The chair opened the floor for additional nominations and recognized the ambassador from Ecuador representing South America, who nominated Jackson Clark, the ambassador from the United States. The nomination was seconded by American-educated Ambassador Nikhil Gandhi of India. Most observers expected the American to be nominated, but weren't sure how it would play out. Ambassador Clark had only recently resigned as the U.S. President in order to replace Ambassador Walter Bishop, who had died in the crash along with Hansen. Clark also succeeded Bishop as an Alternate member of the Security Council and was, therefore, present at the meeting, sitting two seats to the right of Christopher. The nomination made it clear just what Clark had in mind when he resigned the U.S. presidency: he wanted to be Secretary-General. The Primary member from North America, Canadian Ambassador Howell – still in poor health but delaying his resignation – was expected to provide a third vote for his southern neighbor.
Again the floor was opened for nominations, and the chair recognized Ambassador Ngordon of Chad, representing West Africa. Ambassador Ngordon nominated Ambassador Fahd of Saudi Arabia, who represented the Middle East. The nomination was seconded by the ambassador from Tanzania, representing East Africa. The basis for this final coalition was easily recognizable as one of common religion and proximity.
The vote was as split as it possibly could be. Since no one could be nominated without the support of at least two regions, and no region could nominate or second anyone from their own region, the maximum number of nominations possible was three. Only China had abstained; all other votes were committed. Whoever would eventually be chosen would need the approval of all ten regions and that appeared to be a long way off. For now there was nothing to do but to go on to other business.
Tuesday, July 30,2019 – The Temple Mount, Jerusalem
Scott Rosen was lost in thought as he walked out across the crowded outer courtyard which surrounded the newly reconstructed Jewish Temple. As it had been in ancient days, this nearly square courtyard, called the Court of the Gentiles, was as close to the holy places of the Temple as non-Jews were allowed to come. The mood here had much more the air of carnival than of worship or of reverence. Nowhere was this more inescapable than in the column-lined covered portico encircling the perimeter of the Court of the Gentiles. Here, housed in haphazardly misarranged booths and stalls, temple money changers dickered rates of exchange with worshipers to convert various currencies into Tyrian shekels – the only currency acceptable for temple offerings – and nearby traders offered pigeons, doves, lambs, rams, and bulls for purchase as sacrifices.
Scott paid no attention to the cacophony. His mind kept going back to a conversation he had the day before. It had started out as a perfect day. The weather had been beautiful, the traffic was light. A meeting he wanted to avoid and for which he hadn't prepared was indefinitely postponed. The extra time allowed him to tackle some interesting and important work and within two hours he had come up with a way to solve a major problem that had seemed unsolvable to everyone else who had looked at it. An overdue rent check for the house that had belonged to his parents arrived in the morning mail. Sol, the proprietor at the kosher deli he frequented had added an extra scoop of tuna to his sandwich and had given him the biggest dill pickle Scott had ever seen. That's when the day began to sour.
Sol came over to talk with Scott while he ate and Scott invited him to sit down. It had started innocently enough: they talked about politics and rising prices and discussed the latest gossip from around the Temple and religious issues: all topics they had discussed before, and upon which they almost always agreed. Then Sol mentioned that he had been reading his Bible in the ninth chapter of the book of Daniel and said that the prophecy at the end of the chapter said that the messiah – or 'King Messiah' as he is called by religious Jews – was supposed to come before the second temple was destroyed. Since the second temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., Sol said, the messiah must have already come. Scott tried to tell him how crazy that was: that if King Messiah had come they would surely have known; but Sol just kept on talking. He said that according to Daniel's prophecy, the messiah would come 483 years after the decree to rebuild the city of Jerusalem after it had been destroyed by the Babylonians. According to Ezra chapter 7,45 that decree was issued in 457 B.C.E. and when you take into account that there was no year zero, that would mean that the messiah had come in the year 27 C.E. Sol pulled out a calculator to show Scott how it all worked out but Scott stopped him. 'Sol, what you are doing is very serious. It is forbidden by the Talmud.'
