TheFoundation Stone (Hebrew:אֶבֶן הַשְּׁתִיָּה,romanized: ʾEḇen haŠeṯīyyā,lit. 'Foundation Stone'), or theNoble Rock (Arabic:الصخرة المشرفة,romanized: al-Saḵrah al-Mušarrafah,lit. 'The Noble Stone') is the rock at the center of theDome of the Rock inJerusalem. It is also known as thePierced Stone, because it has a small hole on the southeastern corner that enters a cavern beneath the rock, known as theWell of Souls.
Traditional Jewish sources mention the stone as the place from which the creation of the world began. Classical Jewish sources also identify its location with that of theHoly of Holies.[1][2]
The rock is located towards the centre of theTemple Mount, at the top of Jerusalem's Old City southern hill. The current shape is the result of an expansion byHerod the Great on top of vaults over asummit calledMount Moriah which three millennia ago was the highest elevation in early Jerusalem's proximity to theCity of David.[citation needed]
Early Muslim writings argue that theDome of the Rock, completed in 691, is the site of theHoly of Holies and therefore the location of the Foundation Stone. Thehistory by the 9th-century writeral-Tabari hasKaʿb al-Aḥbār, a Jewish convert to Islam, asking the caliphUmar to build a mosque over the rock, to which Umar responds, "O Ka'b, you are imitating the Jewish religion!" Al-Tabari then identifies the rock with the place where the Romans had "buried the temple (bayt al-maqdis) at the time of the sons of Israel."[3]Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer (9th century) also wrote: "Rabbi Ishmael said: In the future, the sons ofIshmael (the Arabs) will do fifteen things in theLand of Israel [...] They will fence in the breaches of the walls of the Temple and construct a building on the site of the sanctuary."[4]
Jewish sources have debated the precise location of the rock.Benjamin of Tudela wrote (c. 1170) that the site was in front of the Dome, on the site of the Western Wall.[5] TheTravels ofPetachia of Ratisbon,[6]c. 1180, andTravels of a Student of theRamban[7] (c. 1400) state that "on the Temple Mount stands a beautiful sanctuary which an Arab king built long ago, over the place of theTemple sanctuary and courtyard."Obadiah Bartenura says in a 1488 letter from Jerusalem that "I sought the Foundation Stone [which marks] the former place of theArk of the Covenant, and many told me that it is beneath a tall and beautiful dome which the Arabs built in the Temple, but the space beneath this dome is secured, such that no man may come to it, viz. to the place of the Foundation Stone, for the dome is very large."[8]David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra was convinced (c. 1570) that "under the dome [on the Temple Mount] – there is the Foundation Stone, undoubtedly – which the Arabs callal-Sakrah".[9]
Other sources, operating under the belief that theSouthern Wall of the Temple Mount as it stood in their time was the Southern Wall of the Biblical era, argued that the measurements given in theTalmud do not reconcile.[10] The Holy of Holies ends up being too far north and they therefore locate the Foundation Stone as being directly opposite the current exposed section of theWestern Wall, where no building currently stands. This is the view ofIsaac Luria[11] and theMaharsha,[12] who state the prophecy that "Zion will become a ploughed field" indicates that no dwelling will be established there until the time of theRedemption. It therefore follows that the footprint of the Temple courtyard and Holy of Holies is situated in the unbuilt area between the Dome of the Rock andal-Aqsa Mosque.[13]
Some believe the position is north of the Dome of the Rock, opposite theGate of Mercy, whichImmanuel Hai Ricchi[14] identifies as the Shushan Gate mentioned in theTalmud. This gate was described as being opposite the opening of the sanctuary.[15]
Modern Jewish academics list four possible locations of the Foundation Stone:[16]
Although the rock is part of the surrounding 90 million-year-old, UpperTuronian Stage,Late Cretaceouskarstedlimestone,[citation needed] the southern side forms a ledge, with a gap between it and the surrounding ground; a set of steps currently uses this gap to provide access from the Dome of the Rock to the Well of Souls beneath it.
ArchaeologistLeen Ritmeyer reported that there are sections of the rock cut completely flat, which north-to-south have a width of 6cubits,[19] precisely the width that theMishnah credits to the wall of the Holy of Holies.[20] According to Ritmeyer, a rectangular rock-cutting he discovered on the Foundation Stone marks the location where theArk of the Covenant stood within the Holy of Holies.[21] Ritmeier's analysis was welcomed among biblical archeologists; however, scholars stated that this theory cannot be actually verified.[22]
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The rock has several artificial cuts in its surface generally attributed to theCrusaders, whose frequent damage to the rock was so severe that theChristian kings of Jerusalem placed a protective marble slab over the rock. The marble slab was removed after Jerusalem had been taken over bySaladin in1187.[citation needed]
Measuring the flat surface as the position of the southern wall of a square enclosure, the west and north sides of which are formed by the low clean-cutscarp at these edges of the rock, at the position of the hypothetical centre is a rectangular cut in the rock that is about 2.5 cubits (min. 120.4 cm SI) long and 1.5 cubits (min. 72.24 cm SI) wide, which are the dimensions of the Ark of the Covenant (according to theBook of Exodus).[23]
The Mishnah[24] gives the height of the rock as three thumb-breadths (min. 6 cm SI) above the ground. Radbaz[25] discusses the apparent contradiction of the Mishnah's measurements and the actual measurement of the rock within the Dome he estimates as a "height of two men" above the ground. He concluded that many changes in the natural configuration of the Temple Mount have taken place which can be attributed to excavations made by the various occupiers of Jerusalem since theSecond Temple construction.
