Several years ago I was approached by the Diaspora Yeshiva on Mt Zion, Jerusalem along with the Mt Zion Foundation. They wanted me to write a script for a documentary which would champion the tradition that King David’s Tomb is located south of the Old City's Zion Gate, on a high point traditionally referred to as Mt Zion. I have some strong family connections to Diaspora Yeshiva, (my wife Becky is a Goldstein, if you know what that means.) I spent some of the best times of my life engrossed in learning on Mt Zion.
At the time there was talk of expanding the Christian presence on Mt Zion, and creating a world class center for Christian tourism there. The Christian traditions identify Mt Zion as the place where of the last supper and the Pentecost experience took place. They also claim it was central worship location for the early church. Diaspora Yeshiva felt threatened, and they were hoping that perhaps a documentary about the Jewish angle of Mt Zion would help galvanize support.
Of course the problem is that in the wake of the archeological work being done on the southern slopes of the Temple mount, nobody takes Mt Zion seriously. Most people, even religious Jews and Rabbis, assume that since King David’s Jerusalem was “down there” south of the Temple Mount that King David’s Tomb could not possibly be authentic and the high ground could not possibly be Mt Zion. The whole Mt Zion/King David’s Tomb thing is seen as big mistake. Kings David's Tomb is called by many "Pseudo Tomb of King David" or "King David's False Tomb."
It was with a heavy heart that I began writing the script because frankly I didn’t thing there was much of a case. Little did I know how quickly my mind would be changed. Traditions are not infallible, but they are amazingly resilient and stable over time. The identification of the high ground south of the old city as Mt Zion is an old and established one. It took only an open minded reading of the biblical texts to make everything appear in a new light.
In years past I used to say Tehillim at King David’s Tomb with the attitude that even if King David couldn’t possibly be buried here, if tradition identifies this place as his tomb then that means something spiritually. Today I say Tehillim at King David’s Tomb as a believer in the tradition’s authenticity. King David's Tomb is real and true! How did I get like this? Did I fall on my head? Did King David come to me in a dream? No, actually I just did some research and I reread some biblical texts and I listened to what they had to say.
I suggest you read this because if I am right and the tradition is authentic we all aught to celebrating at King David’s Tomb and making a great rejoicing, instead of just passing it by. If after you read this, you feel like supporting the Jewish presence on Mt Zion, you should check out the Mt Zion Foundation and do the right thing!
http://s105753740.onlinehome.us/Clients/MountZionFoundation/index.htm
One last note. In this script I write at some length about early Jewish Christianity. Of course I am exploring the historical angles associated with Mt Zion. But I cannot be certain that the Yeshiva on whose behalf I was writing would appreciate exploring the topic so extensively even for the best of reasons. The script was never made into a film, so I can’t say what they would have approved of in the final cut. I want everyone to know that the Yeshiva is not responsible in any way for my opinions and attitudes. If you want to complain, I am the address.
In Search of Mt. Zion and the True Tomb of King David
By Nathan Glick
Scene 1: The Mystery
[The viewer sees numerous inspiring still shots from around Mt Zion, while some modern Hassidic music plays in the background emphasizing the name "Har Tzion"]
Narrator: Hi my name is Joseph. I will be your host and guide while we explore an ancient mystery. Join me for a journey in place and time, as we search for an important historic link to David Hamelech…that is King David, warrior, king, singer of psalms, and according to Talmudic traditions, a Torah sage as well.
Let's begin with a question, you can think of it as a riddle…
[Joseph is standing next to a taxi stand in down town Jerusalem. There is a taxi parked right beside him, and a smiling cab driver by the name of Kobi]
Let's pretend I'm a tourist, and I say: Kobi,
Kobi: Yes Joseph!
Joseph: I have come from far away to see the places I have learned about in the Torah and the Tehillim. I want to see Hashem's holy mountain!
Kobi: That would be the Temple Mount. That is the place where the Bet Hamikdash, the Holy Temple stood. Would you like to see it from afar or from up close?
Joseph: why don’t we see it from afar and from up close?
[Some traffic footage intervenes. Then the viewer finds himself on Har Hazetim looking towards the Har Habayit]
Kobi: There where the golden dome is, that is where the Bet Hamikdash stood. You can imagine how beautiful and high the Bet Hamikdash looked. The flat hilltop where the Temple stood is called the Temple Mount, or in Hebrew the "Har Habayit".
Joseph: Now I want to see it Temple mount from up close
[More Jerusalem traffic, J and K are now at the Kotel]
Joseph: I know where we are! We are at the Kotel!
Kobi: [pointing to the Kotel] Yes. The Temple Mount is on the other side of this wall. Now you have to remember that we don’t really see the height of the original temple mount because the valley was filled in with debris by the Romans who wanted to erase the form of the Temple mount…but if you take a walk over here, you can see how far down the original ground level is. [They walk over to one of the pits dug down to the old ground level. They look in.] All the way down there is the original street level at the base of the Temple Mount [They continue to the south and look down at the excavations of the SW corner of the Temple Mount]
Joseph: You say this is the temple mount, but it looks more like a building than a mountain.!
Kobi: Once upon a time you were probably able to see the natural rock formations of the temple mount, but this was covered up by all of these huge stones. King Herod wanted to expand a beutify the original Har Habayit, so he added these outer walls. It looks like a construction, but behing the constructed parts the real mountain is still there in side. You can see where ground level is on the top of the temple mount by noting where the stones change their size and shape.
Joseph: I see.
Kobi: when the Romans destroyed the temple, they knocked down everything that was above ground on the temple mount, but they couldn’t knock down the mountain itself, or the walls that fill it out.
Joseph: Can we go up to the temple mount?
Kobi: No No! We are forbidden. In ancient times we could purify ourselves properly. But we can't any more. So according to Halacha we may not go into the place where the Temple stood. Not until the Mashiach comes and teaches us how to be "spiritually pure" again.
Joseph: Well it is still amazing to be here right next to Hashem's holy mountain. As it says in Tehillim (74:2) "Har Tzion zeh shachanta bo" "This Mount Zion where you have dwelled!"
Kobi: [Excitedly!] Well if you wanted to go to Mount Zion why didn't you just say so! [Kobi pulls Joseph into the taxi and away they drive. The camera follows the cab out the dung gate and shows the cab rising upwards towards Har Tzion emphasizing the high altitude of Har Tzion.]
[The Taxi arrives at Har Tzion, right in front of Kever David (King David’s Tomb.)]
Joseph: This is Mt Zion?
Kobi: Absolutely! Right here. You're standing on Har Tzion. And here is King David's tomb.
Joseph: I'm all confused! If Hashem's mountain is the Temple Mount…the Har Habayit…then that must be Har Tzion. And that means that this place…whatever it is ...cannot be Har Tzion.
Kobi: [As Kobi tells his story the viewer sees stills and action shots of people in prayer around Kever David or lighting candles or studying.] Listen, my friend. My family lived in Yershalayim for 13 generations, and if my grandmother told me this place is Har Tzion she knew what she was talking about. The Kotel is next to the Har Habayit, the Temple Mount, and Kind David is here on Mt Zion. People would come here from all over Israel, to pour out their hearts. And people received miracles in the merit of King David! See, my Grandmother, when she was young, just couldn't find anyone to marry. There just weren't enough suitable men her age. Her parents matched her up to an older widower. They said "better him than no-one!" But my grandmother was heartbroken. She was so desperate. She wanted someone she could actually love. So what did she do? She came every Saturday night to King David. She lit candles and read his Tehillim. After three months a young man came to Jerusalem from Morocco to study. He took one look at my grandmother, and he was hooked! They got married right away! My grandmother told me that when she got pregnant with my father, she saw King David in a dream, and he told her to call the baby David in his name.
Joseph: That’s a beautiful story, but that doesn't answer the question. The Har Habayit is Hashem's mountain. It has to be Har Tzion! The Temple Mount is Mount Zion! So what is this place?
Kobi: I don’t know what to say Joseph. But all Jerusalem Jews know this is Mt Zion right here! Even the Holy Ari used to pray here! Every body knows this is a holy special place!
Joseph: [now looking directly at the camera] This is the mystery we have to unravel: the mystery of Mt Zion. Is this place really Mt Zion? And if it is, how does it relate to the Temple mount? Listen carefully! This is not some empty theoretical question. We need to understand the holiness of Mt Zion. If we do, then we will be motivated to maintain a Jewish Torah presence here, even to struggle on behalf of Mount Zion. But if we do not understand and recognize the holiness of this place…there are others who value this place a lot and will do just about anything to take it over….
[Camera shows stills of Christian monasteries and churches on Mt Zion. The viewer sees Jeremy, a Rabbi identified as the "Director, Anti Missionary Task Force for Mt Zion"]
Director: The church never lets up. They see this place as incredibly sacred and they want it all. They try to buy whatever they can get their hands on. They are always challenging us in the courts. We fight them, room by little room, trying to keep them from expanding on Har Tzion. They talk to politicians about creating tourist centers for Christian pilgrims on Mt Zion, and sometimes they are actually pretty convincing to these politicians. So far we have managed to block them…but they just don’t let up….
Kobi: [looking at camera] So, you see there is a lot at stake here. If we don’t love Har Tzion…then Heaven forbid, others will.
Joseph: But to love Har Tzion you first have to know it. You have to solve the mystery of Mt Zion. So join us now as we embark on a journey in place and time. In search of Mt Zion!
Scene 2: Back to the Beginning…
[The viewer sees still shots of ancient Eretz Yisrael]
Joseph: It might be difficult to believe, but even during the early part of King David's reign, there were still Canaanites living in the land of Israel. A small tribe of Yevusi remained in their city Yeru-Shalem, on the border between the territories of Yehudah and Binyamin. Once King David was accepted as king by all Israel, he set his mind to conquering this last Canaanite stronghold.
[Joseph is talking to an archeologist, standing in what is today called ir David, on te southern slope of te temple Mount.]
Joseph: This is my friend Doctor Robert, an Archeologist. So, Rob, tell me where we are right now?
Rob the Archeologist: Well, as we understand it today, the original Yevusi city of Jerusalem was right here. To the north is the temple mount. From here the hill slopes down towards the south. Way back when, before the archeologists got to work in the area, everybody assumed that the original Yevusi city was up there on what is traditionally called Mt Zion. [Camera looks upward towards Mt Zion.] There is reference in Jusephus’ Wars of the Jews which describes that area, which was included in the walls of Jerusalem during the times of the second temple. In that text it is called Mt Zion. There is a later text by a French pilgrim who visited about 200 years after the destruction of the second temple. He also called it Mt Zion, and he noted that of the seven synagogues that once stood there, only one was standing. This area of Jerusalem became very important to the early Christians. Their tradition holds that Yeshu had his last supper with his disciples there, and that afterwards there were big ecstatic experiences which took place there for them. When the Roman Empire became Christianized, the Romans built a large church on the site, which incorporated that one synagogue as part of it structure. But of course none of relevant, because that place up there is definitely not Mt Zion.
Joseph: How do you know?
Rob: Once modern archeology got to work in Jerusalem, we discovered that the original Yevusi Jerusalem was down here. Here is all the complicated water works described by the Biblical texts. If David’s Jerusalem was down here, then here is where the original fortress of Zion was. This place is called “City of David” and somewhere within this area is the real King David’s Tomb. Scripture says very clearly that King Davis was buried in the City of David, here is Yevusi Jerusalem. The idea that Mt Zion or King David’s tomb is located up there is completely impossible!
Joseph: I wonder though, wouldn’t the original Yevusi have preferred to put their city higher up? There is lots of nice tactical high ground all around…
Rob: But they didn't want to get too far away from their water source, the Gihon spring. The spring is over this way in the valley. [Rob indicates the direction of the spring] We figure that the Yevusi city in the time of David looked like this. [The viewer sees a picture of Ir David] After David took over the city, he built his royal residence over here. [Arrow shows location] That is pretty much the spot where we are standing now.
Joseph: What about the temple mount?
Rob: Well the temple mount is right there to the north. You see that onion shaped black dome. [Rob points out that feature] That is the top of the mosque that stands on the southern part of the Temple Mount. In King David’s time the Temple Mount was empty. David did not build the temple. His son Shlomo Hamelech, that is King Solomon, did that. As a matter of fact, during most of David's reign the Temple Mount was known as the granary of Arvana the Yevusi. Apparently the locals used the wide flat hilltop to process their grain during harvest time. The book of Samuel tells that towards the end of his life, David bought the land from Arvana, as the location of the future temple.
Josef: And what about Mt Zion.
Rob: well the book of Shmuel does mention that there was a fortress of Zion, which David captured. He called it “Ir David” or city of David. We basically assume that that the fortress of Zion is part of the city of Jerusalem which is the same thing as the City of David….so it was all right here.
Joseph: And where was this fortress of Zion?
Rob: we surmise that it was down at the bottom of the hill. [He points to the south] About here in the picture [He shows the spot in the picture of ancient Jerusalem]
Joseph: So what is Mt Zion?
Rob: I would tell you that Mt Zion is another name for the Temple Mount.
Joseph: Isn't that strange. The fortress of Zion has nothing to do with the temple mount!
Rob: Well you know, sometimes names just get mixed up over time. The name Zion got transferred from this little fort at the southern entrance to Yevusi Jerusalem and got attached to the Temple. And there is another problem too. One part of the puzzle we can’t really make sense out of is how that high hilltop to the west, which has no relationship to either the original Fortress of Zion or to the Temple Mount ever came to be identified at Mt Zion. Was Josephus mistaken? Certainly in second Temple Jerusalem there were living traditions about where things were. The location of King David’s Tomb was well known back then.
Joseph: Do you have any way of dealing with this issue?
Rob: Some will argue that the Christians are responsible for sticking the name Mt Zion to the location up there in the south west heights which they felt was so central to them. The argument is also made that a Christian scribe transcribing Josephus added the name Mt Zion to the text. I personally think that this is just an easy way of brushing away evidence that conflicts with the current theory.
