This video shows Eli Shukron inside the tunnel where some Jews were said to be hiding around the time the Romans destroyed the Temple. That was a very traumatic and sad time for many people. Most of us may not be able to relate to personally living through a time where enemy forces are destroying your city, neighbors, and friends. Many only read about such things but unfortunately even in today’s world people do have to worry about their personal safety being taken away at any moment due to the fallout of war.
Eli said cooking pots were found while excavating the area so at least for some time it appears that those hiding under the tunnel were able to eat something and had enough time to grab somethings that would be useful for survival. I wonder how long people hide down there and how many people there were. Did they know each other beforehand and made a group plan to hide there or did various people go there to hide on their own and just happened to end up in a shared space. We may not know all the answers but at least we can find some hints of what being there was like thanks to archaeology. The video also says this area is open to the public to look at so if you are in Israel at some point you may want to take a peek.
But while we are thinking of all of these things it is important to remember the impact of our own actions as well as the impact of nations. So many people will never be able to see the Temple because of a conflict that happened long ago. And while the far-reaching effects of Roman occupations may seem obvious in this case, we don’t often think about how our individual choices can influence the collective choices of others for better or worse. Other people have to live with the impact of our influence on the world and even if we don’t give it much thought, like the cooking pots in the tunnel we leave traces of our decisions behind as well. We can’t avoid the fact that our choices have an impact on the world so let’s make sure we leave something good behind for others.
