Under The Ashera - the idolators tree!

There remains a conflict of opinions regarding the age of Jacob’s daughter Dinah at the time she was raped by the Prince of Shechem. Its important to resolve because it infers with it the emphasis and urgency with which Jacob desired to first return to Beit El, the place to which he became emotionally obligated during his original exile. On his return, was Beit El his intended destination or did Jacob first inhabit Shechem as the Torah’s simply expresses. Or, perhaps that took place many years later as the Torah can be chronologically construed. In an earlier article I promoted the view of Rabbi Menachem Leibtag who supports the latter.

The sages say (Sofrim 21:9) Dinah was 6 years old when she gave birth to Aesnath; progeny of that rape. We are told (Berakhot 9:3, 14a) the embryos of Dinah and Joseph were miraculously swapped, which would imply they were born in the same year. In a contradictory explanation we are told (Sechel Tov B:34:3) Dinah was 8.5 years and Jacob 99 which extends the standard chronology 2 years. Now, Joseph was born in 2199 and Jacob emigrated to Canaan six years later in 2205. Whilst living in Shechem Joseph, at 17 (2216) was sold to slave traders. To experience Jacobs destination mindset, we must reconcile these conflicts.

In a short paragraph (Vayishlach 33:17) between re-entering the land and the story of Dinah beginning with their arrival in Shechem, we are told of Jacob’s temporary travel and dwellings in Succoth (mentioned 3 times). Then, between the story of Dinah in Shechem and their planned return to Beit El, another short paragraph (35:4), we are told Jacob took all their idolatrous deities and hid them under a tree that was near Shechem (the Hebrew word asher is used 3 times). Jacob’s father Isaac was specifically commanded by his father Abraham not to be exiled. Therefore, just imagine how disconcerting Jacob’s pending exile would have been at the time he made his covenant at the place he named Beit El. Now we can begin to understand how important it was for him to first return to Beit El after stopping along the way to hide (but not destroy) the deities in Shechem. 

This chronological retelling emphasizes Beit El’s importance to Jacob and suggests Dinah was indeed older than 6 when they returned to Shechem after a few years living in their temporary dwellings. During that time I maintain they lived six months at Beit El constructing the protective walls around the matsevah (monument) and sacred spaces Jacob dedicated. Then after Deborah, who had previously been sent by Jacob’s mother to accompany their return, passed away Jacob continued his journey to his parents home in Hebron. Along the way Rachel died, outside of Bethlehem whilst giving birth to Jacob's last child Benjamin. The balance of time was spent in Hebron where Jacob grieved for Rachel and his mother Rebecca who had also passed away.

We are left to speculate the reasons that compelled Jacob to return to Shechem. His entourage and the people that journeyed with them and suffered through family tragedies, had once hidden their idolatrous deities near the tree in Shechem. Perhaps they longed to return to their deities, perhaps Rachel’s death in someway connected them to the deities, some of which she had stolen from her father. Perhaps Jacob, who unknowingly cursed Rachel to die for her act felt compelled to return to the place they had been hidden.

The tragedies were to follow them to Shechem. From there they drove Jacob’s growing family back into exile to Egypt where the tragedies lasted 210 years. Then, Moses forged a nation during their 40 year journey and Joshua brought them back to Shechem where they buried Joseph and erected the monumental stones on which the Torah was written in 70 languages. The Jewish nation that started with Jacob 380 years earlier stood on Shechems mountains Ebal and Gerizim to recognize their blessings and curses in the hope these tragic events they had brought through idolatry were behind them forever.

Today the matsevah on which Jacob made his covenant and to which he returned to assume his name Israel, can be found at the City of David and although many are still confused as to its authenticity, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind!

How many stones?

This single mysterious stone could change the course of Jerusalem's future. If its significance is upheld it will certainly be one of the most hotly demanded locations in the world. Presently buried underground, excavations will shortly expose it to the public view. It's location dates back to the oldest time in Jerusalem's history, the early bronze age, but the stone is more likely middle bronze age - the time of Jacob.

If you count 12 stones, then this may just be the famous stone of Jacob's dream. 

2014 Image

The stone is located on a high-ridge above the Gihon Spring. To find out more see the video below and explore the previous articles. 