Joseph: I have to agree with you. I can’t see what advantage the Christians could gain by falsely identifying the area as Mt Zion, when they could have called anything they wanted. It is more likely that Christians were drawn to that area of Jerusalem which was already identified as Mt Zion and seen as being sacred in some way, and associated with King David, the original Messiah.
Rob: What you say makes sense. But the archeological evidence is so overwhelming. We know exactly where old Yevusi Jerusalem was. Everything else has to fall before that simple fact.
Joseph: I see…Well, I know someone who has some very different ideas about this….
Scene 3: The Fortress and the Mountain
Joseph: I'm still down here in the area which was Jerusalem in the days of the Yevusi.
I'm here with Rabbi Gerald Goldstein of the Mount Zion Foundation. And we are looking up the slope to what traditionally has been referred to as Mt Zion.
It's along way up isn't it?
Rabbi Goldstien: Mt Zion is the tallest geographical feature in the area. It rises 750 meters above sea level. You simply can't assume that it had no significance in the days of David.
Joseph: You ready to try and climb it?
RG: as the Psalmist says: Who can climb the mountain of Hashem! Who can stand in his holy place! Still with Hashem's help, we can make the attempt.
[The two walk up to Mt Zion along the outer wall of the old city]
J: Tell me about your work with the Mt Zion Foundation.
RG: Really what we are trying to do is make people aware of the holiness of Mt Zion. You know, we Jews exist because of our traditions. Our Torah scrolls are written according to the tradition. We keep Hashem's laws according to the traditions we have inherited. We wouldn't know a single letter of the Hebrew Alphabet if not for our traditions. You couldn't perform a single Mitzvah! So you can't throw away traditions. And if there is a Tradition that this mountain is Mt. Zion…well you deal with it. You at least have to consider it seriously!
J: what do you say to the Archeologist who says that Zion is just a fortress in ancient Yevusi Jerusalem…way down there? [Now pointing down from Har Tzion to Ir David]
RG: I'd say he's entitled to his opinion, but I think that if you read the Scripture carefully you will see that ancient Yevusi Jerusalem and the fortress of Tzion are two entirely different things. The archeologists are being small minded. They are assuming that everything was much smaller that we imagine it today. That is called “Minimalism.” They assume that just because they found the original Yevusi Jerusalem that everything was somehow squeezed in there, including the worship center that David set up to house the Ark of the Covenant.
J: Wait, I thought that David’s son Shlomo built the temple.
RG: I’m not talking about the Temple. King David brought the ark up to the city of David and installed in a tent, something like the tent of meeting the Israelites had in the desert. You tell me where in Yevusi Jerusalem was there enough room to house even a small modest little worship area, not to mention a central worship center with priests and services.
J: You are saying that the fortress of Zion was not located in Yevusi Jerusalem!
RG: Yevusi Jerusalem was one thing, and the fortress of Zion was something else entirely! Look here in the Book of Samuel chapter 5: And the king and his men went up to Jerusalem to the Yevusi who inhabited the land. They said to David as follows: “You will not come here unless you remove the blind and the lame” saying (to themselves) “David will not come here.” David conquered the fortress of Zion which is the City of David. David said on that day “Whoever strikes down a Yevusi and reaches the water conduit and the blind and the lame hated by David’s soul…” that is why they say “a blind person or a lame person will not enter the house.” And David dwelled in the fortress and he called it City of David."
There is a great deal which we need to explain in this passage, but I think one thing is clear. David conquered the fortress of Zion before he conquered Yevusi Jerusalem. Yevusi Jerusalem is called Jerusalem, but the fortress of Zion is renamed “City of David” It says very clearly that only the fortress is called City of David. The text repeats that point twice to make sure you get it. David called the Fortress of Zion "City of David", not Jerusalem!
J: How do you explain that!
RG: let's start with this assumption. The Yevusi built the original part of Jerusalem on a fairly low lying area because they wanted to be close to their water supply. But that created a problem for them. They couldn't really see very far. So they built a large well stocked fortress on the highest point in the area, so they could keep a look out for attackers in all directions. They could launch pre-emptive strikes against anyone coming against them. Also, if things get bad, they might evacuate the city and take refuge in the fortress. The name of the fortress is Zion, and it stands on…
J: Mt Zion!
RG: There you go. You see my point! The Fortress on Zion is on Mt Zion, which is a completely different place that the Yevusi city of Jerusalem.
Scene 4: The Conquest of Mt Zion and Jerusalem
RG: Now that we've got that worked out, I'd like to take an in depth look at the biblical passage that tells about the conquest of Jerusalem. It is a difficult passage to understand, but it is worth the effort. There is a really amazing story here, that teaches you a lot about Jewish values during war time and about the greatness of David’s heart. Look at verse 6: first the Yevusi inhabitants tell David: "You cannot come in here unless you remove the blind and the lame." The Yevusi say to themselves: "David will not enter here." Then in verse 7, David takes the fortress of Zion. Then in verse 8 David makes this proclamation "Whoever strikes a Yevusi and reaches the conduit and the lame and blind who are hated by David's soul." Therefore they say: "a blind person or a lame person will not enter the house". Lastly in verse 9 it reiterates that David resided in the fortress of Zion, which he called City of David.
J: I must admit I don't understand a thing about the blind and the lame and the conduit. It's all very confusing.
RG: Well, this is one of the most obscure passages in the bible. There are different ways of explaining it, including a few modern theories put forth by archeologists. But I will tell you how Rashi understood the story. The Yevusi had a group of blind and lame persons chained up in defensive positions at the gate of the city, so that any attempt to storm the gate directly would result in killing these helpless individuals. David was not willing to attack the blind and the lame. So the Yevusi thought that David would not enter the city. Now why would David hesitate to attack the blind and the lame? Well, Rashi explains that David would consider disgraceful to kill such helpless persons in battle. On the other hand, according to some archeologists it was believed back then that if a warrior killed a lame person or a blind person then he would himself become lame and blind. In any event David could not break through the gates directly.
J: So How did David take the city in the end?
RG: Well here is where the Archeologists are helpful. A system of tunnels and channels has been uncovered. It appears that these tunnels permitted the Yevusi to access their water supply without leaving the city. The Gihon spring which supplied the cities water was outside the walls, but these tunnels and special fortifications let the Yevusi get to the water without exposing themselves to enemy attack. It is usually surmised that David or his soldiers had found someway to slip into one of the water channels and sneak into the city. From there, the commandos would work their way to the city gate, and un-chain the lame and the blind. Then David could storm the gate. It also seems that the spot where David's men could get into the water channel was guarded. Because when David is looking for volunteers he says: "Whoever strikes a Yevusi and reaches the conduit, and then continues on to the lame and the blind..."
J: You know that sentence seems to break off in the middle. What happens to the one who gets is and accomplishes the mission?
RG: Well obviously, he gets a promotion. It is really so obvious that it doesn't need stating. Incidentally this same story is told in the first book of Chronicles in a simplified form, and there is tells you the name of the soldier who penetrated the defenses. It was Yoav ben Tzeruya, and he did get a promotion. We will see that in a moment. OK?
J: OK, but tell me why did David hate the lame and the blind?
RG: I think that it just means that David was totally disgusted by the use of these unfortunate people in such a callous way. From then on he didn't want to have contact with the lame or the blind because he didn't want people to think he was recruiting them into his army to perform this kind of disgraceful tactics.
J: Therefore David's recruiters will say "a blind person or a lame person will not enter the house." That’s like saying "Our army will never recruit the lame and the blind!"
RG: Now let's just read the biblical passage again and you will see very clearly that the fortress of Zion and the Yevusi city of Jerusalem are different things.
J: OK [He reads and translates the text Samuel 2 5:6-10] And the King and his people went to Jerusalem to the Yevusi, inhabitants of the land, and they said to David "You will not enter here until you remove the blind and the lame" saying [to themselves] "David will not enter here". And David conquered the fortress of Tzion, which is the City of David. And David said on that day: "whoever strikes a Yevusi and reaches the conduit and the lame and the blind who are the hated of David's soul…' [adding the missing words] will get promoted…right?
RG: Right!
J: [continues reading and translating] therefore they will say "A blind person or a lame person will not enter the house". And David resided in the fortress and He called it City of David. And David built around from the land fill and inward. And David went forth increasing in greatness, and Hashem, the lord of Hosts was with him.
RG: It is obvious that the fortress of Zion and Jerusalem are completely different places. When David can't get in to Jerusalem because on account of the lame and the blind, he circles around and captures Mt Zion first. Maybe from the vantage point of Mt Zion he is able to look into the city and understand how the inhabitants are getting water. Or maybe he learns the secret from some of the defenders of the fortress he takes as captives. In any event, David maintains his personal residence on Mt Zion, even after he completes the capture of Jerusalem. The similar passage in the book of chronicles (1 11:4-9) is also very clear if you'd like to read it:
J: OK, here goes [He reads and translates…] And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem which is Yevus, and there were the Yevusi, inhabitants of the land. And the inhabitants of Yevus said to David "you will not enter here" and David captured the fortress of Tzion that is the City of David. And David said whoever strikes a Yevusi first will be a leader and commander, and Yoav ben Tzeruya went up first and became a leader. And David resided in the fortress; therefore they called it City of David. And they built the City from the land fill to the encircling wall, and Yoav sustained the rest of the city. And David continued to go forth increasingly great and Hashem of Hosts was with him.
RG: Doesn't that sum it up very clearly? First David captures the fortress of Zion, and then he sends his volunteer commando take down the city of Jerusalem. David maintains his residence in the fortress, while he turns over the day to day ruling of Jerusalem over to Yoav ben Tzeruya who originally penetrated its defenses.
J: I must admit it seems very clear to me now!
Scene 5: Mt Zion and Jerusalem
[J and RG are now standing on the roof of King David's tomb.]
RG: We are standing on the roof of King David's Tomb. Look around you at the view. You can understand why David wanted to take out this fortress before attacking Jerusalem itself. And he did it! At first David settled in the Fortress, which he called "City of David". Later on he had his royal residence built in Jerusalem itself, mostly it seems for his wives and children…look here in verse Samuel 2 chapter 14 "And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem…And these are the names of those children born to him in Jerusalem." His children were born in Jerusalem because that is where his wives were, in the royal residence. On the other hand, this place, Mount Zion…the city of David…was David's personal center of activities… where his heart was.
J: What kind of things do you think David was involved with here?
RG: I think of it like this…Jerusalem was about ruling the tribes of Israel, about maintaining the army and about being King….Mt. Zion or the City of David…well that was about worshiping Hashem, about prayer, about composing psalms, about Torah study and about the Mysteries of Creation and Divine revelation. I think David had the parts of his life distinct. When he was in Jerusalem he was King. But when he climbed up Mt. Zion he became a beloved servant of Hashem, the sweet singer of psalms and the master of Hashem's Torah. Scripture is also very clear about where Kind David brought the Holy Ark of the Covenant. It says here in chapter 6 that he brought the Ark of the Covenant up to the City of David, that is the fortress of Zion…here to this very place… MOUNT ZION, dancing all in a very ecstatic and wonderful way.
J: Do you mean to say that Mt Zion was once the site of the Temple?
RG: Not at all. As you know, the Temple Mount is actually down there on the northern end of Yevusi Jerusalem. Where we all know where that is. However, during the lifetime of David, and until his son Solomon completed the Temple, the holy Ark of the Covenant and the Divine presence resided in a tent, just like during the years that Israel wandered in the desert. That tent was pitched here. And most certainly there was a complex of buildings for training priests, sacred musicians, composers, scribes, teachers and prophets! High above the bustle and noise of the city Jerusalem…a different atmosphere! An atmosphere of holiness and wonder!
J: So this place really is Mt Zion!
RG: Well there is a real established tradition, first recorded in writing by a student of the Ramban over 800 years ago, which says exactly this. Prior to the building of the Temple, Mt Zion… this very Mt Zion where we are standing…is where the Ark of the Covenant and the Divine presence resided.
J: Then tell me Rabbi Goldstein, how is it that the Temple was not built here!
RG: That is a different question. You will get the answer too, but first I must show you a third text which the archeologists pull out to show that Ir David, and King David’s Tomb was down on that lower ridge south of the Har Habayit, at the southern part of old Yevusi Jerusalem.
Joseph: What text is that?
RG: It is from the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah came to Jerusalem at the beginning of the second temple period to rebuild the city walls. Of course he had wealthy noblemen that helped him, each with a certain part of the wall. Here, in chapter 3, it says “The Gate of the Spring was supported by Shalun son of Kol Hozeh, Lord of the Mitzpa Domain. He built it and roofed it and raised its doors locks and bolts. And the wall of the irrigation pool for the kings garden, until the stairs that come down from the city of David. Afterwards Nehemiah son of Azbuk, Lord of Half the Domain of Bet Tzur supported (the wall) until opposite the Tomb of David and until the man-made pool and until the house of the heroes.” The archeologists with their small minded way of thinking just assume that everything mentioned in that passage is close by. Ir David is down there by the pools fed by the Gihon spring. Everything is supposedly nice and compact.
Joseph: It sounds that way, doesn’t it?
RG: Jeremy, well let me tell you about the Bordeaux Pilgrim. He was an anonymous French pilgrim who visited the land of Israel about two hundred plus years after the destruction of the second Temple. He carefully recorded his itinerary. When he arrived in Jerusalem, he made straight for the Temple Mount. He came down from the Temple Mount going south to the Siloam Pool. From there he ascended Mt. Zion, passing the ruins of the High Priest’s house and entered the "wall of Zion." He reports that this is the place where the Palace of David must have stood. He also observes that one synagogue, the last of seven synagogues that once stood on Mt Zion, was still visible on the site. Afterwards he exited from the wall of Zion and headed north in the direction of the Damascus Gate on the north side of the city. Those same seven synagogues were described by somebody called Epiphanius of Salamis as still standing when the emperor Hadrian visited Jerusalem a little before the Bar Kochba revolt.
Joseph: That is a lot of shuls to put in one location! The Jews obviously felt that Mt Zion is a tremendously important place.
RG: You are right, of course, but that is not the point I am trying to make!
