Reverence for the Sanctuary and the Blood of Zechariah on the Stones

"And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: When a soul sins, etc." (Leviticus 4:1–2). Let our master teach us: What is the law regarding a person entering the Temple Mount with his staff and with his money-belt? Thus our Rabbis taught: A person may not enter the Temple Mount with his staff, or with his money-belt, or with the dust upon his feet, so that he not conduct himself toward it with frivolity, even in its destruction. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: "You shall keep My Sabbaths and revere My Sanctuary; I am the LORD" (Leviticus 26:2). And what did [Scripture] see [fit] to liken the keeping of the Sabbath to the Sanctuary? Thus did Rabbi Hiyya the Great teach: Just as the keeping of the Sabbath is forever, so too the reverence for the Sanctuary is forever. And Solomon cried out: "The place of judgment, there is wickedness" (Ecclesiastes 3:16). Solomon foresaw how the wicked would pervert [justice] in the Sanctuary. Solomon said: The place where the Sanhedrin would sit and judge cases of capital law, [and cases of monetary law,] and cases of lashes, and cases of impurity and purity, they defile it. See what is written: "Then all the officers of the king of Babylon came and sat in the Middle Gate: Nergal-sarezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim the Rab-saris, etc." (Jeremiah 39:3). "Because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate; foxes walk upon it" (Lamentations 5:18). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: You read out those who entered, but you do not read out those who went out. "The place of righteousness, there is wickedness" (Ecclesiastes 3:16). "Should priest and prophet be slain in the Sanctuary of the LORD?" (Lamentations 2:20). Behold, the blood of Zechariah cast upon the stones, as it is said: "For her blood is in her midst; she set it upon the bare rock" (Ezekiel 24:7).