2024 Image

Click for more of ancient Israel's hidden secrets.

Earthquake at the Temple Mount!

Israel's experience with earthquakes is minimal, but anticipation is growing that the big one prophesied for Jerusalem is about to strike. During the festival of Sukkot Jews reading the Haftarah are reminded about the foreseen quake. Prophet Zechariah's words are read every year on the first day of Sukkot, but most translate this in its traditional form without much further analysis. A big quake will split the Mount of Olives somewhere along its north-south axis and a Valley will open. However, a closer reading reveals an alternative complexity.

Click to Enlarge

The land, in two movements along the axis will shift east, west and north, south opening a chasm along the ridge of the Mount of Olives that expands into a new valley, stretching and flattening the land in between and re-aligning along the Kidron Valley floor (see squiggly white line in the image). This could mean the black line in the distance (north) that marks the walk-bridge that once was used by the High Priest to avoid impurities conveyed by the dead bodies buried between the Temple Mount and Mount of Olives, will be adjusted. The grave sites on the South Western apex of the Mount of Olives facing the City of David, will move toward it.

The chasm that will be the new valley will run somewhere along the white line, which was relevant to a previous article I wrote regarding the location of the city of Ay (Ai). For those that are familiar with the landscape, the Seven Arches Hotel (immediately below the West Arrow) marks the spot Joshua’s army once awaited his ambush party sent to decoy the residents of Ay into the desert, east toward the Dead Sea after which he attacked and burned the city.

A re-alignment of the entire landscape makes sense only if the site of the future Temple in Jerusalem also shifts south to occupy the high ridge above the Gihon Spring at the City of David, which is documented in this video link. Many possibilities exist, but a static reading and understanding of Israel’s prophetic writings and teachings should not be taken for granted. In any event realization of Zechariah’s prophecy is not associated with the disaster one would normally attribute to an earthquake of this magnitude. However, its implication for Jerusalem, Israel and the world will be significant.

Excavation Update from City of David

Montague Parker Map - click to enlarge

Immediately adjacent to and above the recently announced Spring Citadel comes exciting new results from The City of David that includes the discovery of a new wall, which was mapped by Montague Parker almost 100 years ago. (see video) The map details many other features not yet seen in any of the excavations. The present site, approximately bounded by the rectangular area marked on the map, is expected to yield new discoveries.  

The circled area is most interesting to  me because it is immediately west and northwest of  the area marked ‘G’ (south) adjacent to the (colored) matzevah or monument that was discovered several years ago and which I have written about extensively.  

Some of the labyrinth of interconnected tunnels and walls around Area ‘B’ have recently been confirmed and can been seen exposed as the ground levels being excavated start falling. Behind (north) of the area marked ‘B’ also highlights the excavation boundary known as the ‘Crack’ which is visible in the next image and was one of the reasons Israeli authorities agreed to proceed with the excavation, primarily to avoid potential danger of landslides.

The Crack looking north

The Crack; ground level now excavated ±2.5 meters lower, looking south at the top of the ancient wall section (probably area ‘B’) exposed for the first time in thousands of years.

Excavated ±2.5 meters down - looking south

Below the visible ground levels in this image lies what I believe will be the most important discovery in post temple Jewish history. In the following image immediately adjacent and south of the room marked ‘G’ lies the room that includes the Matzevah or monument

The most important discovery from pre temple Jewish history?

Nothing equivalent to the image that follows has ever been discovered in Israel. It is unique because it's built on bedrock, is not a grave marker and is located in an area previously used for sacrifices. The stone monument appears to be a granite type rock distinguished by its variegation.

The Matzevah or Monument - Genesis 28:22

In the room adjacent to and south of the Matzevah room are the now famous ‘V’ markings carved directly into the bedrock.

For my theories on this area and its relationship to Biblical and Jewish history I suggest the following reading;

http://israelfact.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/a-hypothesis-for-mizbeach-of-akeida.html

http://www.scribd.com/doc/141272607/Jerusalem-Origin-The-Thesis

Days of Repentance!