The Mishnah in tractateYoma[26] mentions a stone situated in the Holy of Holies that was calledShetiya and had been revealed by the early prophets (i.e. David andSamuel).[27]
An earlyChristian source noting Jewish attachment to the rock may be found in theItinerarium Burdigalense, written between 333 and 334 CE when Jerusalem was underRoman rule, which describes a "perforated stone to which the Jews come every year and anoint it, bewail themselves with groans, rend their garments, and so depart."[28]
According to the sages of the Talmud,[29] it was from this rock that the world was created, itself being the first part of the Earth to come into existence.[30] According to the Talmud, it was close to the Foundation Stone, on the site of the altar, that God gathered the earth that was formed intoAdam. It was on this rock that Adam—and laterCain and Abel andNoah—offered sacrifices to God. Jewish sources identify this rock as the place of theBinding of Isaac mentioned in theBible, whereAbraham fulfilled God's test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son. The mountain is identified as Moriah in Genesis 22. It is also identified as the rock upon whichJacob dreamt about angels ascending and descending on a ladder and consequently consecrating and offering a sacrifice upon.[31]
The Roman-eramidrashTanhuma[1] sums up the centrality of and holiness of the site in Judaism:
As the navel is set in the centre of the human body,
so is the land of Israel the navel of the world...
situated in the centre of the world,
and Jerusalem in the centre of the land of Israel,
and the sanctuary in the centre of Jerusalem,
and the holy place in the centre of the sanctuary,
and the ark in the centre of the holy place,
and the Foundation Stone before the holy place,
because from it the world was founded.
When, according to the Bible, KingDavid purchased a threshing floor owned byAraunah theJebusite,[32] it is believed that it was upon this rock that he offered the sacrifice mentioned in the verse. He wanted to construct a permanent temple there, but as his hands were "bloodied", he was forbidden to do so himself. The task was left to his sonSolomon, who completedthe Temple inc. 950 BCE.
Toledot Yeshu reports that "It was calledShetiyya because God placed it there (שת אותה יה; cf.Zohar, Vayechi 43), and this is the stone whichJacob libated with wine. On it were written the letters of theExplicit Name, and anyone who knew them could perform magic to his heart's desire. The Sages feared lest youths obtain the Name and destroy the world, so they set two iron hounds at the gate, which would bark at any comer to cause him to forget what he had learned. In the words of theZohar, "The world was not created until God took a stone calledEven haShetiya and threw it into the depths where it was fixed from above till below, and from it the world expanded. It is the centre point of the world and on this spot stood the Holy of Holies."
Situated inside the Holy of Holies, the Foundation Stone is believed to have been the rock upon which the Ark of the Covenant was placed in Solomon's Temple.[33] During theSecond Temple period when the Ark of the Covenant was not present, the stone was used by the High Priest who offered up the incense and sprinkled the blood of the sacrifices on it during the annualYom Kippur service.
TheJerusalem Talmud states:
Women are accustomed not to prepare or attachwarp threads to a weavingloom fromRosh ChodeshAv onwards (till afterTisha B'Av), because during the month of Av the Foundation Stone [and the Temple] was destroyed.[34]
Citing this, theMishnah Berurah[35] rules that not only are women not to prepare or attach warp threads to a weavingloom, but it is forbidden for anyone to make, buy or wear new clothes or shoes from the beginning of the week in which Tisha B'Av falls until after the fast, and that people should ideally not do so from the beginning of Av. This period is known asThe Nine Days.
In further commemoration of the Foundation Stone, it is also forbidden to eat meat or drink wine from the beginning of the week in which Tisha B'av falls until after the fast. Some have the custom to refrain from these foodstuffs from Rosh Chodesh Av, while others do so from theSeventeenth of Tammuz.[36]
In the days whenSelichot are recited, in the days leading up toRosh Hashanah untilYom Kippur, the supplications include the following references:
טענתנו גפי קרת נתונים, ישבתנו שן סלע איתנים
You carried us and placed us on the [Holy] City's height, You settled us on the Patriarch's rocky peak.[37]
רבוצה עליו אבן שתית חטובים ...שמה בתוך לפני מזיב מאשנבים
Upon it lying the stone from which the foundation was hewn... Who gives ear from which the waters flow [i.e. the foundation stone "from which flow all the waters of the world"].[38]
DuringSukkot, the following references to the Foundation Stone are mentioned in theHoshanot recital:
הושענא! – אבן שתיה – הושענא
Please save! – Foundation Stone – Please save!
הושענא! – תאדרנו באבן תלולה – הושענא
Please save! – Adorn us with the elevated Stone – Please save!
TheMasjid al-Haram inMecca, is thought by commentators of theQuran to be the place from where Muslims believeMuhammad began hisNight Journey.[39][40] Although the Quran does not specifically mention Jerusalem in name as the ascension site, labelling the site as the "farthest mosque", in certainHadith it is said that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is in Jerusalem.[41]
Tawfiq Canaan, in 1922, recorded a local tradition that describes four living waters flowing from under the rock. To the south: Hammam esh-Shifa, to the east: Siloam, to the north: 'En Haddji and En Qashleh, and to the west: Hammam es-Sultan.[42]
Beneath the Foundation Stone is a cavern known as theWell of Souls. It is sometimes thought of as the traditional hiding place of theArk of the Covenant.
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31°46′41″N35°14′07″E / 31.7780°N 35.2354°E /31.7780; 35.2354
