Foundation Stone
The Foundation Stone (
Traditional Jewish sources mention the stone as the place from which the creation of the world began. Classical Jewish sources also identify its location with that of the Holy of Holies.[1][2]
Location
The rock is located towards the centre of the
Early Muslim writings argue that the
Jewish sources have debated the precise location of the rock.
Other sources, operating under the belief that the
Some believe the position is north of the Dome of the Rock, opposite the Gate of Mercy, which Immanuel Hai Ricchi[14] identifies as the Shushan Gate mentioned in the Talmud. This gate was described as being opposite the opening of the sanctuary.[15]
Modern Jewish academics list four possible locations of the Foundation Stone:[16]
- The stone that was located beneath the Ark of the Covenant is the one under the Dome of the Rock.[17]
- The stone that was located beneath the altar is now the one that is under the Dome of the Rock.[18]
- The stone that was located beneath the Ark of the Covenant is now near El Kas fountain to the South of the Dome of the Rock.[13]
- The stone that was located beneath the Ark of the Covenant is now inside the Spirits Dome situated to the north of the Dome of the Rock.[15]
Description
Although the rock is part of the surrounding 90-million-year-old, Upper Turonian Stage, Late Cretaceous karsted limestone,[citation needed] the southern side forms a ledge, with a gap between it and the surrounding ground; a set of steps currently uses this gap to provide access from the Dome of the Rock to the Well of Souls beneath it.
Archaeologist Leen Ritmeyer reported that there are sections of the rock cut completely flat, which north-to-south have a width of 6 cubits,[19] precisely the width that the Mishnah credits to the wall of the Holy of Holies.[20] According to Ritmeyer, a rectangular rock-cutting he discovered on the Foundation Stone marks the location where the Ark of the Covenant stood within the Holy of Holies.[21] Ritmeier's analysis was welcomed among biblical archeologists, however scholars stated that this theory cannot be actually verified.[22]
The rock has several artificial cuts in its surface generally attributed to the Crusaders whose frequent damage to the rock was so severe that the Christian kings of Jerusalem placed a protective marble slab over the rock. The marble slab was removed by Saladin.
Measuring the flat surface as the position of the southern wall of a square enclosure, the west and north sides of which are formed by the low clean-cut scarp at these edges of the rock, at the position of the hypothetical centre is a rectangular cut in the rock that is about 2.5 cubits (min. 120.4 cm SI) long and 1.5 cubits (min. 72.24 cm SI) wide, which are the dimensions of the Ark of the Covenant (according to the Book of Exodus).[23]
The Mishnah[24] gives the height of the rock as three thumb-breadths (min. 6 cm SI) above the ground. Radbaz[25] discusses the apparent contradiction of the Mishnah's measurements and the actual measurement of the rock within the Dome he estimates as a "height of two men" above the ground. He concluded that many changes in the natural configuration of the Temple Mount have taken place which can be attributed to excavations made by the various occupiers of Jerusalem since the Second Temple construction.
Jewish significance
The Roman-era
- As the navel is set in the centre of the human body,
- so is the land of Israel the navel of the world...
- situated in the centre of the world,
- and Jerusalem in the centre of the land of Israel,
- and the sanctuary in the centre of Jerusalem,
- and the holy place in the centre of the sanctuary,
- and the ark in the centre of the holy place,
- and the Foundation Stone before the holy place,
- because from it the world was founded.
According to the sages of the Talmud,[26] it was from this rock that the world was created, itself being the first part of the Earth to come into existence. In the words of the Zohar, "The world was not created until God took a stone called Even haShetiya and threw it into the depths where it was fixed from above till below, and from it the world expanded. It is the centre point of the world and on this spot stood the Holy of Holies."[27]
According to the Talmud, it was close to here, on the site of the altar, that God gathered the earth that was formed into Adam. It was on this rock that Adam—and later Cain and Abel and Noah—offered sacrifices to God. Jewish sources identify this rock as the place of the Binding of Isaac mentioned in the Bible, where Abraham fulfilled God's test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son. The mountain is identified as Moriah in Genesis 22. It is also identified as the rock upon which Jacob dreamt about angels ascending and descending on a ladder and consequently consecrating and offering a sacrifice upon.[28]
When, according to the Bible, King
The Mishnah in tractate Yoma[30] mentions a stone situated in the Holy of Holies that was called Shetiya and had been revealed by the early prophets (i.e. David and Samuel).[31]
An early Christian source noting Jewish attachment to the rock may be found in the Itinerarium Burdigalense, written between 333 and 334 CE when Jerusalem was under Roman rule, which describes a "perforated stone to which the Jews come every year and anoint it, bewail themselves with groans, rend their garments, and so depart."[32]
Role in the Temple
Situated inside the Holy of Holies, this was allegedly the rock upon which the Ark of the Covenant was placed in Solomon's Temple.[33] During the Second Temple period when the Ark of the Covenant was not present, the stone was used by the High Priest who offered up the incense and sprinkled the blood of the sacrifices on it during the annual Yom Kippur service.
Commemoration in Jewish law
The Jerusalem Talmud states:
Women are accustomed not to prepare or attach warp threads to a weaving loom from Rosh Chodesh Av onwards (till after Tisha B'Av), because during the month of Av the Foundation Stone [and the Temple] was destroyed.[34]
Citing this, the Mishnah Berurah[35] rules that not only are women not to prepare or attach warp threads to a weaving loom, but it is forbidden for anyone to make, buy or wear new clothes or shoes from the beginning of the week in which Tisha B'Av falls until after the fast, and that people should ideally not do so from the beginning of Av. This period is known as The Nine Days.
