Arrived

It is 5:45 pm here in Jerusalem. Our plane landed about 4 hours ago so I’ve been at the center exploring for about 3 hours. Getting off the plane the first thought was that it felt just like Southern California. The vegetation is very familiar and the humidity and temperature is consistent with San Diego. Everything has that sticky feel that comes with humidity. They say it will get significantly hotter. So far all we have done is unpack and take a short tour of the center, I will have to do a more through one when I have time. It was incredible to stand for a brief moment, after 16 hours of flight, at the top of the grand staircase of the center and realize that we get to live here for the next 4 months. It was an incredible feeling of unworthiness. I must have done some pretty great things in my past life because I can’t think of anything I’ve done in this life to deserve a place like this.
I checked the bandwidth of the center; it is slow, about the same as my apartment in Provo actually. Only it will be used by 100 people instead of 4. I might be able to sneak a photo over it now and then. Or maybe i can work something out at the neighboring Hebrew University.

The next awe moment came when I walked out on the balcony in our room and found myself staring down a 2000 year old wall and the Dome of the Rock. The call for prayer went out at 4:15 with a PA system broadcasting the eerie words across the hills of Jerusalem. There is very much a haunting sadness to the place. Talking with a nearby roommate we both had an intense feeling of age about the landscape. Age and exhaustion, as if the land had put up with too much for too long and desperately wanted to rest. Staring at the very visible Dome of the Rock it was depressing to realize how much sorrow the world has seen because of that building and that spot of ground. As Lincoln said we cannot dedicate that spot because it has already been dedicated by the blood of those who died there. It remains a sacred spot of ground.

These are obviously snap impressions, I haven’t even been in Israel for 5 hours and there I go. I haven’t even slept in 7,000 miles. Dinner is starting and I am desperate to go. This is going to be amazing.
One note about the 11 hour leg from New York to Tel Aviv; we shared our plane with 20 or so Jews from New York visiting Israel. They were all dressed up in the traditional attire and all had the same beard and the same glasses. In fact, they all had almost the same body type too. It looked like a family reunion. They seemed as excited to go as we were and spent most of the flight wandering around and having whispered conversations in Yiddish. The call is still very widespread. Come to Zion, all ye nations of the earth.