I was alerted to a tradition maintained for thousands of years, a daily prayer of repentance said by orthodox Jews, but not on Sabbaths and festivals. The event that caused King David to write Psalm 25 immediately invoked my fascination. Every day this psalm is read as a personal plea for forgiveness, but I question its broader implications. Strangely this psalm is read immediately following the most sacred point of the daily prayer ritual, so the reader is expected to traverse the highest point of spiritual elevation to the lowest point of repentance. It seems odd these extremes would be juxtaposed; perhaps to draw the reader back to the reality of their human condition? So why this psalm when many others could have been selected?

The event that inspired its writing, toward the end of King David’s reign, caused the death of 70,000 people who lived in Israel's north. David’s ill-fated, self motivated decision to conduct a national census was singled out and blamed. David had chosen this divinely inflicted plague over punishments by human hands. In the aftermath David and others sighted the angel of death poised to destroy Jerusalem, but it stopped, well short of the three days David had agreed, via Prophet Gad to endure on his people as punishment for his census oversight. Immediately the Prophet told him to build an altar where David had seen the feet of the angel standing on the top of Mount Moriah on the threshing floor that belonged to the King of the Jebusites who was still living in Jerusalem's City of David. Why was the nation inflicted when the fateful census was his decision alone?

Here we must turn to commentaries that also ask whether the altar he built was for personal or national use? In those days it had already been decreed that no national altars could be built outside of the temporary sanctuary. Furthermore the Ark of the covenant and elements of the temporary sanctuary had already been transported to the City of David many years prior. However, an altar had not been formally erected and all tribal leaders knew once erected, the altar would mark the spot for the permanent temple. Custom has it that the location of David and Gad’s altar, on the threshing floor, became the beacon by which plans for the permanent temple were finalized by David. His son Solomon completed the temple construction, which was once located somewhere near the site of today’s golden Dome of The Rock on the Temple Mount. According to Jewish law the future permanent altar can only ever be at the very same location Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice, not by any other measure.

Although it may be logical to argue the daily recitation of Psalm 25 reminds that national disloyalty or disrespect for the nation's leader could cause a decision that will bring harm, these traits do not constitute sin. It’s more likely the daily recitation is associated with a recurring event that specifically requires repentance. As you will see from my blog links in the article body, I maintain a view consistent with commentaries that the absence of Israel’s national temple each day is as if each person individually destroyed it. Therefore I conclude, in addition to the many other proofs I have already brought, that Psalm 25 was written because King David knew the altar’s location he selected would lead to the temple’s destruction.

Until we discover the correct and permanent place of the altar and rectify the problem, this psalm will continue to be recited by and for each reader and for that fateful national decision.

Gedaliah who, the determined Jew?

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob re-claimed Canaanite occupied land which amplified competition among the local tribal kings and regional powers. Ancient Canaanites were never dull, especially in the south which was hotly contested by invaders from north, south and east. Egyptians and Libyans controlled the coastal trade route through Gaza to Megiddo. Inland along the flat plains to the northeast competitions was against their Hittite family and eventually returning Israelites under Joshua wrested control of most of the land. Then came the Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians advancing from the north to control access into Egypt and north Africa. Alternative access along the Jordan river and Dead Sea, although important, was often far more hostile. 

During their 250 year sojourn in Egypt, Jacob’s small family grew to a slave-community of millions living in the eastern Nile delta. After departing the delta, during their 40 year nomadic journey to the promised land they built a temporary sanctuary and nurtured their wounded national identity. Their exodus vacated Egypt's Nile delta which became exposed to infiltrators. Torah, the Hebrew Bible, became Israel - the new nation’s constitutional and cultural manifesto. By the time Moses died, he had forged Torah’s principles of law and worship into their collective national psyche, but its open framework enabled fiercely competitive intra-tribal identities to express themselves in priority to apparent national interests.

Moses tasked Joshua to conquer the promised land for the 12 tribes of Israel to settle. Joshua accomplished this by leading each tribe through successive victories over 31 regional kings, each a descendant of Canaan son of Egypt’s founder, Mitzrayim the son of Ham. Ham’s brother Shem was granted the land of Canaan by their father Noah. Their brother Yafeth was given land north and east of Canaan in modern Iraq and Iran. The three regions belonging to Ham (Egypt), Shem (dubiously Canaan) and Yafeth (Mesopotamia) constituted the fertile crescent. The division of this valuable land established the basis for significant regional rivalry.  

