In Ezek. v. 5 we read, "I have set Jerusalem in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her." On the literal interpretation of these words it was asserted that Jerusalem was the very centre of the world, or, as Jerome quaintly called it, "the navel of the earth." In the Talmud we find a beautiful metaphor in illustration of this view. It is in the last six lines of the ninth chapter of Derech Eretz Zuta, which read thus: "Issi ben Yochanan, in the name of Shemuel Hakaton, says, 'The world is like the eyeball of man; the white is the ocean which surrounds the world, the black is the world itself, the pupil is Jerusalem, and the image in the pupil is the Temple. May it be built in our own days, and in the days of all Israel! Amen!'" The memory of this conceit is kept alive to this day among the Greek Christians, who still show the sacred stone in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. This notion is not confined to Jewry. Classic readers will at once call to mind the appellation Omphalos or navel applied to the temple at Delphi (Pindar, Pyth., iv. 131, vi. 3; Eurip. Ion., 461; Æsch. Choeph., 1034; Eum. 40, 167; Strabo, etc.). Two sparks issued from between the two cherubim and destroyed the serpents and scorpions and burned the thorns in the wilderness. The smoke thereof, rising and spreading, perfumed the world, so that the nations said (Cant. iii. 6), "Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed," etc. _Ibid., Vayakhel._ Better to lodge in the wilderness of the land of Israel than dwell in the palaces outside of it. _Midrash Rabbah_, chap. 39. "And give thee a pleasant land" (a coveted land) (Jer. iii. 19). Why is it called a coveted land? Because the Temple was in it. Another reason why it was so called is, because the fathers of the world have coveted it. Rabbi Shimon ben Levi says, "Because they (who are buried) there will be the first to be raised in the days of the Messiah." _Shemoth Rabbah_, chap. 32. "When the Lord thy God shall enlarge thy border, as He hath promised thee" (Deut. xii. 20). Rabbi Yitzchak said, "This scroll no man knows how long and how broad it is, but when unrolled it speaks for itself, and shows how large it is. It is so with the land of Israel, which, for the most part, consists of hills and mountains; but when the Holy One--blessed be He!--shall level it, as it is said (Isa. xl. 4), 'Every valley shall be raised and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth,' then shall that land speak, as it were, for herself, and its extent stand revealed." _Devarim Rabbah_, chap. 4. Blessed are they who dwell in the land of Israel, for they have no sin, no iniquity, either in their lives or in their deaths. _Midrash Shochar Tov on Ps. lxxxv._