A Morning in the Museum

One morning of our stay in Jerusalem was  spent at the Israeli Museum.  With individual recorders and earphones provided with admission, we started out together as a group but went different directions to see the particular exhibits that fit our interests.

The Israel Museum is the largest cultural institution in the State of Israel and is ranked among the world’s leading art and archaeology museums, according to its website. Founded in 1965, the Museum “houses encyclopedic collections, including works dating from prehistory to the present day, in its Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Jewish Art and Life Wings, and features the most extensive holdings of biblical and Holy Land archaeology in the world. The Museum has built a far-ranging collection of nearly 500,000 objects, representing the full scope of world material culture.”

Our first stop was the huge model of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period, which reconstructs the topography and architectural character of the city as it was prior to its destruction by the Romans in 66 CE, and provides historical context to the Shrine’s presentation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. We listened to the information about each section of the city and walked around the outdoor model as we listened. 

Among the highlights of the Museum’s original campus is the Shrine of the Book which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest biblical manuscripts in the world, as well as rare early medieval biblical manuscripts.  First we watched a short movie that laid the foundation for what we were about to see.  From there we looked at and read about the different exhibits and artifacts associated with the scrolls, culminating in seeing the actual writings themselves.

Our final stop was at a building housing exhibits related to Jewish culture.  It was all so interesting.  We wondered from that exhibit to other displays and artifacts associated with ancient Israel.

When time dictated that we rejoin our group, we had only scratched the surface as far as seeing everything on the 20-acre campus.  It was an interesting and educational morning for sure!