'What?' asked Sol in surprise.
'Calculating the time of King Messiah's coming based on the ninth chapter of Daniel,' Scott answered authoritatively. 'But… '
'In the Talmud, Rabbi Jonathan put a curse on anyone who calculates the time of the Messiah based on Daniel's prophecies,' Scott declared.
Sol mulled this over for a moment. Scott, confident he had settled the question, took another bite of his sandwich. Taking advantage of Scott's full mouth, Sol rejoined the exchange. 'But that can't be right,' he said, to Scott's sandwich-strained chagrin. 'Why would the Talmud not want us to know when Daniel said King Messiah would come?'
Scott forced down his food. 'Sol, prophecy is hard to understand. You can't just pull out a calculator and figure out what a prophecy means.'
'Why not? That's what Daniel did to interpret the prophecy of the prophet Jeremiah. And that's in the ninth chapter of Daniel, too – the same chapter as the prophecy of when King Messiah would come. Of course Daniel didn't have a calculator, but it's still simple arithmetic.'
'Look, Sol, you're dealing with things you don't understand.'
But Sol wasn't ready to quit. 'Don't you see, Scott? If the Messiah came in 27 A.D., then we did not recognize him. Don't you get it? 27 A.D. There's only one person who fits the description.'
'Stop it, Sol! I don't know what's gotten into you, but this is wrong, and I won't listen to it. If you fear HaShem, you'll be at the Temple tomorrow with your sin offering asking forgiveness.' Scott used the orthodox method of referring to God as 'HaShem,' meaning 'the name,' rather than saying Yahweh or even 'God,' in order to avoid any possibility of blasphemy.
Sol didn't say any more but it was clear that he felt no guilt which would warrant an offering at the Temple. Scott grabbed the rest of his sandwich and pickle and left. Sol just didn 't realize what he was saying, Scott thought. If he does that sort of thing with his other customers, he won't have any business left.
Outside the Temple on the broad steps leading down to the street, Scott was distracted from his recollections by someone calling his name. The voice had come from the direction of a large group of tourists, recognizable by their cameras and paper yarmulkes, so he assumed the call had been for some other Scott.
'Scott,' came the call again, but this time he spotted its source coming toward him at a brisk pace.
'Joel,' he called back to his friend and professional colleague of many years. Joel Felsberg had been a part of the team with Scott fifteen years before, during the Russian invasion. 'What brings you to the temple?'
Unlike Scott Rosen, Joel Felsberg had never spent much time on matters of religion. The only times he came to the Temple were with relatives or friends who were visiting from the United States. 'Scott,' he said again, out of breath and ignoring Scott's question. 'I've found him! I mean he's found me.'
'Slow down, Joel,' Scott said. 'Who have you found? What are you talking about?'
Joel, who was of average build and just under five feet seven inches tall, leaned close to the much larger Scott Rosen and whispered, 'the Messiah.'
Scott Rosen looked around quickly to see if anyone else had heard, and then grabbed Joel's arm and walked quickly down the Temple Mount through another crowd of tourists. The smaller Felsberg, who was easily eighty pounds lighter than Rosen, had no choice but to accompany him. 'I've found him,' Felsberg said again, as he tried desperately to keep up.
'Be quiet!' Scott warned as he pulled Joel along.
When they reached the parking lot some hundred and fifty yards away, they stopped next to Scott's van. He looked around to be sure no one was within earshot and finally spoke, 'Are you crazy?! That's nothing to joke about. And of all places: right on the steps of the Temple! Maybe you don't take your religion or your heritage seriously but some of us do. If anyone had heard you… '
'No, Scott. I'm not joking. I've seen the Messiah. I've seen him,' Joel interrupted.
'Shut up, Joel! You didn't see anybody. So just shut up!'
'But… '
