#second temple

Wow, Miss Palestine! What a dress!

The Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque. Both were built on the foundations of the Holy Jewish Temple.

I mean, this is so ironic. Printing the picture of Jerusalem that is mentioned zero times in your Quran, while in the Jewish Bible, Jerusalem is mentioned 669 times.

You see, your dress just proved who is the indigenous one and who are the occupiers, the biggest colonizers.

When are you going to build your next holy place on the Vatican? I mean, it's about time! You see, they love to conquer and collect holy places, but still they are only praying towards Mecca.

Now, it's truly remarkable that someone who has an Egyptian father, an Italian mother, that was born in MIchigan and was raised in Canada ends up representing a "nation" she was never a part of.

But actually it fits... When the entire Palestinian narrative is built on adopting identities, places and histories that never belonged to them, why wouldn't a Miss Palestine be this? Feels like nothing is authentically Palestinian – except for the branding!

Stop stealing our identity. Stop stealing our holy places. Stop stealing our story. And stop trying to steal our land.

We see what you're doing in Europe, but we will never be conquered. We were here before Muhammad. We are the Jews.

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https://grokipedia.com/page/Al-Aqsa_Mosque

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the primary congregational mosque situated along the southern wall of the Haram al-Sharif, or Temple Mount, an elevated platform in Jerusalem's Old City that encompasses approximately one-sixth of the area. The platform, expanded by Herod the Great in the 1st century BCE, served as the location of the ancient Jewish First Temple, constructed by Solomon around 957 BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, and the Second Temple, rebuilt around 516 BCE and expanded before its destruction by the Romans in 70 CE, as evidenced by archaeological artifacts including Temple-period pottery, seals, and ritual items recovered from soil excavated from the site.

https://grokipedia.com/page/Western_Wall

The Western Wall, known in Hebrew as the Kotel (lit. "Wall"), is a remnant of the ancient limestone retaining wall that supported the western flank of the expanded Temple Mount platform in Jerusalem's Old City, constructed by Herod the Great circa 19 BCE as part of his massive rebuilding of the Second Temple complex. The full wall extends approximately 488 meters in length, though the primary exposed prayer plaza section measures about 57 meters long and up to 19 meters high above ground, with massive Herodian ashlars at its base characterized by drafted margins and precise masonry that has endured earthquakes and sieges. Following the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, the wall survived intact, becoming the closest accessible point to the Temple's former Holy of Holies where Jews could lawfully pray without violating prohibitions against entering the sanctified mount.

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Rather than "humility", I think the Temple's lesson would be about widening her perspective and not missing the forest for the threes. She's not arrogant, she just gets very passionate about some things and loses track of everything else. She didn't accidentally hurt Anne and the Plantars in the Temple because she was so hell-bent on proving she was intellectually superior to it that she neglected her companions' safety, but because she lost track of them. If anything, I think it could be a commentary on how self-centered she can be, a little bit of foreshadowing to the revelation that she brought her friends to Amphibia for selfish reasons, while making Anne steal her supposed birthday gift - which was meant to serve Marcy's purposes all along. That was the epitome of not thinking about others because she's too focused on her own goals.

But I don't think she had any malocious intent when she did that. I think she almost like... forgot to think about Anne (and Sasha). Ignoring other people's perspectives isn't a decision she makes, but an impulse she needs to learn to control, and I don't think the lesson of "humility" is all that fitting. Maybe I'm splitting hairs, because it's not like "humility" as a lesson doesn't work - it shows Marcy she needs to slow down and not assume she can handle every task so easily. I agree on the "slowing down" part but idk if the second part makes much sense? If anything, I think "empathy" would be a better lesson to learn, but then again, that doesn't sound much like something fitting for the "Wit" Temple, and maybe the Temple is meant as a one-size-fits-all and is not meant to offer any personalized lessons, rather it's supposed to filter out any possible incarnations of Wit that may have ill intent or plan to use the power of the gem(s) for selfish purposes. A humble incarnation of Wit would probably also be one that doesn't let their companions get hurt for power or arrogance.

But is that really the lesson the Temple teaches? Because what I actually have a gripe with is how the Temple actually just straight up cheats. How is that a lesson on humility? "You will be lied to and betrayed and no matter how smart you are, you won't be able to sort through that" sounds more grimdark than lesson-teaching. How is that even a lesson? Sounds like the Temple's lesson is "life isn't fair and you need to accept you're sometimes doomed to lose for reasons outside of your control" can be interesting but I don't see how that relates to "humility". To my understanding, humility has more to do with accepting you're subject to the same rules as everybody else and that you're not "above" everyone, that your goals are not above other people's wellbeing. Accepting there are things outside of your control can be humility. It's not about accepting there are forces outside of your control playing outside the rules that will fuck you up and you just have to take it because "oh, you're not above us, little girl". If anything, that sounds more like a lesson about not trusting people will play fair and being ready to tackle that. It would have been different if Marcy just lost the game "legally", but the Temple cheating muddled things up a little.

“To the place of trumpeting …,” Hebrew inscription on a parapet from the Temple Mount, Western Wall excavations at the south-western corner of the Temple Mount, Jerusalem. Herodian period, 1st century BCE. Stone. Israel Antiquities Authority. x

Yesterday we marked the 17th of Tammuz, שִׁבְעָה עָשָׂר בְּתַמּוּז, a day that begins יְמֵי בֵּין הַמְּצָרִים the three-week mourning period leading up to Tisha B'Av. Yud Zain B'Tammuz is a Jewish fast day commemorating the breach of the walls of The Holy City of Jerusalem before the destruction of the Second Temple.