Personal Accounts

In Menachem Magidor’s personal account of his relationship to the Temple Mount is one that struck me deeply. In our extensive discussions of the Temple Mount, we’ve never really considered the individual emotional connection that being there makes: “There is something about the way in which our mental processes are structured that causes us to need this direct connection to the physical space which is associated with the people, ideas, and the creations of the imagination that are to play a central role in our psyche.” Not only does Magidor attribute some of the Temple Mount’s value to its obvious Biblical ties, but also partially to the value that countless other people of varying religions and cultures hold to it as well.

            Magidor, however, addresses the angst that he feels as an agnostic Jew: “I could not quite fathom the flare of passion and excitement that mention of the Temple Mount was arousing in me. I was confronted with a very basic dilemma of my identity.” This ties to the ideas that Sayed Kashua addresses in Second Person Singular. The dilemma of identity, Kashua suggests in his novel, is often one that is subjectively limited to the stereotypes or cultural taboos of a person’s gender, ethnicity, or religion. To move past those initial dilemmas requires full acceptance of them through thorough exploration. The Eliadean concept of sacred space is relevant but limited to the religious and spiritual aspects of such space. Kashua and Magidor agree that there is a wider range of human emotion that attach spirituality to identities

Image courtesy of The Christian Broadcasting Network

such as empathy, forgiveness, and creativity. It must be acknowledged the Temple Mount has value beyond its Biblical and historical prominence. It is only then that all peoples will be able to share in that space. Magidor, upon visiting finally in 1967, noted that the Muslim prayer shrines added beauty to the Temple Mount and he relished in the shared profoundness of the place. Magidor summarizes it beautifully: “In some strange way the fact that over the physical and imagined layers that related directly to my heritage and culture, History superimposed the dreams and imaginations of other cultures added depth and meaning to my collective memory.”