekh'kha Ad-nai v'yishm'rekha - God bless and keep your souls After lunch at Yad Vashem we moved onto the market in Jerusalem (no it was not snowing still but I believe is was colder in at the market than it was in December when I was in Denmark!). As today is Friday, meaning that the Sabbath starts as sundown, the shoppers come to do last minute Shabat shopping and the merchants close early to get home for their celebrations as well. This market makes the Allentown farmers market look like the produce section in Target. And I learned my Hebrew word of the day, "Shekit" which means shut up and listen (but a bit more strongly!) as many of the merchants would yell this across the walkway to each other in a mocking fashion, and Alissa Sperling had a Hebrew school teacher who would use this as the greeting to the announcements over the loud speaker each day (love ya Dottie). I am really glad that we get to go back later in the week because I am excited to try my hand at bartering again, I only got 5 Shekles off my purchase but I did get my picture take when the shop owner since it was my first try at haggling. I did breakdown and purchase 2 items for myself (THANK YOU CARO for talking me into it!) at a artists co-op that are perfect, I will post photos of them when I return, as they are both fragile pottery that are wrapped amazingly well right now!

An Opening Evening with Gershom Gorenberg

After our nap and dinner we had an amazing discussion with this author and journalist. Gorenberg has written a few books and covered a variety of charged situations about the conflict between Israel and Palestine much of which to summed up in an hour long lecture type of discussion with us. He posed questions to the group and then answered them as a way of conveying his perspective to us, which comes from his study of the interaction of religion and politics. Some of the most fascinating were, Why is Jerusalem here? How many times is Jerusalem referenced in the Torah or Quran and are we prisoners of stories and symbols? How would you answer these questions, or better yet do you feel like you have enough background to be able to answer them? I know I didn't feel like I could last night, but now I feel like as a part of my change mantra it is a duty to help others begin to explore them, and because I think a part of my constant change is to feel more capable and confident with religion and my ability to critique it and accept what I believe as a result of the education and critique. Why is Jerusalem here? In short because of the sanctity of the place. Specifically, rulers and kings conquer or take over (perhaps you could use the word supersede here, as in supersessionism of Christianity over Judiasm) holy places, things that are of value to others in order for them to loose hope or to make them follow the new regime. Temple 1 built by Solomon on a mound and destroyed by Babylonians, Temple 2 built and on the same mound then Herod expands the mound to give a larger space to worship and builds walls around the mound, all of which were destroyed (except for the Western Wall), by the Romans in the siege and the Jews were banned from being there, Muslims then built the Islamic shrine (mosque) on the site of temple known as the Dome of the Rock. Jerusalem is NOT mentioned in the Torah or the Quran. That doesn't mean that is isn't eluded to in other ways but it is never mentioned as Jerusalem. For instance is Genesis the binding of Issac is talked about and it happens on Mount Moriah. It is however mentioned in the New Testament as where the ultimate religious individual goes through the ultimate religious test (Jesus & the crucifixion). Finally we are prisoners of stories and symbols if we wish to be. People can be controlled by them and/or they can also use them. Stories and symbols are peoples facts and people need to own them and honor them. This does not necessarily make them historically factual. And thus brings me to the end of Gershom, which was also the same meaning of my blog from yesterday. You must recognize that people are telling their stores and their truth is factual for them, you however have to choose how you will interpret those stories.