The Legacy of Solomon

by John Francis Kinsella

THEY LEFT JERUSALEM EARLY THE NEXT MORNING, just sixty or so kilometres from Tel-Aviv, even at that hour Highway One was choked with tailbacks, it seemed that the roads of Israel were a huge chaotic car park and whenever the traffic got moving it seemed that the drivers were bent on either suicide or murder. Hertzfeld had laid on a people carrier, the best, with aircon and coffee.

  Once they passed Ben Gurion Airport the traffic slackened a little and after about thirty or so kilometres the road started to rise turning around the steep hills that led up to Jerusalem, the driver pointed out the rusting carcases of Israeli home made armoured vehicles abandoned or destroyed in their battle for independence almost sixty years before.

  Their first stop was a café overlooking the Old City where they installed themselves at a table and spread a map on the table before them identifying the different edifices that lay before them.

  ‘What I’d like to do is make a tour of the walls of the Temple Mount, get a feeling for the layout,’ said Hertzfeld.

  ‘Have you been here before?’ asked Laura.

  ‘Sure, but to be honest apart from a couple of visits to the Wailing Wall I can’t say I’ve really thought about it the religious or historical aspect very much.’

  ‘You’re Jewish?’

  ‘Yes, my grandparents came from Germany. They immigrated to the US after the Crystal Nacht. My family was lucky, they had a successful publishing firm in Berlin and Frankfurt with a branch in New York. We were not very religious, you know just celebrating the usual things Bar Mitzvah, Yom Kippur, Rosha Shannah, the synagogue from time to time, weddings and all that stuff.’

  ‘And the business here?’

  ‘That goes back to the Six Day War, I was eighteen at the time and my father tried to do everything he could to stop me joining the Israeli army, by the time I got here it was all over,’ he said wryly.

  ‘Did you stay?’

  ‘Just for the glory then I was back to college in New York, but I realised our ancient roots were in Israel convinced my father to start a printing house here. The market for books was too small, but printing costs were much lower than back home in the States.’

  ‘Did you ever try to retrace those roots?’

  ‘Not really, I suppose they remained vague and distant, the reality was we were far from all that kind of Orthodox thing, we were what is called Universal Jews. It was later I became interested in history and languages, not as a specialist, just a keen amateur,’ he said smiling, ‘perhaps an enthusiastic amateur.’

  ‘So you’re familiar with the details?’

  ‘To be very honest no, in a way it's a bit like a good book, I can’t say I retain all the details, just a general picture, but it’s something that has always interested me.’

  ‘Do you know your way around the Old City?’

  ‘Yes and no, as I said I have never really made the effort to explore Jerusalem. I'm not an expert, it’s why I’ve asked a couple of friends to join us, David Elquayam from Tel-Aviv’s Ben Gurion University, he is a real expert on Jerusalem, and Shlomo Klein, a leading scientist’ he said looking at his watch, ‘They’re both very old friends.’

  Two men approached, the taller one of about forty wore a relaxed smile and clearly had nothing to do with the world of business, the other was a little older and seemed more serious.

  ‘Here they are now,’ Hertzfeld said standing up. ‘David, Shlomo, on time for once!’

  ‘I’m always on time, usually you’re early,’ said Elquayam laughing.

  ‘Nice to see you both, said Hertzfeld. There was a lot of laughing and back slapping as Hertzfeld greeted Elquayam and Klein.

  ‘I’m more specialised in old stones, but Shlomo is the real scientist, he’s our leading specialist in radio dating techniques.’

  Shlomo Klein was a friendly man in his late forties who took time to explain his science in terms that could be understood by any open mind, he was also a great specialist in the ancient history of Israel with many books to his credit on biblical archaeology.

  ‘Let me introduce you to my friends from Paris,’ said Hertzfeld. ‘This is Pat O’Connelly and Laura de la Salle – Laura read Oriental history in Paris, she’s with the Irish Cultural Centre.’

  Elquayam was good looking, dressed in jeans and a white tee shirt, tall, blond, good looking in a very manly way, exuding a charm that women appreciated. O’Connelly saw Laura appraising him as women do before a quality potential male producer.

  ‘Irish,’ he said appreciatively. ‘Nice to meet you Laura, where’s the Orient?’

  Laura laughed, ‘Anywhere between Istanbul and Hongkong!’

  ‘Patrick O’Connelly, one of my successful writers.’

  ‘Ah, a writer, fact or fiction?’

  ‘That’s up to you to decide, it’s a question of how you look at things.’

  ‘I see, a philosopher into the bargain.’

  They laughed and Hertzfeld invited them to sit down and take something to drink.

  ‘So tell us about the reason for your visit, you were a little vague over the phone?’

  ‘Well it starts with the Palestine Exploration Survey, perhaps Pat can tell you more than me.’

  O’Connelly outlined de Lussac’s theory that was entirely based on the findings of the Palestine Exploration Fund, which had been founded in London more than a century before. The organization had been established in 1865 to provide a survey and archaeological investigation of the Holy Land for the needs of the British Empire, then at the height of its glory.

  It had all commenced with the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem by the British Army engineers in 1864-5. Then the Palestine Exploration Fund began its work in Jerusalem in 1867, with Captain Charles Warren, whose discoveries included a water shaft, known as Warren’s Shaft, and a series of tunnels cut into the bedrock of the Temple Mount.

  The fund expanded its scope in the 1870s to a complete survey of the Holy Land. The fund’s geographers, archaeologists, anthropologists, and orientalists published a great many articles that influenced British public opinion at a time when the enlightened Anglican Church and its followers pointed to the bible as a source of belief and conduct for the builders of the Empire.

