Salem

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The community of truth seekers presided over by Machiventa Melchizedek. Also, the ancient city of Palestine and the current capital of Israel; a holy city for Judaism (Temple of Solomon and the capital of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judeah), Christianity (Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection), and Islam (Muhammad’s ascension to heaven).

Etymology

Although the precise origin of the Hebrew name for Jerusalem, Yerushalayim remains uncertain, scholars have come up with a variety of interpretations. Some say it means "legacy of peace" — a portmanteau of yerusha (legacy) and shalom (peace). "Shalom" is a cognate of the Hebrew name "Shlomo," i.e., King Solomon," the builder of the First Temple. Alternatively, the second part of the portmanteau could be Salem (Shalem literally "whole" or "in harmony"), an early name for Jerusalem (Jerusalem, by Amos Elon [1] ISBN 0006375316 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd) The epithet may have originated in the ancient name of Jerusalem—Salem (after the pagan deity of the city), which is etymologically connected in the Semitic languages with the words for peace (shalom in Hebrew, salam in Arabic) that appears in the Book of Genesis. (Fr. King James Version: "And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God." (Genesis 14:18) Others cite the Amarna letters, where the Akkadian name of the city appears as Urušalim, a cognate of the Hebrew Ir Shalem. Some believe there is a connection to Shalim, the beneficent deity known from Ugaritic myths as the personification of dusk.[2] enttitled Jerusalem, the Old City pub. Quds University.

A Midrashic interpretation in Genesis Rabba explains that Abraham came to the city that was then called Shalem after rescuing Lot. "sharing"[3] International De Documéntation Judéo-Chrétienne Sharing Jerusalem: The Spiritual And Political Challenges "I will share another meta-midrash...believers in the One Supreme God." Upon arrival, he asked the king and high priest Melchizedek to bless him, and Melchizedek did so in the name of God (indicating that he, like Abraham, was a monotheist). This encounter between Melchizedek and Abraham was commemorated by renaming the city in their honor: the name Yeru (derived from Yireh, the name Abraham gave to the Temple Mount) was combined with Shalem, "sharing" producing Yeru-Shalem, meaning the "city of Shalem," or "founded by Shalem." If shalem means "complete," or "without defect, " Yerushalayim would mean the "perfect city," or "the city of he who is perfect". Zechariah Sitchin, The Cosmic Code, Avon 1998. The ending -im indicates the plural in Hebrew grammar and -ayim the dual, leading to an interpretation of the name as representing two facets of the city, such as two hills. ISBN 0405102984 by Edwin Wallace Sherman entitled Jerusalem the Holy. A similar view was held by those who give the Hebrew dual to the word (see: Jerusalem: The Topography, Economics and History from the Earliest Times to A.D. 70 by George Adam Smith, pub. Hodder and Stoughton. "The termination -aim or -ayim used to be taken as the ordinary termination of the dual of nouns, and was explained as signifying the upper and lower citie here. The pronunciation of the last syllable as -ayim appears to be a late development, which had not yet appeared at the time of the Septuagint.