Joseph: Your point is…
RG: My point is that there was a stairway, or at least a pathway leading up from the pools at the southern end of Yevusi Jerusalem, leading all the up to Har Zion. Now look back in the verse from Nehemiah. “Nobelman So and So built the wall, which ran in a southenrly direction along the edge of Yevusi Jerusalem up to the point where the stairs come down from Ir David, which is Mt Zion! The second Nobelman extended the wall farther south until opposite the monument of King David’s tomb, visible up here on Mt Zion. It all seems so clear, at least to me!
Joseph: I see what you mean. Just because a wall gets to a point opposite the Royal Tomb doesn’t mean the Royal Tomb is sitting right next to the wall. And certainly no-one says how far up the stairway went up from the water pool to Ir David.
RG: So there is nothing in scripture that contradicts the traditional location of Mt Zion or King David’s Tomb. If anything, scripture supports the tradition on this.
Joseph: That is fascinating! But you still owe me an answer about why, if Mt Zion is so holy, that the temple wasn’t built here?
RG: Unfortunately I have to be moving along to my next meeting. But there are many fine scholars and sages here on Har Tzion who can help you!
Scene 6: The Ark and the Tomb.
J: So our next question is…If Mt. Zion is really this sacred, why wasn't the Temple built here? To help us with this question, I've asked Rabbi Avraham to spare a few moments of his time. Rabbi Avraham is the Rabbi of the Jewish quarter and is responsible for answering many Halachic Questions every day.
Rabbi Avraham: The Holy Temple had to be built on the site where Avraham offered up his son Isaac, at the same place where Yaakov had his vision of the ladder reaching up to heaven. That is the Har Habayit, the Temple Mount. It could be that at one time David thought to build the temple here. But whatever David thought in the beginning, Hashem revealed to him the truth in the end…
J: Tell me the story.
RA: the story is told in the book of Samuel. Once there was a terrible plague which afflicted the Children of Israel. David had a vision of the angel who was driving the plague. David saw the angel standing on the granary of Arvana the Yevusi. David threw himself down on the ground and prayed. He took responsibility for the plague. He said "Behold I have sinned and I have behaved improperly, but these sheep, the children of Israel…what did they do?" The prophet Gad told David to build an Altar on the granary of Arvana. David paid full price for the property, and built the altar. When he sacrificed on the altar the plague stopped. Then David knew the Granary of Arvana was meant to be the place of the Holy Temple.
J: Still until the ark was moved into the Temple by King Solomon, it was in a tent, right here on Mt Zion.
RA: That is what the tradition says. It turns out that Mt Zion contains a holiness associated with the Ark of the Covenant and King David.
J: So I have a question. Mt Zion is actually higher up than the Temple Mount, so why is it that when King Solomon moved the ark to the Temple mount, it says that he "brought up" the ark from the city of David. Wouldn't it have been more accurate to say "being down" the ark?
RA: I get that question sometimes, and I think it's not a hard question at all. First, it is not polite to say that the ark is going down. And since the ark was moving to a place of greater holiness, then it was certainly moving up in honor and sanctity! You don’t need to take the idea of going up so literally.
J: I see.
RA: I also think that when the Ark was moved from Mt. Zion to the Temple Mount, the name Mt. Zion moved as well. Eventually the name Mt Zion also gets attached to the Temple Mount. But of course, that doesn't mean that the original Mt. Zion lost its holiness!
J: That is a good explanation. You know, one of the things that didn't add up, was that according to the archeologist, Zion was the name of a fortress in old Yevusi Jerusalem, and I couldn't understand how the name of one fort in Jerusalem got attached to the Temple mount.
RA: Well if you rely on the tradition its works out very well. The fortress of Zion stood here, on the top of the mountain. So this place is called Mt Zion. Then name moved to the Temple Mount when the Ark moved there. It's like saying the Temple Mount is "New Mt Zion"
J: Like New England, or New Mexico
A: Right!
J: But here is another problem. If you think that Mt. Zion was the place of holy Ark of the Covenant…what sense would it make for King David to put his grave here? A grave is a source of Tum'ah, ritual impurity. And you are not allowed to bring impurity into a holy place!
RA: That is not accurate! There are different grades of holiness even on the Temple Mount, and while you could not put a grave in the temple building or near the Altar, you are allowed to place a deceased human body on the outer portions of the Temple Mount. The Talmud in tractate Pesahim learns this from the fact that Moshe Rabbenu took with him the bones of Yosef from Egypt. The level of holiness of Moshe's tent was equivalent to the holiness of the Temple mount. And right there was Yosef's ark…his coffin. In fact there is a really amazing passage in the Talmud tractate Sotah where is says that for years people would see Yosef's ark so close to the Ark of the Covenant, and they would wonder "Is it possible for a corpse to go along with the Divine presence?" And Moshe would reply "Yes! For this one fulfilled what is written in this one. Yosef fulfilled the Torah that was in the in the Ark of the Covenant."
J: So it makes sense King David would want to place his grave next to the Ark of the Covenant. It would be a way of saying that King David's fulfilled the Torah despite his many challenges. His life was an embodiment of the Torah.
RA: That's right. One of the traditions that the Talmud relates in tractate Berachot is that King David was more than a warrior, king and songwriter. He was a Torah scholar of Halacha and Jewish Law. A lot of people think that this story is unrealistic and that the Sages were remaking King Davis in their own image. But you know, when you are king, especially in the ancient world, you are responsible for maintaining the people’s connection with their God. Did you know that King Henry the Eighth wrote a religious work? Of course he had help from his friends. King Henry was far from being a pious person. But kings had to be involved in religion. Now David had very deep religious feelings, and it makes sense that he would have tried to have an impact of the religious life in his kingdom. Interestingly, the Talmud is clear in pointing out that David was not considered a great scholar at the time. The really smart sharp scholars did not take him seriously. But he never let his personal humiliation keep him from taking part in the discussion and trying to learn. For this he was greatly admired, because he loved the Torah selflessly and he didn’t act with the usual arrogance associated with kings.
J: Tell me more about the tradition of King David's Tomb.
RA: First you know that it says in the book of Kings that King David was buried in Ir David that is the "City of David", which as you now understand, is the same as Mt Zion. In addition we have a very good written text that affirms the tradition of the location of King David's tomb. Rabbi Benjamin of Toledo visited the land of Israel about 800 years ago, where he visited many places including the Royal Tomb on Mt Zion. He tells the story that the Tomb had been discovered about twenty years before his visit. Some workers were repairing a wall in a Christian monastery when they uncovered a cave. Some workers entered the cave and found a stone table with a golden scepter and crown placed upon them. When they tried to go farther, a great wind blew both workers out of the cave with a warning not to enter again…
J: You know what I don't like about that story?
RA: Tell me,
J: First it means that there is no real tradition about the tomb. Somebody finds a cave and tells a miracle story! What if I am a skeptical kind of guy?
A: Well, I think that when the cave was found, the Jews understood that this was King David's Tomb, simply because the Jews knew more or less where it was, even if the precise location had been obscured by the Christian building projects. I suspect that the miracle story was used to keep nosy Christians out of the cave. By the way, do you know what a holy relic is?
J: No I don't.
RA: Well back then in the olden days Christians used to go around breaking into tombs and collecting the bones of people that they thought were holy. They called these poor desecrated bones "Holy Relics." They would keep them in the hope of receiving miracles. They would pray to them, and use them in all sorts of ways. They would even put bones or pieces of bones into the altars of their churches. So the Christians needed to be convinced not to try and break into the Kind David's tomb to steal bones.
J: So the Jews spread the story to keep the Christians out!
RA: Exactly! According to Josephus, King Herod tried to break into King David’s tomb when he ran out of money, but the workers came to a bad end. The feeling that King David’s tomb is dangerous probably helped. In the end the crusaders put this big stone marker down. Maybe they put it there to keep people out of the cave. So the trick worked! But I don't think the Jews needed any proof that this was King David's tomb. They just knew that this was it, because they knew this place is the biblical Ir David or Mt Zion.
It is so important to get the Message out! Mt. Zion isn’t some sort of mistake. It is a real sacred place to the Jewish People. King David’s tomb isn’t some crazy dream! It is real! And we Jews most of all tend not to see this, because of the claims of the archeologists. If we can’t climb up to the Temple Mount any more, we should visit Mt Zion and connect ourselves to the holiness of this place! The Christians want Mt Zion, and if we don’t dedicate ourselves to believing in its holiness we may, Heaven forbid, loose this place! You should really talk to my friend Jeremy. He is our director of anti missionary activities here, and he knows all about the Christians and their claims.
Scene 7: The Last Little Shul on Mt Zion
Joseph: I am standing in the entryway to King David’s Tomb talking to Jeremy. [Looks at Jeremy] You are the Director of the Anti Missionary Task Force here on Mt Zion. I want you to explain to why the church has such an interest in Mt Zion, and why have to struggle with Christians even over control of King David’s Tomb?
Jeremy: When I first got involved in the struggle for Mt Zion, I was very skeptical that there was anything really special about the place. It was just another piece of Jerusalem. All of Jerusalem is holy to the Jewish people, but we have come to accept a Christian presence in Jerusalem. So what is the difference here or there? I heard from good sources, many of them religious Jews and even Rabbis that the real original Jerusalem is way down there on the slope leading up to the Temple Mount, and that King David’s Tomb couldn’t possibly be for real. I know you have heard that too.
Joseph: That is what everybody seems to say!
Jeremy: So Rabbi Goldstein told me “You are good scholar. Take your time and investigate. Do your research. In a month tell me what you think. I am keeping the position open for you on our legal staff. If you take the job, I want you to be convinced that Mt Zion is a real cause to fight for.” Well, I took two months, and returned to Rabbi Goldstein convinced. Har Tzion is real! If only more Jews knew what Har Tzion is! If only the politicians really understood! The archeologists say “Oh, Har Tzion is nothing,” and then the Church says “Look how many millions of dollars you can have if we put a full fledged pilgrimage center here…all you have to do is take a few rooms away from this yeshiva and give them to us!” And the politicians look at the bottom line. You can only imagine the rest.
Joseph: It must be hard being a lone voice in the wilderness.
Jeremy: Funny you should say that. You may not know it but you are plugging right in to a verse in the prophet Yeshayahu (62) “For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet…” We are crying out on behalf of Har Zion, and on behalf of Yerushalayim too. I hope somebody out there is listening!
Joseph: Once there were seven synagogues of Mt Zion! We learn that from the testimony of the Bordeaux Pilgrim.
Jeremy: There is also a testimony of Epiphanius of Salamis. He was a Christian religious leader who lived some time after the Bordeaux Pilgrim.
Joseph: about 250 years plus after the destruction of the second temple.
Jeremy: Right, although he was writing about the emperor Hadrian who lived about sixty years after the destruction of the second temple. Epiphanius records how the Emperor Hadrian arrived in the land of Israel a short time before the outbreak of the Bar Kochba rebellion. He came to Mt Zion and found seven synagogues there, as well as a church.
Joseph: That certainly supports the idea that Mt Zion was primarily a Jewish site. After the destruction of the Temple the Jews put great efforts into making Mt Zion a religious site! The Christians were trying to get a foothold there it seems.
Jeremy, Right you are! Now, Hadrian was travelling all over trying to create a more unified empire and he thought to integrate Jews in his empire. But he was not looking for a happy pluralistic Empire. He thought the Jews were barbaric, crazy and stubborn! So he built a Pagan temple on the Temple Mount and forbid the Jews to perform circumcision. This caused the Bar Kochba revolt to break out. That went very badly for the Jews in the end. Hadrian decimated us, and killed the Ten Torah Sages including Rabbi Akiva. Of the seven synagogues on Mt Zion, only one survived after the revolt, the one which the Bordeaux Pilgrim saw.
Joseph: Do you think it might still be here?
Jeremy: It is right here! You see that door way going into King David’s Tomb? That is the entrance to the last synagogue on Mt Zion.
Joseph: King David’s Tomb is that synagogue?
Jeremy: That is right! Come with me
[They enter the room opposite the room with the tombstone]
Jeremy: You are now in the old Synagogue. I like to call it “the Little Mt Zion Shul.”
Joseph: How about "King David’s Shteeble?"
Jeremy: I can accept that name too. You see, it was a small shul for its day. But it was very solidly built. It seems to have been constructed of large stones of various sizes, which gives you the impression that the stones were taken from some other building. After the destruction of the second temple there would have been plenty of rubble. Perhaps they even took fallen stones from the temple.
Joseph: Well this shul is divided in a funny way. Are we in the women’s section?
Jeremy: [Pointing to the wall that separates the room with the tombstone from the outer room they are standing in] That wall is not part of the original Shul. It was added, I think by the Turks. This was all one room, and the front wall of the shul is behind the stone tomb marker. Follow me inside…
[They enter the room of King David’s Tomb]
Jeremy: Look up behind the big monument, behind the crowns and the sefer Torah and all the stuff. Do you see how the wall dips inwards?
Joseph: It looks kind of like a niche.
Jeremy: What you can’t see, because the monument stone gets in the way, is that the niche has a flat bottom, about six feet up from the floor level.
Joseph: You mean it’s a place for putting an Aron Kodesh!
Jeremy: Or perhaps they stored the Sifrey Torah in the niche without an Aron Kodesh cabinet. But we are definitely in an ancient Shul, where Jews prayed and read from Sifrey Torah just like we do. No-body doubts this. Tannaim from Yerushalayim prayed here two thousand years ago! Non Jews or Christians used bound books to read from in their worship services. They would not have built this niche.
Joseph: Amazing! This little shul was built sometime after the destruction of Jerusalem by those Jews that returned. They put seven Shuls here! They must have known there was some serious holiness here. If this is Har Tzion, and King Davids Tomb was here; that would explain things.
Jeremy: well the actual Tomb is underground in a cave, but this shul could have marked the entrance to the cave, which was sealed. According to Rabbi Akiva in the Tosefta the cave with the tomb in it was especially constructed with a little tunnel exiting outside the city to the Kidron Valley, which by the way, runs around the entire eastern and southern side of the city. The Ritual corpse impurity of the burial cave would not rise upwards out of the ground and contaminate the city. So you could pray in this shul in a state of purity even if the cave was underneath part of it.