Dan was the last tribe Joshua assisted to settle their land. It was a difficult allocation for the hotly contested (south of modern day Tel Aviv) important Egyptian coastal trade route through Gaza, Ashkelon and Ashdod. The 64,000 eligible members of Dan were made up from only one family known as the Shuchamites, the descendants of Dan’s son Chushim.  Dan's initial land grant was small and they may have been expected to expand south into land occupied by the Philistines (descendants of Mitzrayim’s grandson) to accommodate their growth. However, a previous tribal pact entered by Abraham and Isaac provided Philistine immunity in Gaza and their Hittite and Jebusite cousins the Jebusites obtained immunity in Hevron and Jerusalem. After Joshua, toward the end of the period of Israel’s Judges, Samson, a judge from the tribe of Dan married a Philistine woman - Delilah, which changed the course of history at the time. 

Absent a new ruler or king there was little cohesiveness among the incongruous tribes of Israel. Their victories over local kings and dominance over trade routes heightened competition with other tribes and led to regional tensions between Egypt and their burgeoning northern Hittite and Assyrian foes. The Hittites and Assyrians, predecessors of the Babylonians and Greeks, descended from Yafeth and shared a common Cuneiform language. Dissatisfied and left to fend for themselves, the seniors of tribe Dan snaked a path north through Israel's tribal territories in search of easy to conquer land. During the same period Pharaoh Merenptah was pushing north through Israeli tribal land to attack the northern Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh. Tribal Dan, known to the Egyptians as the Shasu, conquered Laish in Israel’s north and settled the area between the Golan Heights and Damascus. Dan's territory was split between the south west (Gaza) and north east (Golan) of Israel. Dan, the disgruntled rear guard of Israel were left exposed to conflict, contact and trade with Israel's foreign invaders and neighbors.

Around 350 hundred years later King David consolidated Israel’s disparate tribes briefly establishing a united kingdom and paving the way for his son King Solomon to finally realize the dream of Israel at peace with a permanent temple in Jerusalem. However, peace between the tribes endured only Solomon’s reign. Immediately thereafter the northern tribes under Yerovam split from those in the south under Rechavam and Dan's divided territory straddled the divided nation. Around 500 years later the continued national division led to the prophecies of Yeshayahu (Isaiah) and Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) who predicted the destruction of Jerusalem by the Assyrians and its ultimate destruction by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar.

Under the Assyrians Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah, a righteous Jew to rule as his proxy, but he was murdered at a feast set by Ishmael ben Nethaniah of the tribe of Yehuda and the remaining Jews who had not already been exiled to Babylon were killed or fled to Egypt. Orthodox Jews observe the fast of Gedaliah immediately after Rosh HaShana in the 10 days of repentance preceding Yom Kippur, perhaps to recall some or all of Israel's sordid, competitive, self effacing  history. The month from which the temple's destruction commenced was eventually named after Tammuz the Babylonian deity for food and agriculture and became the lowest point of the the Hebrew calendar.

Peace does not come easy, not for a lack of trying, but for lack of the unification King David tried so hard to realize in the middle of Israel's history. Now at the end of that history Jews the world over are having to find new and creative ways to consolidate their disparate views as the world compresses and apparent circumstance forces their hand to accept the essential ingredients that unify, forge and strengthen their national identity. 

Dancing The Kings Tune

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s restrained agreement to construct homes in east Jerusalem is essential to the City's economic prosperity, but his intent to disarm Iran may be his Achilles heel as he intellectually balances worldwide condemnation of his domestic decisions. His restraint may just be the 'eikev' in Ya'akov meaning the 'heel' in the name 'Jacob' before Jacob bestowed the name Israel on his nation state. Against the neighborhood backdrop in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon Israel’s relentless economic development demands release of more land in 'sensitive' districts.

Israel's history is littered with Kings who danced the wrong tune. Now Bibi's dance, to masters with deep pockets, is composed in response to the dominant Iranian tune of fundamental Islam intent on claiming Israel’s scalp as the crown of its insurgency. Enemies in the neighborhood would prefer the theater of war be directed inside Israel’s borders, whilst naysayers, who want to divide Jerusalem and Israel at the expense of prosperity, influence the global lobby already biased by Arabian oil money.

