e Sepher
Hathora, was discovered by the high priest in the temple of Jerusalem,
during its restoration, the Hebrew religion was reformed, reorganized and
reestablished on lines which favored the development of more refined and
elevated religious teachings. All idols and symbols were abolished. Naught
could destroy, however, the deeply rooted idea that it was in Jerusalem
alone, or Mount Sion, that Yahwe was to be worshipped. This was the chosen
site to which offerings and tithes were to be carried. As the chosen
people of Yahwe, Israel was also to be a holy nation which was to
distinguish itself by its superior religion and morality and, in order to
do so, was to keep itself rigidly apart and aloof from other people.

"Thus this little nation cultivated and perfected the religious
capabilities of the human race and laid the foundation for Christianity
and the Islam."

Jerusalem, the ancient capital, occupied almost the centre of Canaan and
was founded on Mount Zion, the highest elevation in the district. From
time immemorial Jerusalem has indeed contained a spot reputed to mark the
centre of the world and a sacred stone is also venerated there to this day
and is now associated, in a curious way, with the biblical account of
Jacob's dream of a ladder reaching from earth to heaven.

It was obviously as a result of their deeply ingrained ideal of central
power that the Israelites who migrated from Ur, the seat of moon-worship,
and wandered into Palestine, engaged in a long struggle which ended in
their successful capture, in 1050 B.C., of Jerusalem, the sacred city,
situated in the centre of the land. The importance of this conquest to the
Israelites can only be rightly estimated when it is realized that, during
countless centuries, this single branch of the Semitic race had adhered to
the cult of the central, changeless, ever-present and light-giving guiding
star, and gradually developed the higher conception of an invisible,
omnipotent and omniscient God. It will be seen that, while other branches
of their race gradually developed separate cults of the dual principles of
nature, they had remained faithful to the primeval recognition of a single
pole-star and, rising to a loftier conception, constituted themselves the
champions of a pure monotheism, disconnected from the cult of heaven and
earth or sun and moon which, associated with dual reproductive principles,
justly became the horror and abomination of the Israelites