Joseph: So this wall should face in the direction of the Temple?
Jeremy: Actually it doesn’t. That is one of the reasons why some people imagine that this might have originally been a Christian Shul. They think it faces the traditional site of Yeshu’s grave.
Joseph: No!
Jeremy: The fact is that doesn’t exactly face there either. The direction of the shul was chosen to permit maximum sunlight getting in through the windows, which are very deep, because the walls are so thick. It is possible that back then the idea that shul needed to face the Temple or Jerusalem had not caught on yet. After all, a shul is itself a small temple. Wherever the Torah scrolls are…there is the holy of holies and that is where you pray to. You need to face Jerusalem or the Temple only if you are not praying in a shul.
Joseph: That makes sense! But I am shocked by something. Could anyone imagine that this was a Christian Shul? I mean…Christians don’t make shuls!
Jeremy: There is claim being made to that this little shul was a Christian construction. We will talk about this some more. For the time being I am going to work with the idea that if it looks like a shul, well… it is a shul! The Romans were OK with the seven shuls going up here, especially since they knew that the real center of religious authority had been moved with the Sanhedrin to Yavneh, where the sages studied and made decisions.
Joseph: But that didn’t last.
Jeremy: No. eventually, the Bar Kochba rebellion broke out. After that was over the Roman’s erased all Jewish presence from Jerusalem. That is when the shuls on Mt Zion were destroyed. This one was broken but not destroyed, probably thanks to the size of its stones. Now, one of the things that changed after the Bar Kochba revolt was that Christians were on better terms with the Romans than were Jews. The Jewish Christians (known by Chazal as “the Minim”) did not participate in the revolt and used the persecution of faithful Jews as a springboard for bettering their own position in the eyes of the empire. After the suppression of the Bar Kochba revolt, there was a recognized Jewish Christian presence on Mt Zion, which actually didn’t get along very well with the Non-Jewish Christians who were centered farther north in the area of Yeshu’s supposed tomb.
Joseph: Why didn’t the Jewish Christians get along with the non-Jewish Christians?
Jeremy: Non-Jewish Christians though the Jewish Christians were heretics. Of course it was the Jewish Christians who were the originals, and you would suppose that everybody would rely on the Jewish Christians for authentic information about Yeshu. But Christianity was developing as a non-Jewish religion with non-Jewish attitudes and ideas. Eventually the Roman Empire became Christianized. At that point the non-Jewish Christians walked right in and took Mt Zion over. The original little shul became part of a much larger Church structure. This was eventually destroyed by Muslims. Again the little shul somehow survived. When the crusaders conquered Jerusalem from the Muslims they discovered the cave under the shul and placed a large stone monument to mark the spot. The little shul has been King David’s Tomb ever since. Of course, the crusaders were also interested in the Christian traditions concerning the area of Mt Zion, so they built, adjacent to the little shul, a secondary structure, which today serves as the entrance to King David’s Tomb. On the second floor they built a room commemorating Yeshu’s last supper with his disciples. They also constructed residences for monks all around. These structures are what you see all around.
Joseph: It is interesting that the crusaders, who were no friends to Jews and Jewish traditions, believed that the little shul marked the entrance to the underground Burial Cave of King David.
Jeremy: The crusaders did some honest research and got it right. They must have talked to those who knew the history of Mt Zion. As it turns out, the little shul had been King David’s Shteeble all along!
Joseph: It practically brings tears to my eyes to imagine the little shul, lovingly constructed from stones of the destruction of Jerusalem, a place where Tannaim prayed and studied! It survived the Bar Kochba revolt, and then it got swallowed by a giant church. Conquest and destruction, Muslims and crusaders and Muslims over and over, time after time! And the little shul survived somehow, all the way till today!
Jeremy: It is amazing. You can’t imagine the feeling a get sometimes why I pray here.
At the time there was talk of expanding the Christian presence on Mt Zion, and creating a world class center for Christian tourism there. The Christian traditions identify Mt Zion as the place where of the last supper and the Pentecost experience took place. They also claim it was central worship location for the early church. Diaspora Yeshiva felt threatened, and they were hoping that perhaps a documentary about the Jewish angle of Mt Zion would help galvanize support.
Of course the problem is that in the wake of the archeological work being done on the southern slopes of the Temple mount, nobody takes Mt Zion seriously. Most people, even religious Jews and Rabbis, assume that since King David’s Jerusalem was “down there” south of the Temple Mount that King David’s Tomb could not possibly be authentic and the high ground could not possibly be Mt Zion. The whole Mt Zion/King David’s Tomb thing is seen as big mistake. Kings David's Tomb is called by many "Pseudo Tomb of King David" or "King David's False Tomb."
It was with a heavy heart that I began writing the script because frankly I didn’t thing there was much of a case. Little did I know how quickly my mind would be changed. Traditions are not infallible, but they are amazingly resilient and stable over time. The identification of the high ground south of the old city as Mt Zion is an old and established one. It took only an open minded reading of the biblical texts to make everything appear in a new light.
In years past I used to say Tehillim at King David’s Tomb with the attitude that even if King David couldn’t possibly be buried here, if tradition identifies this place as his tomb then that means something spiritually. Today I say Tehillim at King David’s Tomb as a believer in the tradition’s authenticity. King David's Tomb is real and true! How did I get like this? Did I fall on my head? Did King David come to me in a dream? No, actually I just did some research and I reread some biblical texts and I listened to what they had to say.
I suggest you read this because if I am right and the tradition is authentic we all aught to celebrating at King David’s Tomb and making a great rejoicing, instead of just passing it by. If after you read this, you feel like supporting the Jewish presence on Mt Zion, you should check out the Mt Zion Foundation and do the right thing!
http://s105753740.onlinehome.us/Clients/MountZionFoundation/index.htm
One last note. In this script I write at some length about early Jewish Christianity. Of course I am exploring the historical angles associated with Mt Zion. But I cannot be certain that the Yeshiva on whose behalf I was writing would appreciate exploring the topic so extensively even for the best of reasons. The script was never made into a film, so I can’t say what they would have approved of in the final cut. I want everyone to know that the Yeshiva is not responsible in any way for my opinions and attitudes. If you want to complain, I am the address.
In Search of Mt. Zion and the True Tomb of King David
By Nathan Glick
Scene 1: The Mystery
[The viewer sees numerous inspiring still shots from around Mt Zion, while some modern Hassidic music plays in the background emphasizing the name "Har Tzion"]
Narrator: Hi my name is Joseph. I will be your host and guide while we explore an ancient mystery. Join me for a journey in place and time, as we search for an important historic link to David Hamelech…that is King David, warrior, king, singer of psalms, and according to Talmudic traditions, a Torah sage as well.
Let's begin with a question, you can think of it as a riddle…
[Joseph is standing next to a taxi stand in down town Jerusalem. There is a taxi parked right beside him, and a smiling cab driver by the name of Kobi]
Let's pretend I'm a tourist, and I say: Kobi,
Kobi: Yes Joseph!
Joseph: I have come from far away to see the places I have learned about in the Torah and the Tehillim. I want to see Hashem's holy mountain!
Kobi: That would be the Temple Mount. That is the place where the Bet Hamikdash, the Holy Temple stood. Would you like to see it from afar or from up close?
Joseph: why don’t we see it from afar and from up close?
[Some traffic footage intervenes. Then the viewer finds himself on Har Hazetim looking towards the Har Habayit]
Kobi: There where the golden dome is, that is where the Bet Hamikdash stood. You can imagine how beautiful and high the Bet Hamikdash looked. The flat hilltop where the Temple stood is called the Temple Mount, or in Hebrew the "Har Habayit".
Joseph: Now I want to see it Temple mount from up close
[More Jerusalem traffic, J and K are now at the Kotel]
Joseph: I know where we are! We are at the Kotel!
Kobi: [pointing to the Kotel] Yes. The Temple Mount is on the other side of this wall. Now you have to remember that we don’t really see the height of the original temple mount because the valley was filled in with debris by the Romans who wanted to erase the form of the Temple mount…but if you take a walk over here, you can see how far down the original ground level is. [They walk over to one of the pits dug down to the old ground level. They look in.] All the way down there is the original street level at the base of the Temple Mount [They continue to the south and look down at the excavations of the SW corner of the Temple Mount]
Joseph: You say this is the temple mount, but it looks more like a building than a mountain.!
Kobi: Once upon a time you were probably able to see the natural rock formations of the temple mount, but this was covered up by all of these huge stones. King Herod wanted to expand a beutify the original Har Habayit, so he added these outer walls. It looks like a construction, but behing the constructed parts the real mountain is still there in side. You can see where ground level is on the top of the temple mount by noting where the stones change their size and shape.
Joseph: I see.
Kobi: when the Romans destroyed the temple, they knocked down everything that was above ground on the temple mount, but they couldn’t knock down the mountain itself, or the walls that fill it out.
Joseph: Can we go up to the temple mount?
Kobi: No No! We are forbidden. In ancient times we could purify ourselves properly. But we can't any more. So according to Halacha we may not go into the place where the Temple stood. Not until the Mashiach comes and teaches us how to be "spiritually pure" again.
Joseph: Well it is still amazing to be here right next to Hashem's holy mountain. As it says in Tehillim (74:2) "Har Tzion zeh shachanta bo" "This Mount Zion where you have dwelled!"
Kobi: [Excitedly!] Well if you wanted to go to Mount Zion why didn't you just say so! [Kobi pulls Joseph into the taxi and away they drive. The camera follows the cab out the dung gate and shows the cab rising upwards towards Har Tzion emphasizing the high altitude of Har Tzion.]
[The Taxi arrives at Har Tzion, right in front of Kever David (King David’s Tomb.)]
Joseph: This is Mt Zion?
Kobi: Absolutely! Right here. You're standing on Har Tzion. And here is King David's tomb.
Joseph: I'm all confused! If Hashem's mountain is the Temple Mount…the Har Habayit…then that must be Har Tzion. And that means that this place…whatever it is ...cannot be Har Tzion.
Kobi: [As Kobi tells his story the viewer sees stills and action shots of people in prayer around Kever David or lighting candles or studying.] Listen, my friend. My family lived in Yershalayim for 13 generations, and if my grandmother told me this place is Har Tzion she knew what she was talking about. The Kotel is next to the Har Habayit, the Temple Mount, and Kind David is here on Mt Zion. People would come here from all over Israel, to pour out their hearts. And people received miracles in the merit of King David! See, my Grandmother, when she was young, just couldn't find anyone to marry. There just weren't enough suitable men her age. Her parents matched her up to an older widower. They said "better him than no-one!" But my grandmother was heartbroken. She was so desperate. She wanted someone she could actually love. So what did she do? She came every Saturday night to King David. She lit candles and read his Tehillim. After three months a young man came to Jerusalem from Morocco to study. He took one look at my grandmother, and he was hooked! They got married right away! My grandmother told me that when she got pregnant with my father, she saw King David in a dream, and he told her to call the baby David in his name.
Joseph: That’s a beautiful story, but that doesn't answer the question. The Har Habayit is Hashem's mountain. It has to be Har Tzion! The Temple Mount is Mount Zion! So what is this place?
Kobi: I don’t know what to say Joseph. But all Jerusalem Jews know this is Mt Zion right here! Even the Holy Ari used to pray here! Every body knows this is a holy special place!
Joseph: [now looking directly at the camera] This is the mystery we have to unravel: the mystery of Mt Zion. Is this place really Mt Zion? And if it is, how does it relate to the Temple mount? Listen carefully! This is not some empty theoretical question. We need to understand the holiness of Mt Zion. If we do, then we will be motivated to maintain a Jewish Torah presence here, even to struggle on behalf of Mount Zion. But if we do not understand and recognize the holiness of this place…there are others who value this place a lot and will do just about anything to take it over….
[Camera shows stills of Christian monasteries and churches on Mt Zion. The viewer sees Jeremy, a Rabbi identified as the "Director, Anti Missionary Task Force for Mt Zion"]
Director: The church never lets up. They see this place as incredibly sacred and they want it all. They try to buy whatever they can get their hands on. They are always challenging us in the courts. We fight them, room by little room, trying to keep them from expanding on Har Tzion. They talk to politicians about creating tourist centers for Christian pilgrims on Mt Zion, and sometimes they are actually pretty convincing to these politicians. So far we have managed to block them…but they just don’t let up….
Kobi: [looking at camera] So, you see there is a lot at stake here. If we don’t love Har Tzion…then Heaven forbid, others will.
Joseph: But to love Har Tzion you first have to know it. You have to solve the mystery of Mt Zion. So join us now as we embark on a journey in place and time. In search of Mt Zion!
Scene 2: Back to the Beginning…
[The viewer sees still shots of ancient Eretz Yisrael]
Joseph: It might be difficult to believe, but even during the early part of King David's reign, there were still Canaanites living in the land of Israel. A small tribe of Yevusi remained in their city Yeru-Shalem, on the border between the territories of Yehudah and Binyamin. Once King David was accepted as king by all Israel, he set his mind to conquering this last Canaanite stronghold.
[Joseph is talking to an archeologist, standing in what is today called ir David, on te southern slope of te temple Mount.]
Joseph: This is my friend Doctor Robert, an Archeologist. So, Rob, tell me where we are right now?
Rob the Archeologist: Well, as we understand it today, the original Yevusi city of Jerusalem was right here. To the north is the temple mount. From here the hill slopes down towards the south. Way back when, before the archeologists got to work in the area, everybody assumed that the original Yevusi city was up there on what is traditionally called Mt Zion. [Camera looks upward towards Mt Zion.] There is reference in Jusephus’ Wars of the Jews which describes that area, which was included in the walls of Jerusalem during the times of the second temple. In that text it is called Mt Zion. There is a later text by a French pilgrim who visited about 200 years after the destruction of the second temple. He also called it Mt Zion, and he noted that of the seven synagogues that once stood there, only one was standing. This area of Jerusalem became very important to the early Christians. Their tradition holds that Yeshu had his last supper with his disciples there, and that afterwards there were big ecstatic experiences which took place there for them. When the Roman Empire became Christianized, the Romans built a large church on the site, which incorporated that one synagogue as part of it structure. But of course none of relevant, because that place up there is definitely not Mt Zion.
