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.

Why Israel is the land of Kanaan!

Why is Israel referred to as the land of Kanaan and who was Kanaan? This question has finally been explained in a physical proof discovered on a fragment photograph of The Dead Sea Scrolls found in cave #4. The opening lines of orthodox Jewish daily prayer beg the question of the verse;

Remember His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations; the covenant which He made with Abraham, His oath to Isaac, He established it for Jacob as a statute, for Israel as an everlasting covenant, stating “To you I shall give the land of Kanaan” -the portion of your inheritance, when you were few, very few, and strangers in it.

זִכְרוּ נִפְלְאותָיו אֲשֶׁר עָשה. מפְתָיו וּמִשְׁפְּטֵי פִיהוּ:

זֶרַע יִשרָאֵל עַבְדּו. בְּנֵי יַעֲקב בְּחִירָיו:

הוּא ה' אֱלהֵינוּ. בְּכָל הָאָרֶץ מִשְׁפָּטָיו:

זִכְרוּ לְעולָם בְּרִיתו. דָּבָר צִוָּה לְאֶלֶף דּור:

אֲשֶׁר כָּרַת אֶת אַבְרָהָם. וּשְׁבוּעָתו לְיִצְחָק:

וַיַּעֲמִידֶהָ לְיַעֲקב לְחק. לְיִשרָאֵל בְּרִית עולָם:

לֵאמר. לְךָ אֶתֵּן אֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן. חֶבֶל נַחֲלַתְכֶם:

בִּהְיותְכֶם מְתֵי מִסְפָּר. כִּמְעַט וְגָרִים בָּהּ:

What is meant by the portion of your inheritance? The strange, stylistic reference to Kanaan as the land promised to Israel is also explained by the recent Dead Sea Scrolls discovery. What was previously interpreted by mainstream theologians as the “tent of Shem” Genesis (9:27) is now proven to mean the “land of Shem” and what a huge difference it makes.

Noah had three sons Shem, Ham and Yafeth, each received an inheritence. The discovery proves that land granted to Shem included the “portion of your inheritance” specifically set aside for Israel, but occupied by Kanaan when they “were few, very few, and strangers in it”. The explanation finally resolves a logical reading of the line - “To you I shall give the land of Kanaan”.  Here “you” conclusively means Jacob-Israel.

Ham had incestuous relations with his mother, Noah's wife (Ki Teitzei 23:1, shares Haftorah with Noah), the product of that relationship Kanaan was cursed. When Noah found out he was devestated, became drunk in his tent and cursed Kanaan forever. Talmud Sanhedrin 108b states Ham copulated on the Ark against Noah's order of celibacy. Ham’s act was judged antithetical to Noah's moral law and it set the standard for permissible incest among Egyptian leaders following Ham or Khem. 

Mitzrayim (after whom Egypt was named) and his half brother Kanaan (Kanaan was Ham's son - Genesis 9:18) hated Shem, who had received Noahs blessing. In defiance, Ham desired Kanaan occupy the land of Shem, which would retrospectively justify his dastardly act. Ham bequeathed Egypt to his son Mitzrayim and they both backed Kanaan with military force to usurp the inheritence of Shem.

Abraham was Shem’s direct descendant as such he was in line to receive the continual passage of rights to Shem’s land. Further, Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. By the same legal standard Ishmael was born from a mother, a descendant of Ham who operated as surrogate for Abraham’s wife Sarah who banished them and relinquished any rights Ishmael had to ever inherit Abrahams land. This is an essential legal proof of Israel’s continuity, through Isaac on the land and its indigenous right!

 

From Noah - Dead Sea Scrolls reveal Jerusalem's Origin

In a most exciting recent discovery[1], a fragment photograph of The Dead Sea Scrolls found in cave #4 has revealed a direct record that Noah allocated the ‘land of Israel’ to his oldest son Shem. The interpretation further underpins long held opposition to the mainstream view. It confirms Shem’s land was infiltrated and occupied against Noah’s will after the text tells us he was sodomized or his wife adulterated by his son Ham.

