I rejoiced with those who said to me,
Psalm 122:1-3
“Let us go to the house of the LORD.”
Our feet are standing
in your gates, O Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is built like a city
that is closely compacted together.
Saturday was orientation day. The president of JUC, Dr. Paul Wright, opened with this thought: Psalms 120-134 are called Psalms of Ascent, sung when pilgrims would go up to Jerusalem (Jerusalem is at a local high point, so you always go up to Jerusalem). Today, when Jews immigrate to Israel, they say they make Aliyah, or more literally, they go up. To read Psalm 122:2 and say “Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem” anywhere else except Jerusalem isn’t true. You can only read it truthfully here. That isn’t to say you can’t draw meaning or application– it just doesn’t have the same punch to it.
After registering for classes and having an official tour of JUC, we did a photo scavenger hunt in the Old City. The Old City is the part that is still surrounded by walls. (More on that in a later blog) The following are some of our pictures from that.
Today in the afternoon we did our first official field study, walking through parts of the Old City. I will show more pictures of the Old City another day.