…Religion and Nationalism are rivals for what Sigmund Freud called that oceanic feeling one feels when part of something much larger than oneself. Think of people today singing the national anthem of their country and that is what he was talking about.

Religion too can bring on a feeling of belonging to the “great scheme of things.” Think of today’s news story in Israel about finding a tiny seal of one Israel’s greatest kings, Khizkiyahu, in English, Hezekiah, who became king of Judea in the year 562 BCE. He seems to have been the last king to fight and finally rid the Land of the Philistines. Eilat Mazar, the preeminent archaeologist of Jerusalem in her generation — following in her father’s footsteps – said this was likely his very own. So the one she held between her fingers was likely once held by him, 2,577 years ago…