Sunday and Monday

Sunday and today were both pretty filled days! Starting on Sunday, we went to the Israel Museum and learned all about the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was awesome! I think the coolest piece of information I found out was how the scrolls were actually found. Two Shepard boys were throwing rocks in caves trying to get their sheep to come out, and they heard one of the rocks break something on the inside of the cave. So when they went to investigate, they found the scrolls, but had no idea what they even were. After passing through the hands of a number of people, the scrolls were finally put in the right place, and I got to see them! There were a number of different scrolls there that they had found; the complete book of Isaiah, and parts of the books of the Temple Scroll, the War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness, the Pesher Habakkuk Scroll, the Community Rule Scroll, and the Thanksgiving Scroll. It was amazing to see the actual REAL hand written scrolls right in front of my eyes... the handwriting was so perfect and everything was perfectly spaced. Only someone with extreme patience could have that job, I think. After that museum, we went to where the famous Menorah is, right in front of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, basically. The Menorah was so pretty and had such amazing detail. On it are scenes from different stories in the Bible, which I will put a picture up of tomorrow with its description. We didn’t get to go into the Knesset, but the outside architecture was different, being designed after the tabernacle. When we left there, instead of going to the Rockefeller Museum as planned, we went to the birthplace of John the Baptist – Zachariah and Elizabeth’s home. Like most of the sights here, there was a Catholic church built over the actual spot, but inside of the church was a small nook built inside of the actual house. It was way cool! Connecting with this time in the Bible, we also went to the place where Elizabeth and Mary met when they were both pregnant, during the period where all the babies were being killed (vague, I know.) Once again, a church was built there, but I do have to say, it was a gorgeous one.

Today, we started out our touring by going to a cave that was mistakenly found in 1968, filled with stalagmites and stalactites. I don’t really know how to describe them, but they’re way cool looking. (Look it up!) Next we went to Bet Shemesh, the place, or near the place, where the story of Sampson and Delilah occurred, and the exact spot where the Philistines returned the Arc of the Covenant to the Israelites after taking it into captivity. From where we were standing, we could see the Valley of Sorik, which is where Delilah is actually from. Keeping on with the cave theme, we then went to two Sidonian caves where Phenesian people would place their dead. Morbid, I know, but the artwork and Greek writing on the walls made it a little better for me. Supposedly they were all original pieces. But who knows for sure. =]  The last caves we went to were called bell caves because they looked like bells. Creative, right?! These caves were pretty incredible though…they were completely made of limestone and at the top of each of the caves were holes. Whenever these caves were made, the person/people would start at the top and carve their way down and pull out all this limestone to make this ginormous cave. This was one of the funnest and most uneducational parts of the day. =]  Along with walking all through out these caves, we took group pictures, sang “This is the Day” as we heard ourselves echo, and played ring around the rosy. Some memories I’ll never forget. The last place we stopped was one of my favorites – the Valley of Ela, where David slew Goliath. To have our lesson, we sat along the edge of the brook where David chose his five smooth stones. In front of us was the actually valley itself, behind us was the hill (it looked more like a mountain to me) where the Israelite army stood and hid from the Philistines and Goliath, and to the northeast of us was the hill where the Philistine army stood. You could almost see the event playing out in your head as you were sitting there. This was definitely an “A” spot and to be there was an experience like no other.

Well, that’s all for these past two busy days! I’m off to bed in the city of peace! Good night!