The only reasonable tune for a Prime Minister's dance would be one that promotes and permits building, especially in areas that would correct past planning errors imposed by long forgotten politicians in the Capital city. Housing for its ballooning immigrant population, hotels to accommodate growth in tourism and infrastructure including roads, trains, airports and seaports. This financial opportunity is inherently ethical, because the GDP contribution from construction and tourism also demands a desired proportion of unskilled labor from the widest human resource footprint.

Jerusalem could be on a track to become a world city (see www.Jerusalem5800.com), the principal hub of tourism to the future Middle East. Its metropolitan population is expected to double by 2030 and triple by 2050. Jerusalem has a new light rail and in a few years the train from Tel Aviv will shuttle people to and from the ancient city. The new convention and business district is approved, construction has commenced and government is coordinated to attract and accommodate tourists in Jerusalem’s center. Muslim, Christian and Jewish constituents will benefit as a result and no amount of political rhetoric will surpass the fundamental necessity to eradicate poverty and through it the insurgencies that thrive.

Throughout history the tide of Israel’s opposition ebbed and flowed, but we are living in remarkable times when the power of the opposition has been substantially reduced. Israel can finally stand firmly against the waves that pound against it. The more it sinks its roots in buildings, construction, substantial infrastructure and ingenious technologies that spread tentacles the world over, the more Israel becomes a stable anchor, an independent force and a recognized beacon. This is not a time for tenuous gestures. Bibi must identify the importance of this moment to act dominantly and cohesively to prioritize Jerusalem and Israel's economic future over the impending doomsday rhetoric of the Iranian lunatic lobby.

Jerusalem is seriously affected by east-west politics that have crippled its development over the past 65 years. Prime Minister Netanyahu must decide whether he will dance to the tune of domestic policy favoring Jerusalem or the foreign threat. With the Jerusalem Mayoral election looming and a probable change of leadership, we can only hope that Bibi and his puppet Mayor will dance the right tune and if he doesn’t that his coalition will be cut short and a new Prime Minister elected to dance the Kings tune. When Israel faced the Assyrians, King Hezekiah was worried his primary Minister Shebna, who favored an alliance with Egypt against Assyria would turn his followers against the King and Israel would be defeated. The Assyrians killed Shebna and food poisoning wiped out 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. They returned home before they attacked Israel. King Hezekiah continued his task building Jerusalem.

Notwithstanding the myriad subversive insurgent agendas Jews of the world may possess from time-to-time – as anyone will attest, “three Jews, four opinions” – Israel the Jewish nation, not the state, has one preeminent insurgency. This insurgency envisages a world peace that also accommodates Jewish independence and an unrestricted ability to celebrate its culture. However, Israel the Jewish state, a concept its most fundamental opponents can never accept, highlights their bigoted insurgency and at the opposite extreme, Jewish orthodoxy’s response: Rebuild Jerusalem, assemble the righteous and allow Jerusalem to blossom as a city on a hill whose rays illuminate the darkness of so many, including the inhabitants of its neighboring Middle Eastern capital cities still yearning to breathe free.

Winston Churchill and the Egyptian Bias

Winston Churchill said "God deals with the nations as they deal with the Jews. Of every fifty officers who come back from the Middle East only one speaks favorably of the Jews. That merely convinces me that I am right." For many debunking the Ancient Hebrew Bible is easy, choose any theory; the Egyptian record does not support Israel’s story; natural events led to the destruction of Egypt; Moses wrote the Bible for the Jews, he did not receive it from God; the Bible is a myth pieced together by 4 authors or any of a myriad of others. 

More archaeologists have written of their excavations in Egypt than any other place on earth and their record has infused the biases of historical writings. Notwithstanding their quality of archaeology it was construed in an environment that preferred to debunk the historical and Biblical record that Israel left Egypt. About the Jews who left Spain, Russia or Germany you won’t find much of a societal salute written by inspired locals in their records either. Given this context, it’s no surprise the archaeological fraternity fell victim to the character described by Churchill.

