Luckily, the return to Tel Aviv hadn’t been nearly as eventful as the departure from Inshas. The perilous journey was nearly complete.
“Open it,” he ordered them. He stood back and watched them unpack their tools.
Like Moses preparing to claim the lands of Canaan, Cohen stood upon the threshold of a New Jerusalem—a new world. The bitter conflicts in the Middle East and Israel; the fall of the modern Babylon, Iraq; the godlessness and lasciviousness of Western culture poisoning the world; even the scourge of new pandemics like AIDS and the volatile climatic shifts that churned up more frequent tsunamis and hurricanes— all telling signs that the prophecies were finally being realized.
Since 1948, the promised land had virtually been reclaimed, and the tribes had gathered from around the world. Cohen knew that the return of God’s law patiently awaited the final signs, just as He’d promised to Ezekiel: “Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries . . . I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again . . . And I will also purge you of those who rebel and transgress against me.”
Only one spark remained, one single event culminating a final conflict that would usher in the Day of Judgment—a bloody clash between the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness.
As the men lifted the lid off the crate, Rabbi Aaron Cohen grinned widely.
As Grandfather had only dreamed, soon Zion would rise up like a phoenix.
The muted chiming of his cell phone inside his briefcase interrupted the moment. On the opposite side of the conference table, he set the briefcase down and opened it. He fished for the phone, which had slipped between the three plastic-sealed papyri safely recovered from Yosi’s office and an aerial schematic of the Temple Mount showing a bright blue line drawn through its midsection from west to east.
Agitated, he hit the receive button. “What is it?”
What the caller told him was gravely unsettling.
“You hold him there. I’m on my way. Do nothing until I arrive.”
46
******
Amit turned right off the main walkway, splitting away from the herd of well-attired invitees en route to the Samuel Bronfman wing. Jules kept pace beside him up a paving-stone path cut through the lush campus surrounding the Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book exhibit hall. A warm breeze sharpened the bouquet of the garden’s fragrant flowers and cypress trees.
“Let’s sit over here for a few minutes,” he suggested, pointing to the stone wall angling around a colossal basalt monolith.
While Amit unfolded the printout, Jules gazed across the plaza at the shimmering reflection pools and fountains around the illuminated shallow white dome of the exhibit hall.
“Ready?” he asked her.
“Ready,” she said, turning to him.
He paused a moment to look into her eyes. “I know this isn’t the best date you’ve been on,” he said, “but I’m really glad you’re here with me.”
She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “You really know how to show a girl a good time. There’s no place I’d rather be.” Funny enough, she actually meant it—danger and all. “So let me hear it.”
Amit let out a long breath and began reading . . .
For forty days Moses convened in the light of God at Sinai. There, God bestowed unto Moses the Testimony so that the Israelites would walk the righteous path. When the people abided by the Testimony, good fortune followed them and He protected them. When His children were blinded by pride, great punishment was delivered unto them. Through great sacrifice and bloodshed, the lands promised to the tribes of Abraham were thus delivered unto them so that a new nation might rise in honor of God.
The covenant was fulfilled, as told in the books of our ancestors. King David built a city upon Abraham’s rock, and there his son Solomon erected a temple to honor Yahweh. In the Sanctuary, the Testimony was placed, for it was the heart of a new empire. There was peace and rejoicing throughout Zion.
The great empires to the south and to the east and to the north did look upon Israel with lust, for God’s blessing came with great fortune and prosperity.
Many kings did come after Solomon, though none as wise. The Israelites had forgotten their promise to Yahweh and Israel became weak. From over the mountains came armies that surrounded the walls of Jerusalem and threatened to lay siege. Thinking God had forgotten his children, the kings of Israel bowed down not before the Testimony, but before their enemies.
And so the righteous sons of Aaron who guarded the Testimony prepared for the day when Israel’s most sacred shrine would be plundered. The great prophet Isaiah counseled King Hezekiah, telling him, “The time will surely come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon.” He then told the king that God had ordered a safe place to be built for the Testimony. For if it was lost, so too the Israelites would perish. So Hezekiah followed God’s will.
The kingdom of Babylon did rise up like a lion to devour Israel. They laid waste to the city and took away the many treasures from the temple. But when they entered the Innermost Sanctuary they found it empty.
As this is written, many more kings and empires have come and gone and a new temple is rising high above Abraham’s rock. But the Idumean king Herod the Great builds it not in humility to God, but to honor vanity and pride. So too the priests blaspheme God by straying from His laws. Therefore its grand Sanctuary will remain empty. For to restore the Testimony, Israel must once again turn to God, disavow false idols, and see that it is not Rome that oppresses them, but faithlessness.
As Moses spoke the Testimony to the Israelites who knelt before the false idol, I too bring a message of hope for all children of God, for a new covenant will be made. Those who seek the light will be enlightened. And as Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son to God, so too a new sacrifice in blood will be offered upon Mount Moriah.
For this, the unbelievers will make a great mockery of me. They will gather against me. They will pierce my
