Last chance to see Herod the Great, The King's Final Journey

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I don't know how many hundreds of thousands of Israel Museum visitors have viewed the Herod exhibition since it opened early this year.*
I wish it could stay forever but on January 4, Herod the Great, The King's Final Journey will close. 

The banners are all I can show you of the artifacts on display,  because the no photography rule was strictly enforced and there were guards everywhere inside the rooms of the exhibition.

You can see the man on duty at the entrance is a no-nonsense guy.

Well, OK, this is the one picture I sneaked before being told to go check my bag.

These are the frescoed walls from Herod's Throne Room, in his Third Palace in Jericho.
The scrolling light words on the floor say

The King is dead.
King Herod died in his palace in Jericho in April of 4 BCE.
His body was laid out on a golden bier encrusted with gems.
Wrapped in purple, with a crown on his head and a scepter beside his right hand, he departed for his final journey from Jericho to Herodium accompanied by his family, army, and servants.
At Herodium the mausoleum and sarcophagus he had prepared for himself awaited him.
We invite you to join us on the King's final journey. . . .

On the book cover is the truncated cone of the Herodion in the Judean desert.
An old photo shows archaeologist Ehud Netzer z"l  on site many years ago.

As the museum website summarizes --

The first exhibition entirely dedicated to Herod the Great, Israel’s greatest builder and one of the most controversial figures in Jewish history. Large reconstructions and new finds from Herod’s palaces in Herodium, Jericho, and other sites are on display. Exhibited to the public for the very first time, these artifacts shed new light on the political, architectural, and aesthetic influence of Herod’s rule (37–4 BCE). Herod’s tomb – discovered at Herodium after a 40-year search by the late Prof. Ehud Netzer of the Hebrew University – holds pride of place. The exhibition is held in memory of Prof. Netzer, who fell to his death in 2010 on the site of his discovery.

Have a gallery tour here.
Also see how Silvia Rozenberg, co-curator with Dudi Mevorah, explains in two minutes  how they worked on this tremendous exhibition for four years. 
Herod the Builder would be proud of them.
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*UPDATE:  Haaretz  answers my question today (Jan. 1):
"This past Saturday, some 3,500 people checked out the exhibition and almost 440,000 visitors have passed through since it opened in February – a record for a single show at the Israel Museum, which expects the overall number of guests to reach 450,000 by closing day."
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Joseph to Egypt, Herod to Israel Museum

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St. Joseph warned by the angel

by Dutch painter Govaert Flinck

1658.  Oil on canvas

Israel Museum exhibit "Divine Messengers: Angels in Art"

December 27-28-29 are the days on which the various Western and Eastern churches mark the Feast of the Holy Innocents.

Wikipedia explains the Flight into Egypt:

When the Magi came in search of Jesus, they go to Herod the Great in Jerusalem and ask where to find the newborn "King of the Jews". Herod becomes paranoid that the child will threaten his throne, and seeks to kill him. Herod initiates the Massacre of the Innocents in hopes of killing the child.

But an angel appears to Joseph and warns Joseph to take Jesus and his mother into Egypt.
Egypt was a logical place to find refuge, as it was outside the dominions of King Herod, but both Egypt and Palestine were part of the Roman Empire, making travel between them easy and relatively safe.

The passage from Matthew 2:

When [the Magi] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Get up, he said, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. 

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. 

And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."

When Herod realised that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

Historically, this massacre may or may not have happened.
But we know that Herod never hesitated to kill,  even his own family. 

Israel Museum is currently creating an outstanding exhibition called  Herod the Great: The King's Final Journey, due to open February 12.
See the short video about its construction.
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From Herod to Adam

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Christian neighbor-friends invited me to dinner yesterday evening.
Chanuka candles, Sabbath candles, and Advent candles all together  made lots of happy light--and even reflections for Weekend Reflections.
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That was before we heard the news from America, from Connecticut.
More appropriate now are  memorial candles, so many of them.
 Sigh . . .
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It being so near December 28, the Christian Feast of the Holy Innocents, their prayer  came to mind for today, this awful day:

"We remember this day, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents . . . Receive, we beseech thee, into the arms of thy mercy all innocent victims; and by thy great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish thy rule of justice, love, and peace . . . "           
 ---Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the Holy Innocents
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The danger in doing archaeology

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Faintly, in the twilight, on the far horizon, the Herodion is just visible.
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National Geographic describes it like this:
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"Eight miles south of Jerusalem, where the last stunted olive trees and stony cornfields fade into the naked badlands of the Judaean desert, a hill rises abruptly, a steep cone sliced off at the top like a small volcano. This is Herodium, one of the grand architectural creations of Herod the Great, King of Judaea, who raised a low knoll into a towering memorial of snowy stonework and surrounded it with pleasure palaces, splashing pools, and terraced gardens."
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Chief excavator of the site for decades and recent discoverer of Herod's tomb, Prof. Ehud Netzer left his beloved Herodion on Monday for the last time, in an ambulance.
A wooden railing on which he was leaning broke and he fell ten feet downward, hit, rolled, and fell another ten feet, breaking his skull and neck.
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Netzer, in his mid-70s, died yesterday and was buried this morning.
Israel suddenly lost an outstanding archaeologist.
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My sympathy to his shocked wife and family. We will all miss Ehud.
May he rest in peace after a life well lived, a country well served, and work well done.
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Latest news of the accident and burial: Jerusalem Post and Haaretz.
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National Geographic's story of King Herod and Ehud Netzer (note, however, that the first photo is Masada and not Herodion)
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If you are in the USA you can see National Geographic's "King Herod's Lost Tomb" on streaming Netflix.
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Photos of Herod's just recently exposed royal theater box
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Prof. Netzer's biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehud_Netzer
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