Joseph: How do you know?
Rob: Once modern archeology got to work in Jerusalem, we discovered that the original Yevusi Jerusalem was down here. Here is all the complicated water works described by the Biblical texts. If David’s Jerusalem was down here, then here is where the original fortress of Zion was. This place is called “City of David” and somewhere within this area is the real King David’s Tomb. Scripture says very clearly that King Davis was buried in the City of David, here is Yevusi Jerusalem. The idea that Mt Zion or King David’s tomb is located up there is completely impossible!
Joseph: I wonder though, wouldn’t the original Yevusi have preferred to put their city higher up? There is lots of nice tactical high ground all around…
Rob: But they didn't want to get too far away from their water source, the Gihon spring. The spring is over this way in the valley. [Rob indicates the direction of the spring] We figure that the Yevusi city in the time of David looked like this. [The viewer sees a picture of Ir David] After David took over the city, he built his royal residence over here. [Arrow shows location] That is pretty much the spot where we are standing now.
Joseph: What about the temple mount?
Rob: Well the temple mount is right there to the north. You see that onion shaped black dome. [Rob points out that feature] That is the top of the mosque that stands on the southern part of the Temple Mount. In King David’s time the Temple Mount was empty. David did not build the temple. His son Shlomo Hamelech, that is King Solomon, did that. As a matter of fact, during most of David's reign the Temple Mount was known as the granary of Arvana the Yevusi. Apparently the locals used the wide flat hilltop to process their grain during harvest time. The book of Samuel tells that towards the end of his life, David bought the land from Arvana, as the location of the future temple.
Josef: And what about Mt Zion.
Rob: well the book of Shmuel does mention that there was a fortress of Zion, which David captured. He called it “Ir David” or city of David. We basically assume that that the fortress of Zion is part of the city of Jerusalem which is the same thing as the City of David….so it was all right here.
Joseph: And where was this fortress of Zion?
Rob: we surmise that it was down at the bottom of the hill. [He points to the south] About here in the picture [He shows the spot in the picture of ancient Jerusalem]
Joseph: So what is Mt Zion?
Rob: I would tell you that Mt Zion is another name for the Temple Mount.
Joseph: Isn't that strange. The fortress of Zion has nothing to do with the temple mount!
Rob: Well you know, sometimes names just get mixed up over time. The name Zion got transferred from this little fort at the southern entrance to Yevusi Jerusalem and got attached to the Temple. And there is another problem too. One part of the puzzle we can’t really make sense out of is how that high hilltop to the west, which has no relationship to either the original Fortress of Zion or to the Temple Mount ever came to be identified at Mt Zion. Was Josephus mistaken? Certainly in second Temple Jerusalem there were living traditions about where things were. The location of King David’s Tomb was well known back then.
Joseph: Do you have any way of dealing with this issue?
Rob: Some will argue that the Christians are responsible for sticking the name Mt Zion to the location up there in the south west heights which they felt was so central to them. The argument is also made that a Christian scribe transcribing Josephus added the name Mt Zion to the text. I personally think that this is just an easy way of brushing away evidence that conflicts with the current theory.
Joseph: I have to agree with you. I can’t see what advantage the Christians could gain by falsely identifying the area as Mt Zion, when they could have called anything they wanted. It is more likely that Christians were drawn to that area of Jerusalem which was already identified as Mt Zion and seen as being sacred in some way, and associated with King David, the original Messiah.
Rob: What you say makes sense. But the archeological evidence is so overwhelming. We know exactly where old Yevusi Jerusalem was. Everything else has to fall before that simple fact.
Joseph: I see…Well, I know someone who has some very different ideas about this….
Scene 3: The Fortress and the Mountain
Joseph: I'm still down here in the area which was Jerusalem in the days of the Yevusi.
I'm here with Rabbi Gerald Goldstein of the Mount Zion Foundation. And we are looking up the slope to what traditionally has been referred to as Mt Zion.
It's along way up isn't it?
Rabbi Goldstien: Mt Zion is the tallest geographical feature in the area. It rises 750 meters above sea level. You simply can't assume that it had no significance in the days of David.
Joseph: You ready to try and climb it?
RG: as the Psalmist says: Who can climb the mountain of Hashem! Who can stand in his holy place! Still with Hashem's help, we can make the attempt.
[The two walk up to Mt Zion along the outer wall of the old city]
J: Tell me about your work with the Mt Zion Foundation.
RG: Really what we are trying to do is make people aware of the holiness of Mt Zion. You know, we Jews exist because of our traditions. Our Torah scrolls are written according to the tradition. We keep Hashem's laws according to the traditions we have inherited. We wouldn't know a single letter of the Hebrew Alphabet if not for our traditions. You couldn't perform a single Mitzvah! So you can't throw away traditions. And if there is a Tradition that this mountain is Mt. Zion…well you deal with it. You at least have to consider it seriously!
J: what do you say to the Archeologist who says that Zion is just a fortress in ancient Yevusi Jerusalem…way down there? [Now pointing down from Har Tzion to Ir David]
RG: I'd say he's entitled to his opinion, but I think that if you read the Scripture carefully you will see that ancient Yevusi Jerusalem and the fortress of Tzion are two entirely different things. The archeologists are being small minded. They are assuming that everything was much smaller that we imagine it today. That is called “Minimalism.” They assume that just because they found the original Yevusi Jerusalem that everything was somehow squeezed in there, including the worship center that David set up to house the Ark of the Covenant.
J: Wait, I thought that David’s son Shlomo built the temple.
RG: I’m not talking about the Temple. King David brought the ark up to the city of David and installed in a tent, something like the tent of meeting the Israelites had in the desert. You tell me where in Yevusi Jerusalem was there enough room to house even a small modest little worship area, not to mention a central worship center with priests and services.
J: You are saying that the fortress of Zion was not located in Yevusi Jerusalem!
RG: Yevusi Jerusalem was one thing, and the fortress of Zion was something else entirely! Look here in the Book of Samuel chapter 5: And the king and his men went up to Jerusalem to the Yevusi who inhabited the land. They said to David as follows: “You will not come here unless you remove the blind and the lame” saying (to themselves) “David will not come here.” David conquered the fortress of Zion which is the City of David. David said on that day “Whoever strikes down a Yevusi and reaches the water conduit and the blind and the lame hated by David’s soul…” that is why they say “a blind person or a lame person will not enter the house.” And David dwelled in the fortress and he called it City of David."
There is a great deal which we need to explain in this passage, but I think one thing is clear. David conquered the fortress of Zion before he conquered Yevusi Jerusalem. Yevusi Jerusalem is called Jerusalem, but the fortress of Zion is renamed “City of David” It says very clearly that only the fortress is called City of David. The text repeats that point twice to make sure you get it. David called the Fortress of Zion "City of David", not Jerusalem!
J: How do you explain that!
RG: let's start with this assumption. The Yevusi built the original part of Jerusalem on a fairly low lying area because they wanted to be close to their water supply. But that created a problem for them. They couldn't really see very far. So they built a large well stocked fortress on the highest point in the area, so they could keep a look out for attackers in all directions. They could launch pre-emptive strikes against anyone coming against them. Also, if things get bad, they might evacuate the city and take refuge in the fortress. The name of the fortress is Zion, and it stands on…
J: Mt Zion!
RG: There you go. You see my point! The Fortress on Zion is on Mt Zion, which is a completely different place that the Yevusi city of Jerusalem.
Scene 4: The Conquest of Mt Zion and Jerusalem
RG: Now that we've got that worked out, I'd like to take an in depth look at the biblical passage that tells about the conquest of Jerusalem. It is a difficult passage to understand, but it is worth the effort. There is a really amazing story here, that teaches you a lot about Jewish values during war time and about the greatness of David’s heart. Look at verse 6: first the Yevusi inhabitants tell David: "You cannot come in here unless you remove the blind and the lame." The Yevusi say to themselves: "David will not enter here." Then in verse 7, David takes the fortress of Zion. Then in verse 8 David makes this proclamation "Whoever strikes a Yevusi and reaches the conduit and the lame and blind who are hated by David's soul." Therefore they say: "a blind person or a lame person will not enter the house". Lastly in verse 9 it reiterates that David resided in the fortress of Zion, which he called City of David.
J: I must admit I don't understand a thing about the blind and the lame and the conduit. It's all very confusing.
RG: Well, this is one of the most obscure passages in the bible. There are different ways of explaining it, including a few modern theories put forth by archeologists. But I will tell you how Rashi understood the story. The Yevusi had a group of blind and lame persons chained up in defensive positions at the gate of the city, so that any attempt to storm the gate directly would result in killing these helpless individuals. David was not willing to attack the blind and the lame. So the Yevusi thought that David would not enter the city. Now why would David hesitate to attack the blind and the lame? Well, Rashi explains that David would consider disgraceful to kill such helpless persons in battle. On the other hand, according to some archeologists it was believed back then that if a warrior killed a lame person or a blind person then he would himself become lame and blind. In any event David could not break through the gates directly.
J: So How did David take the city in the end?
RG: Well here is where the Archeologists are helpful. A system of tunnels and channels has been uncovered. It appears that these tunnels permitted the Yevusi to access their water supply without leaving the city. The Gihon spring which supplied the cities water was outside the walls, but these tunnels and special fortifications let the Yevusi get to the water without exposing themselves to enemy attack. It is usually surmised that David or his soldiers had found someway to slip into one of the water channels and sneak into the city. From there, the commandos would work their way to the city gate, and un-chain the lame and the blind. Then David could storm the gate. It also seems that the spot where David's men could get into the water channel was guarded. Because when David is looking for volunteers he says: "Whoever strikes a Yevusi and reaches the conduit, and then continues on to the lame and the blind..."
J: You know that sentence seems to break off in the middle. What happens to the one who gets is and accomplishes the mission?
RG: Well obviously, he gets a promotion. It is really so obvious that it doesn't need stating. Incidentally this same story is told in the first book of Chronicles in a simplified form, and there is tells you the name of the soldier who penetrated the defenses. It was Yoav ben Tzeruya, and he did get a promotion. We will see that in a moment. OK?
J: OK, but tell me why did David hate the lame and the blind?
RG: I think that it just means that David was totally disgusted by the use of these unfortunate people in such a callous way. From then on he didn't want to have contact with the lame or the blind because he didn't want people to think he was recruiting them into his army to perform this kind of disgraceful tactics.
J: Therefore David's recruiters will say "a blind person or a lame person will not enter the house." That’s like saying "Our army will never recruit the lame and the blind!"
RG: Now let's just read the biblical passage again and you will see very clearly that the fortress of Zion and the Yevusi city of Jerusalem are different things.
J: OK [He reads and translates the text Samuel 2 5:6-10] And the King and his people went to Jerusalem to the Yevusi, inhabitants of the land, and they said to David "You will not enter here until you remove the blind and the lame" saying [to themselves] "David will not enter here". And David conquered the fortress of Tzion, which is the City of David. And David said on that day: "whoever strikes a Yevusi and reaches the conduit and the lame and the blind who are the hated of David's soul…' [adding the missing words] will get promoted…right?
RG: Right!
J: [continues reading and translating] therefore they will say "A blind person or a lame person will not enter the house". And David resided in the fortress and He called it City of David. And David built around from the land fill and inward. And David went forth increasing in greatness, and Hashem, the lord of Hosts was with him.
RG: It is obvious that the fortress of Zion and Jerusalem are completely different places. When David can't get in to Jerusalem because on account of the lame and the blind, he circles around and captures Mt Zion first. Maybe from the vantage point of Mt Zion he is able to look into the city and understand how the inhabitants are getting water. Or maybe he learns the secret from some of the defenders of the fortress he takes as captives. In any event, David maintains his personal residence on Mt Zion, even after he completes the capture of Jerusalem. The similar passage in the book of chronicles (1 11:4-9) is also very clear if you'd like to read it:
J: OK, here goes [He reads and translates…] And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem which is Yevus, and there were the Yevusi, inhabitants of the land. And the inhabitants of Yevus said to David "you will not enter here" and David captured the fortress of Tzion that is the City of David. And David said whoever strikes a Yevusi first will be a leader and commander, and Yoav ben Tzeruya went up first and became a leader. And David resided in the fortress; therefore they called it City of David. And they built the City from the land fill to the encircling wall, and Yoav sustained the rest of the city. And David continued to go forth increasingly great and Hashem of Hosts was with him.
RG: Doesn't that sum it up very clearly? First David captures the fortress of Zion, and then he sends his volunteer commando take down the city of Jerusalem. David maintains his residence in the fortress, while he turns over the day to day ruling of Jerusalem over to Yoav ben Tzeruya who originally penetrated its defenses.
J: I must admit it seems very clear to me now!
Scene 5: Mt Zion and Jerusalem
[J and RG are now standing on the roof of King David's tomb.]
RG: We are standing on the roof of King David's Tomb. Look around you at the view. You can understand why David wanted to take out this fortress before attacking Jerusalem itself. And he did it! At first David settled in the Fortress, which he called "City of David". Later on he had his royal residence built in Jerusalem itself, mostly it seems for his wives and children…look here in verse Samuel 2 chapter 14 "And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem…And these are the names of those children born to him in Jerusalem." His children were born in Jerusalem because that is where his wives were, in the royal residence. On the other hand, this place, Mount Zion…the city of David…was David's personal center of activities… where his heart was.
J: What kind of things do you think David was involved with here?
RG: I think of it like this…Jerusalem was about ruling the tribes of Israel, about maintaining the army and about being King….Mt. Zion or the City of David…well that was about worshiping Hashem, about prayer, about composing psalms, about Torah study and about the Mysteries of Creation and Divine revelation. I think David had the parts of his life distinct. When he was in Jerusalem he was King. But when he climbed up Mt. Zion he became a beloved servant of Hashem, the sweet singer of psalms and the master of Hashem's Torah. Scripture is also very clear about where Kind David brought the Holy Ark of the Covenant. It says here in chapter 6 that he brought the Ark of the Covenant up to the City of David, that is the fortress of Zion…here to this very place… MOUNT ZION, dancing all in a very ecstatic and wonderful way.
