The New Jerusalem/El-HEJERA Project .
Appendix A: The New Vision of the Old and the New Jerusalem.
The major reason that Jerusalem evokes such
strong and widespread reactions and attachments is not so much the real city,
but the symbolic one. Almost all the symbolic importance of Jerusalem is
attached to the area of the walled Old City of Jerusalem and its immediate
environs (the Hinnom and Kidron valleys and the slopes of Mount of Olives and
Mount Scopus). Take this relatively small area out of the negotiations between
Israeli and Palestinians and the rest could become “rational” and sober.
However, most important symbolically is the yet-invisible "Heavenly Jerusalem" (Hebrew Yerushalayim shel Ma'ala – the Higher Jerusalem) of prophecy, called "The New Jerusalem" by Christians and "Dar Es-Salaam" (the Abode of Peace) by Moslems. In the work of the Academy of Jerusalem, we have shown the significance of this New/Heavenly Jerusalem in the Bible, Israelite history, Prophecy, Jewish history, Christianity, Rabbinic Judaism and Islam – as well as in the Kabbalah, in esoteric Buddhism (as parallel to the image of Shambhala), even in idealist Marxism - and in modern Zionism and in the emerging holistic perspectives of global concerns. In fact, in both Jewish legends and in the Book of Revelation, the New/Heavenly Jerusalem is associated, or even synonymous, with the future Heavenly Temple in Jerusalem.
It has emerged over our years of investigation
that the New/Heavenly Jerusalem could and should emerge gradually and
peacefully – first virtually in cyberspace and then as very light structures
(starting with, literally, structures made of light) above the Old City,
without offending any territorial claims.