vow and bring it to completion in one place—the sanctuary. In the days of the wilderness he would be brought to the doors of the Tabernacle. In the days of the Temple he would be brought to the Temple Mount. So the days of separation could only end on the Temple Mount. But for most of two thousand years the Temple Mount was in enemy hands and the appearance of a Nazir among the Jewish people was a rare phenomenon.
“But in the days of Israel’s rebirth there appeared a Nazir. He abstained from wine and defilement and never cut his hair. He would also take a vow of devotion concerning Jerusalem: he would not leave his dwelling place until Jerusalem was restored to Israel. His vows of separation became so well-known that he would be known as the Nazir or the Nazir of Jerusalem. On June 7, 1967, when Jerusalem was restored to the Jewish people, its restoration would involve the mystery of the Nazir.”
“Who was he?” I asked.
“You already know him. He was a rabbi. He was David HaCohen.”
“The one who was sent for?”
“Yes, when Rabbi Goren sent for his father-in-law, he was also sending for the Nazir. And when Goren’s assistant reached his house, the Nazir found himself in a dilemma. Because of the vow, the Nazir couldn’t leave his house. But according to rabbinical law, such a vow could be nullified by the word of three witnesses. So three men stood as witnesses in the Nazir’s house to release him from his vow so that he might be taken into the gates of the newly liberated Jerusalem.” 1
“So the jeep,” I said, “it wasn’t only carrying two rabbis and three priests. It was also carrying the Nazir.”
“Yes,” said the Oracle, “and so it was part of another ancient mystery. Keep in mind the ancient ordinance: the only way the Nazir could complete his vow was by being brought to the sanctuary or the door of the sanctuary. And ever since the days of King Solomon, that place was in Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount. So in ancient times the vow of separation could only be brought to completion with the Nazir being brought to Jerusalem and to the Temple Mount. On June 7, 1967, the Nazir was taken to Jerusalem, and not only to Jerusalem—but specifically to the Temple Mount. No one planned what took place that day in view of the ancient mystery. It happened because of the battle that forced the driver to take the route he took. They entered the newly opened gate on the city’s eastern wall, then turned onto the ancient pavement of the Temple Mount, the holiest place on earth.
“Thus the Nazir had returned to the very same place where the ancient Nazirs had to be brought to fulfill their vows, the place on which stood the doors of the sanctuary and the Court of Nazirs. It was the first known time in two thousand years that such a thing had happened.”
“So Jerusalem had returned,” I said, “and the Nazir had returned on the same day—to his ancient possession.”
“And note, the ordinance didn’t say that the Nazir would simply come to the sanctuary but specifies that he must be brought. So on the day of Jerusalem’s liberation the Nazir was literally brought to the sanctuary. And who was it in ancient times that would bring the Nazir to the sanctuary? The priest. And who was it on that day that brought the Nazir to the sanctuary? It was Menachem HaCohen, the priest. So he was not only driving his fellow priests; he was bringing the Nazir to the sanctuary.”
“Is it significant that the Nazir of Jerusalem was himself a priest?”
“It was,” said the Oracle. “The priest ministered as the representative of the people of Israel. The Nazir was the separated one. And yet he was a priest representing Israel. For it was the people of Israel who had become separated from their land, from their Holy City, and from their ancestral inheritance. It was Israel that had become the Nazir nation.”
“That’s why the man in the black robe was always with them in their exile.”
“But on June 7, 1967, the Nazir was brought to the place where the days of separation come to an end. For it was on that day that Israel’s days of separation had come to their end. And it was the release of Israel from the days of its separation that caused the Nazir to be released