Jerusalem

In the eternal twilight, looking out across The Dark City, the ceaseless voice of The Wind of Emptiness rolls across the Eternal Plain.

What is it about Jerusalem?

Jerusalem?

Jerusalem.

What about it?

What good comes from there?

I don't understand.

What good comes from there? What good has ever come from Jerusalem? It's as if the City itself drives men mad. Thousands of years of fighting over that damn Temple on the Rock.

It's a Holy Place.

What the hell does that mean?  It was where animals were slaughtered as offerings to YHWH. Blood poured out, spattered on the horns of the Altar. Blood and burnt fat.
YHWH loves his blood and burned fat... Haven't you ever thought about it? How Jerusalem must have smelled? Burning flesh, all day and night? And what about all the blood? There's a lot of blood in an Ox, or a Sheep, a Lamb. Where did all the blood go?

Silence

I don't get it.

Why did the Babylonians destroy the Temple, the Romans... What was it about the Temple? Did they fear the Temple? or did they not understand the Temple?

I don't know. From a political point of view it would destroy a sense of national identity. and that makes sense. But if they didn't understand the purpose of the Temple, I mean the Romans tried to... manage... the Temple, to control whatever it was about the Temple that seemed to make the Jews so difficult to deal with.

And they failed.

Yes, failed totally, diaspora and destruction of the Temple was their final solution because they didn't know what they were doing. And because the thing is still there...

What thing, what the hell are you talking about?

Hell... Yes... that's it exactly. Here we are, 2,000 years later, 2,000 fucking years, fighting over this rock, wanting to rebuild the Temple. Hoping, believing, that if they build a New Temple YHWH will finally keep his promises. But maybe that's not it at all.
People claiming religions of peace ready and able to slaughter each other for... over this... this... what is it about Jerusalem? It's as if some dark force was captured there, and has infected the entire world.

Wind and Dust

Sometimes I wonder...

Yes?

What if the Jews were, I don't know, Jailers? Keepers?

What?

What if they were protecting us. All of us? What if they had captured... something.  Found a way to bottle it up. Keep it occupied. Prevent it from doing what it wanted to do. Trapped it in the Ark. What if, Moses and Aaron caught it, there in Egypt, and took it somewhere they thought would be safe? Away from where most people lived.

I think you have finally lost it.

No. Hear me out. Why is the Temple where it is? Why is the shape so important? Why be so obsessed with who and what is permitted inside the perimeter? What if ONLY the High Priest knew what it was really all about? And he could only pass that knowledge on to someone with the right training, the right bloodline?

I still don't understand why...

Control. As long as the Temple stands and the perimeter is guarded they could control it. The sacrifices, the Gates, it was all designed to keep YHWH occupied, to keep him IN.

Hence all the fighting over who had the right to be a, to be the High Priest?

Exactly

And why several factions wanted to city to be inhabited solely by Priests?

Yes.

And when the Romans appointed the High Priests for political purposes?

Yes

It fucked everything up

Yes. They had NO IDEA what they were doing.

And then the War and the siege and destruction of Jerusalem....

They may have killed the only man who KNEW. I don't think YHWH could... can... escape... but he could, can... his thoughts can spread....

So why...

Do the Jews suffer so much?

Revenge.