Like Clay – Yom Kippur Reflections from the Temple Mount Sifting Project This Yom Kippur, as we reflect on our own shaping, we also honor the hands that formed the sacred and mundane objects of Jerusalem’s past. Jewish prayer books contain many liturgical poems (piyyutim), especially in the holiday services. One well-known example from the Yom Kippur prayers is “כי הנה כחומר” (Ki Hineh Ka-ḥomer, “Like Clay”). It likens the relationship between God and Israel to that of an artisan and the material in his hands. Each stanza invokes a different craft – potter, mason, smith, glazier, embroiderer, refiner – offering metaphors of shaping, refining, and guidance. These images speak not only to divine creation but also to the human experience of labor, craftsmanship, and transformation.

At the Temple Mount Sifting Project, these metaphors come to life. The soil of the Temple Mount has yielded thousands of artifacts that reflect the very crafts described in the piyyut. Each verse of the piyyut reminds us that we are shaped – like clay, stone, iron, glass, and silver – by forces greater than ourselves. And each artifact uncovered by the Sifting Project reminds us that the Temple Mount was not only a place of prayer, but also of labor, artistry, and life.