Jerusalem, the Historical Enigma:
Jerusalem is often called the City of David. It was King David of Israel who, on instructions from God, bought a threshing-floor for 600 shekels of gold from Ornan the Jebusite. Ornan was willing to donate the land, but David insisted on paying the full price for a clear title for what is today the most strategic 35 acres on earth -- the Temple Mount. It was on this site David built an altar and offered burnt offerings. And it was on this same site that his son Solomon was directed to build God's Temple. Jerusalem became the one place on earth where God's manifest presence dwelt -- in the Holy of Holies of Solomon's Temple.

This is why the City is much more than a plot of earth, or stones, or buildings, or culture, or ancestral traditions to the sons of Israel. Without Jerusalem, Judaism has no ultimate meaning. Without Jerusalem, Israel's God has no place for meeting with His people. Indeed, without Jerusalem, the Chosen People feel there is no validity to their existence. This is almost an impossible burden for any city to bear, yet this burden is forever a part of the legacy of Jerusalem. And so it has remained for three thousand years since it's founding by Israel's greatest
king. Love for this city and all it represents preserved the Israelites as a unique and peculiar people down
through the centuries.

Every year, in the homes of
Diaspora Jews the world over, Passover ended with the prayer, "Next year, in Jerusalem." In 70 AD, the Romans destroyed the Jewish Temple completely. The gold that decorated it melted down between the massive stones of the Temple itself. To get at the gold inside, the
soldiers virtually dismantled it, piece by piece. Thus was Jesus prophecy of thirty-seven years earlier
literally fulfilled. He said that "not one stone would be left standing on another." The Temple, the seat of
God's earthly throne was lost to the Jews. It was now the time of the Gentiles. All that remained was the hope of 'Next Year, in Jerusalem'.

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