False supposition follows a flawed premise, in this case the ancient Egyptian anti-Semitic view that opposed Israel the shepherd nation, who herded, slaughtered and ate the Egyptians sheep and cattle gods. After 210 years Israel rose from their exile and left Egypt as it suffered remarkable blows. These were recorded in context in the Bible and separately the Ipuwer papyrus, the 'drowned soldiers on the 10th hour' mural in Amenhotep II, Ramses VI and other tombs in the Valley of Kings. Israel's time in Egypt was relatively short and was described in the mystical realm in the record of Pharaoh's. Regardless, the complete interpretation and chronology of the hieroglyphic record is not yet agreed or understood.

Nevertheless, references to Israel do exist, but many are overlooked or misinterpreted. It requires a special archaeologist to reverse the tide of inaccurate interpretation to become 'one of fifty' being sufficiently independent, strong willed, open minded and bold enough to see and retell the story of Israel coded in the existing record. I have met some like this who studied and outlined certain facts, but their voices against the backdrop of 200 years of archaeology that has been insensitive to the Jewish plight are barely audible.

Hieroglyphic is a tough language to interpret and there aren't many who will support the rare scholar that contradicts others who allege definitive knowledge. One example is the granite naos in Ismailia’s museum which speaks of “evil on the earth...and...man nor god could see faces...and...Pi-Kharoti” the latter compared to the biblical Pi-HaKirot, where the splitting of the sea occurred. Another is the Merneptah stele that specifically mentions “Israel”, a third is the Sehel Stele that speaks of Djoser and the 7 year famine. Finally the unique tomb of Djoser and its 11 additional burial chambers may have been built to transport the souls of Josephs 11 brothers. 

This author does not pursue an archaeological validation of Biblical events, rather that readers will more carefully consider historical conclusions tainted by prejudicial biases from the archaeological fraternity. There is also the matter of the pre-Jewish Bible characters and how they fit into the Egyptian record. Ten generations between Adam and Noah each larger than life characters who lived on average 6 or 7 times longer than present day lifespans. Then came Noah’s three sons, the Bible names as Shem, Ham and Yafeth, each inheriting a region of Mesopotamia’s fertile crescent that stretched from Egypt to Iran. Many of them the likely Old Kingdom pharaohs that still intrigue the minds of so many yet most fail to connect and overlay the Biblical record with the rich, but still confounding Egyptian record.

Initially Winston Churchill stood alone to oppose Hitler. His motivations to defend the values imbued in the western world ideal were justified in his brave decisions and actions. In many ways the 50:1 anti-Israel bias he highlighted is still reflected in the attitude of nations today, the United Nations being a perfect example of this continuum. Their apparently unbiased representation hears, judges and passes more restrictive resolutions about Israel than any other nation on earth. Perhaps they too should reconsider that the Biblical record Israel has fastidiously maintained for 3825 years is true and the most complete record of all.

Learning out the extreme bias of archaeologists or people who claim to be Bible scholars because they once studied a foreign language interpretation is a precautionary note to readers. Blink then blink again, sometimes that's all it takes to adjust one's perspective and see a different more sensitive reality often cloaked by the veil of an 'expert'.

Shifting Reality for Peace!

The current negotiation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is a struggle close to the heart of many. In such a heartfelt situation would you prefer your nemesis to say; “you can’t have it” or “if it’s true you can have it”? Hope springs eternal, but questions remain. The first statement implies its adamant speaker may have authority to promise the outcome of the second. However, authority may not be required “if it’s true”.

Most would agree, President Obama’s insistence and Secretary of State Kerry’s persistence, are the primary instigators of the current negotiating round. Although the prospects of peace are always tantalizing, the likelihood they will raise unrealistic hope and stir long held tension is a real and present danger. The proposed two state solution is an imposition on Israel’s 65 year peace process and does not necessarily address the sensitivities of the people and regimes required to actually make and maintain peace. Beside settlements, recognition of Israel, Gaza and other significant issues, arguably the heart and soul of the conflict is reflected in the microcosm of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

The complexity of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount appears insurmountable because demand to possess the world’s most contested rock will in all likelihood continue unabated until a peaceful solution emerges from it. The bedrock that is Mount Moriah stretches from the south at the base of the Kidron Valley floor to the Temple Mount at the head on which the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosque are built. No amount of coercion can stem the tides of Jewish or Muslim demands for exclusive access to and possession of the Temple Mount on which many Jews and people of other faiths expect the Third Temple will be built.

