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This particular wording brings to mind the event of receiving the law at Mount Sinai. Regarding that event it says: “they encamped [plural] in the wilderness; and there Israel [singular] encamped before the mount” (Exodus 19:2). The great medieval commentator Rashi points out that the switch to the singular verb indicates that the people were “as one person, with one heart.” Just as the magnitude of the Sinai experience had the power to unite the independent tribes into one nation, so too is the power of Jerusalem. The Talmudic sage Rabbi Joshua ben Levi homiletically explains the verse in Psalms 122:3 to mean that Jerusalem is a city “that makes all of Israel friends.” As it did in the time of the return from Babylon, Jerusalem has the power to bring Israel together as one, whether in times of strife or times of peace. Earlier this month, groups of IDF men and women were touring the Holy City when a terrorist drove his truck into the crowd, murdering four innocent soldiers, leaving over a dozen others wounded, and many others emotionally scarred. Much of the world has forgotten and moved on, but our soldiers and their families still need support and love. You can still make a difference.
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