Catie, Jamie, and I decided to go to the Jewish Quarters between our classes. We had such an awesome experience. We had a short period to go into the city, so we only went to two places. Our first stop was the Temple Institute. It was a very cool experience. The Temple Institute is a place where many of the “Temple Vessels” are displayed. In ancient times, the Solomon built a temple because God commanded it but then it was destroyed in 586 BC by the Babylonians. Then the second temple was built by Herod but destroyed again in 70 CE by the Romans. After the destruction of the second temple, the people were devastated. God did not command them to build a second temple at this time, probably because most of the Jews were scattered. In the current day, the people believe that they will be commanded to build a temple again. However, they believe that they can only build the temple where the first and second temples were, meaning the Temple Mount. This is definitely a problem, primarily because the Muslims own the property and Dome of the Rock sits on the location. Technically the property belongs to David’s descendants because he was the only one that ever purchased the land. Anyway, the Jewish people believe that they must prepare for the next temple because God has promised that there would be another one and the scriptures do state that there will be another one built at that location. As a result, they have begun building and constructing vessels to go inside the next temple. They are constructing it after the manner of the ancient temples. Among the vessels are the golden menorah, the golden incense altar, the golden tabled for the Showbread, the golden crown of the High Priest, and other garments. It was really interesting to go hear about their beliefs and see all the objects. The woman who was guiding our group told us about how much they love the temple and they can’t wait until they can build it again. It made me think a lot about how much I love the temple and I am so grateful that I have the fullness of the gospel.
After we went to the Temple Institute, we went to the Burnt House. The Burnt House is a house that was built during destruction of the second temple by fire. The house shows marks were the fire would have burnt the brick. It was really interesting, especially the video that went with the presentation. Anyway, the day was amazing and I am really glad that I was able to spend a day in the city, especially with these girls! I love spending time with Jamie and Catie. It was such a fun day!
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