Shrine of the Book

This guide to the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem opens on a 1954 classified ad tucked into the Wall Street Journal, offering four ancient biblical manuscripts for sale, placed by a Syrian archbishop who had sworn never to sell to an Israeli. It traces the manuscripts back to a Bedouin shepherd chasing a stray goat into a cave of sealed jars, a Hebrew University scholar who bought what he could before war closed the roads, and the general who years later spotted that ad in New York. Look at the building's white dome as you listen, and what its shape is echoing.