J: Do you mean to say that Mt Zion was once the site of the Temple?
RG: Not at all. As you know, the Temple Mount is actually down there on the northern end of Yevusi Jerusalem. Where we all know where that is. However, during the lifetime of David, and until his son Solomon completed the Temple, the holy Ark of the Covenant and the Divine presence resided in a tent, just like during the years that Israel wandered in the desert. That tent was pitched here. And most certainly there was a complex of buildings for training priests, sacred musicians, composers, scribes, teachers and prophets! High above the bustle and noise of the city Jerusalem…a different atmosphere! An atmosphere of holiness and wonder!
J: So this place really is Mt Zion!
RG: Well there is a real established tradition, first recorded in writing by a student of the Ramban over 800 years ago, which says exactly this. Prior to the building of the Temple, Mt Zion… this very Mt Zion where we are standing…is where the Ark of the Covenant and the Divine presence resided.
J: Then tell me Rabbi Goldstein, how is it that the Temple was not built here!
RG: That is a different question. You will get the answer too, but first I must show you a third text which the archeologists pull out to show that Ir David, and King David’s Tomb was down on that lower ridge south of the Har Habayit, at the southern part of old Yevusi Jerusalem.
Joseph: What text is that?
RG: It is from the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah came to Jerusalem at the beginning of the second temple period to rebuild the city walls. Of course he had wealthy noblemen that helped him, each with a certain part of the wall. Here, in chapter 3, it says “The Gate of the Spring was supported by Shalun son of Kol Hozeh, Lord of the Mitzpa Domain. He built it and roofed it and raised its doors locks and bolts. And the wall of the irrigation pool for the kings garden, until the stairs that come down from the city of David. Afterwards Nehemiah son of Azbuk, Lord of Half the Domain of Bet Tzur supported (the wall) until opposite the Tomb of David and until the man-made pool and until the house of the heroes.” The archeologists with their small minded way of thinking just assume that everything mentioned in that passage is close by. Ir David is down there by the pools fed by the Gihon spring. Everything is supposedly nice and compact.
Joseph: It sounds that way, doesn’t it?
RG: Jeremy, well let me tell you about the Bordeaux Pilgrim. He was an anonymous French pilgrim who visited the land of Israel about two hundred plus years after the destruction of the second Temple. He carefully recorded his itinerary. When he arrived in Jerusalem, he made straight for the Temple Mount. He came down from the Temple Mount going south to the Siloam Pool. From there he ascended Mt. Zion, passing the ruins of the High Priest’s house and entered the "wall of Zion." He reports that this is the place where the Palace of David must have stood. He also observes that one synagogue, the last of seven synagogues that once stood on Mt Zion, was still visible on the site. Afterwards he exited from the wall of Zion and headed north in the direction of the Damascus Gate on the north side of the city. Those same seven synagogues were described by somebody called Epiphanius of Salamis as still standing when the emperor Hadrian visited Jerusalem a little before the Bar Kochba revolt.
Joseph: That is a lot of shuls to put in one location! The Jews obviously felt that Mt Zion is a tremendously important place.
RG: You are right, of course, but that is not the point I am trying to make!
Joseph: Your point is…
RG: My point is that there was a stairway, or at least a pathway leading up from the pools at the southern end of Yevusi Jerusalem, leading all the up to Har Zion. Now look back in the verse from Nehemiah. “Nobelman So and So built the wall, which ran in a southenrly direction along the edge of Yevusi Jerusalem up to the point where the stairs come down from Ir David, which is Mt Zion! The second Nobelman extended the wall farther south until opposite the monument of King David’s tomb, visible up here on Mt Zion. It all seems so clear, at least to me!
Joseph: I see what you mean. Just because a wall gets to a point opposite the Royal Tomb doesn’t mean the Royal Tomb is sitting right next to the wall. And certainly no-one says how far up the stairway went up from the water pool to Ir David.
RG: So there is nothing in scripture that contradicts the traditional location of Mt Zion or King David’s Tomb. If anything, scripture supports the tradition on this.
Joseph: That is fascinating! But you still owe me an answer about why, if Mt Zion is so holy, that the temple wasn’t built here?
RG: Unfortunately I have to be moving along to my next meeting. But there are many fine scholars and sages here on Har Tzion who can help you!
Scene 6: The Ark and the Tomb.
J: So our next question is…If Mt. Zion is really this sacred, why wasn't the Temple built here? To help us with this question, I've asked Rabbi Avraham to spare a few moments of his time. Rabbi Avraham is the Rabbi of the Jewish quarter and is responsible for answering many Halachic Questions every day.
Rabbi Avraham: The Holy Temple had to be built on the site where Avraham offered up his son Isaac, at the same place where Yaakov had his vision of the ladder reaching up to heaven. That is the Har Habayit, the Temple Mount. It could be that at one time David thought to build the temple here. But whatever David thought in the beginning, Hashem revealed to him the truth in the end…
J: Tell me the story.
RA: the story is told in the book of Samuel. Once there was a terrible plague which afflicted the Children of Israel. David had a vision of the angel who was driving the plague. David saw the angel standing on the granary of Arvana the Yevusi. David threw himself down on the ground and prayed. He took responsibility for the plague. He said "Behold I have sinned and I have behaved improperly, but these sheep, the children of Israel…what did they do?" The prophet Gad told David to build an Altar on the granary of Arvana. David paid full price for the property, and built the altar. When he sacrificed on the altar the plague stopped. Then David knew the Granary of Arvana was meant to be the place of the Holy Temple.
J: Still until the ark was moved into the Temple by King Solomon, it was in a tent, right here on Mt Zion.
RA: That is what the tradition says. It turns out that Mt Zion contains a holiness associated with the Ark of the Covenant and King David.
J: So I have a question. Mt Zion is actually higher up than the Temple Mount, so why is it that when King Solomon moved the ark to the Temple mount, it says that he "brought up" the ark from the city of David. Wouldn't it have been more accurate to say "being down" the ark?
RA: I get that question sometimes, and I think it's not a hard question at all. First, it is not polite to say that the ark is going down. And since the ark was moving to a place of greater holiness, then it was certainly moving up in honor and sanctity! You don’t need to take the idea of going up so literally.
J: I see.
RA: I also think that when the Ark was moved from Mt. Zion to the Temple Mount, the name Mt. Zion moved as well. Eventually the name Mt Zion also gets attached to the Temple Mount. But of course, that doesn't mean that the original Mt. Zion lost its holiness!
J: That is a good explanation. You know, one of the things that didn't add up, was that according to the archeologist, Zion was the name of a fortress in old Yevusi Jerusalem, and I couldn't understand how the name of one fort in Jerusalem got attached to the Temple mount.
RA: Well if you rely on the tradition its works out very well. The fortress of Zion stood here, on the top of the mountain. So this place is called Mt Zion. Then name moved to the Temple Mount when the Ark moved there. It's like saying the Temple Mount is "New Mt Zion"
J: Like New England, or New Mexico
A: Right!
J: But here is another problem. If you think that Mt. Zion was the place of holy Ark of the Covenant…what sense would it make for King David to put his grave here? A grave is a source of Tum'ah, ritual impurity. And you are not allowed to bring impurity into a holy place!
RA: That is not accurate! There are different grades of holiness even on the Temple Mount, and while you could not put a grave in the temple building or near the Altar, you are allowed to place a deceased human body on the outer portions of the Temple Mount. The Talmud in tractate Pesahim learns this from the fact that Moshe Rabbenu took with him the bones of Yosef from Egypt. The level of holiness of Moshe's tent was equivalent to the holiness of the Temple mount. And right there was Yosef's ark…his coffin. In fact there is a really amazing passage in the Talmud tractate Sotah where is says that for years people would see Yosef's ark so close to the Ark of the Covenant, and they would wonder "Is it possible for a corpse to go along with the Divine presence?" And Moshe would reply "Yes! For this one fulfilled what is written in this one. Yosef fulfilled the Torah that was in the in the Ark of the Covenant."
J: So it makes sense King David would want to place his grave next to the Ark of the Covenant. It would be a way of saying that King David's fulfilled the Torah despite his many challenges. His life was an embodiment of the Torah.
RA: That's right. One of the traditions that the Talmud relates in tractate Berachot is that King David was more than a warrior, king and songwriter. He was a Torah scholar of Halacha and Jewish Law. A lot of people think that this story is unrealistic and that the Sages were remaking King Davis in their own image. But you know, when you are king, especially in the ancient world, you are responsible for maintaining the people’s connection with their God. Did you know that King Henry the Eighth wrote a religious work? Of course he had help from his friends. King Henry was far from being a pious person. But kings had to be involved in religion. Now David had very deep religious feelings, and it makes sense that he would have tried to have an impact of the religious life in his kingdom. Interestingly, the Talmud is clear in pointing out that David was not considered a great scholar at the time. The really smart sharp scholars did not take him seriously. But he never let his personal humiliation keep him from taking part in the discussion and trying to learn. For this he was greatly admired, because he loved the Torah selflessly and he didn’t act with the usual arrogance associated with kings.
J: Tell me more about the tradition of King David's Tomb.
RA: First you know that it says in the book of Kings that King David was buried in Ir David that is the "City of David", which as you now understand, is the same as Mt Zion. In addition we have a very good written text that affirms the tradition of the location of King David's tomb. Rabbi Benjamin of Toledo visited the land of Israel about 800 years ago, where he visited many places including the Royal Tomb on Mt Zion. He tells the story that the Tomb had been discovered about twenty years before his visit. Some workers were repairing a wall in a Christian monastery when they uncovered a cave. Some workers entered the cave and found a stone table with a golden scepter and crown placed upon them. When they tried to go farther, a great wind blew both workers out of the cave with a warning not to enter again…
J: You know what I don't like about that story?
RA: Tell me,
J: First it means that there is no real tradition about the tomb. Somebody finds a cave and tells a miracle story! What if I am a skeptical kind of guy?
A: Well, I think that when the cave was found, the Jews understood that this was King David's Tomb, simply because the Jews knew more or less where it was, even if the precise location had been obscured by the Christian building projects. I suspect that the miracle story was used to keep nosy Christians out of the cave. By the way, do you know what a holy relic is?
J: No I don't.
RA: Well back then in the olden days Christians used to go around breaking into tombs and collecting the bones of people that they thought were holy. They called these poor desecrated bones "Holy Relics." They would keep them in the hope of receiving miracles. They would pray to them, and use them in all sorts of ways. They would even put bones or pieces of bones into the altars of their churches. So the Christians needed to be convinced not to try and break into the Kind David's tomb to steal bones.
J: So the Jews spread the story to keep the Christians out!
RA: Exactly! According to Josephus, King Herod tried to break into King David’s tomb when he ran out of money, but the workers came to a bad end. The feeling that King David’s tomb is dangerous probably helped. In the end the crusaders put this big stone marker down. Maybe they put it there to keep people out of the cave. So the trick worked! But I don't think the Jews needed any proof that this was King David's tomb. They just knew that this was it, because they knew this place is the biblical Ir David or Mt Zion.
It is so important to get the Message out! Mt. Zion isn’t some sort of mistake. It is a real sacred place to the Jewish People. King David’s tomb isn’t some crazy dream! It is real! And we Jews most of all tend not to see this, because of the claims of the archeologists. If we can’t climb up to the Temple Mount any more, we should visit Mt Zion and connect ourselves to the holiness of this place! The Christians want Mt Zion, and if we don’t dedicate ourselves to believing in its holiness we may, Heaven forbid, loose this place! You should really talk to my friend Jeremy. He is our director of anti missionary activities here, and he knows all about the Christians and their claims.
Scene 7: The Last Little Shul on Mt Zion
Joseph: I am standing in the entryway to King David’s Tomb talking to Jeremy. [Looks at Jeremy] You are the Director of the Anti Missionary Task Force here on Mt Zion. I want you to explain to why the church has such an interest in Mt Zion, and why have to struggle with Christians even over control of King David’s Tomb?
Jeremy: When I first got involved in the struggle for Mt Zion, I was very skeptical that there was anything really special about the place. It was just another piece of Jerusalem. All of Jerusalem is holy to the Jewish people, but we have come to accept a Christian presence in Jerusalem. So what is the difference here or there? I heard from good sources, many of them religious Jews and even Rabbis that the real original Jerusalem is way down there on the slope leading up to the Temple Mount, and that King David’s Tomb couldn’t possibly be for real. I know you have heard that too.
Joseph: That is what everybody seems to say!
Jeremy: So Rabbi Goldstein told me “You are good scholar. Take your time and investigate. Do your research. In a month tell me what you think. I am keeping the position open for you on our legal staff. If you take the job, I want you to be convinced that Mt Zion is a real cause to fight for.” Well, I took two months, and returned to Rabbi Goldstein convinced. Har Tzion is real! If only more Jews knew what Har Tzion is! If only the politicians really understood! The archeologists say “Oh, Har Tzion is nothing,” and then the Church says “Look how many millions of dollars you can have if we put a full fledged pilgrimage center here…all you have to do is take a few rooms away from this yeshiva and give them to us!” And the politicians look at the bottom line. You can only imagine the rest.
Joseph: It must be hard being a lone voice in the wilderness.
Jeremy: Funny you should say that. You may not know it but you are plugging right in to a verse in the prophet Yeshayahu (62) “For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet…” We are crying out on behalf of Har Zion, and on behalf of Yerushalayim too. I hope somebody out there is listening!
Joseph: Once there were seven synagogues of Mt Zion! We learn that from the testimony of the Bordeaux Pilgrim.
Jeremy: There is also a testimony of Epiphanius of Salamis. He was a Christian religious leader who lived some time after the Bordeaux Pilgrim.
Joseph: about 250 years plus after the destruction of the second temple.
