DAY TWO

7/11

The morning of Friday, our second day, we visited the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, Yad Vashem.  The main building of Yad Vashem is the Hall of Remembrance, designed by Moshe 

Safdie.  The Hall of Remembrance is a long, triangular shaped building that cuts through the mountain and features splayed ends.  One enters the Hall at one end and can see the wonderful view of the valley at the other end, but cannot go directly there.  The visitor is instead directed through a series of rooms commemorating the various elements of the Holocaust.  Finally, after the last exhibit room, featuring the Allied forces' victory over the Nazis, the visitor is led to the exit porch.  This porch is located in the splayed end of the triangular mass of the building, opposite the entrance.  Here, the visitor is greeted with the beauty of the valley, the light at the end of the dark tunnel, so to speak.  

After Yad Vashem, we taxied to the Israel Museum.  Most of the Israel Museum was closed for renovation, however we were able to visit the Shrine of the Book.  The Shrine of the Book is the portion of the Museum complex that is dedicated to the findings of the Dead Sea Scrolls, specifically the book of Isaiah.  This portion of the Museum is underground, with a Hershey Kiss shaped white dome and a black, rectangular box, both protruding from the ground as sculptural elements within the garden.  These white and black elements represent the forces of darkness and light mentioned within the text of Isaiah.  Recently, the Museum has finished building the room specially designed to house the actual scroll of Isaiah.  It was very exciting to see the oldest piece of Biblical text known to be in existence.  

Also within the Israel Museum complex is a huge scale model of the Old City of Jerusalem as it is thought to have existed during the Herodian or Second Temple Period.  The model is updated/changed frequently as archeological evidence supports or disproves the way an element of the city actually existed.