Jerusalem
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/zgg9mp3/revision/1
Encyclopedia Britannica Online; Telegraph website; ARC, retrieved 2013
Jerusalem remains an important place of pilgrimage for Jewish people. Until the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and the Roman occupation of the city after the Bar Kokhba revolt, it used to be a duty for Jewish people to visit Jerusalem three times every year, to coincide with three major Jewish festivals - Pesach, Shavuotand Sukkot.
According to Jewish tradition, all of creation began in Jerusalem. Other key events are believed to have happened in this important city, including:
- Mount Moriah, where Abraham showed he was prepared to sacrifice his son, Isaac. It was also here that Jacob dreamed of a ladder that went up to Heaven.
- King David captured Jerusalem around 3,000 years ago and made it the capital of the ancient Jewish people.
- King Solomon built the first Temple in Jerusalem. The Ark of the Covenant is believed to have been kept in the most sacred part of the Temple, the Holy of Holies, the place where it was believed God himself was present.
The first Temple was destroyed around 587 BCE, when a large proportion of the Jewish people were expelled from Jerusalem by the Babylonians and exiled to Babylonia. The Second Temple was built by the Jews after their return from Babylonia when Jerusalem was ruled by the Persian King Cyrus, and completed in 515 BCE. It was destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans.
The Western Wall
The Western Wall, or the Kotel, is thought to be the only remaining part of the Second Temple. The wall is not from the Temple itself, but what remains of the wall that would have surrounded the Temple.
Nature and importance
Many Jewish people still visit Jerusalem today as the focal point of their religion and face towards it when they pray as a sign of its importance. In fact, synagogues are traditionally orientated towards Jerusalem and Jews position themselves towards Jerusalem while reciting the Amidah. At the end of every Passover Seder celebration, Jewish people raise their glass in the hope that they will celebrate the festival 'next year in Jerusalem'.
Visiting The Western Wall is a reminder to Jewish people of their history, but also gives them a link with the holiest site, the Temple. It is the closest Jewish people can get to the presence of God.
Also, as the Western Wall has not been destroyed, it is a symbol of hope to the Jewish people that they too will last forever. Some Jews believe that a third Temple will be built when the Messiah comes in the future.
There are many rituals that take place at the Western Wall. People write prayers on small pieces of paper and push them in between the cracks of the wall. As Jews believe that the wall is a symbol of God's presence, many believe that God can actually see what has been written. The prayers are collected twice every year and then buried on the Mount of Olives.
Jewish people also pray facing the Western Wall and some boys have their Bar Mitzvah ceremonies in the square facing the wall.
Yad Vashem
A map showing key Jewish pilgrimage sites in Jerusalem
Yad Vashem means 'a memorial and a name' and it is a museum and a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust or Shoah.
And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name (a "yad vashem") that shall not be cut off.Isaiah 56:5
Yad Vashem is situated on Har Hazikaron (Mount Herzl), the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem, and was set up by the Israeli government in 1953. It is a museum and archive as well as a source of information and education for future generations, not just a place to remember those who died in the Holocaust.
It holds the names and stories of victims and righteous gentiles who helped Jews during the Holocaust. Through its website it is continuing to try and find the names of those victims not yet identified.
Several places at Yad Vashem hold a great significance for Jewish visitors:
- The Hall of Names - a circular hall which houses short biographies of all the Holocaust victims who have so far been identified. Around 600 photographs of known victims are pictured on the cone shaped ceiling and these photos are then reflected in water at the base of an opposing cone.
- Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations - Yad Vashem remembers people who were not Jews but who risked their lives to help save Jews during the Holocaust. Trees have been planted and plaques by each tree give their names as a permanent reminder of how they helped others.
- Janusz Korczak Square – contains a powerful sculpture featuring Janusz Korczak, who ran an orphanage in the Warsaw Ghetto. Around 200 of his children were sent to the Treblinka death camp in 1942, but Korczak went with them so they would not die alone.
- The Hall of Remembrance - a tent-like building where a flame burns continually to remember those who died.
- The Children's Memorial - around 1.5 million Jewish children died during the Holocaust. This memorial is cut out of an underground cavern. The names of some of the children can be heard being read out as visitors walk through it.
- The Cattle Car - Memorial to the Deportees - many of the Jews who were killed during the Holocaust were taken to the death camps in cattle cars. This memorial remembers the undignified manner in which people were treated.
Nature and importance
Many Jewish people lost members of their family in the Holocaust. Visiting Yad Vashem is a sign of respect and remembrance, not only to their own families, but also to the other millions of people who lost their lives.
Educating others is an important part of remembrance, so that future genocides can be avoided.
Visiting Yad Vashem is a reminder to Jews of the importance of rebuilding their communities so that Jews, their faith and their way of life, may be secure in the years to come.
Visiting Yad Vashem and understanding the significance of the Holocaust is important for Jewish people and their sense of identity.
For many Jewish people, the Holocaust raises difficult questions. Why would God allow the Holocaust to happen? Why did God not save them? These are the kinds of questions that some Jews struggle to answer.
Visiting Yad Vashem not only confirms the horror of the Holocaust and racism, it also reminds each visitor of the heroism of people who helped the Jews during this time, the bravery of those who were taken to their deaths, and the hope Jews can gain from remaining together as a community.
3,350-year-old fragment of text found
Israeli archeologist Eilat Mazar of Hebrew University of Jerusalem held a fragment bearing an ancient form of writing. (Sebastian Scheiner/Associated Press)
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JERUSALEM — A tiny clay fragment dating from the 14th century BC discovered outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls contains the oldest written document found in the city, researchers say.
“The find, believed to be part of a tablet from a royal archive, further testifies to the importance of Jerusalem as a major city in the Late Bronze Age, long before its conquest by King David,’’ the statement said.
The fragment, which is less than 1 inch by seven-10ths of an inch in size and four-10ths of an inch thick, contains cuneiform, or wedge-shaped, symbols in ancient Akkadian. The fragment was most likely part of a royal missive, according to Wayne Horowitz, a scholar of Assyriology at the Hebrew University Institute of Archeology.
Tablets with diplomatic messages were routinely exchanged between kings in the ancient Near East, and it is likely that the fragment was part of such a message, Horowitz said in the statement. The symbols on the fragment include the words “you’’ “you were,’’ “later,’’ “to do,’’ and “them,’’ the statement said.
The fragment is most likely part of a message from the king of Jerusalem, possibly Abdi-Heba, back to Egypt, Mazar said.
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