Jeremy: Right, although he was writing about the emperor Hadrian who lived about sixty years after the destruction of the second temple. Epiphanius records how the Emperor Hadrian arrived in the land of Israel a short time before the outbreak of the Bar Kochba rebellion. He came to Mt Zion and found seven synagogues there, as well as a church.
Joseph: That certainly supports the idea that Mt Zion was primarily a Jewish site. After the destruction of the Temple the Jews put great efforts into making Mt Zion a religious site! The Christians were trying to get a foothold there it seems.
Jeremy, Right you are! Now, Hadrian was travelling all over trying to create a more unified empire and he thought to integrate Jews in his empire. But he was not looking for a happy pluralistic Empire. He thought the Jews were barbaric, crazy and stubborn! So he built a Pagan temple on the Temple Mount and forbid the Jews to perform circumcision. This caused the Bar Kochba revolt to break out. That went very badly for the Jews in the end. Hadrian decimated us, and killed the Ten Torah Sages including Rabbi Akiva. Of the seven synagogues on Mt Zion, only one survived after the revolt, the one which the Bordeaux Pilgrim saw.
Joseph: Do you think it might still be here?
Jeremy: It is right here! You see that door way going into King David’s Tomb? That is the entrance to the last synagogue on Mt Zion.
Joseph: King David’s Tomb is that synagogue?
Jeremy: That is right! Come with me
[They enter the room opposite the room with the tombstone]
Jeremy: You are now in the old Synagogue. I like to call it “the Little Mt Zion Shul.”
Joseph: How about "King David’s Shteeble?"
Jeremy: I can accept that name too. You see, it was a small shul for its day. But it was very solidly built. It seems to have been constructed of large stones of various sizes, which gives you the impression that the stones were taken from some other building. After the destruction of the second temple there would have been plenty of rubble. Perhaps they even took fallen stones from the temple.
Joseph: Well this shul is divided in a funny way. Are we in the women’s section?
Jeremy: [Pointing to the wall that separates the room with the tombstone from the outer room they are standing in] That wall is not part of the original Shul. It was added, I think by the Turks. This was all one room, and the front wall of the shul is behind the stone tomb marker. Follow me inside…
[They enter the room of King David’s Tomb]
Jeremy: Look up behind the big monument, behind the crowns and the sefer Torah and all the stuff. Do you see how the wall dips inwards?
Joseph: It looks kind of like a niche.
Jeremy: What you can’t see, because the monument stone gets in the way, is that the niche has a flat bottom, about six feet up from the floor level.
Joseph: You mean it’s a place for putting an Aron Kodesh!
Jeremy: Or perhaps they stored the Sifrey Torah in the niche without an Aron Kodesh cabinet. But we are definitely in an ancient Shul, where Jews prayed and read from Sifrey Torah just like we do. No-body doubts this. Tannaim from Yerushalayim prayed here two thousand years ago! Non Jews or Christians used bound books to read from in their worship services. They would not have built this niche.
Joseph: Amazing! This little shul was built sometime after the destruction of Jerusalem by those Jews that returned. They put seven Shuls here! They must have known there was some serious holiness here. If this is Har Tzion, and King Davids Tomb was here; that would explain things.
Jeremy: well the actual Tomb is underground in a cave, but this shul could have marked the entrance to the cave, which was sealed. According to Rabbi Akiva in the Tosefta the cave with the tomb in it was especially constructed with a little tunnel exiting outside the city to the Kidron Valley, which by the way, runs around the entire eastern and southern side of the city. The Ritual corpse impurity of the burial cave would not rise upwards out of the ground and contaminate the city. So you could pray in this shul in a state of purity even if the cave was underneath part of it.
Joseph: So this wall should face in the direction of the Temple?
Jeremy: Actually it doesn’t. That is one of the reasons why some people imagine that this might have originally been a Christian Shul. They think it faces the traditional site of Yeshu’s grave.
Joseph: No!
Jeremy: The fact is that doesn’t exactly face there either. The direction of the shul was chosen to permit maximum sunlight getting in through the windows, which are very deep, because the walls are so thick. It is possible that back then the idea that shul needed to face the Temple or Jerusalem had not caught on yet. After all, a shul is itself a small temple. Wherever the Torah scrolls are…there is the holy of holies and that is where you pray to. You need to face Jerusalem or the Temple only if you are not praying in a shul.
Joseph: That makes sense! But I am shocked by something. Could anyone imagine that this was a Christian Shul? I mean…Christians don’t make shuls!
Jeremy: There is claim being made to that this little shul was a Christian construction. We will talk about this some more. For the time being I am going to work with the idea that if it looks like a shul, well… it is a shul! The Romans were OK with the seven shuls going up here, especially since they knew that the real center of religious authority had been moved with the Sanhedrin to Yavneh, where the sages studied and made decisions.
Joseph: But that didn’t last.
Jeremy: No. eventually, the Bar Kochba rebellion broke out. After that was over the Roman’s erased all Jewish presence from Jerusalem. That is when the shuls on Mt Zion were destroyed. This one was broken but not destroyed, probably thanks to the size of its stones. Now, one of the things that changed after the Bar Kochba revolt was that Christians were on better terms with the Romans than were Jews. The Jewish Christians (known by Chazal as “the Minim”) did not participate in the revolt and used the persecution of faithful Jews as a springboard for bettering their own position in the eyes of the empire. After the suppression of the Bar Kochba revolt, there was a recognized Jewish Christian presence on Mt Zion, which actually didn’t get along very well with the Non-Jewish Christians who were centered farther north in the area of Yeshu’s supposed tomb.
Joseph: Why didn’t the Jewish Christians get along with the non-Jewish Christians?
Jeremy: Non-Jewish Christians though the Jewish Christians were heretics. Of course it was the Jewish Christians who were the originals, and you would suppose that everybody would rely on the Jewish Christians for authentic information about Yeshu. But Christianity was developing as a non-Jewish religion with non-Jewish attitudes and ideas. Eventually the Roman Empire became Christianized. At that point the non-Jewish Christians walked right in and took Mt Zion over. The original little shul became part of a much larger Church structure. This was eventually destroyed by Muslims. Again the little shul somehow survived. When the crusaders conquered Jerusalem from the Muslims they discovered the cave under the shul and placed a large stone monument to mark the spot. The little shul has been King David’s Tomb ever since. Of course, the crusaders were also interested in the Christian traditions concerning the area of Mt Zion, so they built, adjacent to the little shul, a secondary structure, which today serves as the entrance to King David’s Tomb. On the second floor they built a room commemorating Yeshu’s last supper with his disciples. They also constructed residences for monks all around. These structures are what you see all around.
Joseph: It is interesting that the crusaders, who were no friends to Jews and Jewish traditions, believed that the little shul marked the entrance to the underground Burial Cave of King David.
Jeremy: The crusaders did some honest research and got it right. They must have talked to those who knew the history of Mt Zion. As it turns out, the little shul had been King David’s Shteeble all along!
Joseph: It practically brings tears to my eyes to imagine the little shul, lovingly constructed from stones of the destruction of Jerusalem, a place where Tannaim prayed and studied! It survived the Bar Kochba revolt, and then it got swallowed by a giant church. Conquest and destruction, Muslims and crusaders and Muslims over and over, time after time! And the little shul survived somehow, all the way till today!
Jeremy: It is amazing. You can’t imagine the feeling a get sometimes why I pray here.
Scene 8: Christian Claims to Mt Zion
Joseph: So what is the Church after?
Jeremy: The Christians have a tradition that the place where Yeshu ate his last supper was in this neighborhood. This is not very likely, because in late second Temple Jerusalem this area was an aristocratic area, and it is unlikely that a group of Gallilean wanderers would find a welcome here. They were most likely in a poorer section of town, perhaps near the water pool down in old Jerusalem. Sometime after Yeshu was killed by the Romans, his followers had an ecstatic experience as they were gathered in an “upper room” celebrating Shavuot. This was an extremely important event for them. Who knows? This event might well have taken place in the Mt Zion area. If that was the case it means that they succeeded in finding some high class supporters. Today Christians tend to see this event as the reason for Mt Zion’s holiness.
Joseph: It sounds more likely to me that the Christians were purposely connecting themselves to Mt Zion and King David because they were trying to play up Yeshu’s messianic claims.
Jeremy: I think that is undeniable. But remember, the Christians will also tell you that Mt Zion has no connection of David and that it meant nothing in particular to anybody prior to their ecstatic event. So it seems quite reasonable from their point of view that the even little shul was originally built by Jewish Christians.
Joseph: But if Mt Zion is really Mt Zion, the site where King David placed the Ark of the Covenant as well as his tomb, then it was an important Jewish Site long before the Christians began their activities. That makes it all the more likely that the little shul was constructed by Torah Jews reestablishing a presence here shortly after the destruction of the temple.
Jeremy: Remember that according to Epiphanius, Hadrian found seven shuls on Mt Zion plus one church. The Bordeaux Pilgrim said he found the last of the seven shuls. He doesn’t mention a church. Let me tell you something interesting. Even if some Jewish Christians had built a meeting hall of some kind on Mt Zion, they would not have built a Christian Shul!
Joseph: I’d like to hear more about that, but first please clarify something for me. Is there anything besides wishful thinking that could lead a Christian to think the little shul is a Christian building? Is there any evidence whatsoever for the little shul being built by Jewish Christians?
Jeremy: During the war of independence, King David’s Tomb was damaged by a mortar that came in through the window. An archeologist called Yaakov Pinkerfeld made a basic survey of the building and dug through a few layers of the floor in a few places. He found some plaster flakes with writing on them. He copied over the writing which seemed to be in Greek. Some Catholic scholars analyzed them and not surprisingly, concluded they Christian graffiti. The interpretations are not conclusive. Who knows? They could mean anything. Anyway, the graffiti is beside the point. There is no doubt that the little shul was taken over by Jewish Christians eventually. Then the non-Jewish Christians took it from them. The important question is what was it originally? I think the evidence points to the obvious conclusion. It was a shul!
Joseph: It makes me crazy thinking about a Christian Shul. It sounds so bizarre. What would Christians want with a shul?
Jeremy: Well you are making some mistakes here, even though over all I agree completely.
Joseph: Well that is confusing…
Jeremy: Let me explain. In the first few years after Yeshu’s death, let’s say until the destruction of the second Temple, you probably couldn’t tell a Jewish Christian from a regular Jew. It is also very difficult to know exactly what they believed about Yeshu. Some of them might have had beliefs that weren’t particularly bad. They had a teacher called Yeshu. He taught them that the Geulah is coming, and that to get ready for it you have to strengthen your “Ahavas Yisroel” and love all Jews even if they aren’t as frum as you. Our Chazal said many similar things, although Yeshu seems to have had an extreme fascination with breaking down all barriers between different kinds of Jews. Some of his followers bought more deeply into the idea of his being Mashiach, which was problematic because what happens when Mashich dies? Some of his followers had the feeling that he was still with them, because the righteous are called “living” even in death.
Joseph: Is this stuff heretical? It doesn’t sound bad…
Jeremy: That is the problem. A seed might look OK at first. You just have to see how it grows. Today scholars know that in the years after Yeshu died, there were all sorts of groups with different ideas about what he meant or what he was. No-one had any clear answers. Some Jewish Christians thought it would be a good idea to teach the Seven Noahide Laws to non-Jews along with some Yeshu stories thrown in. Some people were willing to tell non-Jews just about anything to impress them with Yeshu. Some Christians began developing ideas that no Torah Jew could entertain.
Now, it is known that Jewish Christians did not believe in the pagan ideas that were developing among non-Jewish Christians, like G-d having a son and the virgin birth. After a certain point the original Jewish Christians were considered heretics by the Non-Jewish Christians because they refused to buy into all the new ideas that had sprung up. In the years after the destruction of the second Temple things came to a head. Jewish Christians had to choose. Christianity had become “Minut,” a sectarian heresy that denied the Torah and the holiness of the Jewish people. Jewish Christians either had to come back into the fold and forget the founder of their group, or leave Judaism.
Joseph: So that is why Rabban Gamliel in Yavneh authorized an addition to the prayer of the 18 blessings, the blessing against informants and sectarians! A Jewish Christian would not be able to remain in any Shul where that prayer was being recited against his group. He would have to renounce his sectarian beliefs and blend back into the fold. Or leave the shul altogether.
Jeremy: Most of them did blend back into the Jewish people, which must have been very hard for them. They demonstrated true faith in the holiness of the Jewish people and the wisdom of our Sages! Some went with the non-Jews. A few held on in their old way, although they were now outcasts both from Judaism and Christianity.
Joseph: All of this means that Jewish Christians didn’t have their own shuls! In the early years they thought of themselves as real Jews, plain and simple! Maybe they thought of themselves as slightly better than ordinary Jews. Perhaps they were hoping to take control of Judaism from within.
Jeremy: Jewish Christians worshipped in the same Bet Hamikdash as we did. They went to the same shuls as we did.
Joseph: Otherwise the 19th blessing instituted against them wouldn’t have had much meaning!
Jeremy: There you have it! What set a Jewish Christian apart from a regular Jew was not how he behaved in shul, but what he did when he came home for Kiddush. Early Christians didn’t celebrate in formal worship. They ate meals, broke bread and drank wine. They did it in memory of Yeshu. If they had a meeting place of some kind, they went there to eat together and pray informally. When they went to Shul it was along with everyone.
Joseph: So you are saying that in the early years, around the time of the destruction of the Bet Hamikdash, Jewish Christians would not have built their own shul, since they participated fully in regular shul going. So the idea that the little shul of Mt Zion is somehow a Christian shul just doesn’t start!
Jeremy: It sounds to me like an excellent argument. In any event, I see no reason to doubt that what looks like a shul is really a shul, and the Christian attempt to connect the little Shul on Mt Zion to Jewish Christianity is just wishful thinking. There is also some important archeological evidence that supports what we are saying.
Joseph: Please go on!
Jeremy: Many years ago, at about the same time period we are dealing with, there was a flourishing Jewish community in a Syrian city called Dura Europos.
Joseph: I heard of that! Archeologists found an amazing well preserved Shul with these beautiful wall paintings.
