Hi Buddy. Rome was killed for a reason. There’s no need to resurrect it. As for Texas and Jerusalem, let’s keep them where they are.

They were more than that, they were agents of Rome. That is why Jesus wept for his nation Israel. America is Rome.

Well, that much more perfectly reveals the cryptic ‘the medium is the message’ than the hot/cool radio/tv McCluhan was explaining. That is indeed pure abstraction — the word itself as sacred, immortal (once written) creator (by language of a ‘People’, a higher power than the people of it).

A tiny mark upon a surface, miraculously making meaning. The tiniest movement of a hand and eye together creating life for a thought in the mind. A word a symbol, a symbol a meaning, a meaning a message from, or to, what is that makes us not alone.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God”

yes, and Amen, and bless us all, if possible.

Ben:

What a terrible insult to the Bible, the greatest piece of literature in human history. Widely distributed, little read and even less understood.

Herod’s Temple was a physical artifact as were the Altar and the Holy of Holies. The structure and the holy sacrificial utensils were ornamented with Hellenic motifs. Herod’s place on the throne was owed more to Rome than to Jerusalem. The priests who served in the Second Temple were a corrupt and ignorant lot.

The Bible is literature. The greatest piece of literature in human history. Whether oral, written with quill on parchment or printed and quarto-bound, it is entirely abstract. Its power is the power of the word.

Judaism fundamentally if not puritanically iconoclastic. Stone worship is specifically proscribed in the Bible. The wall is an ancient site of Jewish sacrifice and prayer. It is a religious site. But it has no religious significance. A note pushed into the wall is at best a literal prayer. At worst it is idolatry plain and simple.

The suggestion that “…the way the Western Wall is revered by the Jews is no different than the way they revere the Torah…” is wildly inaccurate. There is a reason why Jews are called the people of the Book.

It’s a lovely tradition. Much like going to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and rubbing the statue of St. Peter’s foot. Or three coins in the Trevi fountain.

I know I’m probably a heathen or some such crap, but I have to tell you, they are fun.