It rained a bit again this morning, and now it's sweltering...Maya has torn away more of the Back Porch Room...I left off from trying to catch up on sleep, and tried to clean it up...the Old House and Yard repairs are just beyond my reach...I haven't the funds, or much in the way of enthusiasm to mess with things...after two years, I've re-established my prop 13 residency...prop thirteen is a tax law passed years ago that limited how much property taxes would go up...this was to protect home owners from the big leaps in home prices that could have made big leaps in tax payments, tax payments beyond what many could manage...what my residency means now is that I can sell the Old House, keep my tax break, and use the money to purchase another house pretty much any where I like, and have funds too to keep that new house in shape...this is a speculation, and a dilemma, as I'd just as soon stay here in the Old House...I've had my adventuring, but I dream about the Mountains...Maya is panting in the heat, and has acquired fleas...and I daydream about us romping in the Snow on the East Side...
The Lions' Gate
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Legend has it that Suleiman's predecessor Selim I dreamed of lions that were going to eat him because of his plans to level the city. He was spared only after promising to protect the city by building a wall around it.
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In another version,[citation needed] Suleiman taxed Jerusalem's residents with heavy taxes which they could not afford to pay. That night Suleiman had a dream of two lions coming to devour him. When he woke up, he asked his dream solvers what his dream meant. A wise respected man came forward and asked Suleiman what was on his mind before drifting to sleep. Suleiman responded that he was thinking about how to punish all the men who didn't pay his taxes. The wise man responded that since Suleiman thought badly about the holy city, God was angry. To atone, Suleiman built the Lions' Gate to protect Jerusalem from invaders.
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Israeli paratroops from the 55th Paratroop Brigade came through this gate during the Six-Day War of 1967 and unfurled the Israeli flag above the Temple Mount.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions%27_Gate
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After the Romans destroyed the Temple, the Tenth Legion destroyed the rest of Jerusalem looking for hidden treasures that the Jews were trying to hide from them. The Tenth didn't leave a stone unturned. Josephus describes the ruins, and too Titus, the Roman who made them.
Here is link to wiki history of the Temple:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_in_Jerusalem
There was a failed attempt to re-build in 363 ce (explosions of fire came up from the ground frightening everyone), and the Temple mount lay in ruins until like the seventh century ce. (ce is common era, and has replaced ad, in the year of our Lord, as an indication of dates in history, though they are same). Then, the site was cleaned up, it had become a rubbish dump, and a new Temple built, but by another religion, or at least a different set of priests...
Here is link to wiki history of the Dome of the Rock
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dome_of_the_Rock
Islam, Judaism, Christianity, are alike as peas in a pod, and it is a common wonder why they don't get along, but it is that likeness that is the problem--they're all fractious and will go at one another over all kinds of things...that scene of the Golden Calf a prime example...I forget what it is between the Shiites and Sunnis, or why Samaritans were relegated to the back of buses...
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The Samaritans believe that Mount Gerizim was the original Holy Place of Israel from the time that Joshua conquered Israel. The major issue between Rabbinical Jews and Samaritans has always been the location of the chosen place to worship God; Jerusalem according to the Jewish faith or Mount Gerizim according to the Samaritan faith.[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritans
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When the Paratroopers came through the Lion's Gate, they displaced Islamic rule of Jerusalem, and hoisted the Israeli flag atop the Dome of the Rock (much as the Christian crusaders put a cross atop centuries before!), but the Israeli General had them take it down, and the care of the Dome was left in Muslim hands...
And the displaced Muslims want Jerusalem back, it was, after all, their's to administer by right of armed conquest for like 1400 years. They have been displaced much as the Jews were by the Romans. And I suppose too the Christians, since they lost control of Jerusalem, have nurtured a desire to reclaim Jerusalem.
The story of Mohammad goes that he wanted Muslims to turn towards Jerusalem when they did their daily prayers, and for them to be part of Judaism, but the Jews wouldn't have it, so now Muslims bow towards the Kaaba, a holy site commemorating Abraham, father to Jews and Muslims alike.
It is more than I can digest!
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Islam’s Stake: Why Jerusalem Was Central To Muhammad
By Karen Armstrong / Monday, Apr. 16, 2001
Jerusalem was central to the spiritual identity of Muslims from the very beginning of their faith. When the Prophet Muhammad first began to preach in Mecca in about 612, according to the earliest biographies, which are our primary source of information about him, he had his converts prostrate themselves in prayer in the direction of Jerusalem. They were symbolically reaching out toward the Jewish and Christian God, whom they were committed to worshipping, and turning their back on the paganism of Arabia. Muhammad never believed that he was founding a new religion that canceled out the previous faiths. He was convinced that he was simply bringing the old religion of the One God to the Arabs, who had never been sent a prophet before.
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The whole article good to read.
Jerusalem became even more special to Islam after Muhammad's Night Journey, and here searching I found a 'bookend' in the Koran...
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Prophet Muhammad alighted at the Ka’bah and made his way back to Umm Hani’s home. “O Umm Hani, I prayed with you the last evening prayer. Then I went to Jerusalem and prayed there; and now I pray with you in the morning here.”
The Amazing Night Journey and Ascension to Heaven
By Maria Zain
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It is all much to read about and think upon, and has wonders...on his Journey Muhammad goes through seven levels of Heaven, a different Old Prophet at each level...and arrives finally at the roots of the Lote Tree, beyond which no one can go...
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Prophet Muhammad was then led to Sidrat Al-Muntaha, a tree of Paradise, with a shade so far for the eye to see and with beauty beyond description. The tree is also known as the Lote tree or the Lote tree of the Uttermost End.
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GRAVES
You see, there are many people who believe things of which they can't get rid. Suddenly they are faced by some strange fact—such as that God, in the Holy of Holies, had a wife. My friend Raphael Patai has worked it all out in his Hebrew Goddess. It's more than they can stand. But you've got to admit it.
INTERVIEWER
That God had a wife? Did you really mean that?
GRAVES
Indeed he did. It's in the Talmud. Of course the Jews had always kept it rather quiet. At first he was One—but then came the division. You've got to find the focal point. God was a male deity and the focal point was obviously a woman. He couldn't do without one.Robert Graves, The Art of Poety No. 11
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