Israel Museum

I went to the Israel Museum today. There was so much to see that I'm hoping to go back again next week to finish what I started. 

One of the first exhibits I went to was about pottery and archaeology. There was a long exhibition case showing different kinds of pottery shards from different periods. The idea was to walk along the case and notice differences from one period to the next.

At the end of the row there was a heartbreaking photograph of many newly broken pieces of antiquities. As the sign explained:

At 3:08 pm on October 7th, 2023, the containers housing some 26,000 artifacts discovered at Tel Ashkelon suffered a direct hit in a missile attack from Gaza. These meticulously excavated and analyzed finds – spanning thousands of years, from Canaanites to Crusaders – had been arranged on shelves and gently packed in boxes and bags. Each one, marked in ink and tagged, had been methodically identified with details of origin and other information. None of these careful methods survived the onslaught.

It broke my heart, but I moved on with the rest of the archaeology exhibit.

After that I continued to The Shrine Of The Book marking the history of the Dead Sea Scrolls, texts that link us together through thousands of years.

And then I moved onto the regular collections of so many Jewish ritual items. I saw clothing from what a child would wear at a circumcision, to wedding clothes to shrouds from all different countries -- Yemen, Italy, Germany, you name it. I saw different tools for making matza. I saw Haggadot from different time periods and from around the world. I saw items from every holiday, including toys and postcards for celebrating Yom Ha'Atzmaut, the day that marks Israel's independence in a land where we finally are not persecuted. 

There were also several synagogues there, or at least parts of them, actually imported into the museum. You could walk around inside them. There was one from India, one from Italy, one from Suriname and then a little bit of one from Germany. Just a little bit... the wooden boards that used to be near the ceiling and that were covered with meticulous artwork. 

There was so little of that synagogue that I walked into the next room where a video was playing. I was hoping to learn more. 

It just showed old black and white footage of long-ago destroyed synagogues from Germany. Sad violin music was playing. 

You've heard that kind of music before. We all have. It represents sadness over the inevitability of our murders because we have always been and always will be othered and hated. 

I had one very strong and distinct thought:

F--- that s---.