Day #10 Yad VaShem, Garden Tomb, and Dinner with Ultra-Orthodox Family

The Holocaust memorial in Israel is called "Yad Vashem." The name comes from Isaiah 56:5 which talks about God giving his people a "place (monument) and a name." (Yad=place, Va=and, Shem=name). Our tour guide told us about being a boy living in Jerusalem and seeing people on the bus with tattooed numbers on their wrists from the concentration camps. Yad Vashem is a powerful tribute to the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust.

One of the things I've appreciated about our tour company is their sincere attempt to help us engage with the people and culture of Israel. To that end, they arranged for us to spend an hour with a Holocaust survivor after we toured Yad Vashem. We were mesmerized by Rena's story of survival. She told us about her father cutting her hair and teaching her how to talk and act like a boy so she could work in the factory. After her biological parents and brother were killed she bounced from family to family each time taking a different name. Eventually she ended up adopted by a family in the United States and about twenty-five years ago moved to Israel. Even as a devout Jew, she spoke fondly of the kindness shown to her by Christians along her journey.

In the afternoon we saw the Garden of Gethsemene where Jesus prayed (and the disciples napped...) before Jesus' trial and crucifixion. From there we had a delightful visit to the Garden Tomb. This is the location where many Protestants speculate Golgotha and Jesus' tomb were.

The highlight this evening was having dinner in an ultra-orthodox Jewish home. I was so enthralled with the conversation that I completely forgot to take any pictures! Ulta-Orthodox Jews are devoutly committed to studying and following all 613 Jewish laws in the Talmud. Ultra-Orthodox Jews wear simple black and white clothing, don't use smart phones or the internet. They don't watch TV, go to movies, listen to secular radio or read secular newspapers. Their calling is to live distinct and set-apart (albeit not isolated) lives in devotion to God and the Scriptures.

The young man who shared with us was named Mutty. On the one hand I was impressed with his devotion and commitment. I was convicted about how casually you and I tend to approach our faith. We have the mistaken idea that just because Jesus died for our sins that we don't really need to live in any tangibly different way. We think it's enough just to have "Jesus in our hearts" to make us... well, nice. Mutty sees it differently. He believes faith is radically all encompassing and completely life-consuming. But while I'm inspired by Mutty's example on the one hand, on the other hand, my heart breaks that he seems to know nothing of a God who is full of grace. This young man's only hope for the resurrection is that in the end he was able to have somehow obeyed a burdensome list of 613 rules. Thanks be to God, Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do, Christ did for us (see Romans 8).

Pic Descriptions:
1. Entrance to Yad Vashem.
2. Placing memorial stones atop one of the monuments.
3. Rena, the Holocaust survivor who share her story with us.
4. Kendra in front of the Garden of Gethsemene.
5. Marilyn and Maxine emerging from the empty tomb.
6. Yours truly next to the sign just on the inside of the Garden Tomb.