In the Bible Shem's land becomes the ‘land of Kanaan’ because Shem, operated passively against his brother Ham, whose son Mitzrayim (the founder of Egypt) and grandson Kanaan took possession of it. Shem also known as the high priest of Shalem (Jerusalem) or Malchi-tzedek (just King) held to his priestly disposition and failed to defend his sovereign rights. Nevertheless, his rights transferred to his direct descendant Abram when Shem died.

In my thesis ‘Jerusalem's Origin’ I propose the first settlement of Jerusalem was Early Bronze I, 3300-3050 B.C.E. This new evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls directly supports the hypothesis and paves the way for the age of the carved bedrock of the upper ridge at the Gihon Spring in the City of David (Jerusalem) to have been constructed by Shem as God’s priestly sanctuary. This would confirm Shalem as the origin of Jerusalem.

Professor Elisha Qimron, the world’s preeminent expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls sent the recent fragment photograph to his assistants Hanan Ariel and Alexey Yuditsky for their review. After analysis and debate they unanimously concluded that the commonly interpreted “tent of Shem” etymologically refers to the “land of Shem” a direct connection to “Ha-Shem” – “The Name” of God and as such Shem’s land is God’s Land. This would make Shalem, the place of Gods temple.

The features on the high ridge of the Gihon Spring are unique in Israel and world archaeology. As confirmed by the Israel Antiquities Authority, never before has such a site been located. It contains an olive press, a grain press, a bedrock monument (matseva), places for sacrifice, features for small animal management and direct access to water cisterns. It is a remarkably well preserved area that will continue to be excavated over the coming years.

For a copy of Jerusalem's Origin – click here.

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[1] http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/scholars-owe-new-dead-sea-scrolls-reading-to-google.premium-1.527210

Zion and Israel are one!

Tension between Israel’s warring tribes waxed and waned, in part because the tribal boundaries bordering the nations holy temple contributed to their division. Between the time of Noah’s Shem, 4717 years ago through King David 2849 years ago, the holy temple site was known by various names; Shalem, Yira’ Shalem and YeruShalem among others. The land of the holy site was designated by a mystical understanding of the spiritual construct as the foundation stone of creation and Zion, the place of peace for the world. The monolith, known as Mount Moriah, rose from the south, on the northern boundary of the tribal land of Yehuda up to the southern boundary of the tribal land of Binyamin on whose land most of the holy temple would ultimately be built.

The proximity between the temple site and the common border between Binyamin and Yehuda presented a major point of contention for the tribe of Yosef (Ephraim) on Binyamin’s opposite, northern boundary. Unlike Yehuda’s land, Yosef’s tribal land did not adjoin Binyamin’s southern border, as such it did not share a direct boundary with the nations holy temple site. Before Torah was transcribed by Moses, Jacob was confronted by this lopsided dilemma of the ‘spiritual construct’ and Rashi, the famous literal Torah sage struggled to interpret it, uncharacteristically reverting to mysticism to explain:

When Yaakov emigrated after first spending 14 years learning mysticism and studying, but before finally departing he returned to pray at the site his forefathers had once prayed. While locating the site to pray he was stopped by a sudden sunset. There, he made camp at the site of his father Isaac’s sacrifice and he named it Beit El.  Rashi considered Yaakov was at a different Bethel north of Jerusalem, in the territory of Yosef.  As such, he had difficulty reconciling with the traditional interpretation of Beit El which is Jerusalem. Rashi explained: That night Mount Moriah, Jerusalem (which incorporates Beit El) was mysteriously transported to Bethel. Indeed there is a midrash that explains on the night Yaakov slept at Beit El, the land of Israel was folded beneath him.

The midrashim grapple with the anomaly. Why Beit El and Bethel? Why did the land fold/roll up and why did Rashi say Mount Moriah moved? Jewish mysticism provides fascinating insight: Supernal Israel faces east, placing Binyamin’s land, including Mount Moriah at its neck, Yehuda’s land, its right shoulder and Yosef’s land its left. The northern border of Yehuda runs east-west, from the Dead Sea toward the Mediterranean. In the middle it rises the Judean mountains to a pinch-point on the southern base of Mount Moriah. At the tip of the pinch-point Yehuda’s land pierces into Binyamin’s land (Israel’s neck), right on Mount Moriah where, according to Kabbalah Yehuda’s land intersects the Southeast corner of the altar of Isaac the rest of which is built on Binyamin's land.This pinch point defines the location for the permanent altar of the temple.

