We arrived in Hudson ahead of schedule, early Wednesday afternoon. It’s a charming little town right on the St. Croix river, very picturesque and uncommercialized. We found our hotel, unpacked, and then agonized over where to have dinner. The nearby establishments had unfamiliar names like “Green Mill” or “Perkins” …and we didn’t want to risk ending up with greasy, MSG-laden food! After some research, we found a small Irish place right down the road… or rather, a small deserted Irish place. We were literally the only patrons there. This land of Wisconsin is strange in some ways. I was pretty sure our waitress was foreign (Irish or something)… she had an accent like you wouldn’t believe. But it turned out she was born and raised 10 minutes down the road. And that was our introduction to the local dialect. ;-)

Anyway, we enjoyed a good dinner and then headed over to Beth Immanuel Sabbath Fellowship for the conference kick-off.

The 2009 FFOZ Shavuot conference was titled “My Father’s House.” Hence the title of this post series. Over the course of a few days we learned about different aspects of G-d’s House, including the spiritual significance of the tabernacle, the architectural layout of Herod’s Temple, what caused the destruction of the Temple, and future prophecies about the rebuilt Temple.

Our very first session Wednesday night was with Joseph Good, a recognized expert on the Temple layout and design. He began calmly enough, and then started flinging information at us faster than we could keep track of. Facts about cubits and gates went flying past us as we scrambled to find notebooks and pens. It was a little overwhelming… and I believe it’s no exaggeration to say that he spoke for almost 3 hours. There’s no doubt, the man is passionate about the Temple blueprint. We stumbled out of there with our minds whirling… falling asleep back at our hotel to dream of beautiful, silent, golden bells, making a sound no human can hear.