Israel's archaeology is more than fascinating; it's imperative. To my knowledge, one hundred years ago no one cast doubt on the Jews' millennia-long presence in the Holy Land. Even those who would [dare to] dispute present ownership couldn't deny the history.
Times have changed. The irrational and absurd have become fashionable in polite company.
That's why it's so important for us to understand the archaeological evidence found in places like the Western Wall, the Temple Tunnels or the excavation of King David's palace. Scripture comes to life as we see evidence of the places and events that have been described by our writings for millennia.
But Jerusalem is more than a place of our history. It's our present and our future.
When we started off in Jerusalem this morning, we were addressed by Rabbi David Aaron who asked us to imagine being a word in a written document. How would you feel if you were a word in a dictionary, where your only relationship with the neighboring words is that you share the same first letter?
What if you were a word joining with other words to form a sentence in a comic book? You'd be part of a meaningful expression, but it would be fantasy.
But what if you had the deep honor of being a word helping to form sentences and chapters in an epic magnum opus? What if you were an indispensable part of a cosmically important manuscript for the generations?
With that, he asked us to remember that indeed we are each a word of G-d. We're each an important paart of telling G-d's story of humanity, and more specifically the story of the Jewish people. In life, we can sometimes feel like a stray word, a word without context, a word without a story to tell.
Jerusalem is where our story comes together. Jerusalem is where we can feel our respective places in history, and give voice to our soul's story.
Jerusalem is where we fit in with our people and our story.
It's where we finally meet ourselves.
It's coming home.