Beit El of Yehuda/Binyamin and Bethel of Binyamin/Yosef reflect the points at which Israels neck meets its shoulders. After King Solomon, who built the first temple on Mount Moriah the nation was immediately and once again divided. The dueling kings of Yehuda, Solomon’s son Rehavam and the king of Yosef, Yerovam fought bitterly as did their tribes. Yerovam re-introduced idol worship at Bethel and on Dan's tribal land for the ten tribes of Israel and prevented them from visiting the Jerusalem temple on Binyamin’s land. The nation’s tribes were split and never again re-united on their designated land. The temple represented a source of power, which with proper appointment became the most desired spiritual and economic prize. But, no-one fully understood the mystical construct that designated the altar and temples location in order to effect natural order and truly harness its power.

The right (south) sided orientation of the temple site is the source of Israel’s might. Many of the tribes and their leaders failed to grasp its importance and to this day it continues to weaken the emotive, intellectual and spiritual expressions of modern Jews. ‘Zionism’ is no longer associated with its spiritual root, meaning and construct, as a result it is not fully expressed. Beit El is the City of David, which is Zion^[1], regardless of past explanations, that does not qualify Bethel as the temple’s site. Collapsing Binyamin’s land or flying Mount Moriah, Israel’s most important site from Yehuda to Yosef simply illustrates the essential quality, strength and endurance of the right. It’s inherent desire is to go the ‘extra yards’ to, include and to bring peace, yet nothing can change the site of the altar, despite the left’s (north) desire to be closer to it.

Reliance on King David’s decision to construct a private altar on top of Mount Moriah, on the Temple Mount, is debatable. If the northern boundary of Yehuda had penetrated Binyamin deeper, to the top of Mount Moriah (at the Dome of the Rock) then land repatriated from Binyamin to build the first temple, which was to be replenished in Jericho, after building the third temple would have been granted to Yehuda, it was not! Folding Israel’s land to fit its spiritual construct is an inversion of the nations optimal disposition and the tradition dissuades its people from asking the very hard questions of its aboriginal root.

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[1] 1Kings, 8:1

Deception and Glory

Three things troubled King David greatly, they were the location of the altar for the temple, the incident with Uriah and the taunts of the Israelite tribes over his marriage to Batsheva. In David's eagerness to decapitate Goliath the Philistine giant, his helper Uriah the Hittite diverted David's divine ‘destiny’ by requesting and receiving a right to marry from among any of the Jewish women of Israel. This misappropriation caused King David tremendous suffering through a series of tragic events that ultimately led to the division of the Israelite nation.

Uriah used his grant to marry Batsheva and became a high ranking officer. Whilst Uriah was fighting Israel’s war, King David and Batsheva had a public and immoral, some say illicit, affair from which she conceived. To deceive the public David recalled Uriah from the war, but when Uriah refused to visit Batsheva David sent him back to the battlefront with a sealed letter instructing David’s General, Yoav, to put Uriah in harms way. In protest, Yoav leaked the letter. Uriah was killed and national confidence in the King waned as some tribes were repulsed by David's indiscretion. Batsheva bore David’s child who died after 7 days. This child was not the immaculate conception. In a way David saw the child’s death as a blessing and behaved accordingly. David had usurped God's plan by giving his marital right to Uriah who used it to marry Batsheva the one destined for the King. Though tarnished by their actions, David married Batsheva who became the mother of Solomon, King David’s ultimate heir and constructor of the nation’s first permanent temple.

Then, toward the end of King David’s life he did something very strange. Against Jewish law and the wishes of Yoav, his most loyal and senior general, the King ordered the army to take a census of the tribes in Israel's North and Yehuda in the South. The commentaries consider this lapse, a transgression of The Kings supreme providential confidence, but this time, in his old age, King David doubted the nation would continue to support him. Perhaps his insecurity developed through punishing events for his impetuous acts. It is said to have caused him to order the census, usually reserved for a holy purpose, but here it may have been to satisfy his nagging desire and to remind his restless nation of his status.

