Tuesday 16th: Living history

Tisha B’Av is the fast that commemorates the date on which both the First and Second Temples were destroyed, and is thus the saddest day in the Jewish calendar. It was particularly apt, therefore, that the group was in the Old City of Jerusalem today. To mark the fast we met with Rabbi Gideon in the Jewish Quarter of the old city. We learnt a little bit about the significance of Tisha B’av and had a Q&A session where we could ask Rabbi Gideon any questions that we had.

We continued our day at the Southern Wall excavations and the Davidson Centre – an exhibition displaying archaeological objects from ancient Jerusalem, augmented by visual, textual and audio information. One of the highlights of this modern facility is a real-time virtual reality reconstruction of the Herodian Temple Mount, as it stood prior to its destruction on Tisha B’Av, by Roman troops in the year 70 CE. We learnt about the history of events spanning over 5000 years, beginning with the Canaanite (Bronze) Age and continuing through the days of the Israelite monarchy in the First Temple period. The splendors of the Second Temple and the impressive architecture of King Herod, dating to the second half of the first century BCE are a key element of the park. Our visit here, on this day, was especially topical and the whole group really understood the connection. It was the perfect day for the group to really grasp why this is the saddest day in the Jewish calendar.

Not wanting to hang out in the heat for too long, we then headed back to the hotel where our madrichim ran a session for us about baseless hatred in modern day society, as well as a concluding session of Tisha B’Av.

We had a big dinner in the hotel after the fast went out and afterwards we went to one of Jerusalems largest parks – Gan Saccher. We played lots of ball games and got to run around and let off some steam after quite a full on day.

Jess Ginsberg said, “I really enjoyed today even though fasting was tough. It was great to see the old city and it made it more special to be commemorating how Jerusalem fell and being right in the centre of it all. Games at the park tonight were great.”

Check back in for more tomorrow,

The Tribe Team