Highlights of Week One, Jerusalem - Part Two

Dr. Fruchtenbaum likes to close evening lectures with a Rabbi joke 

so let's open with some humor, shall we?

These are the "hip" Israeli / Hebrew sayings. Sabbaba?

Okay, in this blog I would like to give you some broad brush strokes, as well as some specifics. Let us start with the specifics:

THE DOME OF THE ROCK

(Also fondly referred to as the "abomination" by some of us)

I really don't have any more or better pictures of this site because, quite frankly, I didn't really want any pictures of it, though it is a very beautiful and impressive building. 

I do have plenty of postcards of this building though, so if anyone would like one just let me know ;)

THE WESTERN / WAILING WALL

Of course, this was a must see, and was also an amazing experience - women on the right, men on the left, and back away from the wall when you're done. 

This wall was part of the Herodian temple that Jesus taught and healed in! But still, just a building. This day was special for making me realize that - those streets "that Jesus walked" - that I was so eager to walk after him, were mostly buried under hundreds of years of rebuilding. And even if he had walked that street, so what? Millions of people have walked the streets since then. 

The important thing is that Jesus was here. He died for the sins of the world - He is risen - He is returning - And I am so privileged to commune with Him every single day.

GENERAL SCENERY

I'd like to switch topics now from specific and important places to general scenery of Israel. 

I came here, expecting to find a beautiful land. I thought, "It must be beautiful somehow, if this the land God gave to His chosen people and precious possession." However, honestly, my mind was full of arid scenes, like the following:

  

(See the shepherd?)

And even some pure desert:

Wilderness of Ephraim and Judah

Sea of Galilee on left horizon

However, what I have discovered is that Israel is indeed a land of intense beauty and of variety, deserts not excepted:

 

Sometimes I even find myself wondering if I am really in Israel,
or back at home in the Adirondacks:




I think the most beautiful scene yet is where we are now - on the shores of the Sea of Galilee: