I am sure some are not familiar with the term “Shamir” and also I am going to use another term that may well be unfamiliar and it is Haftarah, sometimes written Haftorah.” First let me explain a little about what the Haftarah is and how it was and still is used in Judaism, quiet often. Haftarah is a collection of scriptures from the words of the Prophets that are read on Sabbath days and on holidays and on two Fast Days, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) and on Tisha B’av (the day before the day when both Temples were destroyed.)
First Let Us Look at the Hatarah
Selected verses from the Torah, the first five Books of the Bible. (Genesis thru Deuteronomy) When these are read they are followed by 3 or 4 blessings (The Hebrew word is Berakhot.) determined by the occasion. It is a call for the prophecy of the restoration of the Jewish people to their ancestral land given and promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There has been much debate as to the authority of the Haftarah and when it originated and this is known to have been one of the mitigating causes of the differences between the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Samaritans. Even today not all Jewish communities use the Haftarah in the same way and do not all use the same verses or blessings. Like most of the Torah the verses are most often spoken in a “song” type of setting and the Haftarah is also, but at a lower tone and cadence.
Some of the songs are, but not limited to all the songs, “The song that the women sung when Israel crossed the Red Sea. (Exodus Chapter 15) Deborah’s song after their victory. (Judges chapter 5) When the Haftarah reading is focused on the 12 spies sent out by Moses then the two spies sent out by Joshua is sung. (Joshua chapter two) When the holiday is Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) it is about forgiveness then selections from Jonah are sung, and when it is time for Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) on the first day selections from Zechariah are sung. On an everyday basis there are no special selections used from the Haftarah and are left up to the Priest or Rabbi or head of the synagogue. On the Sabbath before the day celebrated as Purim (The day when Esther is credited with saving the people of Israel.) Haman was a descendant of Amalek, whom GOD said HE would have war with for generations. ((Ex.17:6) Purim resulted from Haman being hanged on his own gallows. The story of the Amalekite King (Agag) whom King Saul disobediently kept alive is sung. (I Samuel chapter 15) The use of these Haftarah often are called a trope. A trope is actually a word or words used in a non-literal sense such as: “He ran like the lightening.” In all cases of “Bar or Bat Mitzvahs” of today, chanting from the Haftarah is not required, but in some cases it is used.
The Shamir
They made their hearts like flint [adamant stone] and would NOT listen to the LAW of the WORDS that the LORD of HOSTS had sent by HIS SPIRIT through the earlier Prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of HOSTS. (Zech.7:12 Berean Standard Bible: BSB)
The Hebrew word for the Tabernacle first used is Mishkon and when the Temple was built it was often called the Beit haMikdash. “And the HOUSE (Temple), when it was in building was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither, so that there was neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of iron heard in the HOUSE while it was being built.” (I Kings 6:7) When the stones were moved to the building site they fit perfectly together and needed no mortar. Today people see the “Wailing Wall” and notice that many Jews write requests and stick the paper in the cracks. The Wailing Wall was not ever a part of the Temple, but was built by Herod the Great as a retaining wall to hold the fill dirt and rocks he put there to expand the site of his Temple. The Temple stones were so closely finished that a thin piece of paper could not be pushed between them. No iron tool was allowed because iron is used in weapons of war, but the Temple was called a HOUSE of PEACE. David was not allowed to build the Temple because said he was a man of blood. GOD did allow Solomon to build it for he was often said to be a King of Peace. (I Chron. Chapter 28)
There have been many thoughts about how the stones of the Temple were cut and how they came out so finely smoothed that they fit perfectly. Because the Bible, itself, doesn’t give us in depth to many of the things written in it we have to often rely on historical records or on “Extra Canonical Books.” I did a lesson on “Books mentioned in the Bible but not a part of the Bible.” There is a very familiar scripture I like to refer to in order to prove my point that even the writers of the scripture text used these books. “And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, ‘Behold the LORD cometh with ten thousands of HIS saints.” (Jude 14) Enoch’s prophecy is not in the Torah or the Tanach, but it is in the Book of Enoch. The people of Israel were commanded by GOD to build an Altar for sacrifices, but they could not use any “hewn stones” and notice this was the Altar for Burnt Offerings. They were first commanded to make the Altar out of just earth.