Jews are a self-described “stiffnecked” people so it’s no surprise their dogmatic attitude toward this location where the third Temple will be built is fervent especially amongst the orthodox. Likewise, history demonstrates the frazzled fever pitch quickly rises to a pan Islamic crescendo each time Jews make a significant approach toward the Temple Mount. Peace between Israel and people living under the Palestinian Authority is therefore dependent on possession and occupation on this monolith.

The prospects of sharing The Rock are difficult because the traditional location associated with the Jewish Temple Holy of Holies is also the Dome of the Rock - a Muslim shrine built in 691 CE. Notwithstanding the importance of this location, by all accounts Jewish prayer must always be directed toward the Holy of Holies, the place on Mount Moriah where the Ark of the Covenant is thought to have once been located. If its location was once at the Dome of the Rock, Jews praying at the Temple Mount’s Western Wall would be required by Orthodox Jewish law to face it, but most face the wall despite the Dome of the Rock being ±15°’s North of the wall. The practice is easily explained because the precise location for Holy of Holies is presently unknown and any place on Mount Moriah’s bedrock monolith, which according to Jewish tradition is creation’s Foundation Stone, could ultimately house it.

The speaker of the opening paragraph has no authority to deliver peace from The Temple Mount. However, the validity of the Western Wall prayer may be tested by the emergence of an even more authentic and ancient proposition (see: Deception and Glory) offering hope that a Jewish Temple on Mount Moriah can be realized in peace. If religious authorities agree that the new excavation at the recently discovered site in Jerusalem’s City of David is the penultimate location for the Third Temple’s altar then according to Orthodox Jewish law a sea-change will have occurred. This site, if true, could shift perspective, tradition and reality. The emergence of a peaceful solution from the epicenter of conflict is a characteristic of Jewish thinking and could be persuasive.

In such a scenario, it cannot be overlooked that the economic boost from tourism to the City of David may be sufficiently significant to motivate 70,000 of east Jerusalem’s Jordanian Citizens, previously denied Israeli citizenship, to re-apply. Their efforts to obtain Israeli citizenship or permanent Jordanian/Israeli residency could seriously affect facts on the ground especially at the epicenter and may cause Prime Minister Netanyahu to respond. Such a demographic shift could finally put an end to the madness of division and cause an admission that the economic fundamentals of two states is suboptimal to Jerusalem’s constituents and flawed from the outset.

The City of David

From my recent speech at the City of David -

There is a certain emptiness associated with the bedrock of Mount Moriah. Israel’s prophets, sages and rabbis expounded yet the searching continues to anticipate the face of the deep void Torah refers to as - ‘al pnei tahom’. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg in her writings of this “murmuring deep” associated it with the trauma’s of ancestral origin and of creation itself. Lena Goldstein a holocaust survivor recently said; “Everytime I speak there’s a moment where I can’t talk any more. I don’t know why, I always thought if you talk so many times about something it becomes normal. But it doesn’t”.

Adam, the speaking man, was orphaned into this world, Eve did not know her father; Cain murdered his brother; Noah disengaged, then witnessed man’s total destruction; Abram, survived near death and expulsion before abandoning his father on his journey to the promised land. Isaac, at 37, was sacrificed by his father saved only by divine intervention. Rebecca, Jacob’s mother insisted he charade as his twin brother to obtain blessing from his blind father:- Then whilst fleeing his brother, he dreamed of a connection between heaven and earth at the place of Isaac, his father’s sacrifice. There, he built a monument, as a covenant and promised to return to build a House of God and on his return he struggled against the angel of death forcing it to confer on him the name - Israel. Each of these trauma’s are directly connected to the hallowed foundation, the bedrock of Mount Moriah.

The midrashim speak of this bedrock, the hill as the navel of creation, its ‘foundation stone’ where it also locates the olive branch Noah’s dove recovered after the great flood, a sign of land and peace. The Torah first recounts the location as ‘Shalem’, the holy site presided over by Noah's son Shem, the oracle in whom Rebecca confided during her troubled pregnancy with her twin sons. He advised she would give birth to the progenitors of future nations - Esau and Jacob. In the Kidron Valley below Abram, Shem’s direct descendant, built an altar; on the bedrock Isaac was sacrificed and Jacob erected a stone monument acknowledging his promise to return and build Beit El - the house of God.

