today
I started out feeling thankful about not spending another day looking at rocks
and dirt in the sun and I ended feeling thankful about a million different
things for a million different reasons.
yad
vashem is the holocaust museum in Israel. it was draining. but so completely
moving and memorable. my favorite part was the first exhibit we
walked—dedicated to the 1.5 million children killed during the war.
ophir
(our Israeli professor) told us to think about the promise given to Abraham—that his posterity would “number
the stars in the sky”—as we were entering the children’s exhibit. we walked
into the first dark chamber, and all you could hear was a voice reading off
names in the distance. as we entered the second chamber, it was completely
dark, except for the stars. the memorial was simple, it consisted of little
lights and mirrors, that created infinite-starry-eternities in every direction.
the voice kept reading off names, boys + girls, their ages, and their homes.
each little light representing each little child.
that
room felt sacred, to me. I could’ve spent hours just sitting and listening to
each little’s name. I felt like they knew they were being remembered. and I
felt like they were now being taken care of—reunited with their families and
embraced by a loving father. the lights stretching in every direction reminded
me about each little person’s eternity. and I felt thankful to know that that’s
the plan for all of us.
we
then wandered through the rest of the museum. it was saddening and humbling. my
unique takeaway from this holocaust learning experience was understanding more
about the importance of clothing. I know—that sounds shallow + random. but it’s
significant. in my old testament class, dr. belnap has taught us about the
significance of clothing—and how closely it is tied to and symbolic of our
identities. there are countless references to clothing throughout the
scriptures and it’s been remarkable to understand the symbolism and read the
scriptures with that little piece of understanding. anyway, the museum was full
of examples with clothing. I saw countless photographs of jewish people, naked
or in rags, with shaved heads and no shoes. pictures I’ve seen countless times,
but I never realized how demoralizing it was to have their clothing torn from
them. essentially, their identities were being torn from them. one man said:
“then
for the first time we became aware that our language lacks words to express
this offense, the demolition of a man…we had reached the bottom. it is not
possible to sink lower than this…nothing belongs to us anymore: they have taken
away our clothes, our shoes, even our hair…they will even take away our name…”
it
was heart breaking—to be honest. hard to look at, to (try and) understand, to
internalize. I just kept thinking—“how, how on earth does something this big
and this awful happen?”
yad
vashem was touching. and it left me feeling really thankful for my life—and
feeling responsible to shoot the world up with a little more goodness than I
usually do.
to
end on a lighter note. I love love love
the nickels. they are a service couple here at the center. sister nickel calls
me and ali ‘baby’ and she gives us treats when we need them. not to mention
she’s stylish as heck. I wish I could adopt myself as one of her grandchildren
sometimes. anyway, we watched the French cup in their apartment tonight, talked
about boys, and ate magnum bars. a solid way to end the day.
remember—and
feel thankful.
