We hit it pretty hard this week. We read about it in class, discussed it, visited Oskar Shindler’s grave (I left a stone) then capped it all off with a visit to the complex at Yad Vashem, the Israel Holocaust complex. Its a sobering place, although I confess there wasn’t much new information. I feel like we get pretty well educated about the holocaust (insofar as it is possible to comprehend such an event) in the United States. Even the film footage of the camps is something I have seen before.It still awakens in me a sense of cool terror. I feel like there is no way to appreciate it, or react to such barbarity among our fellow men.<\/p>\n
Yad Vashem comes from Isaiah 56:5. The Hebrew word for the Holocaust is the Shoah.<\/p>\n
Even unto them will I give in mine a<\/sup>house<\/a> and within my walls a place and a name better than of b<\/sup>sons<\/a> and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Right next to the holocaust complex is Mt Hertzel, the resting place of the father of Zionism and arguably Israel (although he died before it came to be). It functions almost like a mix between Arlington National Cemetery and, well, the rest of DC. Our Jewish teacher showed us that Mt Hertzel has actually taken a parallel significance with the Temple mount. It has become the spiritual shrine of the Secular Zionist movement. It has become a symbol of the ability of the Jewish people to overcome adversity and create their own country. It unifies them. It is sacred to them. But it is without God. It is a curious change of events.<\/p>\n
There siting on their national shrine I read for reflection the scripture found in 1 Nephi 19. It follows one of the most powerful atonement scriptures I know of. It shows very well the contrast between two mountains, side by side, one for the lowest moment in Jewish history and the other for the glories of the modern free state of Israel.<\/p>\n
13 And as for those who are at Jerusalem, saith the prophet, they shall be a<\/sup>scourged<\/a> by all people, because they crucify the God of Israel, and turn their hearts aside, rejecting signs and wonders, and the power and glory of the God of Israel.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n14 And because they turn their hearts aside, saith the prophet, and have a<\/sup>despised<\/a> the Holy One of Israel, they shall wander in the flesh, and perish, and become a b<\/sup>hiss<\/a> and a c<\/sup>byword<\/a>, and be d<\/sup>hated<\/a> among all nations.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/p>\n15 Nevertheless, when that day cometh, saith the prophet, that they a<\/sup>no<\/a> more b<\/sup>turn<\/a> aside their hearts against the Holy One of Israel, then will he remember the c<\/sup>covenants<\/a> which he made to their fathers.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n