Jeremy: They found a Christian meeting place too, but they don’t call it a church because it really wasn’t one. They call it a “House Church” because is was a private home, with an added meeting room built on. You could tell it served Christians because of the wall paintings. You can tell that they were Jewish Christians, because they found some parchment fragments with Hebrew prayers for breaking the bread and drinking the wine.
Joseph: That was the essential form of Christian worship.
Jeremy: In a modified form, it still is. And you see that these early Jewish Christians were not building their own shuls. They would pray with everybody in regular shul and do their Wine and Bread thing in private homes or meeting halls! So, to return to the topic of the Last Little Shul on Mt Zion, It was a shul when it was built, it was taken over by conquest, and today it once again serves for the worship of Hashem!
Joseph: We really need to promote and publicize the holiness of Mt Zion, and claim it unambiguously a place sacred to the Jewish People and to the Memory of King David. We have something at stake here!
Jeremy: We certainly do have a lot at stake here!
Jeremy: The Christians have a tradition that the place where Yeshu ate his last supper was in this neighborhood. This is not very likely, because in late second Temple Jerusalem this area was an aristocratic area, and it is unlikely that a group of Gallilean wanderers would find a welcome here. They were most likely in a poorer section of town, perhaps near the water pool down in old Jerusalem. Sometime after Yeshu was killed by the Romans, his followers had an ecstatic experience as they were gathered in an “upper room” celebrating Shavuot. This was an extremely important event for them. Who knows? This event might well have taken place in the Mt Zion area. If that was the case it means that they succeeded in finding some high class supporters. Today Christians tend to see this event as the reason for Mt Zion’s holiness.
Joseph: It sounds more likely to me that the Christians were purposely connecting themselves to Mt Zion and King David because they were trying to play up Yeshu’s messianic claims.
Jeremy: I think that is undeniable. But remember, the Christians will also tell you that Mt Zion has no connection of David and that it meant nothing in particular to anybody prior to their ecstatic event. So it seems quite reasonable from their point of view that the even little shul was originally built by Jewish Christians.
Joseph: But if Mt Zion is really Mt Zion, the site where King David placed the Ark of the Covenant as well as his tomb, then it was an important Jewish Site long before the Christians began their activities. That makes it all the more likely that the little shul was constructed by Torah Jews reestablishing a presence here shortly after the destruction of the temple.
Jeremy: Remember that according to Epiphanius, Hadrian found seven shuls on Mt Zion plus one church. The Bordeaux Pilgrim said he found the last of the seven shuls. He doesn’t mention a church. Let me tell you something interesting. Even if some Jewish Christians had built a meeting hall of some kind on Mt Zion, they would not have built a Christian Shul!
Joseph: I’d like to hear more about that, but first please clarify something for me. Is there anything besides wishful thinking that could lead a Christian to think the little shul is a Christian building? Is there any evidence whatsoever for the little shul being built by Jewish Christians?
Jeremy: During the war of independence, King David’s Tomb was damaged by a mortar that came in through the window. An archeologist called Yaakov Pinkerfeld made a basic survey of the building and dug through a few layers of the floor in a few places. He found some plaster flakes with writing on them. He copied over the writing which seemed to be in Greek. Some Catholic scholars analyzed them and not surprisingly, concluded they Christian graffiti. The interpretations are not conclusive. Who knows? They could mean anything. Anyway, the graffiti is beside the point. There is no doubt that the little shul was taken over by Jewish Christians eventually. Then the non-Jewish Christians took it from them. The important question is what was it originally? I think the evidence points to the obvious conclusion. It was a shul!
Joseph: It makes me crazy thinking about a Christian Shul. It sounds so bizarre. What would Christians want with a shul?
Jeremy: Well you are making some mistakes here, even though over all I agree completely.
Joseph: Well that is confusing…
Jeremy: Let me explain. In the first few years after Yeshu’s death, let’s say until the destruction of the second Temple, you probably couldn’t tell a Jewish Christian from a regular Jew. It is also very difficult to know exactly what they believed about Yeshu. Some of them might have had beliefs that weren’t particularly bad. They had a teacher called Yeshu. He taught them that the Geulah is coming, and that to get ready for it you have to strengthen your “Ahavas Yisroel” and love all Jews even if they aren’t as frum as you. Our Chazal said many similar things, although Yeshu seems to have had an extreme fascination with breaking down all barriers between different kinds of Jews. Some of his followers bought more deeply into the idea of his being Mashiach, which was problematic because what happens when Mashich dies? Some of his followers had the feeling that he was still with them, because the righteous are called “living” even in death.
Joseph: Is this stuff heretical? It doesn’t sound bad…
Jeremy: That is the problem. A seed might look OK at first. You just have to see how it grows. Today scholars know that in the years after Yeshu died, there were all sorts of groups with different ideas about what he meant or what he was. No-one had any clear answers. Some Jewish Christians thought it would be a good idea to teach the Seven Noahide Laws to non-Jews along with some Yeshu stories thrown in. Some people were willing to tell non-Jews just about anything to impress them with Yeshu. Some Christians began developing ideas that no Torah Jew could entertain.
Now, it is known that Jewish Christians did not believe in the pagan ideas that were developing among non-Jewish Christians, like G-d having a son and the virgin birth. After a certain point the original Jewish Christians were considered heretics by the Non-Jewish Christians because they refused to buy into all the new ideas that had sprung up. In the years after the destruction of the second Temple things came to a head. Jewish Christians had to choose. Christianity had become “Minut,” a sectarian heresy that denied the Torah and the holiness of the Jewish people. Jewish Christians either had to come back into the fold and forget the founder of their group, or leave Judaism.
Joseph: So that is why Rabban Gamliel in Yavneh authorized an addition to the prayer of the 18 blessings, the blessing against informants and sectarians! A Jewish Christian would not be able to remain in any Shul where that prayer was being recited against his group. He would have to renounce his sectarian beliefs and blend back into the fold. Or leave the shul altogether.
Jeremy: Most of them did blend back into the Jewish people, which must have been very hard for them. They demonstrated true faith in the holiness of the Jewish people and the wisdom of our Sages! Some went with the non-Jews. A few held on in their old way, although they were now outcasts both from Judaism and Christianity.
Joseph: All of this means that Jewish Christians didn’t have their own shuls! In the early years they thought of themselves as real Jews, plain and simple! Maybe they thought of themselves as slightly better than ordinary Jews. Perhaps they were hoping to take control of Judaism from within.
Jeremy: Jewish Christians worshipped in the same Bet Hamikdash as we did. They went to the same shuls as we did.
Joseph: Otherwise the 19th blessing instituted against them wouldn’t have had much meaning!
Jeremy: There you have it! What set a Jewish Christian apart from a regular Jew was not how he behaved in shul, but what he did when he came home for Kiddush. Early Christians didn’t celebrate in formal worship. They ate meals, broke bread and drank wine. They did it in memory of Yeshu. If they had a meeting place of some kind, they went there to eat together and pray informally. When they went to Shul it was along with everyone.
Joseph: So you are saying that in the early years, around the time of the destruction of the Bet Hamikdash, Jewish Christians would not have built their own shul, since they participated fully in regular shul going. So the idea that the little shul of Mt Zion is somehow a Christian shul just doesn’t start!
Jeremy: It sounds to me like an excellent argument. In any event, I see no reason to doubt that what looks like a shul is really a shul, and the Christian attempt to connect the little Shul on Mt Zion to Jewish Christianity is just wishful thinking. There is also some important archeological evidence that supports what we are saying.
Joseph: Please go on!
Jeremy: Many years ago, at about the same time period we are dealing with, there was a flourishing Jewish community in a Syrian city called Dura Europos.
Joseph: I heard of that! Archeologists found an amazing well preserved Shul with these beautiful wall paintings.
Jeremy: They found a Christian meeting place too, but they don’t call it a church because it really wasn’t one. They call it a “House Church” because is was a private home, with an added meeting room built on. You could tell it served Christians because of the wall paintings. You can tell that they were Jewish Christians, because they found some parchment fragments with Hebrew prayers for breaking the bread and drinking the wine.
Joseph: That was the essential form of Christian worship.
Jeremy: In a modified form, it still is. And you see that these early Jewish Christians were not building their own shuls. They would pray with everybody in regular shul and do their Wine and Bread thing in private homes or meeting halls! So, to return to the topic of the Last Little Shul on Mt Zion, It was a shul when it was built, it was taken over by conquest, and today it once again serves for the worship of Hashem!
Joseph: We really need to promote and publicize the holiness of Mt Zion, and claim it unambiguously a place sacred to the Jewish People and to the Memory of King David. We have something at stake here!
Jeremy: We certainly do have a lot at stake here!
Scene 9: The Meaning of Mt Zion
Joseph: So, we have solved the mystery of Mt Zion, and we have found support for the tradition that says that the Ark of the Covenant used to be here, and that King David's tomb is for real. But I'd still like to find out more about what all this means to us today. I can't think of anyone better able to help us than The Rosh Yeshivah of Yeshivas Toras Yisroel of Mt Zion, Rabbi Mordechai Goldstein, Shlita.
Rosh Yeshiva: Hello Joseph, have you found the answers you seek?
J: I discovered things more wonderful that I could have imagined! Everything is real! The traditions of Mt Zion have a solid basis in scripture and history! Still I was wondering if you could explain to me the spiritual significance of Mt Zion on a deeper level.
RH: I always think of the verse in Hoshea (3:5) "Then the children of Israel will repent and they will search for Hashem and for David their King and they will tremble for Hashem and for his goodness at the end of days." Now the sages explained this verse by saying that redemption is coming in three stages. First we need to seek out Hashem…that means accepting upon ourselves Malchus Shomaim, the Kingdom of Heaven. Next we also need to seek out King David, and accept upon ourselves the Malchus Beis Dovid, the Kingdom of David. After that The Holy Temple will be rebuilt and we will be able to tremble with joy in the presence of Hashem and His goodness! So according to the sages we need to search…to search for Hashem, and for Kind David and then we can bring back the Holy Temple.
J: Tell me Rabbi, How can we search for Hashem?
RH: I believe that searching for Hashem and the Kingdom of Heaven, means trying to see Hashem's Glory revealed in everything. It also means learning the Torah and finding out his Hashem's will so we can take part in the Kingdom of Heaven by doing his commandments.
J: Sounds good to me! How do we search for David and his Kingdom?
RH: By searching out Mt Zion! By pouring our heart out at King David's tomb! By strengthening our Jewish presence right here! Most importantly, we need to by study the Torah here on Mt Zion. That’s how we become part of Malchus Beis Dovid! The Kingdom of David!
J: What makes the Torah learned on Mt Zion so special?
RH: I believe that when you learn Torah on Mt Zion, it has a musical quality. That is why the Psalms are so important here. Don't get me wrong! I'm not saying we turn Torah into Music. You know that David was punished because he thought that Torah could be made into songs. Song is song and Torah is Torah. Still you can have Torah with a song-like quality. This means that the Torah you study, you feel it coming out of your heart at the same time you absorb it with your mind. I believe that when you study Torah this way, you receive special insights that Hashem puts in each person's heart. Every time to learn Torah you will see it in a new way. That is studying Torah with King David! When a great musician plays a song, he brings out something new each time he plays it! So too each person who learns Torah brings out something special and new. The Kingdom of David is special because it helps each person discover their own unique Torah ideas, and mission in life.
J: But don't you have to be a great scholar in order to learn like that!?
RH: You don't have to be the world's greatest scholar. But you have to be willing to learn with self sacrifice! To push yourself more than you would ordinarily. To struggle with the Torah text until it gives you its secret! Here in our yeshiva we teach you to revere and obey the gedolim, the great Sages of our generation. But we also say that in our yeshiva the goal is for you to become a gadol. And you can be a gadol, a Great One….In this Mishna! In this passage of Gemara! In this Halacha of the Rambam! You can be a Gadol because you see something there that only you can see!
J: I understand!
RH: Another part of the King David's Path of Torah is that you really have to perfect and complete your character. This is called studying Mussar. Here on Mt. Zion we still do that. Part of being that unique person means to take have to take your character and to make it shine. You must clean out the imperfections of your personality. It is such hard work. But each person has only one personality, and if you don’t perfect it, no one else can do it for you. And I can tell you that the graduates of our Yeshiva have been sent out all over the Jewish world. Each one is an original. Each one sanctifies Hashem's name. Each one has made a contribution to the Torah world. In our yeshiva every part of Torah is studied seriously, Halacha, Aggada, Mussar, Tanach, and Hashkafah. Our Yeshiva pioneered new musical forms to bring the light of Torah to contemporary ears. We were the only Yeshiva with an in house band. The band, of course is the Diaspora Yeshiva Band! And that kind of creative activity is still going on. A Saturday Night Melava Malka still happens here on Mt Zion, where creative people come together to make music and share feelings of holiness and joy.
J: Well the original band is famous! But I didn't know that music is still pouring out from Mt Zion!
RH: There is a tremendous spiritual energy here, which makes so many things happen. So much Torah and Prayer and Psalms and songs! I hope I have helped you understand about the significance of Mt. Zion.
J: Thank you Rabbi Goldstein.
Scene 10: Conclusion
Joseph: Dear friends, in this presentation we have tried to champion the tradition that identifies this place as being Mt Zion, the site of King David's tomb. We believe that this place isn't just another historic site in Jerusalem; it’s a unique holy site that we must not abandon. Rather, Mt. Zion must be developed as a center of spirituality, Torah, Prayer and Song. Mt Zion is the last remaining piece of biblical Jerusalem that remains to be developed. There is so much to be discovered here! And there are many opportunities to dedicate buildings and projects in a location visited by thousands every year. Right here, on Mt Zion, the heart of Jerusalem. Now it is up to you! Will you stand up for Mt Zion? Will you stand with us?
[As Joseph says the last lines other Yeshiva and faculty members approach him and stand around him until and large and impressive group stands together. Inspiring music cuts in and the camera shifts upwards towards the blue sky. A panoramic view of the Mt Zion scene filmed on the roof of Kever David, where the camera spins around slowly showing the entire scene over and over. Then it all fades to blue sky. END]