About 35 years earlier King David located the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem's City of David. Fragmented political circumstances made him abundantly aware he would not be the one to build the temple, that honor would be left for his son Solomon. Always on his mind King David planned every last detail and gathered materials for the temple construction. He was determined to be associated with the Ark’s final place of rest. Before David was anointed King over all the tribes he studied with Prophet Shmuel (Samuel) to discover where the Ark should be permanently located. Together they learned the book of Yehoshua, particularly the territorial boundary of Binyamin and Yehuda, the critical point that identifies the prescribed location of the altar as required for building the temple and by which the Ark obtains its relative position. He also studied with Prophet Nathan as he continued to plan the temples intricate details and he argued vehemently about its proper place with Do'eg Israel's greatest scholar. Throughout his tenure King David had been unable to deduce the Altar's place and therefore the Ark's ultimate location according to Jewish law.

As a result of the ill fated census, a series of unfortunate events presented King David the political opportunity to finalize the temple location. The nation was punished with severe drought during which the King repented for his actions and those of the nation. In order to release the nation from its desperate state Gad, the prophet and seer, advised the King to make a national choice:- Three years of famine, three months fleeing invading enemies or three days of plague? King David chose the latter and the plague ravaged 70,000 Israelites, but before the allotted time was up God stopped His angel of death as it was about to reign pestilence on the people of Jerusalem (Mount Zion and Mount Moriah - The City of David). The angel challenged God over His broken deal, in response God offered Avishai, Yoav’s brother, the King’s most loyal follower lost his life. In the moment of this national pandemonium, David begged God’s forgiveness and Gad advised the King to make an altar at the site the King had seen the angel was standing poised to destroy^[1] Jerusalem. The site belonged to the Jebusite King Ornan (Araunah) who lived in Jerusalem during David's entire reign, it was his threshing floor on the top of Mount Moriah.

Locating the altar for the temple was no simple matter. The laws are precisely established and every scholar of Israel’s tribes would have known and opined them. King David had struggled with many of the brightest scholars, including Do’eg his most vocal opponent, to determine its location. It is said David wanted to build in the middle^[2] of the mountain, but Do’eg ridiculed him for such thought. Any move by him to ‘force’ this decision would have been pounced on by the most senior tribal scholars and leaders who opposed his leadership. The end of the plague presented the sometimes apparently, impetuous King the perfect national moment to purchase the site, build an altar and make a burnt offering as a sacrifice for himself and perhaps on behalf of his confounded nation. In doing so and against the law of the day, he enabled the status of his private altar (bamah) to become communal thus establishing its location on the top of Mount Moriah.

The law of the temple altar location stipulates it as the site where Isaac was offered by Abraham as a sacrifice. No other location could bestow permanence deserving of God’s Home and indeed the first and second temples at the site Prophet Gad enabled and King David prescribed were eventually destroyed. Maimonides suggested^[3] that Moses wisely chose not to mention Jerusalem. Had he done so, the non-Jewish nations would have realized Jerusalem's singular importance to the Jewish people, and they would have fought fiercely to prevent it from falling into Israel's hands. Did King David know his alternative location would preserve the real site for the future?

King David knew of the prophecies that described and would cause the destruction of the first and second temples, did his deceptive actions follow those of Moses to defend the temples ultimate location? Perhaps they did and perhaps the altars true and permanent location will ultimately be revealed at this City of David site http://israelfact.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/a-hypothesis-for-mizbeach-of-akeida.html 

Immediately after the reign of King Solomon who completed the first temple, the nation was plunged into massive division by the southern tribes of Yehuda under Rehavam and northern tribes of Israel under Yerovam. Any view the nation held of the permanent status of that temple was challenged and eventually twice soundly defeated.

To this very day orthodox Jews around the world say the Nefilat Appayim or tahannun section of their daily prayer of repentance, which was written by King David and recorded as Psalm 25. Here Jews acknowledge their repentance for the tragedy of King David's fateful decision, some begin the prayer "and David said to Gad" from Samuel II 24:14.

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[1] http://israelfact.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/sword-over-jerusalem-sources-from.html

[2] Samuel 2 22:17,18 Yalkut Me’am Leoz

[3] Guide to the Perplexed III:45