An Altar of Earth thou shalt make unto ME, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen, IN ALL PLACES WHERE I RECORD MY NAME, I WILL COME UNTO THEE AND I WILL BLESS THEE. And IF THOU WILT MAKE ME AN ALTAR OF STONE, THOU SHALT NOT BUILD IT OF HEWN STONE, FOR IF THOU LIFT THY TOOL UPON IT, THOU HAST POLLUTED IT. (Ex.20:24-25)
Strange as it may seem but their Sacrifice Altar was actually made of stones. When Solomon built the First Temple he had an Altar made of “brass” in reality it was “bronze” thus we get “Brazen Altar.” The Altar of the Tabernacle was very small and portable compared to the Bronze Altar of the Temple. The Brazen Altar was 20 cubits wide and 20 cubits long and 10 cubits high. That is 30 feet by 30 feet by 15 feet high and made of Bronze. Brass and Bronze are both metal alloys. Brass is made up of copper and zinc, while bronze is made of copper and tin, but it is stronger than brass. Solomon is credited with building the first metal smelts and he produced both. Bronze will withstand extreme heat while brass will not. Notice GOD said to make the Altar out of the earth. The metals of copper and tin are mined from the earth. However, so are the metals of brass and zinc, but zinc will not withstand extreme heat.
Now let us look at something else here. “Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto MINE ALTAR, that thine nakedness be NOT discovered thereon.”
(Ex.20:26) With an Altar ten feet high it might be a problem. Now, don’t confuse the portable Altar with the Bronze built by Solomon. Paul tells us in Romans 4:17 that GOD calls “things that are NOT as though they were.” GOD’S answer to keep the nakedness of the Priests from showing when they ascended the Brazen Altar so high off the ground. “And thou shalt make them [the Priests] LINEN BREECHES to cover their nakedness, from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach.” (Exodus 28:42) (Note: many people have read this verse and called the word BREECHES to be BRITCHES. Some have said that it was a misspelled word when translated from the Hebrew. If that was so then the length GOD ordered them to make nothing more than a pair of “Bermuda Shorts.” I believe GOD knows the future in minute detail and HE would have known that thousands of years later someone would develop “Bermuda Shorts.) Sometimes I think GOD sits on HIS THRONE and looks down on us frail humans running around like a chicken with our heads cut off and sometimes HE is really amused at us for we really believe we know more than HE does.
Now we can interpret to not use iron tools to finish the stones had to be done at the quarry. That is a plausible solution and this is supported by I Kings 5:31. “Solomon had 70,000 porters and 80,000 stone cutters in the mountains.” (I Kings 5:31 Tree of Life Version, TLV) However, Jewish tradition and ancient teachings say that the entire Temple stones were cut without any iron tools. They teach that Solomon used the “Shamir”, described as a “type of worm” or a “special stone” that could cut the hardest stones with precision. Exactly what is this mysterious object?
. . . Now I [GOD] will tell you what I AM going to do to MY vineyard [Israel and specifically the Temple]; I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns [shamir] will grow there. (Isa. 5-6)
It doesn’t take a “Rocket Scientist” to figure out that when buildings of stone are left to the elements the briers and vines will cut it down. So, here we find GOD speaking of the future of the Temple to be cut down by the “shamir” as it was constructed. “Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool (tzipporen shamir) inscribed with a flint point (diamond tip) on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their Altars.” (Jer.17:1) The word “tzipporen shamir” is also translated to mean “fingernail or a talon,” still indicating something that is organic or “SUPERNATURAL.” In Exodus 8:19 even the Magicians of Pharaoh admitted that the plagues were brought on by the “FINGER OF GOD.” “And HE (GOD) gave unto Moses, when HE had made an end of communing with him (Moses) upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, TABLES OF STONE, WRITTEN WITH THE FINGER OF GOD.” (Ex.31:18) GOD told Ezekiel that HE (GOD) would make Ezekiel’s forehead harder than flint (kshamir cjazak mitzor) also translated as diamond. The last time we find any reference to the “shamir” is found in Zechariah 7:12, where GOD says the people made their “hearts” like “an adamant stone”, the “shamir.”
The Hebrew Mishnah was compiled around 200 A D and was made the basic part of the Talmud. It is an authoritative collection of the Oral Jewish Law. Pirkei Avot 5:6, a book of the Mishnah, tells us that GOD created Ten Mystical Things (things that are beyond human reasoning) on the eve of the first Sabbath, just as twilight came and yet before night.
