The Temple Mount as the Foundation of the World

[There was a stone in the holy of holies,] and it was called Foundation [shetiyah]. It was taught that the world was founded from it. This teaching is in accordance with the one who said that the world was created from Zion, as it is taught: R. Eliezer says: The world was created from its center, as it says: Whereupon the earth melts into a mass, and its clods stick together (Job 38:38, NJPS). [ . . . ] And the sages say that [the world] was created from Zion, as it says: A psalm of Asaph. God, the Lord God [spoke and summoned the world from east to west] (Psalm 50:1, NJPS). And it says: From Zion, perfect in beauty, [God appeared] (Psalm 50:2, NJPS)—From [Zion] the beauty of the world was perfected.