Sorrow

Today is a day set apart on the Jewish calendar. Tisha B'av. This day marks the ruin of the first temple. Also, the ruin of the second temple. The Jewish people fast on this day to commemorate the destruction of the temple, the place that was made to house God's presence. We went to Yad Vashem today, also known as the Holocaust museum. The tour guide said that the human brain can only process as much as it wants to. This I believe, there's no way I can even begin to comprehend the atrocities 6 million Jews and other social pariahs experienced. I was holding up a strong emotional front. I did almost lose control at the end of the tour when we were told to focus on one face among the 600 final photographs. I settled upon a girl about my age with a wedding veil across her forehead falling to her shoulders. Then I noticed next to her picture the image of a baby girl with a giant bow in her hair. The individualization and understanding of the hopes and dreams expressed in this pictures was overwhelming in combination with the horror we had seen from the safety of a museum display.

We were blessed with the opportunity to speak with a Holocaust survivor, Asher Ud. He shared his story how at a young age his family was broken up in Poland due to the concentration camps, only to see his brother forty years later. He said he is not a religious man, but he still believes there is a God who is the reason he made it through.

Isaiah 56:5 "to them I will give within my temple and its walls
a memorial and a name "

Reading scripture about Jerusalem feels different when you are in the city.

Isaiah 40:1-5
"1 Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.

2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the LORD's hand
double for all her sins.

3 A voice of one calling:
"In the desert prepare
the way for the LORD ;
make straight in the wilderness
a highway for our God.

4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.

5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all mankind together will see it.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."