Solomon's Shamir
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The magical Shamir was a substance or worm with the power to alter stone, iron and diamond. When building the temple metal was not allowed to be used because it is an item of war, which is not allowed in the temple, the Shamir was brought in.
Referred to throughout the Talmud and the Midrashim, the Shamir was reputed to have existed in the time of Moses. King Solomon, aware of the existence of the Shamir, but lacking any sample himself, commissioned a search that turned up a "grain of Shamir the size of a barley-corn."
Solomon's artisans reputedly used the Shamir in the construction of Solomon's Temple. The material to be worked, whether stone, wood or metal, was affected by being "shown to Shamir." Following this line of logic (anything that can be 'shown' something must have eyes to see) early Rabbinical scholars described Shamir almost as a living being. Other early sources, however, describe it as a green stone.
The care and handling of Shamir is worth noting. It was always wrapped in wool, and stored in a container made of lead: any other vessel would burst and disintegrate under Shamir's gaze. This, and other evidence, lead Immanuel Velikovsky to posit that the Shamir's true nature was radioactive: the Shamir was a small sample of a naturally-occurring radioactive isotope, possibly radium.
Solomon's Shamir was either lost, or had lost its potency, by the time of the First Temple's destruction at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, in 586 BC.
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