News item:  Pope continues Pilgrimage into Syria; following the path of Paul, asking forgiveness for the sins of the Catholic Church for the past two thousand years.  As he repents for the sins of his church, he seeks reconciliation and dialogue among Christians, Jews, and Muslims.

Last night, coming home from several weeks on the road with family and Cecil Taylor at Johns Hopkins, I came across an interesting TV program on Channel 26, with a discussion of Israelis digging under the Western Wall in Jerusalem, trying to find out more about the foundations of the Temple (not sure, first or second).

This activity is of grave concern to the Muslims, who fear damage to their magnificant Mosque, whose golden Dome dominates the area. They claim there is nothing there. 

Men are shown sifting the debris from the tunnels they have dug, sand by sand, hoping to find something from the ancient Temple. Like the Templars during the Crusades, there is a morbid interest in locating the great Temple, no matter how it may affect existing buildings, built during the last two thousand years, since its destruction.. 

Later, I caught a brief screening of the Pope and his efforts to do tushuva (ask forgiveness), for the two thousand years of persecution of the Jews by the Church and societies in general.

And it suddenly occured to me that even if the Jews and Arabs get along somehow, someway, and all the olive groves are gone and grow back again, the mark of Cain and Able still remain.  On TV, this, too, was powerfully shown, two brothers at war with each other.  The paintings, I would guess were Michelangelo, or Reubens, powerful men struggling, until death of Abel.

Even if any of us little beings could ever get along, on TV there were the angry cousins, with the long bearded Chief Rabbi arguing as to where the Temple was, and the representative of the Muslims claiming "there is nothing here".

And I thought of James Joyce powerful books that I tried to grapple with during my visit of one week in Brussels before going to the Hague with Cecil. An equally huge book by a professor was read page by page interpreting Joyce. 

The learned professor, over and over, showed that each passage was not about Dublin, but a state of mind: an idealized Dublin, that James Joyce dreamed of. All mankind sets up the same kind of Temple in Jerusalem to return to.  Either a Temple to return to, or a Garden of Eden, or even a Paradise Lost.  All of us yearn to return home, to mother's womb, where peace and harmony are sure to be found.

A great sadness envelopes me as I think of all the years that Jews have been praying for a return to Jerusalem.  And the whole Zionist movement based on these ancient prayers. 

And here we are today!  Finally, we have our own state, but we return not to the Temple at Jerusalem, but back to Genesis again and again.  Brother fighting brother, with the Mosque and the Wailing Wall, both at risk, as yet another set of fanatics, dreaming of the old Temple, take over at great risk of yet another Holy War.

This old Temple was defended by the Romans who destroyed it and the people, two thousand years ago, so the cycle goes on and one.  Searching for and preserving the old Temple, which only God knows where it was originally built.

Do secular Israelis really care, when their homes, their families, and children are caught in this violence?

Francis of Assisi, about a thousand years ago, established the Order of Francis, based on our Torah, Ezekiel, a High Priest, during the destruction of the First Temple and diaspora, described in Chapter 9.  The magical Tau of the original Hebrew language was adopted for the Cross of the Franciscans, used even today.

I would like to quote the passage, since it seems very appropriate in 2001.

Chapter 9.  Verse 4.  Ezekiel, Old Testament

        4.  And the Lord said into him (Ezekiel).  Go through the midst of the
             city, through the midst of Je-ru-sa-lem, and set a mark* upon the
             foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations
             that be done in the midst thereon.

            * In the Vulgate (Latin) translation, TAU is used instead of mark

The rest is pretty gory;

        5.  Text too painful to quote! 

        6.  Slay utterly, old and young,  both maids, and little children, 
             and women; but come not near any man upon whom is the
             mark; and begin at my sanctuary.

Dear Alma, if I were you, I would try AT ONCE to get your family to the USA, I see no hope for any of the people to escape the violence now spreading all over Israel and Palestine.  I am praying that the magnificant religious buildings will be spared. In years to come, Pilgrims will come once again to ponder the living God, the covenant with the Chosen people, obeying the Ten Commandments.  Hopefully, they will return back to their world,
understanding better the message of loving our neighbor as ourself.

St. Francis prayer is timeless:

Oh Lord,
Let me be Thy Instrument
For Peace in the World
And Harmony in my Soul

Dear David,  I think you hold the key as to where IS the Temple.  Right in the hearts; of leaders like you.  My son, Melvin, says God lives in the Brain.  I think that addition, God, the living God, lives also in our hearts.