- the mouth of the earth
- the moutn of the well
- the mouth of the donkey
- the rainbow
- the manna
- the staff of Moses
- the shamir
- the letters
- the writings
- the Tablets
Can you see all those things played a part in scriptures, even as we know them?
The same Book says that GOD wrought 10 wonders for the people of Israel in the Temple in Jerusalem.
- no woman ever miscarried from the smell of the burning flesh of the sacrifices
- the sacred flesh never became putrid
- no fly was ever seen in the slaughter house
- no emission of any kind occurred to the High Priest on the Day of Atonement
- the rains did NOT extinguish the fire of the wood pile
- the wind did NOT prevail against the column of smoke
- no defect was ever found in the omer, (barley) or in the Two Loaves or in the Shewbread
- the people all stood pressed together and yet bowed face down and had room to spare
- never a serpent or scorpion harmed anyone in Jerusalem
- NO ONE ever said that the place was too congested over night for them to stay in the city.
Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartenura (1445-1515 A D) said, “The builders would draw a line on the stones and the “Shamir” would crawl along the line and cut the stones. He also said Moses used the “Shamir” to engrave the Tribes names on the different stones for the Breastplate of the High Priest. The Midrash also teaches that the Shamir was so powerful it had to be kept in a lead box and wrapped in wool and the box was filled with barley. The Shamir itself was about the size of a barley grain. Many Rabbis have taught that the Shamir ceased to exist after the destruction of the First Temple. The great mystery has been and still is “whether the Shamir was a worm or stone or grain” it was used to cut any substance with precision. Now we might declare this to be a miracle, we still must admit that GOD works through derekh hatevo NATURAL WAYS IN MOST CASES. The main question today is, “Could there be a scientific explanation for the Shamir?”
GOD and “real science” are coordinated together. Yes, you heard me right. Pseudoscience is witch craft at its best and demon possessed at its worst. We have much pseudoscience in our science books and in our schools rather than the “TRUE SCIENCE.” We need look no farther than the very first verse of the Bible. “In the beginning GOD created the heavens (some Bibles use heaven) and the earth.” (Gen.1:1) The five fundamentals of science are right here glaring at us right out of the WORD of GOD. “In the beginning is time, GOD is the force, created is the action, the heavens is space, and the earth is matter. Time, force, action, space and matter encompasses all of science. So GOD took nothing and created something.
The Ancient Rabbis said the Shamir was kept in a lead box to avoid any danger. Even today we use lead aprons to shield body parts not being scanned from the danger of radiation and in some cases when using certain kinds of lasers. Knowing this certainly suggests that the Shamir was radioactive. If anyone thinks this is impossible then please explain the power of the “Electric Ell” for it can generate 860 volts and it can still give a charge up to an hour after death. In 2019 scientists in the Philippines discovered a “new species of “ship worm.” Ship worms have been around for hundreds of years and only cut into wood, but this new one is scientifically called Lithoredo abatanic and it cuts into limestone with precision. They have tiny teeth to grind rock. It is possible that some version of this modern day worm was available thousands of years ago. “The thing that hath been, is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done; AND THERE IS NO NEW THING UNDER THE SUN.” (Ecc.1:9)
There is another tiny species on this earth that can withstand extreme conditions of radiation, dehydration, and even freezing vacuums of outer space. It is called a tardigrade which has proven to be able to live for decades without food or water. The DNA of tardigrades allows them to be protected from radiation. And like the Lithoredo it can eat and digest stones. Could the Shamir have contained enough powerful radiation to create a “laser type” beam and cut the stones? I would say it is very possible. However, we may never know the exact nature of the Shamir.
There are many people that teach that the Third Temple will not need the Shamir or any other form to cut the stones. Their reasoning is they believe the Third Temple (which will be the 4th Temple of JESUS) will be built in heaven and descend to the earth at the end of Sukkah (Feast of Tabernacles) and also that in the MESSIANIC ERA there will be no iron weapons of war for the “swords will be beaten into plowshares.” (Isa.2:4)
Ironically, the 7th Prime Minister of Israel was named Yitzhak Shamir. Think about that, the number
Image Credits: the Providence Lithograph Company, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
