What Is This?

Muse at Shiloh Musings asked if anyone had been to Har HaBayit, the Temple Mount. I told her I had been and my impressions of what I found there. Thinking back to that moment in time sent reverberations of memory up out of my well. Oy...My Valve! didn't feel like the place to deal with all that as it is a place for rage when there is too much to be angry about. But there are other forces at play, and they need a place for me to deal with them, so here is The Foundation Stone.

For those of you who are not familiar with the term, the Foundation Stone is the place on which stood the Holy of Holies, the chamber where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, the place where the High Priest would enter on Yom Kippur to offer the sacrifice, and utter the hidden Name of HaShem to facilitate the purification of the Jewish Nation. It was also the seat of the Shechina, the Divine Presence, the place where HaShem connected with the corporeal world. It is the rock on which Abraham bound Isaac. It is considered by many to be the stone on top of which is a golden dome.

I've been there. I've seen it. It is the place from which my thoughts on this blog will flow if I'm doing this right. The dome serves no purpose to me, or any other Jew, but one. It's a marker. It's a reminder of what was, and what will be if we get this right.

So along the way I'll tell you about my thoughts on Yerushalayim, Har HaBayit, the land of Israel, as well as share legends about the land, and lessons and bits of wisdom that I have picked up from teachers of mine, and the masters that inspired them.

If I am very diligent (that can be a pretty big if) I will post on the Torah portion of the week, Ha Parshat HaShavuah, and the corresponding Haftorah, the weekly reading from the book of prophets. It's not really possible to convey the Jewish connection to the land of Israel without Torah and the Prophets. I'm no master by any stretch, and I would be a big time liar if I told you I have read and studied the entire Tanach...a very big liar. But I am undertaking the effort to rectify that, and this blog is part of the process.

This blog, and OMV will be closed on Shabbat, but I will put up a post on Friday afternoons that will feature excerpts from my favorite book on the subject, Abraham Joshua Heschel's The Sabbath or thoughts or stories on the Sabbath from masters like the Baal Shem Tov, Reb Nachman, and the Ari.

The codex of Jewish law is referred to as Halacha. It literally means, "the walk." It denotes that the study of the law, and the evolution of the debate, discussion, and exploration of it, is a journey. My walk has been engaged in varying degrees. As I make my way, and point my sights on returning to Eretz Yisrael, after my family's exile from Jerusalem some 2000 years ago, I invite you to come along and see where this goes.

For those of you who are not part of Am Yisrael I hope that I can convey to you what it is about our people, our history, and our path that fills me with a love for the land, and the need to lend my voice and, if need be, my body, to defend it.

The site itself is a work in progress so bear with me while I tweak it.

For misguided evangelicals, this is not a blog for messianic jews, jews for yeshki, anyone else hedging their bets on divine matters, or lunatic dingdongs who otherwise want to convert us to their breed of lunacy.

שמע ישראל יי אלהינו יי אחד

Hear O Israel! The Lord our G-d, the Lord is One.

Deal with it.