  The maps, drawn between 1871 and 1877, had served Sir Edmund Allenby in his victorious cavalry campaign in Palestine in World War I and were still invaluable to present-day historians. The maps designated the historical boundaries of Palestine as extending a few miles east of the Jordan River. Certain members of the fund, particularly its director, Claude Reignier Conder, advocated British colonization of Palestine and the restoration of its Jewish population. The group funded also the work of archaeologists W. M. F. Petrie and Kathleen Kenyon.

  ‘I see,’ said Elquayam. ‘I’m very familiar with the work of the Fund, unfortunately today it is impossible to verify that work with modern techniques or continue the exploration that they had commenced.’

  ‘Why is that?’ asked Hertzfeld.

  ‘The Temple mount or the Haram esh-Sharif is under the authority of the Muslim religious body, the Waqf. Very regretfully it is totally out of the question for a non-Muslim to enter the underground water system of the Haram.’

  ‘I see, what do you suggest.’

  ‘We can start with a historical tour of ancient Jerusalem, a history course, starting with Solomon, then Herod, the destruction of the Temple, the Muslim conquest and modern history.’

  ‘I see, what about Christian history?’ asked Laura.

  ‘Christianity came later, if the Temple is your subject then it would best to stick to its history, as you perhaps already know, the Temple was destroyed in 70AD before the emergence of Christianity as a religion.’

  ‘Okay, let’s stick to the facts?’ said Hertzfeld. ‘Archaeological facts!’

  ‘Good, so let’s start at the Wailing Wall.’

  ‘That’s fine with me,’ said Hertzfeld looking at the others.

  ‘Why?’ said O’Connelly. ‘I mean why not another spot?’

  �
��Well the reason the Jews pray at the Wailing Wail, which incidentally we call the Western Wall, is that it has been confused with the western wall of the Temple of the Jews.’

  ‘What do you mean confused?’ asked Laura.

  ‘That’s a very complicated question. It’s related to the site of the Temple, which was razed by the orders of the Emperor Hadrian in 70AD, and the Jews were banished from the city under the threat of instant death if they attempted to enter it.’

  ‘How did they make the difference between a Jew and a non-Jew? Laura naively asked.

  They laughed and Hertzfeld offered an answer: ‘Suspects had to present themselves.’

  Laura looked puzzled.

  ‘The Jews were circumcised, by the order of Abraham, so if a Roman soldier suspected a visitor he had to lift his frock and present himself.’

  ‘Oh!’ said Laura shutting up like a clam.

  The three men laughed.

  ‘So over a period of two or three hundred years few Jews penetrated into the ancient city of Jerusalem.’

  ‘Tell us about the City today?’

  ‘The Old City is divided into four quarters plus the Haram esh-Sharif or Temple Mount. These are the Christian Quarter, the Muslim Quarter, the Armenian quarter and the Jewish quarter. The Western Wall or the Kotal is situated in the Jewish Quarter against the flank of the south west wall of the Haram.’

  They parked outside of the Zion Gate near to the Armenian Quarter and made their way by foot along Batel Makhaee into the Old City and following David Elquayam towards the Western Wall Plaza and the Ophel Archaeological Park. Their first visit was to the Western Wall that stood before a large square cordoned off into prayer areas closer to the Wall itself. As they stood admiring the huge ancient stone wall a couple approached them, to O’Connelly’s surprise it was Florence Bousquet his friend from Le Monde together with another person.

  ‘So the saying is true!’

  ‘The saying?’ said O’Connelly as he embraced his friend.

  ‘It’s a small place the world.’

  They laughed and made their introductions, here friend was a documentary film producer.

  ‘Where are you staying,’ she asked him.

  ‘At the Sheraton in Tel-Aviv.’

  ‘For how long?’

  ‘We haven’t fixed anything yet, but probably a couple of weeks.’

  ‘Great, we’re here for the interview with Shimon Perez, we’ll be here a few more days, at the Hilton, why don’t we get together.’

  ‘Good idea, let’s say at seven in the bar at the Sheraton.’

  They said goodbye and they followed Elquayam to the prayer area. He stopped and took a paper kippah from a basket and told Hertzfeld and O’Connelly to do the same. Laura not wanting to be left out reached out to take a kippah.

  ‘Sorry,’ he said laughing, ‘men only. Ladies to the right.’

  He pointed Laura to a smaller area reserved for women, she pouted and turned away annoyed at being left out from the men’s thing.

  ‘So what do we do now?’ asked O’Connelly.

  ‘Go to the Wall and pray like the others.’

  O’Connelly shrugged and joined the men at prayer, there were Orthodox religious Jews rocking as they prayed reading from prayer books. There were tourists who pushed small wads of paper between the joints in the huge blocks of stone, which Elquayam had told him were prayers and requests to the Almighty.’

  O’Connelly could not help thinking as he looked at the ancient stones how strange it was that this site and the religion of the Jews had influenced Western civilization. He remembered singing Jerusalem as a child at the daily morning assembly in the Church of England School he had attended in north London. As a Roman Catholic, he did not know or even stop to think why Jerusalem had played such an important role in the formation of modern England. He remembered reading Thomas Mann’s book Doctor Faustus, when Zeitblom had described his childhood surroundings and a hill called Mount Zion in Bavaria, it was curious that a hill in German Bavaria be called Mount Zion, but when he thought of Martin Luther, Protestantism and Bible it seemed normal, but why should it be normal a hill in Germany, so far from ancient Jerusalem in time and distance, be called after the Temple Mount? The Jewish Bible had influenced Western civilization for two millennia and continued to influence the philosophy and politics of the Western World to the chagrin of the Eastern Muslim world.

  16

  The Wall