The Dovekeepers

by Alice Hoffman

Tools signified weapons and could not be used in constructing the holiest of holy places; therefore the great warrior king David had been prohibited from building the Temple because he had known the evils of war. Instead, the honor fell to his son King Solomon, who called upon the shamir, a worm who could cut through stone, thereby creating glory to God without the use of metal tools.

In that moment the map of my life arose upon my skin in a burst of red marks, speckles that, when followed, one to the other, have

The midwives whispered to one another, convinced I

The desire for Jerusalem was a fire that could not be quenched. There was a spark inside that holiest of holy places that made people want to possess it, and what men yearn for they often destroy.

garment,