In further commemoration of the Foundation Stone, it is also forbidden to eat meat or drink wine from the beginning of the week in which Tisha B'av falls until after the fast. Some have the custom to refrain from these foodstuffs from Rosh Chodesh Av, while others do so from the Seventeenth of Tammuz.[36]
Liturgical references
In the days when Selichot are recited, in the days leading up to Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur, the supplications include the following references:
טענתנו גפי קרת נתונים, ישבתנו שן סלע איתנים
You carried us and placed us on the [Holy] City’s height, You settled us on the Patriarch’s rocky peak.[37]
רבוצה עליו אבן שתית חטובים ...שמה בתוך לפני מזיב מאשנבים
Upon it lying the stone from which the foundation was hewn… Who gives ear from which the waters flow [i.e. the foundation stone "from which flow all the waters of the world"].[38]
During Sukkot, the following references to the Foundation Stone are mentioned in the Hoshanot recital:
הושענא! – אבן שתיה – הושענא
Please save! – Foundation Stone – Please save!
הושענא! – תאדרנו באבן תלולה – הושענא
Please save! – Adorn us with the elevated Stone – Please save!
Islamic significance
The
Tawfiq Canaan, in 1922, recorded a local tradition that describes four living waters flowing from under the rock. To the south: Hammam esh-Shifa, to the east: Siloam, to the north: 'En Haddji and En Qashleh, and to the west: Hammam es-Sultan.[42]
Beneath the Foundation Stone is a cavern known as the Well of Souls. It is sometimes thought of as the traditional hiding place of the Ark of the Covenant.
See also
- Axis mundi
- Black Stone
- Jerusalem in Islam
- Jerusalem in Judaism
- Mount Gerizim
References
- ^ a b t. Yoma 2:12; y. Yoma 5:3; b. Yoma 54b; PdRK 26:4; Lev. R. 20:4.
- ^ m. Yoma 5:2.
- ^ The History of al-Tabari, vol. XII, Albany, New York: State University of New York Press 2007, pp. 194–195.
- ^ "Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 30:12". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2022-02-10.
- ISBN 0-934710-07-4).
- ^ A. Benisch, Travels of Petachia of Ratisbon (with English translation), London, England, 1856. pp. 60–61.
- ^ "HebrewBooks.org Sefer Detail: מסעות ארץ ישראל – יערי, אברהם, 1899–1966". hebrewbooks.org. p. 81ff. Retrieved 2022-02-10.
- ^ Avraham Ya'ari, Igrot Eretz Yisrael, Ramat Gan 1971. p. 134.
- ^ "Teshuvot HaRadbaz Volume 2 691:2". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2022-02-10.
- ^ Rav Ishtori Haparchi (14th Century), Kaftor VeFerach, Provence, France.
- ^ Emek HaMelech, Preface, paragraph 9.
- ^ Maharsha, end of Makkot.
- ^ a b "Fig. 6. The Southern System (237 K)". Templemount.org. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
- ^ Immanuel Hai Ricchi, Aderet Eliyahu.
- ^ a b "Fig. 5. The Northern System (63K)". Templemount.org. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
- ^ "The Hidden Secrets of the Temple Mount". Templemount.org. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
- ^ "Fig 4 The Middle System (124 K)". Templemount.org. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
- ^ "Fig. 3. The Central System (42 K)". Templemount.org. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
- ^ Ritmeyer, Leen, The Quest (2006), pp. 263–268.
- ^ Tractate Middot 4.7.
- ^ Ritmeyer, Leen (1996). "The Ark of the Covenant: Where It Stood in Solomon's Temple". Biblical Archaeology Review. 22 (1).
- ^ "Archaeologist says he knows where Ark of Covenant stood". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ^ Exodus 25:10.
- ^ Mishnah, Yoma 5:3.
- ^ Radbaz, Responsa 639.
- ^ Tractate Yoma 54b.
- Vayechi1:231.
- ^ Rashi, Genesis 28:11.
- 2 Samuel24:18–25.
- ^ Tractate Yoma 5:2.
- Sotah48b.
- ^ "Bordeaux Pilgrim – Text: 7a. Jerusalem (first part)". Christusrex.org. Archived from the original on 4 February 2007. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
- Acharei Ch.3 (see Etz Yosef commentary); Maimonides, Beis HaBechirah 4:1.
- ^ Jerusalem Talmud, Pesachim 4:1. Aramaic text: "נשייא דנהגן דלא למי שתייה עמרא מן דאב עליל מנהג – שבו פסקה אבן שתייה".
- ^ Mishnah Berurah, 551:7, 8.
- Machzor Vitri263.
- ^ ArtScroll Selichot, Second day, Selicha 5.
- ^ ArtScroll Selichot, Fast of Gedalia, Selicha 46.
- S2CID 162578242.
- JSTOR 1602276.
- ^ "Sahih Bukhari Hadith Volume 5, Book 58, Number 226". Archived from the original on 2017-04-25. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
- ^ Canaan, Tawfiq (1922). "II: Haunted Springs and Water Demons in Palestine". Studies in Palestinian Customs and Folklore. Jerusalem, Israel: The Palestine Oriental Society. pp. 15–16.
External links
- Media related to Foundation Stone (Temple Mount) at Wikimedia Commons