250 years later, after Israel’s family had blossomed into millions in Egypt, Joshua led Israel’s tribal warriors back to Beit El, to Mount Moriah to expel its occupiers the descendants of Yevus. Behind the Mount of Olives Joshua first ambushed the walled city of Ai in his mission to conquer the occupiers on Mount Moriah. During the mission he was reminded that Abraham had once pledged immunity to the descendants of Yevus. In honor of that treaty Joshua and the Jews did not expel them.

In response, the walls that once stood on the bedrock of Mount Moriah became so formidable it took 404 more years before King David’s men finally infiltrated the secret passages of the the water tower of the Gihon Spring to occupy it. This was the place Jacob had departed and after 20 years, the place he returned with his wives and young family to formally anoint the stone monument he had previously erected, to acknowledge the blessings bestowed on him, to officially assume his name - ‘Israel’ and to begin building God’s Holy House.

Compared to the construction of the Herodian temple at the top of the hill over 1000 years later, the walls that once stood on the lower section were already significant technological marvels layered from the bedrock, one multi-tonne boulder on top of another and can still be seen under the soft earth. But, by the time David entered the city, the extensive construction had already restricted access to, what I believe is, Israel’s most important artifact.

Archaeologists may reject such conjecture, speaking instead of chalcolithic, early and middle bronze age chronologies, distancing narrative, reducing opportunities for professional criticism and potential ambiguity. But, I question the wisdom of such stoic distinctions that diminish the importance of the Biblical record on which this archaeology is founded and equally stoic Biblical scholars that dismiss importance of these remarkable discoveries.

Among the many references, in the praises known as Hallel, the Levite priests of the temple once sang and Jews continue to sing many times each year אֶבֶן, מָאֲסוּ הַבּוֹנִים- הָיְתָה, לְרֹאשׁ פִּנָּה - that ‘the stone the builders rejected’ has become, in the future, ‘its chief cornerstone’ - which stone? Was it meant as a metaphor and what about the past-future tense syntax? We learn to interpret Torah on 4 levels and each, from literal to mystical, must reconcile the other. So I ask myself the question, these priests who, at the time of the first temple lived on the lower hill between the city wall and its eastern boundary, why did they write this line and choose to climax the hundred plus lines of Hallel by repeating this verse amongst all the verses of the entire prayer?

‘In fleeing this land, Jacob, was forced to lie down by the sudden sunset. He experienced a primal fear, causing his comment "How awesome is this place!". And he dreamed of the ‘stairway to heaven’’ and he received his vision of this foundation, the temple - Beit El, which inspired him to set up the monument of twelve-stones which that night fused-into-one.’ And according to this midrash what did God do?

‘He stretched out His right foot and sank the stone deep into the earth. Accordingly, the stone is called, ehven hashtya, the Foundation Stone - the navel of the world and from there the whole Earth was stretched out and upon that stone the temple of God stands.’

I believe the ‘cornerstone’ of Hallel is the monument, the matsevah of Jacob. The Artifact of the song was emphasized because Hiram and the foreign builders of King Solomon’s first temple relegated it as a design construction problem: It being on the lower hill and the construction project being on the upper hill, but the priests who discovered its existence in the years they were living between the walls of the city, on the lower hill, did not rest, they wrote and sang about it in protest. A few years ago whilst digging on the high ridge of the Gihon spring I believe Eli Shukron’s archaeological team discovered it once more. It is the monument Jacob anointed when he assumed his name Israel and it marks Israel’s ancestral land!

This tribal land on the upper hill is Binyamin’s symbolically Israel’s neck that on the lower hill borders with Yehuda Israel’s right shoulder and further up to the north it meets Israel’s left shoulder - the tribal land of Yosef. The land, when used purposefully, confers Israel’s tribal unity and peace to the world. It is Tzion - Zion the Jewish heritage!

For Lena Goldstein talking was never enough, but many Jewish ancestors like her acted in ways that ultimately filled the void of the trauma’s the nation Israel has suffered through the millennia. The mystery of Israel’s heritage is the attractive proposition global tourists demand, in this sense The City of David is arguably Israel’s most important national treasure.