Temple in Eureka Springs, Arkansas

James and I had the privilege of meeting up with our old Sunday School class from Pryor, Oklahoma in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  There we got to go to the Passion Play area where they have built a life size temple, like the one in the Bible.  There was an old Jewish pastor that gave us background information and gave us the tour.  He was wonderful, he told us how they did the sacrifices.  He explained that the priest would go to your home and pick the animal that would be the sacrifice the next year.  This animal would live in the home with you for that entire year.  Yep, even the bulls.  Then this animal would be judged when they arrived at the temple before they went into the "yard" area, if they (3 different judges) did not approve then you had no sacrifice for that year and you had to do even more for the next year, but the worst was your sins were not covered.  Then the animal was put on the wood alter like thing and it was killed and would bleed out. where all the blood was collected.  Then another "higher up" priest would take the blood into the outer area of the temple.  The priest would change clothes into an all white robe and he would pray for all of his sins to be forgiven before he would go into the inner room of the temple.  He explained that he had heard in different places that they would tie a rope around the priest incase he was struck down and killed while in the inner room, so they could pull the dead body of the priest out of the inner room.  He said that was crazy... no one ever died in the presence of the Lord in the inner room.  Anyway, this guy was great, if you ever get the chance to go listen to him, he was 86 this year and had been doing this for 22 years since it was built.  He sang, he talked, he laughed and he was just really good.  It was only $7.00. James and I drove from Memphis to Eureka Springs, 6 hrs there and 6 hrs back.  We loved it.  Sorry I can't get the pictures to work, but you get the idea...we had a great time.
TJ