In the Gemara the shamir (Hebrew: שמיר) was a worm or a substance that had the power to cut through or disintegrate stone, iron and diamond. It was used by King Solomon in the building of the First Temple in Jerusalem in the place of cutting tools. For the building of the Temple, which promotes peace, it was inappropriate to use tools that could also cause war and bloodshed.[1]
Referenced throughout the Talmud and the Midrashim, the Shamir was reputed to have existed in the time of Moses. Moses reputedly used the Shamir to carve the Ten Commandments into the tablets of stone.[2] King Solomon, aware of the existence of the Shamir, but unaware of its location, 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 the Shamir." Following this line of logic (anything that can be 'shown' something must have eyes to see), early Rabbinical scholars described the Shamir almost as a living being. Other early sources, however, describe it as a green stone.
For storage, the Shamir was always wrapped in wool and stored in a container made of lead; any other vessel would burst and disintegrate under the Shamir's gaze.
The Shamir was either lost or had lost its potency (along with the "dripping of the honeycomb") by the time of the destruction of the First Temple at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C.
Noting the conditions under which the Shamir was stored when not in use, controversial theorist Immanuel Velikovsky posited that the Shamir's true nature was radioactive.[3] Velikovsky hypothesized that the Shamir was a small sample of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope, possibly radium, though he fails to explain how this would cut material.
The Kern Kehilla Parsha preview group speculates that the Shamir was a silk-producing worm or moth. King Solomon could have used silk in place of copper wire in a bow saw. Abrasive materials such as sand, quartz, diamonds etc. would have been used in conjunction with the wire saw to cut the large stone used.
The description of the shamir could match that of a solid-state laser[4] [5]or a bio laser.
According to a legend, the shamir was given to Solomon as a gift from Asmodeus, the king of demons.[6][7]
Another version of the story holds that a captured Asmodeus told Solomon the Shamir was entrusted to the care of a woodcock. Solomon then sends his trusted aide Benaiah on a quest to retrieve it.[8]
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