“This is not mesirut nefesh at all, but foolishness. And the Almighty does not want us to be fools”

They stand at the mouth of the cave: a great, jagged opening where brown soil and ochre grass disappears into chalk white. It is like an axe has come down and opened the skin of the earth, revealing a hidden world of secrets.

Eliyahu, Yannai, and other men climb into the cave, feel the wind fall away and the sound of the leaves rushing in the wind silence. Inside, the air is close and slightly damp, and filled with the ringing noise of pickaxe on stone.

They see no one, but at times there is the flash of a lantern, in a cavern just beyond the entrance. A cold, damp breeze carries the sound of voices up toward them. Yannai looks around.

“Tzidkiyahu’s cave.” He steps inside and places his hands flat on the walls. “The best stone in all the land comes from here. It is the stone Shlomo Hamelech used for the Beis Hamikdash.”

Eliyahu shivers as he steps inside. Once his eyes adjust to the darkness, he sees that this is unlike any cave he has ever seen. In his cave in the hills, he knew every crevice, every bump on the rocks, the way his voice echoed from each angle. This cave is made up of cavern after cavern, it is long and winding, and the chisel marks on the walls may have come from the times of Shlomo Hamelech.

Yannai reaches up to the ceiling and shows them a drop of water on his finger.

“Tzidkiyahu’s tears,” he says. “He is crying over the destruction.”

He raises his voice. “Sing, Tzidkiyahu. Sing. For we have come to rebuild.”

He begins to chant: “Nekadesh et shimcha b’olam — Let us sanctify Your Name in the world.”

The other men join in, but Eliyahu stands and listens, uncertain of what to think and feel.

They walk through the entrance and into the cavern beyond, and then onward to a cavern beyond this one. Men face the wall of the cavern, some wielding pickaxes and others with chisels. A large pile of stone is being examined by a foreman, and in the corner, a set of donkeys is ready to pull the stone out of the cave. Yannai shakes his head.

“Who would have dreamed that we would end up in this sacred spot?”

Next to him, Chananya murmurs: “They say that deep within this cave, the Aron is buried.”